Phantom Drain- What's normal?

[Ken7]

I've been using the TezLab's app for a few days now on my new S75, and it's made me wonder what's 'normal' for a phantom drain? The app is showing I've lost 2.9 miles over the last 16 hours with an efficiency of 94% during that time. Is that an excessive amount of phantom drain or within the 'normal' expected loss? I should note the average temperature during this period has been about 62F.

 

[BrokerDon]

Our 2015 MS P85D with 34k miles has always lost about ~ 3 miles per day from Phantom Drain: 227 miles fully charged which drops to ~ 224 miles before it's next scheduled recharge.

So your 2.9 mile Phantom Drain is "normal" IMHO

 

[animorph]

Lots of threads on this. 1 to 15 miles/day of range loss is "normal", but it depends on your settings.
For lower losses check:
Energy Savings On
Always Connected Off
Cabin Overheat Protection Off
Make sure your logging app is allowing the car to sleep normally.

 

[Ken7]

Animorph, thanks. Are there any downsides to those settings and how do you get into that logging app? Are we talking about the TezLab app? Could that create additional drain?

 

[yancantcook]

I’m also curious about TezLab causing more phantom drain? I’m losing 10 miles a day. With my MX 75D. It is at the SC and I can track it from my phobe

 

[animorph]

Sorry, didn't see the earlier question.

I use TeslaFi for logging. It's an online site. It has a few settings that let the car sleep without impacting the data collection. When sleeping the car uses 1-2 RM a day. If it's not sleeping at all you see the 10 - 15 RM/day losses. The car will sleep normally when left alone, but if a data logger is constantly requesting data every minute, the car never gets the chance to sleep. That's what most of the other settings above relate to as well.

I haven't used TezLab, but certainly TeslaFi using the defaults (when I started using it) would prevent sleeping.

Other than disabling the Cabin Overheat Protection function, I have not seen any noticeable impact from any of the other settings. You can still check on the car using the Tesla app, and the car functions normally.

And one last thing to watch, don't go walking anywhere near the car with the fob in your pocket. If it thinks you're approaching (at least the X) it wakes up and gets ready to unlock. I can see the garage lit up by the X if I walk into the kitchen (just behind the garage) or the bedroom (just above the garage). Then it can take a while for it to go back to sleep.

 

[LS..]

TezLab showed a lost of 29.5miles while idle in a garage(temps 35-40F) over a period of 2d 17hrs, is this normal?
Settings on my X100D are: Energy savings ON, Always connected OFF, Cabin overheat ON

Also do we have an any definitive answers on whether the use of apps like Tezlab or Remote S do
effect battery drain as they check the car status frequently.

 

[doctorwho]

Where is my energy going? Dual charger Model S 85 old nose car. Parked outside, summer days and nights. No pre-heating, range mode on. I'm losing virtually a complete battery charge every month!

 

[bob_p]

Surprisingly, ALWAYS CONNECTED appears to be a major factor in reducing phantom drain.

We leave it ON most of the time, and turn it OFF when we park at a lot of long trips.

To make this easier, Tesla should just add a "long term parking" setting, like "airplane mode" for smartphones - that would adjust all of the settings and put the car in a deep sleep mode and extend the battery charge as long as possible.

 

[doctorwho]

Is this level of drain to be expected when 'always connected' is left on?

 

[doctorwho]

I've checked, 'always connected' is disabled. Where is the energy going?

 

[whitex]

A 24/7 dashcam or other aftermarket modifications like always ON 12V socket can cause higher than usual drain too.

 

[doctorwho]

no dashcams, the only aftermarket mod is an EcoHitch and that doesn't use any power of course

 

[SSonnentag]

My car loses about .075 miles per hour when parked.

 

[whitex]

no dashcams, the only aftermarket mod is an EcoHitch and that doesn't use any power of course

Another big thing which increases drain can be wind where car is parked. When it's cold and windy, I can lose 10 miles per day. Wind by itself can triple or quadruple the drain as it keeps on cooling the battery. Simply parking in an enclosed garage in the same temperature helps a lot. Without wind our cars lose ~3 miles per day, though if I leave it alone and don't keep connecting to it, the drain slows down (at least it did before I added dashcams, but I am making the 24/7 dashcam for battery drain choice myself).

 

[doctorwho]

The car is parked outside but in a sheltered environment. It's been summer here so active battery heating isn't an issue

 

[whitex]

Do you have any other information to try to correlate to the numbers you got? It seems your power draw varies per day, maybe temperature stats in and out of the car, wifi and/or cell connection stats (signal strength, data transferred, etc).

 

[doctorwho]

Are wifi or cell connection going to use that much power?
Here's a snapshot of the latest week, still subatantial

 

[whitex]

Are wifi or cell connection going to use that much power?
Here's a snapshot of the latest week, still subatantial
View attachment 290138

The problem you have is that you can see 21km lost on Tuesday and only 5km lost on Wednesday, but you don't have temperature and wind (unless parked in an enclosed space) data for each of the days. Just because the weekly temperature average is a nice (for the battery) 19C it's a weekly average, could be cold at night, hot during the day (btw, do you have cabin heat protection on? that can drain your battery in hot weather, especially when parked in direct sunlight). Long term averages don't help here. If I have one of legs in liquid nitrogen and another in boiling water, even if the average temperature works out to be a comfy 19C I don't think I'd feel comfortable.

 

[doctorwho]

Cabin heat protection off,
pre-heating off.
range mode on, always connected off.
Car is parked outside, daily maximums 22-32 degrees C