YYZ airport parking - vampire drain in freezing cold

[navguy12]

Left for a trip on Friday, Jan 11th ((Model 3 LR AWD). Coming in to YYZ from about an hour away (100 km). The morning of Jan 11th charged to ~95%, around 480 km range. It was cold. Ended up arriving and parking at the airport with 352 km range remaining (78% range efficiency).

Arrived back on Sat, Jan 19th. Range display showed 250 km. So effectively lost 102 km range with the car sitting there ~8 days (12 km/day loss). This seemed quite high to me. Coincidentally the car decided to download the 2018.50.5 firmware update over LTE while it was parked there. I got the update notification on Wednesday. I ended up launching the update on Saturday morning before my flight departed (after checking the range was sufficient to get home).

Anyway, I had enough charge to get home (return 100 km trip used 155 km range, or 64% efficiency). So I had more than enough for this round trip+parking but ultimately was somewhat disappointed by the 12 km/day range loss.

I knew there were some J-1772 chargers at YYZ as a backup. They are surprisingly low power at 6.6 kW. Didn't end up using them as I saw them as a waste of time.

TLDR: Round-trip to YYZ from 100 km away. Charged to 480 km. Returned back with 95 km. Parked for 8 days. Total range used: 385 km; actual distance traveled: 200 km. Lost 185 km for parking and cold effects.

Thanks for the data points.

12 km/day loss (a.k.a 2.4% a day versus the advertised 1% a day).

Not surprised with the cold weather as some battery conditioning will take place at these cold temperatures.

Over a year ago I had e-mailed Tesla with some proposed owners manual amendments.

Nothing came of them, of course, but here is a screen shot of one of them dealing with real world vampire drain in cold temperatures (ignore anything that ties into the non-existent "energy savings mode" that was supposed to be part of the Model 3 way back when):

From thread: Model 3 Owners Manual, proposed amendment 2018.01.07.1722

From the snipped above (that I first posted 07 Jan 2018), if one parks within the temperature range of -1c and -15c, I had proposed 3% a day "with energy savings mode on".

Looks like 3% a day may be the viable planning number when parking at the airport over winter periods.

 

[navguy12]

Also most of the extra energy in winter is "wasted" in heating the cabin and/or lack of regen, which is related to efficiency.

Bang on.

I use the term, "Winter overhead" but it amounts to the same thing.

What 100 kWh's gives me in the summer, range wise, I have to pump about 140 kWh's in the winter.

 

[navguy12]

My car is currently parked at YOW plugged into 120v outlet. That's all we need for long term parking. Simple solution to add a row of charging receptacles

Any idea how it's "keeping up"?

I'm going to be in YOW for three nights, plugged into a 120 outlet and just need a feel for if it adds range or just treads water keeping the battery warm.

 

[antoinearnau]

It will keep the charge level you selected. It will go down a few percent and then charge back to your set level.

 

[Bushcaddy]

Any idea how it's "keeping up"?

I'm going to be in YOW for three nights, plugged into a 120 outlet and just need a feel for if it adds range or just treads water keeping the battery warm.

Depends on the outside temperature. I was parked for a week plugged into 120v at -20c, and the charge dropped about 5-10km per day and then totally stopped charging when it dropped to -24c.

 

[navguy12]

Depends on the outside temperature. I was parked for a week plugged into 120v at -20c, and the charge dropped about 5-10km per day and then totally stopped charging when it dropped to -24c.

So it lost between 1% and 2% per day and then.......at -24c the rate of loss increased (?).

Was your charge set point higher than when you first parked?

Thanks.

 

[rpm001]

I've heard that there are a bunch of wall plugs in the airport parking somewhere but can't find them on plugshare.

 

[Blu-Ion]

Mine has been plugged in for 3 days at Ottawa airport, temps were around - 24 before today, gained about 200km of range at 120v 12amp

 

[mociaf9]

Depends on the outside temperature. I was parked for a week plugged into 120v at -20c, and the charge dropped about 5-10km per day and then totally stopped charging when it dropped to -24c.

Did it resume charging again once the temps increased? Otherwise this could have just been that the circuit breaker tripped or other equipment related fault and not as a result of some sort of temperature related issue.

 

[Pescakl1]

How do you secure your UMC when plugged in a public garage? Not afraid to be disconnected or robbed of your UMC?

Do you drive on part of the cable to use the car to hold it in place?

 

[Derek Kessler]

How do you secure your UMC when plugged in a public garage? Not afraid to be disconnected or robbed of your UMC?

Do you drive on part of the cable to use the car to hold it in place?

You could be disconnected from the outlet, there's nothing to stop that kind of jerk. That same jerk could also steal the adapter end of the UMC. But the rest of it is locked into your car and can't be taken without significant force and damaging the vehicle.

 

[antoinearnau]

True, keep in mind that with the cold weather update, somebody could steal the whole thing. However I won't worry too much about that.

 

[aaronbrighton]

Will report back at the end of my current trip. I parked at YYZ Value Park Garage (not a Tesla millionaire) on Friday ~6:00 PM, was unsuccessful at finding any 120v outlets not blocked by cars already.

Observations so far, parked with 72% charge, checked on the app yesterday 3:00 PM (~45 hours later) and the battery had dropped to 64%. Based on this thread I'm hoping that's mostly from the snowflake and not actual drain. Otherwise at that rate (~4-5%/day) it appears I'll arrive back next Sunday with 36% (9 days).

YYZ temperatures appear to be fluctuating between -8 and -18C this week.

Tesla Model 3 RWD Long Range.

 

[dusdev]

At least the Mississauga Supercharger is now open. It would be a good recharge option at least if you're heading west after a YYZ park... only 24 km away.

 

[5_+JqckQttqck]

You can always remotely unlock/start the car for a friend to move you to a charger . Option is there.

 

[aaronbrighton]

You can always remotely unlock/start the car for a friend to move you to a charger . Option is there.

Are you volunteering?

 

[5_+JqckQttqck]

Are you volunteering?

I would if you trust a complete stranger with your baby

 

[aaronbrighton]

One thing I have noticed and I'm not sure if it's due to the cold or the cell service in the above ground value pakr garage... 9/10 times I open the app the car doesn't awake and I get a connection error.

In fact I've only managed to get a status update from the car twice since Friday.

 

[Big Earl]

While I typically advocate for 120 volt outlets in places with long-term parking, this might not actually be useful when temperatures drop below -20C, as the amount of energy being provided by the outlet can't keep up with the amount of energy required to heat the pack up to a safe temperature for charging.

In our Model 3, I've noticed that the break-even point is right around -20C... below that and your state of charge will gradually go down even while plugged into a 120 volt outlet (at 12 amps).

 

[antoinearnau]

This happens to me too. What i do is as soon as it gives me the connection error message, i try again and it connects.
You probably did that already but just in case.