Attitude towards charging other devices changed since owning a Tesla?

[invisik]

Hi all,

I noticed the other day that when I'm preparing to charge my cell phone or my Microsoft Band I find myself using terms like "range charge" and considering if I only charge to 70% when the next time I'd need to charge it would be, etc. It's kinda funny.

On a kinda related note, it would be interesting to see how much longer a cell phone battery would last if it was charged to 80%-90% instead of 100% all the time.

-m

 

[eco5280]

I rooted my last Android and the custom ROM I used had a feature to limit charge to 97% which I took advantage of, supposedly to increase the life of the battery. But - with replacements on Amazon for $9.99 shipped, I stopped giving a @#$ about that and prefer max charge on my phones.

 

[fadkar]

Haha that's hilarious! I was actually thinking about the same thing! It's a good thing my phone/laptop batteries don't cost nearly as much as Tesla's:wink:

 

[scottm]

Attitude toward charging things hasn't changed as much as general attitude toward using electricity. I used to be a fanatic conservationist by turning off lights in rooms not being used, etc etc. Now I realize that's all a pittance compared to REALLY USING power for things like charging the car. Electricity is so cheap. Now I don't really care what the "phantom" draw of my house is. I hearby push that challenge out to every maker of household appliances and devices. I plug it in, and you figure out how to energy optimize it including down times when I'm not using the devices. Now, that's an attitude!

 

[eco5280]

I don't agree, I still fanatically turn everything off, I switch out bulbs for LED, I built my own low-power computer, etc. It's a huge passion and concern for me.

 

[David99]

I've avoided 100% charges and complete discharges on my iPads and laptops before I had a Tesla.

 

[scottm]

Dont get me wrong, I've done the LED thing too... but now, when I leave the room I dont actively shut it off nearly as often as I used to. These things use so little power compared to what we used to consume with incandescent, it's like 3 free lifetimes of power even leaving them on.

My house, with nobody in it costs about 50 cents a day. That's nothing.

 

[eco5280]

Yikes - during the winter when our HVAC is only using gas we'll still spend $6/day in electricity. In the summer with the A/C fans running it's up to $10-11/day. We're hoping to do a 10 kW solar system this year, maybe this spring. Unfortunately my co-op electric company offers zilch in the way of rebates or incentives. But the fed 30% credit will help.

 

[scottm]

Well, an occupied house is a whole different thing. I was just trying to indicate a phantom power cost, and that would include accidentally leaving a few LED bulbs on. When we leave the house we still make a more active effort to shut things off, way moreso than just leaving a room.

Iwanted to do a solar thing for my house, but the math said it wouldn't give any payback in my anticipated lifetime. Even at todays cheap solar Watt costs.

 

[eco5280]

Iwanted to do a solar thing for my house, but the math said it wouldn't give any payback in my anticipated lifetime. Even at todays cheap solar Watt costs.

What is your electricity rate now? I'm at $0.14/kWh and the system would cost me $30k, or almost exactly 10 years break even point. So for ten years I'm paying off the system, then it's free power for the rest of the of the system. Can provide 100% of our power (except at night of course, maybe a Tesla home battery system in my future...).

 

[scottm]

I signed up for a 5 year contract and in doing so first year is $0.00 per kWh consumed. Then it clicks up to 7.5 cents.

 

[eco5280]

Ahh you must live in Quebec. They get their power from hyrdo stations and provide end users with huge government subsidies. Lucky! That's a heck of a great price. Average in the US is around 13 cents. Average in Canada is less than 10 cents.

 

[moemoke]

You guys have cheap power over there, us Aussie's are paying around 25-35 cents per kW/h peak and 10-20 cents per kW/h off peak, it's mostly old tech coal power stations not nice clean hydro or other renewable!
I installed a 2.1 kW solar system about 7 years ago and we are usually in credit over the summer months, at the time of install the Government was offering a 66 cents feed in tariff.
We are a pretty low energy use household of 2 adults and 2 kids using about 7kw/h per day over summer and 10kw/h per day over winter.
No electric car as yet (waiting for Model 3) but try to use most heavy power usage when the suns not shining or in off peak periods.

 

[Cyclone]

Meanwhile, I pay $0.84 per kWh peak and offpeak. I've done the LEDs and various efficiency things. At this point, I'm efficient enough that I won't worry if we forget to turn off a light.

 

[wk057]

Meanwhile, I pay $0.84 per kWh peak and offpeak. I've done the LEDs and various efficiency things. At this point, I'm efficient enough that I won't worry if we forget to turn off a light.

$0.84/kWh? In Charlotte? That's got to be a typo. I'm 50 miles north and pay ~$0.09kWh.

 

[Cyclone]

$0.84/kWh? In Charlotte? That's got to be a typo. I'm 50 miles north and pay ~$0.09kWh.

Oops, yes. $0.084. Sorry. And looking at the PDF again, it looks like I pay $0.093 depending on time of year (no time of day difference in this rate).
http://www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/NCScheduleRE.pdf

 

[wk057]

Oops, yes. $0.084. Sorry. And looking at the PDF again, it poke like I pay $0.093 depending on time of year (no time of day difference in this rate).
http://www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/NCScheduleRE.pdf

Yup, same one as me.

 

[scottm]

But back on topic, I'd say no, my attitude toward charging other things is not different just because I now drive an e-car.

I plug 'em in when I think they're low. Or when the device warns me of low battery remaining. Or when I want to use them for a fair stretch without worrying about it going low. Or when I'm done with the device for the day and I happen to be passing a charger plug in, I'll leave the device there charging... pretty much how I treat the Tesla charging.

Now, a little off topic again...

Remember the days with NiCad's and people were worried about memory effects? And purposefully running devices down to low, before charging again. I don't do anything like that anymore, with anything. Some things around the house are probably still NiCad's, maybe the house phone.. other things. If I "ruin" such a set of batteries, I'll just new ones. Or chuck the device and buy a new device with new batteries in it.