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Author Topic: Battery charge level sweet spot?  (Read 439 times)

ESokoloff

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Battery charge level sweet spot?
« on: August 27, 2021, 09:21:18 PM »

A few month ago Zero replaced my 2016 13ZF battery as it had lost substantial capacity. 
The new 14.4 is a HUGE upgrade as my old battery was quite capacity impacted. 

I use the bike to commute about 55 miles/day so in the 4 years of ownership I managed to rack up nearly 60k miles (I purchased the bike @ 1yrs old & 2.8k miles).

My old charge strategy was to plug in at work & unplug at end of shift (100%).
I was able to return to work on that charge & would only supplement significant of additional miles were added to that day’s commute.

I need to maximize the usefulness of this new battery so will limit its charge/discharge levels.
My commute consists of mostly high speed ie fast drain so I’m sure that’s a major factor.

Perhaps it’s best to keep the battery in its mid state as much as possible which means charging at work as well as at home but limit charge to say 70% & discharge at 35%.

What say you?

PS, over in the Parts, Mods And Hacks section I’ve started a discussion on how to limit charge level (input there also appreciated).
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Eric
2016 Zero DSR

Shadow

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Re: Battery charge level sweet spot?
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2021, 12:08:04 AM »

What I remember is the CC-CV changeover point while charging between constant current and then into constant voltage is where the "Bad Things Happen." You can sense this by monitoring battery voltage and charging current, also look for heat rise with a thermal measurement, and make a strategy for when is too much. If the "magic electric pixies" were unhappy to go into the pack, I like to pretend they are angry and want to leave the battery very soon or they will make a mess of their surroundings  ;D On the ZF13 it was something like 72-76% SoC when the charging electronics I had would make this change-over from constant current into constant voltage, and going above 82-84% SoC things would heat up so the pack was heating up the same amount as it was radiating to ambient air, and over 92% the heat of the battery pack was increasing quite a lot (so wasted charging efforts). At a guess, if you leave your bike charged not much more than 80% SoC is probably a reasonable trade-off between concerns of battery pack degradation and being a useful thing that's ready when you need it for transportation.

Another way to think about it is just basic, if you had a "ZF13" and now you have a "ZF14.4" then you can easily just always charge the new battery pack to 90% because it won't be any different than 100% of the old one, and you'll not be stressing the new battery pack as much, but with the same ready range as the old battery.

Tesla has a lot more data about this and also some really different battery tech but they are suggesting that 80% is fine for daily use, or 90% if you need it is probably only going to degrade the pack to the point where you'll replace it at the end of the useful life of the vehicle anyways. It's not an equal comparison on the physical construction of the battery packs or power systems involved but the battery chemistry is similar; and the advice makes sense to me from my own experience.
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valnar

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Re: Battery charge level sweet spot?
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2021, 02:06:52 AM »

The simplest recommendation is keep it between 20% - 80%.  If you can do 30% - 70%, even better.  Your range requirement will dictate the options.  Avoid charging in direct sunlight if possible.

This is true of every lithium battery whether it's a laptop or a Tesla.  It may not be practical to babysit the SoC constantly, but physics doesn't care about your feelings.
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Zero FXS 2020

ESokoloff

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Re: Battery charge level sweet spot?
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2021, 03:37:26 AM »

Ok, so the consensus is to limit top SOC to 80 & on the low end 20.
That only yields 60% which dictates that I charge twice for most round trip commutes. 
70/30 (40%) is sounding like the Cinderella of charge levels.
So be it for the longevity of the battery. 

Time to assemble project box, timers & switch into a selectable 0-4 hr or 3.25-7.25 hr charging timer(s) with 10min resolution.
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Eric
2016 Zero DSR
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