Overnight Charging

[phevman]

Hi All,

When I arrive home from work in the evening my general routine is to plug my outlander PHEV straight into my 16 amp home chargepoint, where it will remain connected until the following morning when I leave for work. So my questions are:

1) Is it safe/recommended to do this? I haven't seen anything to suggest its not but for some reason I don't like the thought of it being connected long after its charged.
2) By leaving it connected for long periods will it waste more electricity/money? My understanding is that when the vehicle is fully charged it will stop drawing electricity- is this correct?

Thanks

 

[Regulo]

1) Is it safe/recommended to do this? I haven't seen anything to suggest its not but for some reason I don't like the thought of it being connected long after its charged.
2) By leaving it connected for long periods will it waste more electricity/money? My understanding is that when the vehicle is fully charged it will stop drawing electricity- is this correct?

It's safe to leave it plugged in as long as you like. You are correct in thinking the car signals the control box when it's fully charged, and the control box releases the relay/contactor inside, thus cutting the power to the car. Therefore the only thing powered up, is the electronic monitoring circuits in the control box, and they're drawing negligible amounts of current. I've left mine connected for 4 days straight - I don't worry about it at all. It's no different from leaving your TV and associated boxes or any other bit of electronic equipment on stand-by.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

I do the same, every night, no problem. The ChargeVision online data capture shows that the car stops drawing charge when full.

 

[RazMan]

I do the same, every night, no problem. The ChargeVision online data capture shows that the car stops drawing charge when full.

Same here, although don't take any notice of the Chargevision data - it bears no relation to the actual power consumed. The car's data is however fairly accurate

 

[DrSlackBladder]

I do the same, every night, no problem. The ChargeVision online data capture shows that the car stops drawing charge when full.

Same here, although don't take any notice of the Chargevision data - it bears no relation to the actual power consumed. The car's data is however fairly accurate

I have to use the ChargeVision data to claim back charging expenses from my company. Fortunately the power consumption data seems reliable, but the time data is utter gargabe!