Vampire drain is now much less than in the past?

[MaryAnning3]

I quite often have to leave my long range model 3 outdoors for a week of two at a time. Until recently, the loss rate due to quiescent current draw (aka vampire drain) has been pretty much 1% per day or even slightly more. This was not a real problem for me; I would typically park at 60% and come back to about 44% two weeks later.

However, here is the interesting thing: this seems to have changed significantly. In July, I was parked outdoors (with a cover on the car and not plugged in) and I found that the state of charge only dropped about 3% over a 10 day period. On July 8 a screen pic shows 44%, and on July 18 a screen pic shows 41%. I think this is a reliable measurement. So that is only about 3%, or 2.2 kwh over 10 days, which is about 0.3% per day and about 220 Watt-hours per day. I am pretty thrilled to have the best battery in the world and a "vampire drain" about 3 times less than before.

Are other people finding this to be the case? Was this change associated with a particular update? Any thoughts on what is different in terms of BMS, 12 volt charging, etc? Which systems are using less power...?

 

[Wyman]

That's good to hear.
What SW ver are you on? Is sentry mode off? I no longer use sentry mode unless I enable it manually on my phone when parked in some areas as it was draining too much battery.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Are other people finding this to be the case? Was this change associated with a particular update? Any thoughts on what is different in terms of BMS, 12 volt charging, etc? Which systems are using less power...?

Yes, I have noticed improvement. My last test was 4 days with 10 miles of lost (with Stats app connected to the vehicle). And then 5 days with 5 miles lost (with no 3rd party app connections). This was all in a garage at 70-85 degrees. I did also have the vehicle plugged in though (with charge threshold set below the current charge level) . So that definitely completely invalidates the test since Tesla could be "cheating." There is evidence they do topping up, but I have scheduled charging, and was only rarely notified that "charging was completed". In addition, the "since last charge" trip meter in the car did NOT get reset. So the car allegedly did not charge - but it could have used the shore power for topping up the 12V I guess? Doesn't really make sense since they'd have to turn on the contactors to enable shore power. Anyway....

Previously I had not noticed Stats to make any big difference, but it does appear that the base rate of drain has been reduced so now the impact of apps may be more noticeable.

Requires much more careful data gathering than what I did to get definitive results, but I definitely think that the drain has improved (in spite of the massive flaw in my methodology). Whether it stays that way is the question - it is warmer now, and it's possible there is a temperature dependence. In Southern California it seems like it shouldn't matter at all, but the pattern to date is that the colder (40-50 degrees) it is, the worse the drain. But there are many confounding factors so the correlation does not mean causation.

I haven't done my retesting with the thermal camera to see whether they are still heating the windshield cameras, turning on the cameras & ultrasonics, etc., when in idle mode. It's possible that would reduce some losses. They may also just be charging up the 12V battery faster so there is less time spent in the inefficient idle mode. Without data on what was happening before, we'll never know.

Anyway, average power of 10W now with my extremely flawed experiment. Previously it's been in the 30-40W range.

I haven't experimented further without the app, but leaving the TeslaCam drive inserted, turning off data sharing, etc.

One of these days I'll get a chance to test without plugging in (a real world situation) and then we'll see how it does.

 

[mtndrew1]

I’ve also noticed my vampire drain has dropped substantially as compared to the last 18 months or so I’ve had the car.

I haven’t done any actual data collection but I used to get home from my commute with 200 miles or less range and now get home with greater than 200. My commute, Wh/mi, and parking location (underground) have not changed. I can only surmise that while I’m at the office for ten hours it’s burning off a lot less power than it did in the past.

I never got the 325 mi range “upgrade” either so I don’t believe my car’s calculations have changed either.

 

[Watts_Up]

However, here is the interesting thing: this seems to have changed significantly.
In July, I was parked outdoors (with a cover on the car and not plugged in)
and I found that the state of charge only dropped about 3% over a 10 day period.

I would be interested to know which cover do you have, in particular what material and thickness?
How easy is it to put on and remove and fold. How much space it takes in the frunk or trunk?
And if possible to show some pictures.
Thnx.

 

[darth_vad3r]

For people noticing an improvement, any guesses as to roughly which software version you think it may correspond with?

At a minimum anyways, which software versions are you running now?

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

For people noticing an improvement, any guesses as to roughly which software version you think it may correspond with?

At a minimum anyways, which software versions are you running now?

Latest test was done with the wide release (2019.20?) prior to the latest release (2019.24.x). I have no idea when things improved if it was correlated with software, since I can rarely do any reasonable vampire testing.

 

[darth_vad3r]

I don't know what version I am on. I don't use sentry mode.

If you scroll to the bottom of the app’s main page where it shows your VIN and odometer, it also shows the software version, like “Version: 2019.20.4.2”.

 

[MaryAnning3]

If you scroll to the bottom of the app’s main page where it shows your VIN and odometer, it also shows the software version, like “Version: 2019.20.4.2”.

It is Version: 2019.20.4.2

 

[animorph]

I noticed an improvement from 1%/day to 1 RM/day right after my X updated to 2019.20.4.2 66625e9 July 1. I haven't tracked our 3 as closely since it's usually active daily. The X was able to make it 11 days between 3% top-up charges. Normally it took 3 to 4 days.

 

[MaryAnning3]

I noticed an improvement from 1%/day to 1 RM/day right after my X updated to 2019.20.4.2 66625e9 July 1. I haven't tracked our 3 as closely since it's usually active daily. The X was able to make it 11 days between 3% top-up charges. Normally it took 3 to 4 days.

Yes. That is the version I see too. 66625e9

 

[MaryAnning3]

I would be interested to know which cover do you have, in particular what material and thickness?
How easy is it to put on and remove and fold. How much space it takes in the frunk or trunk?
And if possible to show some pictures.
Thnx.

I mentioned the cover as it is relevant to thermal management. I think the loss would be higher without it since the car is parked in direct sunlight. It is Evannex.

 

[NoTDI]

I have being losing 15 miles in 12 hours while my car is parked at work outside. Sentry not on and auto air not on. Latest software 24.4 did not change anything. What is wrong?

 

[NoTDI]

Never-mind!
“Cabin overheat protection” was on.