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Sheltering in Place - Charge or not
- Thread starter PVEaglesFan
- Start date
Best option is to just leave the car plugged in the entire time (with the charge limit set on the lower end). If that is not practical I would just check on it once a week and plug it in if it drops below 20%.
Set it to 50%, plug it in and forget it. If it's above 50%, it'll very slowly burn down, from vampire drain, and recharge when at about 46% or so. Charge it up just prior to needing to drive.
Tam
Well-Known Member
The owner's manual encourages plugging in whenever you don't drive.
There's no advantage to wait for the battery goes down before charging it.
Tesla Service Center recommends to set it at 90%.
If you have a logging tool like TeslaFi.com, and if your car is not on a timer, you can see that your battery does not wait to go down before it would trickle charge it back up (if it's on a timer, it can't trickle charge until the clock allows it to).
pilotSteve
Active Member
I second leave it plugged at say 70% charge. These are uncertain times my friend, who knows when or why you might need to travel. Be prepared, your Tesla will be ready when/as you need it.
drive your tesla around. You don’t gotta get out the car..
OP as others mention, tesla would recommend to plug it in and leave it plugged in. Set the charge percentage to like 60-70% and leave it there, it will maintain itself fine. One nice thing about owning a tesla in these times... while people buy up all the toilet paper, eggs, produce, everything in the store like they will never see it again, one thing tesla owners dont have to do is get in yet another line to buy car fuel.
My wife waited almost 45 minutes trying to get gas this past sunday..... and gave me somewhat dirty looks because "my" car "fills up" at home.
My wife waited almost 45 minutes trying to get gas this past sunday..... and gave me somewhat dirty looks because "my" car "fills up" at home.
Yup local gas station had a long line. I just have mine set to 80% and leave it plugged in. I only drive a mile to go the grocery store or 2 miles to the pizza joint for my kids since I'm now wfh.
You are talking about this as if charging it is a specific action you take. I encourage you to not think of it that way. If the car is at home, it is plugged in.
This is what I would recommend too. You can set the charge limit down lower than 90%, which will be a little easier on the battery to not be at a high state of charge all the time. But then you can just leave it that way, plugged in, for weeks or months, and it's not really any different than if you just don't happen to take the car out for a day or two.
Thanks
While I generally charge each night, sometimes I do not if I have only driven a few miles that day. I will just leave it plugged in to 76%.
I am also just using the house current and getting along fine.
While I generally charge each night, sometimes I do not if I have only driven a few miles that day. I will just leave it plugged in to 76%.
I am also just using the house current and getting along fine.
Lifeinabox
Member
smatthew
Active Member
Don't forget, the battery pack is only able to balance itself if the charge is greater than 85%
hmgolds
Member
Earthquakes, wild fires, power outages, etc - even before this latest crisis. Why would you not maintain your battery at (close to) 80%?
I haven't left my home in 9 days. I just have it plugged in and the charge limit set down to 50%. 50% is still plenty of miles if I need to venture out for food or supplies. I have a HPWC so if I do need to hit the road for whatever reason, I can up the charge limit and top it off pretty quickly.
I had the exact same question and did the research. Set it at 50% and leave it plugged in. It's OK to go out and drive it around for fun and to get the charge down to 50% or lower. If you want to do the research yourself look up how to store lithium ion batteries. Panasonic recommends 30% to 50% charge. No one suggests storing the Tesla at less than 50% charge. Everyone recommends leaving it plugged in.
You should just smile with the knowledge that the electrical grid is not threatened and that you don’t have to wait in gas lines with the hoarders.
cell balancing | Tesla
tldr: "The pack has 96 groups, each is monitored for voltage and temperature. Charging completes when a single group reaches the set charging threshold. There are bleed resistors for each group that can slowly bleed the cell group voltage to match the group with the lowest voltage. Ideally, the pack is balanced when every group has the same voltage. This process used to only occur when charged to 100% and left to sit for hours, but there have been changes to the process, and it may occur at lower SOC levels now."
R1Bill
Member
It's a Lithium ION battery. The properties are well known and can be easily found on the internet. Forget what Tesla says, chemistry is chemistry. We don't know the exact chemistry of a Tesla battery and we don't know where the limits are really set but 50% is probably really close to the real 50%. Based on that, if you really are not going to need it or drive it, 40-50% should be the optimal level to preserve your battery for the long term. Now, does it matter? Not if you trade your car in every few years but if you really are planning on keeping it for an extended period, do it. I try to keep mine between 30-70% to optimize longevity and when storing keep it plugged in and set at 50%. I do make sure to charge mine to 95%+ at 240 VAC/30 Amps every 3 months or so just so that the calculations are correct and the battery gets balanced properly. 240VAC/30Amps seems to be the sweet spot for that task.
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