Leave it plugged in?

[larryh]

Yes, the Energi doesn't appear to have any significant Vampire loss.  If I charge it and leave it sit overnight, the battery still reads 100% charged in the morning.  The Tesla's Vampire loss is far worse than any of the Energi charging inefficiencies.  The Tesla's Vampire loss can really get expensive over time.  For a Tesla, you would want to defer charging until the last minute to minimize this loss.  For the Energi, it is OK to charge it in the evening and let it sit overnight.

 

The 60 watts standy power wasted by the Energi can easily be eliminated by using "Charge Now" rather than "Value Charge".  However, it you do that when you get home after work, you will be charging the car during peak rate hours.  So I plan to purchase a timer and set the car to "Charge Now".  The timer should consume less than 2 Watts.

 

Note that Go times are used for two purposes:  Value Charge and preconditioning the cabin.  If you use Go times to only pre-condition the cabin, the car does not consume any power from the charger waiting for the Go Time.  It simply wakes up and starts drawing power for either the heater or the air conditioner.  I don't see why it couldn't do the same thing for Value Charging.  Why can't it just wake up at the correct time and start charging?  Why does it have to have all the on-board electronics up and running, consuming power, waiting to begin charging?

Edited June 26, 2013 at 10:14 AM by larryh

[Russael]

The Tesla sucks down 4.5kw in 1 day just doing nothing????  What'd they do, leave the ECU in an 'on' mode at all times?  That's the equivalent of leaving a lower powered desktop or gaming laptop computer running the whole time.  That's really wasteful.  That's $16.20 in power at 12 cents for absolutely nothing over a 30 day period... that'd buy 4 gallons of gas!  NO car uses that amount of power just sitting there.  With my trips the way they are, that car would almost cost me more in electricity than my Focus would have in gas for trips to work and back.

 

I don't use value charging since I kept my flat rate, but I do use the go times for pre-conditioning (not presently though... deleted them all since I don't need it in the morning).  I'll definitely have it turned back on once really cold weather shows back up.

 

As far as Larry doing the timer thing which is smart... I'd just have the timer turned off for his crazy peak time and have it on the rest of the time so he can charge and pre-condition in the morning if he so chooses.  They have really fancy timers that are all digital and have battery backup, but a basic one accomplishes the same thing.