Long Term Parking Concern

[JPoldo]

In a couple of days, I need to take a 28 day business trip and leave my model S in a private parking garage. I know the battery loses over 1.5 mi/day running internal electronics. Should I charge vehicle as if a trip so there is ample range for 60 mile round trip to/from garage plus loss while stored in garage? Is it harmful not to charge the battery for a month? Do I need to find a 120V outlet in the garage to trickle charge the vehicle to 80% ?

 

[Tam]

...Do I need to find a 120V outlet in the garage to trickle charge the vehicle to 80% ?

My long term parking concern is whether the batteries are all dead by the time I get back. If they are not depleted when you get back, then you are fine!

Owner's Manual advises:

"The most important way to preserve the Battery is to LEAVE YOUR Model S PLUGGED IN when you are not using it."

So I don't see what's the hesitancy of plugging it in.

If you can find even a 120V outlet, plug it in and charge it up to 90% to give you enough buffer in case something is wrong and the power got cut off!

If you can't plug it in then I would charge my car as much as I could up to 90% before I leave it.

 

[kort677]

? Do I need to find a 120V outlet in the garage to trickle charge the vehicle to 80% ?

if one is available it would be wise to utilize it. be certain to turn off all apps that might query the car and turn always connected off. to lessen the vampire draw.

 

[jbcarioca]

if one is available it would be wise to utilize it. be certain to turn off all apps that might query the car and turn always connected off. to lessen the vampire draw.

When in doubt, listen to @kort677. Even if you don't agree, you'll learn something. In this case I agree. The hard part of Kurt's advice is turning off the car and leaving it turned off. Every status inquiry one makes turns the car on again. Hard as it is I do not ask my car anything unless it's plugged in.

If plugged into 120v you can leave it charged at 50% or so rather than anything higher and make certain that the max is <90%. If in moderate temperatures you'll still gain around 3-4% per day. When I leave mine that way I reduce the amperage to 5, as low as it goes. The day prior to my return I wake up my car and increase the amperage and raise the charger level to whoever I expect to want when I arrive.

 

[BrettS]

Should I charge vehicle as if a trip so there is ample range for 60 mile round trip to/from garage plus loss while stored in garage?

By this I assume you mean charge to 100%? Leaving the battery at 100% is not good for it, but it sounds like you would charge to 100%, then drive 30 miles to the parking garage. This should bring the battery down under 90% by the time you get to the garage and leave you with the highest possible SOC to start the 28 day wait. If you have no option for plugging in while you are away, then I would do this.

Is it harmful not to charge the battery for a month? Do I need to find a 120V outlet in the garage to trickle charge the vehicle to 80% ?

Not charging for a month in itself is not harmful, however, allowing the battery to drain to 0% can be harmful (and will leave you stranded). If you have an option to plug in, even to 120V that would definitely be best. If not, charge to 100% before you leave as discussed above, turn on energy saving and turn off always connected, and resist the urge to use the app to check on the vehicle frequently (or at all). When the app connects to the car it wakes it up and puts it in a state that uses more energy.

You also may want to look around ahead of time and see if there are any places to charge near the garage so you have a plan if you come back and discover you only have 10 miles remaining.

 

[BrettS]

Oh, one more thing... if you do charge to 100% then make sure that as soon as you get in the car to drive away you turn it back down to 90%. You don’t want to get into a situation where you had charged to 100% assuming that you couldn’t charge at the garage, then you find an outlet and plug in when you get there only to have forgotten to move the slider down from 100% so the car stays at 100% for 28 days.

 

[arcus]

Set your charge limit to 80-90% and plug it to 120 V outlet, as others have advised. If the car doesn't auto-sense the max amperage make sure to set it to 12 A or less (80% of nominal outlet's amperage). With 12A 120V you will get about 3 miles of range per hour of charge which will offset (and then some) any vampire loss due to battery pack cooling/heating or the car staying connected.

 

[BrettS]

Set your charge limit to 80-90% and plug it to 120 V outlet, as others have advised. If the car doesn't auto-sense the max amperage make sure to set it to 12 A or less (80% of nominal outlet's amperage).

