Winter Guide: EV Range, Power Outages, Heat and Internet

Winter questions arrive in a hurry. The electric vehicle (EV) shows a snowflake and will not charge at full speed, the door handle is frozen shut, the power went out with the freezer full, or the January electric bill came in far above October’s. The answers are spread across the car, home and internet sections of this site, and this page puts them in one place. The site’s winter guides are listed below, grouped by the problem that usually brings someone here, with a sentence or two on what each guide settles. The guides themselves quote owner’s manuals, maker spec sheets and federal agencies, and each one carries its own dates.

Start with the table if you already know your question. Read down before winter arrives.

Start with your question

Your electric car in the cold

The cold costs an electric car in two places: the battery, which holds back some of its energy and charging speed until it warms, and the heater, which has no engine waste heat to borrow. The Department of Energy (DOE) puts the bigger share on the heater: “About two-thirds of the extra energy consumed is used to heat the cabin.” The guides below cover both halves.

EV range in cold weather: the science of what you lose

The anchor page for any electric car, not only a Tesla. It separates the battery’s share of the winter loss from the heater’s, covers the milder cold near 40°F that AAA’s and Recurrent’s published figures skip, shows what gas and hybrid cars lose in the cold too, and ranks the fixes by what they save. The fixes at the head of its list are already in the car: seat and steering wheel heat, and warming the car while it is still plugged in.

Does your Tesla have a heat pump? Every model and year

A heat pump moves heat instead of making it, which is why it matters in winter. The page has the full table by model and year, the menu path Tesla’s manual gives for checking your own car, and what the difference is worth in range, including why the advantage shrinks in deep cold.

Tesla preconditioning: how it works and what it costs

Preconditioning warms the cabin and the battery before you drive or fast charge. The page explains why it costs you nothing from the pack when the car is plugged in, the charge level and Low Power Mode conditions that stop it when unplugged, how long Tesla says to allow, and why the car usually does not warm the battery for a charger you did not set as the destination in its own navigation.

Should you precondition before charging? (any EV)

For drivers of other makes, the site’s electric car charging guide has a section on why a cold-soaked battery fast-charges slowly and when warming it beforehand is worth doing. The rest of that guide covers charging levels, costs and home setup year-round.

Why your Tesla is charging slowly, and when it is normal

The cold-weather section explains the blue snowflake on the screen and the blue part of the battery meter, which marks energy the car is holding back until the pack warms, and the manual’s fix of navigating to the charger so the car warms the battery on the way. The rest of the page covers every other cause of slow charging, at home and at a Supercharger.

Why your Tesla says regenerative braking is limited

A cold battery is one of the causes the manual names when a Tesla coasts where it normally slows itself. The page explains the dotted line and the snowflake, the Apply Brakes When Regenerative Braking Is Limited setting that makes the car use its brakes to fill the gap, the separate warning about regen on ice, and what brings it back (the manual gives no time).

Snow, ice and tires

EV winter tires: what they really cost you in range

The page takes apart the range penalty often quoted for winter tires, shows the rolling-resistance class on the European Union (EU) tire label that lets you compare specific tires, and lays out all-season, all-weather and winter tires side by side, with the snowflake marking that all-weather and winter tires carry and all-season tires lack. It also covers a second set of wheels, when to fit and remove the tires, and studded tires.

Tesla tire pressure: the right PSI and the cold-morning alert

Cold air takes pressure out of every tire. The page turns the gas law behind the manual’s rule of one pound per square inch (psi) per 10°F into a table, explains why the warning on a cold morning usually means a tire that was already low, and answers whether to fill above the door-pillar label in winter (the manual gives no winter margin above it).

Tesla in snow: snow mode, chains, and getting unstuck

A Tesla has no button called snow mode. It has traction settings whose names depend on the model and the manual edition, and the page has a table of which one your car carries. It also has Tesla’s approved chain sizes and the rules that come with them, the manual’s winter tire warnings, and a step-by-step for rocking the car out of a drift, built on the manual’s guidance.

