Power drain while idle (Vampire Load)

[strider]

Not really an ideal solution since we lock up the garage. We also try to liberate ourselves from the digital/electronic grid on vacation, and this wold totally defeat the purpose (digitally baby sitting a car is in fact precisely the kind of thing we try and escape at our rustic get-away). Can this car seriously not sit unattended while we are on a 4-6 week vacation? That could be a problem in Norway, since pretty much everybody takes four weeks away in the summer.

By the time you get your car this will be a non-issue. Tesla is having software problems with putting the car to sleep and waking it up so they have temporarily removed that feature. They are planning to reinstate it as soon as they can make it do so reliably. Once sleep mode is available it will be no problem to fully charge your car and leave it for 4-6 weeks.

 

[tezco]

I've been measuring my idle power losses for a couple of months. Although I don't have many data points for 1.19.42, so far it appears as if the idle power losses are even higher with the latest software.

 

[eelton]

Same here, although my drop seems larger, more like 12-15 miles a day.

I also lose about 12 miles per day, with the car in a 55-degree garage. It's frustrating that the owner's manual says 1% (i.e., 3 miles or so) per day.

 

[jerry33]

I also lose about 12 miles per day, with the car in a 55-degree garage. It's frustrating that the owner's manual says 1% (i.e., 3 miles or so) per day.

Eventually, the manual will be correct. This is one of those pioneer arrows.

 

[stinnett_P813]

I also lose about 12 miles per day, with the car in a 55-degree garage. It's frustrating that the owner's manual says 1% (i.e., 3 miles or so) per day.

That's a better loss than me. I am losing 18 miles per day in 60 degree garage. I wish I could downgrade to the previous software to destroy these damn vampires roaming my garage.

 

[JRP3]

Hang some garlic around your charge port.

 

[znino]

That's a better loss than me. I am losing 18 miles per day in 60 degree garage. I wish I could downgrade to the previous software to destroy these damn vampires roaming my garage.

Im in the same situation as you. 16-18 miles per day in a heated garage.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Ok, I'm sticking with v4.1. I'm only seeing a loss of 3 miles a day from vampire drain with sleep mode on.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Not that this prevents the power drain but, if you want to leave home with the true "full tank" rather than a post drain one, throttling down your charging amps so that the car finishes charging just before you leave is an option. I'm doing this most of the time at home by dialing down from 40 A to as low as 5 A from my 14-50 outlet so that the car trickle-charges all night long.

 

[JRP3]

gg, do you use so much of the charge each day that you can't afford the overnight loss?

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

gg, do you use so much of the charge each day that you can't afford the overnight loss?

Actually, no. I barely use about a third of the available range on an average week day. The overnight loss if not charging is about 8 miles. I still like to see 190 rated miles available each morning though.

 

[JRP3]

The battery might last longer if it spent more time at a lower SOC if you don't really need the range.

 

[Hans (Amsterdam)]

I suppose that removing fuses #49 and #51 will bring the instrument panel and touchscreen in a very deep sleep ?

 

[gray]

I learned the hard way about vampire loads. I left the car in my garage for 4 days, unplugged, with 50 miles of charge on it.

I returned home to an unresponsive car.

I called the service center. They had no ideas. I e-mailed my specialist and did not get a reply. I called the Tesla # and left several messages. I finally got a call back and was told to remove the grill panel on the front and jump the car. When I asked how, I was told to use the grill removal tool. Apparently, $100,000 does not by us a grill removal tool. I eventually figured out how to remove the grill (with a little damage unfortunately) and jumped the car. Apparently, I was not told that to jump the car, the car I used to jump from must be turned OFF. So, I appear to have cooked my 12V battery. But, no one believed me when I called on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to inquire about a terrible acidic smell. I was told it was probably food I had left in the vehicle. I had to move the vehicle outside as the smell was irritating our sinuses. Finally, 5 days after the first event, someone had an idea and logged into my car. They determined that the 12V battery had indeed been cooked. So, they took 3 more days to tell me that the battery had shipped to me. Today, 10 days after my initial call, I am being told they might fix the car (hopefully) next week. I will have 32 days of ownership with more than 14 days spent with the car immobilized in my front yard. I may be the first to exercise the lemon rule! Terribly disappointed! Service is atrocious.
PS If you get the message that your tires are low on pressure, you refill the tires and then learn that there is a tire pressure reset tool that you need or you will continue to get the tire pressure low message. We do not get that reset tool in our $100,000 purchase either! I wonder how many more secret tools have been left off the delivery slip!

As a prospective buyer of a 40kwh Model S located in Chicago, I find this quite disturbing. The implication is that I may not be able to leave the car unplugged for more than a week (e.g. to go on vacation or a conference) during the winter(on top of the fact that keeping the battery at 40-70% SOC will likely maximize the life of the battery). I'd happily put up with even 5 minute startup times if I could fully disconnect the battery.

 

[dsm363]

As a prospective buyer of a 40kwh Model S located in Chicago, I find this quite disturbing. The implication is that I may not be able to leave the car unplugged for more than a week (e.g. to go on vacation or a conference) during the winter.

