Quantifying overnight ("phantom") drain

[Crissa]

When you check on your truck, you wake it up and that also uses energy.

We expect Sentry to use alot of energy, just like cabin overtemp prevention.

But yeah, lots of room for improvement. Sure makes those guys saying you shouldn't plug it into solar while on a camping trip seem silly...

-Crissa

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[HaulingAss]

Phone as Key and Data Sharing are minimal if not negligible drain. Do you have any idea how low Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drains are?

Cabin Overheat and Sentry are indeed pigs and shouldn't be used unless rally needed.

And as someone said, you never needed them before.

You shouldn't comment on things you know nothing about.

All drains are cumulative and over many hours they add up. Also, there are ancilliary losses caused by having the wifi radio on and phone as key too.

Apparently people are worried about pennies of electricity per day here. Maybe you haven't been following along.

 

[Knucklehead]

Sentry will turn off at 20%, as is mentioned in the manual.

What is the vampire drain when Sentry is turned off?

I can't make it home if the battery is at 20%.

 

[Woodrick]

What is the vampire drain when Sentry is turned off?

I can't make it home if the battery is at 20%.

I think that I just saw someone say 4 days at maybe 1%.

While long term parking is the place that many people want to turn sentry on, it's also the worst place to do so. Among all the Tesla vehicles, Sentry Mode will go through the battery in about a handful of fingers.

 

[Woodrick]

You shouldn't comment on things you know nothing about.

All drains are cumulative and over many hours they add up. Also, there are ancilliary losses caused by having the wifi radio on and phone as key too.

Apparently people are worried about pennies of electricity per day here. Maybe you haven't been following along.

Wow, what hostility and so far off base when we are in a thread talking about overnight phantom drain.

My comments are not really just my own, they've been posted in Tesla forums for years.

You don't seem to realize that when the car goes to sleep, things like Wi-Fi actually gets turned off. The cellular connection goes into a sleep cycle and just wakes up periodically, that's why it takes so long for the app to connect when the car is asleep.
Phone as a key is the same as cellular, it slowly checks when asleep.

The vehicles, with Sentry off go into a sleep mode where many of the systems are powered down, just the bare necessities are running. In this mode, the vehicles will last for over a month if undisturbed.

With Sentry Mode on, the vehicles use about a mile an hour (this number varies depending on software and vehicle) giving you only days before the 20% turn off number is reached.

 

[Outdoors]

I think some here are concerned about the quality of the product. Has Tesla dialed in the phantom losses while truck is parked? Yes. Very much so.

Yet I want to qualify it. Ones experience may vary depending on how serious one wants to be. Simple act of opening door starts the whole wake up, and then back to sleep. If one wants similar results like a % over 4 days. The car must sleep for 4 days. That may not be needed for everyday use.

Phantom losses for us folks that are off grid are super important. Giving an extra couple percent away per day is a large % of our daily energy budget. Much of our electricity goes to charging two EV's. House use is negligible.

Add: Don't forget that cabin overheat as well.

 

[mongo]

I think some here are concerned about the quality of the product. Has Tesla dialed in the phantom losses while truck is parked? Yes. Very much so.

Yet I want to qualify it. Ones experience may vary depending on how serious one wants to be. Simple act of opening door starts the whole wake up, and then back to sleep. If one wants similar results like a % over 4 days. The car must sleep for 4 days. That may not be needed for everyday use.

Phantom losses for us folks that are off grid are super important. Giving an extra couple percent away per day is a large % of our daily energy budget. Much of our electricity goes to charging two EV's. House use is negligible.

Add: Don't forget that cabin overheat as well.

Left the truck alone for 5 days after a drive (with cabin overheat still enabled). It didn't charge at all in the intervening 4 days. IIRC, was down less than 4kWh.

Addendum:

 

[cybercoffee]

I think it would be helpful for all who are posting in this thread about their drain to mention what software version they are running!

 

[Woodrick]

I think it would be helpful for all who are posting in this thread about their drain to mention what software version they are running!

Sure, but then again, it's going to get better as things progress.

 

[HaulingAss]

Wow, what hostility and so far off base when we are in a thread talking about overnight phantom drain.

My comments are not really just my own, they've been posted in Tesla forums for years.

You don't seem to realize that when the car goes to sleep, things like Wi-Fi actually gets turned off. The cellular connection goes into a sleep cycle and just wakes up periodically, that's why it takes so long for the app to connect when the car is asleep.
Phone as a key is the same as cellular, it slowly checks when asleep.

The vehicles, with Sentry off go into a sleep mode where many of the systems are powered down, just the bare necessities are running. In this mode, the vehicles will last for over a month if undisturbed.

With Sentry Mode on, the vehicles use about a mile an hour (this number varies depending on software and vehicle) giving you only days before the 20% turn off number is reached.

Sigh...Depending upon your data sharing settings, the quality of your wi-fi reception, the vehicle may never go to sleep. It won't go to sleep if it has a wi-fi connection and is actively uploading data.

