Charging

[Peter]

Hi
Have ordered and looking forward to delivery of a GX4h mid September. I am now thinking of the best way of charging the car, it will be parked in the garage to which I have a 32amp supply via an RCD, so plenty of capacity. I am looking to change our electricity tariff to an off peak supply to gain the cheaper rate at night ( each unit about half the day rate). What I would like to know but can't find anywhere is, what is the KW rating of the charger unit, it states that a full charge via a 13amp socket will take about 5 hours but not what power is used. It would help to know this to get an idea of the cost of a full charge.
Could anyone advise me of this
Thanks
Peter

 

[user 258]

Hi
when I used a power meter I think it said 2800w, 10.8A, 240v. It does reduce the charge rate as the battery approaches full. Others have posted it takes about 10 to 11KWh for a full charge.
Kind regards
Mark

 

[pheverish]

According to the data supplied by chargemaster for my unit, the average for a full charge is between 11.5 and 12.5 KWh

 

[jaapv]

9.7 KWh. full capacity is 12 Kwh, 80% plus cable loss. As 20% is always remaining.

 

[Peter]

Thanks, one other thing ,how long will the battery hold it's charge? There are some days that the car is not used as we go out in the wife's car. If the car is not used but left plugged in will the charger see the battery is charged and not kick in or would you have to unplug it?
Kind regards
Peter

 

[pheverish]

9.7 KWh. full capacity is 12 Kwh, 80% plus cable loss. As 20% is always remaining.

last couple of charges look like this.

11.91KWh
12.37KWh
11.24KWh
11.89KWh

 

[user 258]

Hi
The battery holds its charge very well. No need to unplug unless you prefer to.
Kind regards
Mark

 

[jaapv]

Thanks, one other thing ,how long will the battery hold it's charge? There are some days that the car is not used as we go out in the wife's car. If the car is not used but left plugged in will the charger see the battery is charged and not kick in or would you have to unplug it?
Kind regards
Peter

Li-Ion batteries will hold their charge exceedingly long. Think in years rather than days. The switch box communicates with the car and shuts off the current when the battery is full, so you can leave it plugged in for as long as you wish.

 

[jaapv]

9.7 KWh. full capacity is 12 Kwh, 80% plus cable loss. As 20% is always remaining.

last couple of charges look like this.

11.91KWh
12.37KWh
11.24KWh
11.89KWh

You lose a lot of electricity there. These are all way above the capacity of the battery. Or your measuring device is off.

 

[pheverish]

9.7 KWh. full capacity is 12 Kwh, 80% plus cable loss. As 20% is always remaining.

last couple of charges look like this.

11.91KWh
12.37KWh
11.24KWh
11.89KWh

You lose a lot of electricity there. These are all way above the capacity of the battery. Or your measuring device is off.

Can anyone else (UK) provide their charging data provided by Chargemaster/OLEV

 

[Peter]

Thanks everybody who has posted a reply, look forward now to getting the car and seeing how it works out
Cheers
Peter

 

[Graham]

For Pheverish, I have found that the Chargevision data is inaccurate, often when a charge has ended the green light on the charger remains on and despite switching off with the key and disconnecting the cable the charge time does not stop.

For example...

19.8.14 15.21-07.26 64.04 hours 7.94kwh, likely two seperate charges of about 3-4kwh each over two or three days.
22.8.14 16.15-13.20 21.05 hours 12.56kwh, charged at 16.15 on 22/8, and again late mornign on 23/8, two seperate charges of about 6kwh each.

Chargemaster told me that to stop a charge part way through to switch off the key, but in the instances above the unit was left to complete the charges.

According to the MMCS the most I have used in one charge has been around 9-10 kwh, which seems about right.

 

[user 258]

Hi
I did a full charge last night with the standard cable plugged into a power meter and the car took 12.27KWh.
Maybe the use the car displays doesn't take into account charging losses.
Kind regards
Mark

 

[user 258]

Hi,

I thought I'd look into this in a little more detail as I was curious and had time to kill.

It is common knowledge that Li-Ion batteries should not be depleted below a certain level or charged above a certain level to preserve battery life.

Plug-In Prius:
SOC between 23-85%
2.73KWh usable out of 4.4KWh total = 62% usable

Ampera/Volt:
Could only find that 65% of available capacity is used
10.3KWh usable out of 16KWh total = 64%

Mitubishi PHEV
Unless they are taking a gamble or have some secret battery technology I would guess that 65% of their 12KWh maximum is usable. We know it is (normally) kept to 20% minimum so the maximum is likely to be about 85% so we have 8KWh usable.

Kind regards,
Mark

 

[Peter]

Hi guys
Thanks the info you have given has helped me a lot!
So a full charge will take around 12kw, as I said I am looking to charge it over night using The Eco7 tariff, the rate for this is 6.77p per unit so a full charge will cost around 81p not bad!!
Most of my journeys are no more than 30 miles round trip so looking forward to some good savings against my present car which gives me about 23-25mpg
I notice with some of the postings they refer to the GX4h model with front parking sensors is this an extra as I can't see them listed in the specification?
Also how do you post the Fuelly?

Thanks
Peter

 

[user 258]

Hi
You sound like a good candidate for the PHEV.

The front sensors are an extra on all models. I think they list at about £300.

Once you have a fuelly account they give the text for posting on your page with them so you just copy and paste into your signature.

Kind regards
Mark

 

[DrSlackBladder]

During the weekend I had the demo car I completed one overnight charge from zero to full; 11.58 kW according to ChargeVision.

 

[maddogsetc]

front parking sensors is this an extra as I can't see them listed in the specification?

The front sensors are an extra on all models.

Peter - at the risk of being repetitive as this subject has been covered extensively on this site, if you do specify the front sensors, be aware that they do not work very well.

 

[david1972]

Hi guys
Thanks the info you have given has helped me a lot!
So a full charge will take around 12kw, as I said I am looking to charge it over night using The Eco7 tariff, the rate for this is 6.77p per unit so a full charge will cost around 81p not bad!!
Most of my journeys are no more than 30 miles round trip so looking forward to some good savings against my present car which gives me about 23-25mpg
I notice with some of the postings they refer to the GX4h model with front parking sensors is this an extra as I can't see them listed in the specification?
Also how do you post the Fuelly?

Thanks
Peter

What avensys said.....there is a thread dedicated to it specifically. Search for 'fuelly'

 

[gwatpe]

I have not performed a full battery charge yet, but I have recorded the way my PHEV battery recharges

Here is a graph for a 7.5kWh recharge of my PHEV.

The maximum charge power is about 2300W, and the charge current does taper at the end of charging. The car does reduce the current to about 100W, sometimes during charging. The dealer is investigating this as this should only occur if the battery is getting old and imbalanced. The car turns OFF recharge at 500W

I would liked to see recording of recharge kWh in preference to recharge cost. I will be setting the recharge unit cost to 1.0000 so my car records kWh each time, with the car. If we all did this, then any differences from a full recharge would be as differences in each cars measurements. We could then compare the battery capacity and car measurement accuracy more easily, without external measurements.