15 Miles of Vampire Drain in 24 Hours - What Do I Win?

[Mike K]

Surely this can't be normal. I'm out of town right now and the car is plugged in at my house. Yesterday morning I checked it for whatever reason and noticed it was at 221 miles down from a 228 mile rated range 90% charge. But it had completed charging 6 or 7 hours prior to that. It seemed odd so I charged it to 90% again and then set the charge rate to 50% to see what I'd lose in 24 hours.

It was at 226 when I first checked and then exactly 24 hours later I checked again and it was at 211. That's 15 miles of loss in 24 hours. That seems excessive, yes? 4 hours later I checked it again and it's down to 209. So I'm losing about a mile of range every 1.5 - 2 hours. This can't be normal, right?

I don't have energy savings turned but still, 15 miles of rated range in 24 hours on a stationary car is a lot of used power for nothing. Not only that but this is Los Angeles. It's 60 degrees out. We're not dealing with a frigid climate here.

 

[Victory]

I noticed the first 30 miles of range either vampire drain very quickly when parked, or get depleted very quickly during a drive. It feels like the first 20 miles disappear after 5-10 miles of actual driving. All mileage after that feels consistent and normal. Am I the only one who noticed this?

 

[tiblot]

Surely this can't be normal. I'm out of town right now and the car is plugged in at my house. Yesterday morning I checked it for whatever reason and noticed it was at 221 miles down from a 228 mile rated range 90% charge. But it had completed charging 6 or 7 hours prior to that. It seemed odd so I charged it to 90% again and then set the charge rate to 50% to see what I'd lose in 24 hours.

It was at 226 when I first checked and then exactly 24 hours later I checked again and it was at 211. That's 15 miles of loss in 24 hours. That seems excessive, yes? 4 hours later I checked it again and it's down to 209. So I'm losing about a mile of range every 1.5 - 2 hours. This can't be normal, right?

I don't have energy savings turned but still, 15 miles of rated range in 24 hours on a stationary car is a lot of used power for nothing. Not only that but this is Los Angeles. It's 60 degrees out. We're not dealing with a frigid climate here.

I'm in VA. I have energy savings on, always connected off. During the winter (<20F), overnight (12 hours or so) I lose 6-7 miles.

In 24 hours I lose 10-12 miles. Never tried this with energy savings off, so I can't comment on your expected range. It does seem more than what I'm seeing though.

 

[Mike K]

It's disappointing. People are quick to calculate their gas savings but I bet they're completely ignoring the fact that this is basically the equivalent of a 30mpg car leaking a half gallon of gas every day.

If I'm losing 15 miles per day and that's normal, what in the world were people losing when everyone was complaining about vampire losses?

 

[trils0n]

In late 2012, early 2013 vampire drain was around there (12-15 miles / day). But that was fixed over a year ago. For my car, with energy saving, it seems to be around 1-2 miles now, so your experience doesn't sound right to me. Cold weather will use power for heating the pack if it gets too cold, but I doubt it is that cold in LA (if your location is accurate).

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

You usually win a new 12V battery.

 

[dsm363]

Turning energy savings on but leaving 'always connected' helps and doesn't impact performance at all. The car boots up very quickly when you get into it so no delay.

 

[Joetnr1]

I was also losing over 10 miles overnight in L.A. I turned on Energy Savings and keep Always connected on and now I'm down to 1-2 miles vampire loss.

 

[FloridaGary]

I have owned my Model S for almost 1 month and noticed a consistent loss of 2 miles of range every night. I have Energy Savings on and keep Always connected.

 

[Super_Popular]

I noticed the first 30 miles of range either vampire drain very quickly when parked, or get depleted very quickly during a drive. It feels like the first 20 miles disappear after 5-10 miles of actual driving. All mileage after that feels consistent and normal. Am I the only one who noticed this?

No and it's odd and not normal. When I let the house today with 228 I drove normal in 25 mph zones to get to the high way. Once I was on the highway 4 miles or so I was down to 219. Found that very odd.

 

[jcaspar]

Turn on Energy Savings. It saves energy...

 

[thecloud]

I have Energy Savings on, and I usually see a loss of about 5 rated miles over 24 hours when the car sits idle, even though it's plugged in. It will automatically connect to WiFi and seems to frequently contact the mothership. I think the car also plays music whenever it wakes up (or at least advances the current track), since I come back in the morning to find the currently selected track is well beyond where I left off listening.

 

[jcaspar]

Might be this:
From a previous post by someone else...

