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[valnar]

I don't know why humidity was brought up.  This is about keeping a lithium battery warm below zero degrees Fahrenheit.  It can't be good for it to sit too cold for too long.  (and I don't mean cold, I mean COLD.)

[JaimeC]

You can only have humidity or condensation if the temperature is above the freezing point.  Below the freezing point, water is a SOLID and is not suspended in the air in the form of humidity.  The OP was concerned about his bike in below freezing temperatures, not NEAR freezing.

[JaimeC]

I am not 100% sure BUT I believe that as long as the battery is kept between 30 -- 60% charge you shouldn't have any concerns.  I know you don't want a discharged lead/acid battery freeze but I'm not sure about lithium.  Hopefully someone can chime in.  For my ICE bikes (pun intended) I just leave them on the battery tender all winter and they're fine.  Of course, we rarely have more than a few days in a row where the temperature remains below freezing ALL the time where I live.  The ocean does a great job of keeping our temperatures relatively stable.

[JaimeC]

Okay, I found this article which explains why you do NOT want to charge a lithium battery that is below the freezing point:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/263036/why-charging-li-ion-batteries-in-cold-temperatures-would-harm-them

I remember Electric Terry posting something a few years ago.  If you maintain the 30-60% charge during storage, you'll want to take the bike out for a ride before charging it.  Riding the bike will cause the battery's internal temperature to rise.  I think he said a good ten mile run should heat the battery enough for it to be safely fast charged, but certainly good enough for a slow one.  You might have to dig through the forum to find that info.

But I would think using a radiant heater in the garage to heat the battery till it is warm before charging would work too.  No reason to have it heated 24/7.

[Crissa]

The battery doesn't care, but can't be used until it warms back up.

And if you think you can't have condensation when it's freezing out, then you misunderstand how humidity works.  Most of all because as long as you live and breathe there's humidity... Not to mention ice melt from pressure, heat, or further drops in temperature squeezing more water from the air.

That water goes somewhere, and that's onto cold things.  Like metal things.  And that's something we don't want, hence keeping the bike surfaces above the ambient temperature.

A radiant heater would need a huge amount of power to heat a bike to keep it above freezing.  It will just prevent condensation, remove precipitation, and slow the heat loss from a warm bike in from a ride.

A blanket heater would be the most efficient to keep the bike operating and ready to ride at negative freezing temps.

A block heater for the battery would be even more efficient, but wouldn't keep the bike ready to ride when the temp dropped, but it would let you precondition or charge the bike in situations where you're just getting freezing temps in the lows of the day.

It all depends on what you need, how much water is getting into your storage area, including on the bike when you come in from outside.

For me, rain and fog are the enemy, so a radiant heater is best and yes, it runs 24/7 in the winter. Any time you let the temp in your storage area drop, is a chance for condensation to form.  Even if it's freezing out.

-Crissa

[ESokoloff]

I appreciate the discussion but I think it ventured a bit away from just keeping my motorcycle warm, while parked.

You only have yourself to blame on the course of this discussion.....

 Garage heaters? 

The biggest decision one way or another is whether I want that heat for anything else, like working on the bike.  Obviously the blanket won't help with that

I don't know why humidity was brought up.

Because Crissa is being helpful & giving you some advice that excessive humidity is a bad thing for electronics of which your bike has lots of.   

Humidity is reliitive to temperature and the colder the temperature, the higher the humidity. 

I look at Dew Point when determining moisture content in the air (you didn't ask for that info but it's good to understand it & others may appreciate the knowledge).

[valnar]

I appreciate the discussion but I think it ventured a bit away from just keeping my motorcycle warm, while parked.

You only have yourself to blame on the course of this discussion.....

Nope.  I never brought it up.  But that was me trying to put it back on track.

[Crissa]

The only reason it's dry when it's cold is because all the humidity in the air went somewhere.  Usually as condensation.

Every time you heat the air, it starts sucking the water from all available surfaces.

Every time the air cools back down, that water has to go somewhere.  And it goes to cold things first.  Like wires in your bike.

So even though it's 'dry' during the day doesn't mean it's not humid at night.

-Crissa

[Curt]

In Norcal when it threatens to dip a little below freezing we cover small citrus trees with blankets and put a 100W incandescent bulb underneath.

I haven't tried it, but I think if one were to use an oversize cover and a trouble light on the floor underneath, the bike might stay plenty warm. The temperature could be tuned by varying the wattage (40W, 60W, 75W, 100W), with the 100W costing $0.10 to $0.20 per night.

[Frank]

FWIW, Jeff Dahn (battery guru at Dalhousie Univ.) says the best way to prolong life of lithium batteries in storage is to freeze them....

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

[Crissa]

In Norcal when it threatens to dip a little below freezing we cover small citrus trees with blankets and put a 100W incandescent bulb underneath.

Hey!  That's where my first suggestion came from

FWIW, Jeff Dahn (battery guru at Dalhousie Univ.) says the best way to prolong life of lithium batteries in storage is to freeze them...

Yes.  As long as you don't want to use or charge the battery, it doesn't care about the temperature.  But you have to bring it all the way back up in temperature to use it again.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

In Norcal when it threatens to dip a little below freezing we cover small citrus trees with blankets and put a 100W incandescent bulb underneath.

I haven't tried it, but I think if one were to use an oversize cover and a trouble light on the floor underneath, the bike might stay plenty warm. The temperature could be tuned by varying the wattage (40W, 60W, 75W, 100W), with the 100W costing $0.10 to $0.20 per night.

You had better start hording those incandescent bulbs.  I believe I heard recently that they will no longer be produced or sold in the U.S.

I still think a cheap electric blanket is the way to go.  They are inexpensive and don't take much power to operate.

[valnar]

Well the electric blanket didn't work out.  The highest setting is over 100 degrees (starts at 85F) and it didn't even get it up 5 degrees over ambient in a 40 degree garage.  The battery temp didn't even budge  (I used an infrared thermometer to testing).  It might be because these electric blankets are highly efficient these days and can't handle the cold.  Something tells me one from the 1970's would work better.

[Crissa]

Well, there's also application.  If the electric blanket isn't working, then it's not surrounding the right parts. That's why engine block heaters glue directly onto the metal.  So the heat transfers to what you want warmed.

If the blanket is not around the bike - like, under and around - the heat will just travel up and away.  You might need to add another blanket or cover on the outside.  So like the electric blanket around the battery on the bottom and pinned to a fluffy blanket around the top.  You want to lower the amount of convection; it'll take your to the cold room instead of the bike.

Also, what you want heated is the battery temp sensor, not the outer casing.  Check via bluetooth using the mobile app.

Good luck!

-Crissa

[valnar]

Everything you said would be true if the blanket actually got warm in a cold garage.  It doesn't.