Sentry Mode and Charging

[Apollo08]

So I just bought my first Model 3 (first electric vehicle) and got a home charger. I rent a house along with a few friends and split utilities evenly. With me charging at home I use the Charge stats feature on the app to tell me how much my Tesla will be adding to our electric bill and I am paying that cost.
I have been leaving sentry mode on while my car is plugged in and I know sentry mode uses about 1-2 mile of range per hour. My M3 has at 100% all weekend but even with sentry mode on, charge stats is showing the car hasn’t drawn any power or added additional cost but is at 100% still.

Could my m3 still be drawing power to top off the battery and the app isn’t recognizing that? I’m just trying to be a nice roommate and not wanting the electric bill to be crazy and the app not showing what my car is actually using.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Can you provide more details? When you say “you just bought your first model 3”, do you mean new or used? Unless it uses LFP batteries like the Model Y, it is not recommended to charge to 100% SoC as this will contribute to a faster battery degradation. I could be wrong. Topping off daily is a good thing, but if you don’t intend to go on a long trip, they recommend no more than 80-90%. And yes Sentry does draw but it is well worth as there are plenty of Tesla haters out there.

 

[Apollo08]

Can you provide more details? When you say “you just bought your first model 3”, do you mean new or used? Unless it uses LFP batteries like the Model Y, it is not recommended to charge to 100% SoC as this will contribute to a faster battery degradation. I could be wrong. Topping off daily is a good thing, but if you don’t intend to go on a long trip, they recommend no more than 80-90%. And yes Sentry does draw but it is well worth as there are plenty of Tesla haters out there.

2023 M3 SR+. I drive around 35-45 miles daily. I would like to keep sentry mode on, just curious on why after multiple days of no driving but having sentry mode on and why my charging stats in the app aren’t indicating power has been drawn.

 

[Nosken]

If you park your car inside, you can have Sentry exclude home. If not, you can track your charge stats with TeslaFi.com or TeslaScope.com
Each are around $50/year and give great stats. You could do the free intro and see the stats you need, and extrapolate what the overnight cost is.

 

[jsmay311]

If not, you can track your charge stats with TeslaFi.com or TeslaScope.com
Each are around $50/year and give great stats. You could do the free intro and see the stats you need, and extrapolate what the overnight cost is.

A free trial of one of those could help with troubleshooting this issue, but there shouldn’t be any reason to not just use the free Tesla app in the long term, as he’s trying to do.


I can’t think of any reason that several days’ worth of Sentry Mode wouldn’t result in at least 1 kWh of charging that should show up in the Charge Stats in the app. Either that, or the battery should’ve drained to lower than 100% if it’s not charging.

Have you done anything to verify that Sentry Mode is actually on? Like walk around close to the car until it flashes its lights and/or turns on the touchscreen? And then check to see if it recorded video to the USB drive?

 

[E90alex]

I believe the app only shows power actually stored into the battery. If plugged in, the car can draw power from the wall to run everything and therefore not show up in the charge stats.

 

[Apollo08]

A free trial of one of those could help with troubleshooting this issue, but there shouldn’t be any reason to not just use the free Tesla app in the long term, as he’s trying to do.


I can’t think of any reason that several days’ worth of Sentry Mode wouldn’t result in at least 1 kWh of charging that should show up in the Charge Stats in the app. Either that, or the battery should’ve drained to lower than 100% if it’s not charging.

Have you done anything to verify that Sentry Mode is actually on? Like walk around close to the car until it flashes its lights and/or turns on the touchscreen? And then check to see if it recorded video to the USB drive?

I can pull up the live videos through the app, and I also was doing yard work and when I walked past the car I saw the screen flash the sentry mode screen.

 

[Supcom]

Assuming you are using a Tesla wall connector for your charging interface, you might look for an app that pulls data from the wall connector. That will give you the most accurate reading on how much energy is going to your car.

If you're handy with programming, you can easily pull the data from the wall charger using a REST interface.