Charging at home questions

[AndyBrook]

Hello, I have a couple of probably silly questions but I thought I would ask:

1. Once the battery is fully charged does the charging system consume any power? should I unplug the charger ASAP? or is it ok to leave it plugged in for hours after the charging cycle has completed?

2. If the charging cycle is completed and the battery fully charged. If the charger is switched off and back on again, does the system detect a fully charged battery or is power wasted by charging a full battery?

There is purpose behind both questions so if anyone can help it would be appreciated.

Thank you
Andy

 

[Regulo]

Hi, Andy.

1. After charging, the charger is no different from any other bit of kit left on standby, consuming minimal power awaiting next use. Leave it on or turn it off as you see fit.
2. The on board charger will determine what is necessary at any given state of charge. If the battery is full, it will know, and just not start charging.

 

[Kesto]

I come back home plug in and forget.
Age of computers

 

[ChrisMiller]

One advantage of leaving the PHEV plugged in is that if you use the electric heating* to warm the car before setting off, it will partly offset the drain on the battery leaving you with a bit more charge for driving with.

* not available on all models

 

[AintBigAintClever]

One advantage of leaving the PHEV plugged in is that if you use the electric heating* to warm the car before setting off, it will partly offset the drain on the battery leaving you with a bit more charge for driving with.

* not available on all models

Is there a trick to doing this? I've got an Efergy meter monitoring the house power consumption and although it shows the draw jumping up when the timed charge starts and drops off when charged, when the heating timer starts it doesn't show up on the meter. This is with the 2kW charging cable (I've not fitted a wall-mount charger yet). Extending the charging timer to include the heating time doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[ChrisMiller]

Is there a trick to doing this? I've got an Efergy meter monitoring the house power consumption and although it shows the draw jumping up when the timed charge starts and drops off when charged, when the heating timer starts it doesn't show up on the meter. This is with the 2kW charging cable (I've not fitted a wall-mount charger yet). Extending the charging timer to include the heating time doesn't seem to make a difference.

Mine is simply plugged into the 3-pin socket on the garage wall. I don't have the heating on a timer (I've no commute, so my car usage is less regular) but when I've started the heating manually from the app, the charger that was previously flashing its 'completed' signal reverts to solid green.

 

[Jojoxx]

Its a bit of a juggle to find the right time to preheat before taking my wife to work ( are they all the same ? ) but when the preheat has finished and i am still waiting for the final coat of make up to be applied i have noticed that the car is accepting charge ! which to me is good in fact tells me just how clever the car is .

 

[Ravo]

Like others, I leave my charger plugged in, I then use the pre heat from the app for about 10mins 30mins before departing
The car then charges up to cover the power used by the heater.
Thats what I believe to happen.
Mine is an MY18.

 

[Kesto]

Same as Ravo , the EV range is better after pre heat if temps are below 5 deg C

 

[Jojoxx]

I have also found that the defrost puts more heat into the car than just heating ! I may be doing something wrong so don't quote me on this . I am in the middle of doing a "fix bad battery health without going to the dealer" i got the information off the faq on the Facebook phev page . So far so good but the hardest thing is finding 24 hours (optional) where i don't drive the car as the sun is out in the north east and a walk along the beach is beckoning lol

 

[ThudnBlundr]

I find that if I plug in the charger a long time after the charge timer starts, it doesn't always start to charge. I do wonder if the car is "asleep" and needs to be "roused" before charging will start: even pressing the Start button and going into Ready mode won't do it. It will next time the charge timer kicks in the following day, if left.

When I first set a pre-heat timer, the heater worked fine, but the car didn't charge. I now always set the charge timer to come on at the same time as the pre-heat, and that's always worked for me. I'm lucky that I can be fully charged before midnight, but I guess you could set the charge timer to come on some time before the heating starts, as long as it hasn't "gone to sleep" by then.

 

[cornclose]

1. Once the battery is fully charged does the charging system consume any power?

The 10A 3-Pin (UK) charger from my 2019 4HS consumes 2.4W once the car is fully charged. So like a TV on standby, perhaps. So at a typical unit rate of 0.15p/kWh, if the car is left plugged in and not charging for typically 8 hours a day, 365 days a year, it'll cost you about £1.05 a year in 'wasted' electricity.

 

[mellwaters100]

I always leave mine plugged into the garage into a mechanical timer (as we have a cheaper off peak tariff overnight). I do it this way because I found that, if you set the timer on the MMC to only charge at night, if you plug into a 3-pin charger during the day then it won't charge until you disable it through the app.

Over the weekend, the car was in the garage and I had the charger plugged directly into a socket (no mechanical timer). With the car fully charged, whenever I went into the garage the car started charging! It was 100% charged each time, but the charger cycled. The car was unlocked and I didn't have the keys with me. All I can think is that switching the garage light on 'alerted' the car, causing a dip in battery levels?

Any ideas?