A couple of years ago I was riding a Luyuan scooter-style ebike in the winter. This was in Victoria BC, Canada where winter generally means the lowest temperature we see is -5Ëš, but normally it's around 2Ëš. This is Celsius. I noticed by the time the temperature was below about 10Ëš, the SLA batteries produced a lot less power at a time, and overall lasted about half the time under load before they needed a rest. Obviously this is because the chemical reaction is slowed... So I never did try it, but I was thinking of using heaters to keep the battery warm. I figured there were two options: 1 place motorcycle heated grip wrap along the bottom of the main battery pack, with insulation below the wrap to minimize heat loss to the bottom of the bike. 2 place newly activated salt-hand warmer packs alongside the second battery, again with insulation. (Those hand warmers are re-usable by placing them in boiling water for a few minutes). I wasn't too keen on the motorbike hand warmers, since they would use a fair bit of energy. But, assuming the battery had been stored inside to start, the heated wrap might make the battery last longer than it would in the cold. I think with insulation and a battery that had been kept inside the hand warmers would have helped too, but not at the expense of battery power.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
