Parking Overnight - Battery Use

[djchrist74]

I get my Model 3 LR on Monday. I do have a garage with Tesla charger but there are days where I won't drive much probably only to the gym a mile from my house so I don't really want to charge it all night if I don't have to. Is there any issues with just parking overnight on the road as far as battery loss? With sentry mode on? How much will I lose overnight?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[KenC]

I get my Model 3 LR on Monday. I do have a garage with Tesla charger but there are days where I won't drive much probably only to the gym a mile from my house so I don't really want to charge it all night if I don't have to. Is there any issues with just parking overnight on the road as far as battery loss? With sentry mode on? How much will I lose overnight?

Thanks,
Dave

Up to 1.4miles of range/hr, is what I see when parked with Sentry running.

 

[djchrist74]

Up to 1.4miles of range/hr, is what I see when parked with Sentry running.

Wow, that is a lot less than I thought. Thanks for the info.

Dave

 

[Newto3]

Wow, so only about 15 miles a night. What about just being in the car without any acceleration? How quickly would it drain with just AC on at 70ish and streaming Netflix?

 

[jrweiss98020]

Try it and report back!

 

[Gasaraki]

I don't really want to charge it all night if I don't have to.

Why? Why go against what Tesla recommends?

 

[jjrandorin]

Wow, that is a lot less than I thought. Thanks for the info.

Dave

its going to be between 1 and 2 miles per hour lost, while on sentry mode. Keep in mind that is "battery use" because our cars dont store miles, they store energy, and that energy is used for everything from moving the car, ac, etc.

If you did this every night, 15 miles a night for you would be 105 miles a week, or, an "extra" 5,475 "miles" on your battery every year. If you drive 10k miles a year, your battery in this situation would be doing 15.5k miles a year. That may matter to you, it may not, either is totally fine.

The main thing would be for people to not use sentry mode when parked in a parking lot, and going on a trip (which is exactly when almost everyone WANTS to use it) unless that parking lot also has them plugged in. the car will lose between 20-30 ish milesevery 24 hour period in that circumstance, so a 7 day trip with sentry mode on the entire time while someone is away will use 140 to 210 "miles" just sitting there, at least until the battery gets to 20% charge.

That extra energy has to be put back somewhere too, so if you drive 10k miles a year, but used sentry mode and that was an extra 5k miles, you just increased your charging cost for the car by almost 1/2 of your regular usage.

 

[tech_nerd]

For me on a SR+ with sentry enabled, I've noticed ~1/2% loss per hour, for example, I saw about a 12% loss in a 20 hour period. And with Sentry off, you'll barely notice any loss, and with cabin overheat protection on and in the summer, you'll notice significantly more.
As for leaving it plugged in, Tesla recommends leaving it plugged in all the time, since you're not sitting at 100%, there is no harm to the battery. I charge almost exclusively at work for free, but I've had to start plugging it in and setting it to start charging at 5am to help warm up the battery in the colder weather. If you let it sit all night unplugged, the battery will be very cold in the morning and it will take a long time to warm up where your regerative braking isn't affected, some days it's not fully warmed during my 30 minute drive to work.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I get my Model 3 LR on Monday. I do have a garage with Tesla charger but there are days where I won't drive much probably only to the gym a mile from my house so I don't really want to charge it all night if I don't have to. Is there any issues with just parking overnight on the road as far as battery loss? With sentry mode on? How much will I lose overnight?

Thanks,
Dave

People mentioned with Sentry on, it's about 1 mile per hour. With it off, in my SR+ it's about 1 mile per day (assuming you aren't constantly waking up the car to check on it).

 

[Rice&Curry]

I get my Model 3 LR on Monday. I do have a garage with Tesla charger but there are days where I won't drive much probably only to the gym a mile from my house so I don't really want to charge it all night if I don't have to. Is there any issues with just parking overnight on the road as far as battery loss? With sentry mode on? How much will I lose overnight?

Thanks,
Dave

if your garage is secure, you can set it up so that sentry mode is switched off when it is in the garage this option is available under "Security" under vehicle configuration.