You could if you found a place to plug in while gone. Once the sleep mode is enabled things will be better but I'd still want to plug my car in while gone. Would still strongly consider the 60 kWh version though maybe with Supercharger access.

 

[gray]

You could if you found a place to plug in while gone. Once the sleep mode is enabled things will be better but I'd still want to plug my car in while gone. Would still strongly consider the 60 kWh version though maybe with Supercharger access.

I suppose the primary issue in my case is the fact that I live in an apartment with no charge access (and there is no way to construct this). We are planning for the car to be used around town most of the time - our 98% use case is 40 total mile trips (a Leaf could meet our needs, but we'd strongly prefer a car that isn't an econobox with a big battery tacked on). I'm really hoping that the quoted poster's experience simply reflects a possible need to do some re-mapping of the battery capacity (50 miles is ~17% charge for a 85kWh battery, but more than 30% for a 40kWh) since I expect that the losses might have a nonlinear relationship with the battery SOC.

I should also add that I'm hesitant to supercharge a battery even though the capability might exist based on (admittedly shallow) observations about the characteristics of Li-Ion batteries, in particular (semi)recent imaging research that showed the physical changes in the micro-structure of battery materials that occur with charge/discarge cycles *. I have also observed that laptop batteries charged with lower-power (in Watts) AC supplies tend to last longer (although their charge takes longer). However, my area of science is not in materials so my experience might simply be coincidental.

* Wang CM, W Xu, J Liu, J Zhang, LV Saraf, BW Arey, D Choi, Z Yang, J Xiao, S Thevuthasan, and DR Baer. 2011. "In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Observation of Microstructure and Phase Evolution in a SnO[SUB]2[/SUB] Nanowire during Lithium Intercalation." Nano Letters 11(5):1874-1880.

 

[dsm363]

I suppose the primary issue in my case is the fact that I live in an apartment with no charge access (and there is no way to construct this). We are planning for the car to be used around town most of the time - our 98% use case is 40 total mile trips (a Leaf could meet our needs, but we'd strongly prefer a car that isn't an econobox with a big battery tacked on). I'm really hoping that the quoted poster's experience simply reflects a possible need to do some re-mapping of the battery capacity (50 miles is ~17% charge for a 85kWh battery, but more than 30% for a 40kWh) since I expect that the losses might have a nonlinear relationship with the battery SOC.

I think you'll find living with an EV and no place to plug in at night not ideal. People do it but having at least something to top the battery off and warm it up in the winter would be nice. Maybe there is someway you could get a 110V outlet installed (maybe you would have to pay for it and offer to offset energy usage with a monthly fee) but sounds like that isn't possible either.

The car will lose about 8 miles a day in good conditions and it sounds like more in winter (without sleep mode).

 

[PatP]

I called the service center. They had no ideas. I e-mailed my specialist and did not get a reply. I called the Tesla # and left several messages. I finally got a call back and was told to remove the grill panel on the front and jump the car. When I asked how, I was told to use the grill removal tool. Apparently, $100,000 does not by us a grill removal tool. I eventually figured out how to remove the grill (with a little damage unfortunately) and jumped the car. Apparently, I was not told that to jump the car, the car I used to jump from must be turned OFF. So, I appear to have cooked my 12V battery. But, no one believed me when I called on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to inquire about a terrible acidic smell. I was told it was probably food I had left in the vehicle. I had to move the vehicle outside as the smell was irritating our sinuses. Finally, 5 days after the first event, someone had an idea and logged into my car. They determined that the 12V battery had indeed been cooked. So, they took 3 more days to tell me that the battery had shipped to me. Today, 10 days after my initial call, I am being told they might fix the car (hopefully) next week. I will have 32 days of ownership with more than 14 days spent with the car immobilized in my front yard. I may be the first to exercise the lemon rule! Terribly disappointed! Service is atrocious.[/

The thing I see often with Tesla employees is that they do not acknowledge issues or are not aware of them. They also have contradicting messages. I'm sure this will improve over time but this is a reality.

 

[JRP3]

* Wang CM, W Xu, J Liu, J Zhang, LV Saraf, BW Arey, D Choi, Z Yang, J Xiao, S Thevuthasan, and DR Baer. 2011. "In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy Observation of Microstructure and Phase Evolution in a SnO[SUB]2[/SUB] Nanowire during Lithium Intercalation." Nano Letters 11(5):1874-1880.

I didn't read the paper but I'm not sure the behavior of SnO2 nanowires have anything to do with the charge process of batteries that don't contain them. The "Superchargers" are not charging at an especially high C rate for the battery and with the active cooling should provide minimal stress. That said I wouldn't use one every day.

 

[tezco]

I suppose the primary issue in my case is the fact that I live in an apartment with no charge access (and there is no way to construct this). We are planning for the car to be used around town most of the time - our 98% use case is 40 total mile trips (a Leaf could meet our needs, but we'd strongly prefer a car that isn't an econobox with a big battery tacked on).

I have the Leaf and the S, and like both. The Leaf doesn't feel or drive like an econobox (probably due to the weight of the battery, and the increased seat height), and you can leave it unplugged for weeks with little battery loss. Not so with the S (at least currently). I take the Leaf to work and the shopping malls since those are locations with a high ding index. Take the S on longer trips, and when I want to arrive in style....