My Model S will be three years old next week. I have about 24,500 miles. To my knowledge my 12 v battery was only replaced once proactively by the service center a few months after it was delivered. I have never received a warning message regarding my 12 v battery in those three years.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that a coolant pump seemed to be running almost constantly. I also noticed that my vampire drain was over 15 miles per day even with my car set to Energy Savings ON, Always Connected. This situation persisted for a week until the service center could schedule my car for a visit. (The problem turned out to be a fault in the electronics associated with the drive unit pump along with a refrigerant leak.)

With the exception of the early battery replacement I have never seen another battery replacement noted on any of my service tickets, including this last visit when the battery was subjected to more than three times the typical vampire load.

Now that I have mentioned my good fortune, no doubt I have jinxed myself.

Since I'm coming up on 25,000 miles I plan to take the car in for annual maintenance in a few weeks. I'll make a point of checking with the service center to ensure they check the records on my 12 v battery replacement and replace the battery if warranted.

 

[Mike K]

Might be this:
From a previous post by someone else...

My Model S will be three years old next week. I have about 24,500 miles. To my knowledge my 12 v battery was only replaced once proactively by the service center a few months after it was delivered. I have never received a warning message regarding my 12 v battery in those three years.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that a coolant pump seemed to be running almost constantly. I also noticed that my vampire drain was over 15 miles per day even with my car set to Energy Savings ON, Always Connected. This situation persisted for a week until the service center could schedule my car for a visit. (The problem turned out to be a fault in the electronics associated with the drive unit pump along with a refrigerant leak.)

With the exception of the early battery replacement I have never seen another battery replacement noted on any of my service tickets, including this last visit when the battery was subjected to more than three times the typical vampire load.

Now that I have mentioned my good fortune, no doubt I have jinxed myself.

Since I'm coming up on 25,000 miles I plan to take the car in for annual maintenance in a few weeks. I'll make a point of checking with the service center to ensure they check the records on my 12 v battery replacement and replace the battery if warranted.

Thanks for that. I have an appointment Thursday so I'll have to have them check it out. In the meantime, another day, another 12 miles of loss.

 

[Ryan MF]

Thanks for that. I have an appointment Thursday so I'll have to have them check it out. In the meantime, another day, another 12 miles of loss.

Have you tried turning on energy savings as many people have suggested?

 

[Mike K]

No, I'm out of town. Either way, 15 miles a day is not an acceptable amount of power drain.

 

[AWDtsla]

It's disappointing. People are quick to calculate their gas savings but I bet they're completely ignoring the fact that this is basically the equivalent of a 30mpg car leaking a half gallon of gas every day.

If I'm losing 15 miles per day and that's normal, what in the world were people losing when everyone was complaining about vampire losses?

The EPA ratings take vampire loss and charging efficiency into account.

 

[Mike K]

The EPA ratings take vampire loss and charging efficiency into account.

When neither have anything to do with actual rated range relative to your current charge level I can't fathom how that would be the case. It's like saying the EPA takes into account gas leaking out of your car. Vampire lose, so far as I can see, doesn't change the range relative to the charge level at all.

I'd be curious if you can point me out to where you saw this.

 

[AWDtsla]

When neither have anything to do with actual rated range relative to your current charge level I can't fathom how that would be the case. It's like saying the EPA takes into account gas leaking out of your car. Vampire lose, so far as I can see, doesn't change the range relative to the charge level at all.

I'd be curious if you can point me out to where you saw this.

Compare the EPA consumption numbers to the numbers used for rated miles. There is some math involved. For example:

Tesla Model S - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P90D has an EPA consumption of 36kWh/100 miles, or 360Wh/mi. The rated miles calculation is using ~310Wh/mi, which you can confirm either by more math or by looking at the energy analyzer. With my measured charger efficiency on a recommended charger I actually get ~330Wh/mi "rated", the EPA adds yet more loss averaging out the losses over an average miles driven to 30Wh/mi, which of course is garbage because everyone drives a different number of miles. Still, if you use a standard 12,000 miles per year, this comes out to ~41 watts of background draw. This approximately what you get if you turn on all the energy savings options.


I assume their test was simpler than this explanation, simple measure the input power and divide by the miles covered in the test, as long as the test spans a day+ then you get the same answer. This is what they actually do http://www.smidgeindustriesltd.com/leaf/EPA/EPA_test_procedure_for_EVs-PHEVs-1-13-2011.pdf

 

[Mike K]

Ok, all of that makes sense but I can't see how any of it has anything to do with vampire losses. If the EPA says a car gets 30 miles per gallon it gets 30 miles per gallon whether it has 10 gallons of gas in it or 20. The EPA wouldn't take vampire loss into account because a) it has no relation to range relative to charge state and b) it's an unknown variable that was largely coined as a result of early Model S owners complaining about power loss. As you can't know what you don't know, it would be very surprising to me if vampire losses were ever even a blip on their radar.