So having data-sharing enabled, with a big que of uploads, can result in more than trivial consumption, at least in the context of people who think ten or twenty cents worth of electricity is not trivial. In this case, it's not just the wi-fi radio as the only source of consumption, anything that prevents the vehicle from going to sleep, or that regularly wakes it up, can increase consumption in a non-trival manner.

BTW, it's not hostile to correct someone spouting BS.

 

[panthar]

I found this interesting and figured I'd share. This was a week ago or so--I plugged my truck into the WC overnight. I have charge on solar turned on, so it had finished charging to the "from any source" (lower) limit by the time I went to sleep at like 11 pm or so. this screenshot is from 12 am through the morning. Vehicle was parked in my driveway--no pedestrians or traffic close enough to trigger sentry mode events through the entirety of the night. again sentry mode WAS turned on, truck was plugged into gen 3 WC the whole time. software 2024.20.7.

the overnight, or phantom, drain averaged out to about 1 kWh per hour. (I guess another way of saying it is, 1 kW lol) specifically, per the screenshot below, it drained sufficiently below the "from any source" charging threshold on average once per hour so it charged back up to the "from any source" threshold about seven times from 12 am to 7:20 am.

when I park it on the street, the drain isn't quite 1 kWh per hour (if it was, I would lose about 24 kWh per day, or close to 20% of the battery pack daily; in reality, when I park it for 24 hours on the street, it definitely doesn't lose that much--closer to 10-15% of battery pack daily). so I'm not sure what gives between parking it on the street versus my overnight experience in my driveway.

anyone else with any similar numbers or experience?

What app screen is that ?

 

[Woodrick]

Sigh...Depending upon your data sharing settings, the quality of your wi-fi reception, the vehicle may never go to sleep. It won't go to sleep if it has a wi-fi connection and is actively uploading data.

So having data-sharing enabled, with a big que of uploads, can result in more than trivial consumption, at least in the context of people who think ten or twenty cents worth of electricity is not trivial. In this case, it's not just the wi-fi radio as the only source of consumption, anything that prevents the vehicle from going to sleep, or that regularly wakes it up, can increase consumption in a non-trival manner.

BTW, it's not hostile to correct someone spouting BS.

So quantify the amount of energy lost in you example situation.

And if we are talking about people who worry about 20 cents of electricity, then just exit, because that's not this discussion. That barely even qualifies as an off-grid consideration.

 

[cybercoffee]

What app screen is that ?

Tesla app, the “my home” screen, specifically the grid usage

 

[Outdoors]

So quantify the amount of energy lost in you example situation.

And if we are talking about people who worry about 20 cents of electricity, then just exit, because that's not this discussion. That barely even qualifies as an off-grid consideration.

I am not sure I understand this, yet I am likely the only one to comment with knowledge with the off grid slap. Until about a week ago if one opened the app or engaged with the truck. Sometimes with Bluetooth the truck wakes up.

Stop the combativeness please. All of us have much to share. I am a jerk, but over phantom drain is not where I choose to fight usually. Yet I will today.

If I lose 2 KwH a day to drain it is significant. It is not about 20 cents. In winter months I need those. Many here can't quantify the power usage of products in home. Like TV, Computer, garbage disposal, well pump. Yet they here understand phantom drain in an EV. Without an EV that above mentioned loss would be 8% of my daily use. So I either put up more panels or use less elsewhere with high phantom drain. I am glad it is like almost gone now.

I really wish some would understand what an energy budget is because that is all that exists. Yes I have a propane standby generator coming on to solve the situation. I just never like to use it.

 

[Woodrick]

I am not sure I understand this, yet I am likely the only one to comment with knowledge with the off grid slap. Until about a week ago if one opened the app or engaged with the truck. Sometimes with Bluetooth the truck wakes up.

Stop the combativeness please. All of us have much to share. I am a jerk, but over phantom drain is not where I choose to fight usually. Yet I will today.

If I lose 2 KwH a day to drain it is significant. It is not about 20 cents. In winter months I need those. Many here can't quantify the power usage of products in home. Like TV, Computer, garbage disposal, well pump. Yet they here understand phantom drain in an EV. Without an EV that above mentioned loss would be 8% of my daily use. So I either put up more panels or use less elsewhere with high phantom drain. I am glad it is like almost gone now.

I really wish some would understand what an energy budget is because that is all that exists. Yes I have a propane standby generator coming on to solve the situation. I just never like to use it.

Simply put, if 2 kWH is going to put you over your energy budget, then you better not charge your truck at home.
2 kWh is only 4 miles of driving. It's hard to believe that your driving habits are that tightly controlled, mine easily vary by 100 miles or more daily.

At a bare minimum, I'd expect at least have 35kWh available, as that represents 24 hours and 48 miles on 120V 15A.

But for most, charging is much better specified at about 70kWh per day, even then, that's only half of the battery.

It's REALLY HARD to plug the Cybertruck in and not blow through 2 kWh in less than 5 minutes.

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