Frozen doors, frozen charge ports

Frozen Tesla door handle or charge port: the manual’s fixes

The app’s Unlatch Door control opens the driver’s door without the handle, the Inlet Heater warms a charge port with the cable stuck in it, and a newer software release lets a Model 3 or Model Y release the cable from the rear left door handle. The page has every fix Tesla documents, the separate procedures for the black and silver handles, what the charge port light colors mean, the WD-40 tip for the handle pivots, and the schedule setting that keeps the charge port latch from freezing.

When the power goes out

The two pages below share a rule worth knowing before the storm: a battery is good at running a fridge, a furnace fan, phones and the internet, and bad at making heat.

What size power station do you need? The honest math

One formula and real appliance figures from spec sheets and federal energy labels: a fridge, a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine, a Starlink dish, a laptop, a sump pump and a work-from-home outage day. The space heater section works out why heat is the fastest way to empty a battery, and the page answers what it would take to run a whole house.

Power station vs generator: real cost per kWh and runtime

The page compares the running cost of each per kilowatt-hour, runs a three-day outage table for a fridge, internet, a laptop and a CPAP, and covers noise and maintenance. It also sets out the carbon monoxide deaths behind the makers’ warnings and the cases where the generator still wins: long outages and big 240-volt loads, plus why neither machine should be your heat source. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the rule plainly: “Never use a generator inside your home or garage, even if doors and windows are open.” And: “Only use generators outside, more than 20 feet away from any windows, doors, and vents.”

Heating bills and the thermostat

Why your electric bill spikes in winter, and how to cut it

The page shows how to tell from your own bill whether the price or your usage went up, then explains why the bill climbs with electric heat (heat pumps and their backup strips) and, less obviously, with gas heat. A table prices the common plug-in culprits per month. The rest is the cheap ways to stay warm, from heating only the rooms you use to finding drafts, burning wood safely, keeping pipes from freezing and space heater safety, plus where to get help if you cannot pay.

Smart thermostats review: which ones pay for themselves

The review sets the savings certified in testing against the much bigger percentages on the box, and works out payback against the size of your bill for each pick. It also answers the wiring question, including which models run without a C-wire (the thermostat’s constant-power wire), whether a heat pump needs one, whether a smart thermostat can run electric baseboard heaters, and the case where a smart thermostat saves you nothing.

Internet in snow

Does Starlink work in snow? Snow Melt, power, and fixes

Every current Starlink dish heats itself to melt snow, and the page has each dish’s rating from its spec sheet, the three Snow Melt modes in Starlink’s own words, what the setting means for a dish running on a battery, and the fix ladder for a dish that is buried anyway. It also covers the motors-blocked alert on the motorized Standard Actuated dish and the temperature limits for the router and power supply indoors.

Starlink keeps disconnecting? What the app alerts mean

If the connection keeps dropping after a storm, this is the next page. Starlink’s help center says the dish “will automatically melt off general snow” but “a blizzard can leave temporary snow buildup,” and that “heavy rain, snow, storms, or high winds can cause brief outages.” The page decodes the app’s alerts and the router lights, and ends with the order to try the fixes in.

Tesla owners: the full list

The Tesla pages above are part of a larger set. The Tesla owner’s guide lists every Tesla ownership guide on the site, grouped by the question that brings people there, including the charging, battery, cost and troubleshooting pages that are not about winter. For any other make, the EV Owner’s Guide does the same for the general EV pages: charging at home and on the road, battery care, tax breaks, and buying new or used.

Frequently asked questions

Do these guides cover electric cars other than Tesla?

The range, tire and charging guides do: EV range in cold weather, EV winter tires and the electric car charging guide are written for any electric car. The heat pump, preconditioning, slow-charging, regen, tire pressure, snow mode and frozen-handle pages quote Tesla’s manuals, so their menu names and procedures are Tesla’s.

The power just went out. Which page first?

Power station vs generator, for the carbon monoxide rules and the runtime table, then what size power station you need if you are deciding how much battery covers your fridge and internet.

Where is the winter checklist?

Several of the guides end with a short to-do section: preconditioning, Tesla in snow, Starlink in snow, the frozen door handle page and EV range in cold weather.

What to read, in order

If you own an electric car, start with EV range in cold weather, then preconditioning and winter tires. If you are getting the house ready, start with the winter electric bill page, then power station vs generator. If you work from home on Starlink, read Starlink in snow before it snows, not during the storm.