Note that the car doesn’t autosense amperage ever. The EVSE you connect tells the car how much current it can provide. For the mobile connector, it can detect which plug you have attached to it and will use that to tell the car how much power to draw. In this case, if you use a NEMA 5-15 plug (for a standard 120V outlet) the mobile connector will tell the car that it can only provide 12 amps.

 

[arcus]

Note that the car doesn’t autosense amperage ever. The EVSE you connect tells the car how much current it can provide. For the mobile connector, it can detect which plug you have attached to it and will use that to tell the car how much power to draw. In this case, if you use a NEMA 5-15 plug (for a standard 120V outlet) the mobile connector will tell the car that it can only provide 12 amps.

Thanks for clarification Brett, should not have called it auto-sense

 

[Snerruc]

My car is currently in transit from Hawaii to Florida. It has been 30days without being plugged in. Assorted forwarders have run it around loading unloading and putting it in lots. I checked and it has lost 48 miles of charge. I left car at the dock at 90% charge, range mode on , energy saving on , always connected off and cabin overheat protection off. The most important iscabin overheat protection off as it really sucks up the juice. This is how Tesla recommends shipping cars.

 

[BrettS]

My car is currently in transit from Hawaii to Florida. It has been 30days without being plugged in. Assorted forwarders have run it around loading unloading and putting it in lots. I checked and it has lost 48 miles of charge. I left car at the dock at 90% charge, range mode on , energy saving on , always connected off and cabin overheat protection off. The most important iscabin overheat protection off as it really sucks up the juice. This is how Tesla recommends shipping cars.

Cabin overheat protection is probably less of a concern here as it will only operate for 12 hours after the car is turned off. In your case when you have people moving the car frequently so the timer keeps resetting it’s probably a bigger issue.

Still probably not a bad idea to turn it off though just to save as much power as possible.

 

[kort677]

My car is currently in transit from Hawaii to Florida.

Just curious, is the car being shipped via water to FLA or is it being shipped to a west coast port then trucked or railed to the east coast? what is duration of the trip?

 

[bob_p]

Turning off "Always Connected" seems to have a big impact - plus setting the display to always go to sleep, and turning off overheat protection and turning on range mode.

Would be useful for Tesla to add a "Deep Sleep" setting, to make it easy to ensure maximum energy savings during extended parking...

 

[smilepak]

I think future Tesla having Solar roof, will help mitigate these concern. While solar is not fast charging, it would be good enough to do trickle support charging to extend long term parking. Other will argue parking structure, but, a lot of long term parking are not structured too.

 

[Rocky_H]

28 days sounds like it should work out fine as long as you do make all of the settings changes to keep it in low power mode and don't wake it up by checking on it.

 

[bob_p]

If possible, try to do a test run and leave it unplugged for at least 24 hours without being plugged in, with the maximum power saving features enabled - and verify to yourself how much vampire drain you are getting. And then project how much you'd see during long term parking.

 

[kort677]

the op could consider leaving his car at home and hiring a driver to bring to the airport.

 

[JPoldo]

Thank you all for the great replies. I learned so much about proper charging. Think I'll charge the battery to 80% prior to 30 mi drive to garage. Today, I pre-arranged a parking spot next to a 120v outlet. At garage, I will set charge limit to about 60% to avoid overcharging. Since plugged in, I will wake it up periodically to check charge level.
If there are complications, next time I will leave car at home, plugged in at garage and summon Uber for ride to airport.

 

[Tam]

...I learned so much about proper charging...

In subzero cold weather, I doubt 120V can gain much miles because most of the energy would be spent to heat up the main pack and there would be very little power left for the charging purpose.

But I think, in such extreme cold weather, at least 120V can stabilize your battery level and prevent it from losing massive miles.

 

[oktane]

the op could consider leaving his car at home and hiring a driver to bring to the airport.

Agreed. Leave the car plugged in at home and take Uber. Why would you want to leave an expensive car in the parking garage unattended for 28 days?