Car plugged in but not charging

[Matteo Pedalà]

Hi everyone,
I am a new holder of a 2023 M3 (LFP battery) and I am looking for an answer that I am not able to find:
If I keep the car plugged in at night BUT not charging, is the home electricity supplying power to the standby and pre-heating demand of the car?

Thanks everyone for your answers?

 

[Soul Surfer]

Hi there, fellow Canuck, and welcome.

Could you provide more info?

1. What are you plugging into?
   1. What type of charger
   2. What is the amperage of said charger?
   3. Does the charger device, appear to be charging, (blinking lights, error lights, etc.)?
2. Have you set the app to "charge"?
3. Can you please describe the chain of events in great detail?
4. Can you reset the breaker for the charger?

I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye, so to speak. We would all, really like to help. Normally, it's a "one & done" thing and just charges. You would witness this at the chargers you had gone to, previously.

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

Hi there, fellow Canuck, and welcome.

Could you provide more info?

1. What are you plugging into?
   1. What type of charger
   2. What is the amperage of said charger?
   3. Does the charger device, appear to be charging, (blinking lights, error lights, etc.)?
2. Have you set the app to "charge"?
3. Can you please describe the chain of events in great detail?
4. Can you reset the breaker for the charger?

I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye, so to speak. We would all, really like to help. Normally, it's a "one & done" thing and just charges. You would witness this at the chargers you had gone to, previously.

Hi,
The car is plugged to a level 2 charger (40A) for the procedure, I guess that I just need to do some tests to see the behaviour of the doubt I described above.

Thanks,

M

 

[brkaus]

The home electricity will occasionally provide power to the car if it left plugged in but not charging.

If you wake the car and turn on the climate control it will pull power from the wall to heat the cabin and/or the battery.

If it wakes itself up and needs to top off the high voltage battery it will pull power from the wall.

Otherwise, it is taking care of itself from the high voltage battery.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Hi,
The car is plugged to a level 2 charger (40A) for the procedure, I guess that I just need to do some tests to see the behaviour of the doubt I described above.

Thanks,

M

Oh, forgot, one last thing. Are you running the charger at 80% the breaker/circuit rating? You can also set this from the app.

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

The home electricity will occasionally provide power to the car if it left plugged in but not charging.

If you wake the car and turn on the climate control it will pull power from the wall to heat the cabin and/or the battery.

If it wakes itself up and needs to top off the high voltage battery it will pull power from the wall.

Otherwise, it is taking care of itself from the high voltage battery.

ThankS for the answer!!

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

Oh, forgot, one last thing. Are you running the charger at 80% the breaker/circuit rating? You can also set this from the app.

No I am running the charger at 32Amps

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

Finally I discovered that the home electricity, when the car is not charging, is only supplying power for pre conditioning and not the standby, like sentry mode for example. I lost 3% of battery just for idling services in 13 hours

 

[Zythryn]

Finally I discovered that the home electricity, when the car is not charging, is only supplying power for pre conditioning and not the standby, like sentry mode for example. I lost 3% of battery just for idling services in 13 hours

As I recall, the battery will charge off wall power if it gets too low.
That said, if you don’t need it at home, there is a setting to turn off Sentry while at home.

 

[Randy-12]

Finally I discovered that the home electricity, when the car is not charging, is only supplying power for pre conditioning and not the standby, like sentry mode for example. I lost 3% of battery just for idling services in 13 hours

3% in 13 hours?
Is the car outside?
Are you running Sentry Mode?

I went away last fall and left my car in my garage unplugged. Left at 90% came home 2 weeks later and the car was at 83%
and the car did 2 updates while I was away.

 

[android04]

There is nothing wrong with the charging behavior of your Tesla. You set a target percentage that you want the battery level at in the app or the screen and the car charges to that level. Once it reaches that level, the car turns off most of its computers and electronics and goes to sleep to conserve energy. Once the battery level drops 5% from your target, the car wakes up again same charges to your target level again. I used 5% as an example, but I don't know the exact number (shouldn't be more than that though).

You don't want the car connected and drawing power from your house all the time because it would use up more energy to keep everything powered up than to let it go to sleep. You also don't want it to wake up and charge back up every time it's battery level drops 1% because that would cycle the contractors way too often and wear them out.

If you are having issues with the car not charging up to your target level and it's current battery level is a lot lower, then you might have Scheduled Charging on. That allows you to only schedule the car to charge between certain times.

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

3% in 13 hours?
Is the car outside?
Are you running Sentry Mode?

I went away last fall and left my car in my garage unplugged. Left at 90% came home 2 weeks later and the car was at 83%
and the car did 2 updates while I was away.

It was around 0 C and sentry mode on. I leave the car outside for now and that is what I noticed. I noticed also that when the scheduled pre conditioning started it took the energy from the wall connector

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

As I recall, the battery will charge off wall power if it gets too low.
That said, if you don’t need it at home, there is a setting to turn off Sentry while at home.

The car was plugged but I stopped the charging from the app. This way it should only use power for preconditioning at least this is what I noticed. If I leave the car outside for that amount of time (0 Celsius and sentry mode on) the drain is a bit higher (around 5%)

 

[Randy-12]

It was around 0 C and sentry mode on. I leave the car outside for now and that is what I noticed. I noticed also that when the scheduled pre conditioning started it took the energy from the wall connector

Sentry sucks power as well as when the battery is cold it will also consume some.

But even at that temp it is not that cold. This winter my car sat outside for 12 hours daily at -25 C I only lost about 4%

So something is draining you battery.
So you have any 3rd party apps installed?

 

[brkaus]

Sentry sucks power as well as when the battery is cold it will also consume some.

But even at that temp it is not that cold. This winter my car sat outside for 12 hours daily at -25 C I only lost about 4%

So something is draining you battery.
So you have any 3rd party apps installed?

Sentry can drain that much. The car won't sleep if sentry is enabled. Similar to some 3rd party apps. The only reason they can cause drain is they keep the car from sleeping.

 

[Matteo Pedalà]

Sentry sucks power as well as when the battery is cold it will also consume some.

But even at that temp it is not that cold. This winter my car sat outside for 12 hours daily at -25 C I only lost about 4%

So something is draining you battery.
So you have any 3rd party apps installed?

No other third party apps installed. Just sentry mode…