 

[AmokTime]

Wow, so only about 15 miles a night. What about just being in the car without any acceleration? How quickly would it drain with just AC on at 70ish and streaming Netflix?

Sometime last year I had to wait in the car (2019 SR+) for my wife to have a dental procedure. IIRC, it was around 85°F and I was parked in the sun. In 2.5 hours of sitting in the car running AC with a set point of 76°F I used either 15 or 16 miles of range by the guess-o-meter (at the time, I had it on miles mode instead of percent).

 

[EVRider-FL]

Wow, so only about 15 miles a night. What about just being in the car without any acceleration? How quickly would it drain with just AC on at 70ish and streaming Netflix?

If you‘re cooling to 70, very little. If you’re heating to 70, it uses more energy but still not much. Sentry Mode uses a lot because it runs the AP computer to analyze video from the cameras, and that computer uses more energy than many other components in the car.

 

[djchrist74]

Why? Why go against what Tesla recommends?

I saw that Tesla recommends charging each night too. But if I go literally 2 miles some days I don't really see why I should pull it in the garage and charge it that night. Is it still recommended if I drive anywhere from 2 - 10 miles that particular day?

 

[djchrist74]

its going to be between 1 and 2 miles per hour lost, while on sentry mode. Keep in mind that is "battery use" because our cars dont store miles, they store energy, and that energy is used for everything from moving the car, ac, etc.

If you did this every night, 15 miles a night for you would be 105 miles a week, or, an "extra" 5,475 "miles" on your battery every year. If you drive 10k miles a year, your battery in this situation would be doing 15.5k miles a year. That may matter to you, it may not, either is totally fine.

The main thing would be for people to not use sentry mode when parked in a parking lot, and going on a trip (which is exactly when almost everyone WANTS to use it) unless that parking lot also has them plugged in. the car will lose between 20-30 ish milesevery 24 hour period in that circumstance, so a 7 day trip with sentry mode on the entire time while someone is away will use 140 to 210 "miles" just sitting there, at least until the battery gets to 20% charge.

That extra energy has to be put back somewhere too, so if you drive 10k miles a year, but used sentry mode and that was an extra 5k miles, you just increased your charging cost for the car by almost 1/2 of your regular usage.

Yup that makes sense on the long trip. I'm pretty much a WFH person but I can go in the office if I want. When I go in I will travel 110 - 130 miles round trip. When I don't go into work I really travel mostly short distances. I normally drive less than 10K per year, probably even closer to 5K but with this car I may drive more. Also depends on how busy I am as I lose time on the road. That extra 5K of charging per year while leaving it sit by the road is a good point too.

 

[STMickle]

I saw that Tesla recommends charging each night too. But if I go literally 2 miles some days I don't really see why I should pull it in the garage and charge it that night. Is it still recommended if I drive anywhere from 2 - 10 miles that particular day?

My life is like this too, would love an answer to this!

 

[jjrandorin]

My life is like this too, would love an answer to this!

It has been answered, actually. Plug in whenever you want, for however long you want. If you dont want to charge, dont. With that being said, there is no harm in charging to whatever the set percentage is, and the car WILL lose energy every night. How much depends on what you have on or not. No sentry mode, no cabin overheat protection or standby summon (and no checking on the car repeatedly waking it up)?

1-3 miles a night of range lost, in general, if the car goes to sleep properly and is not awake uploading data etc.

Sentry mode on? Thats been covered already. Cabin overheat protection with AC and sentry? Standby summon, cabin overheat protection, standby summon? Probably 3 miles an hour of range lost.

Do what makes you happy, plug in or not, turn sentry on or not, just know what the impact is. Tesla recommends plugging in all the time because there isnt any real reason NOT to, if you have access to it that is, and that prevents any chance of "Oh man I have to go XXX and I forgot to charge, AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" situations, because you are not "running down to the gas station for a 5 minute fill up."

 

[djchrist74]

Update on this. Got the Tesla on Monday and I have been leaving it out front during the day and putting it in the garage and charging at night. This car is addicting. Thanks all.