I'm thinking of installing a meter before the HPWC to measure how many kW the charger is pulling. It would be good to figure out how many kWs are for the car on my bill. Does anyone have one installed? Pros? Cons?
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Is anyone metering their charger's kW usage?
- Thread starter Maximapolak
- Start date
I have done it for a while but then I dropped it. The car keeps track of it and that's good enough for me. The energy reported by the car and the energy needed from the grid is of course not the same. There are losses in the battery and the charger and cables from the power company meter to your car. All things considered you can add aprox 20% to what the car reports.
davewill
Active Member
I do, although it was a bit of an accident. I was originally on a special program that billed separately for EV usage and needed a submeter. When I got solar, I left the program. Rather than remove the extra meter box, I bought a meter from Hialeah Meter and installed it in place of the power company's meter. I'm up to 21MWh of power since it was installed. It's a bit redundant since my Blink EVSE keeps detailed stats I can access online anyway.
Are there pros or cons to doing this? Is it useless?
I'm going to be wiring my HPWC soon and want to have a game plan.
There's not really any pros or cons. If you want that extra data, do it... it's inexpensive and easy to do. But will it help you in the long run? Probably not, unless you keep close tabs on it and notice a huge differential in the amount of power used normally vs a problem state - then it might alert you to a problem... but it's far more likely that the car will alert you before you notice any actual problem with regards to a power delta.
I just have it because I had an extra one lying around and I am interested to see how much power I use, solely for the cars, over X amount of time.
I just have it because I had an extra one lying around and I am interested to see how much power I use, solely for the cars, over X amount of time.
Mach Schnell!
P100D Pilot & future Tri-Motor CyberTruck Driver
I now have 400 amp main panel with dual meters, feeding 2x 200 amp panels, 1 for main house, other for EV charging only. This allows me to have house on old school "dumb" meter with tiered (not timed) electric usage rate for the house, and "smart" meter (timed) for lowest rate for EV charging only. Very expensive installation but I didn't want the incremental cost of EV charging (>$0.40/kWh at highest tier Vs $0.11/kWh EV charging) and I didn't want to change to timed usage in house. Waiting to see first bill and compare actual energy consumed Vs useful energy charging battery.
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mrElbe
Active Member
InTheShadows
Active Member
That's the one I used. I had a spare one lying around, so decided to install it when I wired up the HPWC. My only regret is that you can't reset those meters, so I have to do mental math every time I look at it, since it had a starting "balance" when I installed it.
davewill
Active Member
It serves no purpose except your own information, so only you can really answer that.
It all comes down to what the knowledge is worth to you.
We recently built and installed eGauge so I could monitor the majority of my house's production and consumption. Including both EVSEs.
The knowledge helps me lower our electric bills.
I've also become very aware of how much more power our EVs use due to pre-heating
I've also become very aware of how much more power our EVs use due to pre-heating
Yes, there is no other way to determine true prewarming costs than with an inline meter. It is SIGNIFICANT in our state, but I'm worth it!
I'm wondering what sort of vampire load the charger takes when the car isn't plugged in? I leave my UMC plugged in 24/7 and charge only every other night. I doubt the vampire load, if any, is worth the wear on the plug in and out each night, but I was curious about it.
I put the 5-15 adapter on my UMC, and plugged it into a 120V Kill-A-Watt meter. It bounces between 1.1 and 1.2 watts. I would expect similar idle power at 240V.
Personally, I'd worry more about wear and tear on the outlet than wasting 10kWh/year.
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