Quantifying overnight ("phantom") drain

[cybercoffee]

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?

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[CyberGus]

Sentry is a pig. Even when events are not triggered, it’s running the FSD computer full-tilt to detect such events. Tesla has promised to improve efficiency of Sentry but this has yet to materialize.

I’ve also observed the truck uploading gigs and gigs overnight, no doubt FSD training data.

 

[Spacenoddle]

I parked in my garage without sentry mode, the drain only about 2%-3% per day.

 

[CyberGus]

I parked in my garage without sentry mode, the drain only about 2%-3% per day.

Even that is considerably higher than the general Tesla fleet, I imagine because of the uploading.

 

[Spacenoddle]

Even that is considerably higher than the general Tesla fleet, I imagine because of the uploading.

Ok, CT is my first EV?

 

[HaulingAss]

If people are really worried about phantom drain, they should turn off all the conveniences that most cars don't even have. For example:

1) Phone as Key requires the radio receivers to constantly listen for your phone transmission.

2) Data sharing requires the wifi radio to transmit GB's of data collected during your drives.

3) Cabin overheat protection requires the running of the heat pump to lower interior temperatures.

4) Sentry Mode requires running and processing of at least four cameras.

Personally, these things improve my life and the power consumption doesn't add up to a hill of beans at the end of the day. I like these conveniences and can't figure out why some people expect to have their cake and eat it too. If you want to be a minimalist, just turn those things off! Your vampire drain will be cut to a fraction of what it was with all those services running.

 

[Red Beard Ops]

According my truck's TeslaMate data my CT is losing 8.47% daily rate when sitting in Sentry Mode at night and 3.57% daily rate with sentry turned off during the day.... This isn't based on a huge data set since I just got TeslaMate running this weekend.

 

[arnav_8]

Of the 4 points mentioned above for phantom drain, I too agree that Sentry Mode is the most expensive.

I was in Montréal over the July 4 weekend and had parked in an underground parking lot, right where the elevators were. I lost 15% overnight and had 67 Sentry events. Every idiot (lol) that went by took multiple photos/videos hugging the CT

I’d select the “turn off Sentry mode at home” option if is safe to do so.

Cheers
-A

 

[Knucklehead]

What happens when you park it at the airport for two weeks? Do you come back to a dead battery?

The airport is about 40 miles from my house. I would arrive at the airport with around 75% charge assuming I charged to 100%. Seems like with what everyone is reporting, my CT would be dead before I return from the trip. That is totally unacceptable if true. Is it?

My Mach-e loses 0% while sitting at the airport for two weeks. I never even think about it. Of course it doesn't have a "sentry mode".

 

[WichitaDad]

I left my Model S and Cybertruck in my garage for 5 days... both started at 80%.

After 5 days

Cybertruck: 16%
Model S: 73%

Only difference that I found was that preconditioning was on for the first day.. after it was discovered I turned it off. It didn't seem to make much difference, if any, on the remaining days. It steadily drained (just keeping an eye on it... didn't chart it out).

I'm sure, as most things, this will get sorted out. But it is a warning to those who want to leave it parked at the airport since I don''t believe there is a 'vacation mode' while we're dealing with this drain.

 

[Texarado]

What happens when you park it at the airport for two weeks? Do you come back to a dead battery?

The airport is about 40 miles from my house. I would arrive at the airport with around 75% charge assuming I charged to 100%. Seems like with what everyone is reporting, my CT would be dead before I return from the trip. That is totally unacceptable if true. Is it?

My Mach-e loses 0% while sitting at the airport for two weeks. I never even think about it. Of course it doesn't have a "sentry mode".

Just a side point…. You should be arriving closer to 85% (maybe a little less), depending on weather, elevation change, speed, etc.

 

[arnav_8]

To be honest, whenever I have traveled for longer periods, by the time I pay for parking and the hassle of driving, finding a spot in the lot and then remembering where I parked, I’d take an Uber.
Again others have their own reasons/constraints but the CT is still so unique, I’d keep it home. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mongo]

With sentry off and truck not driven, it went 4 days without charging (charged fifth day). Around 1kWh/day drain.

 

[Pops]

4) Sentry Mode requires running and processing of at least four cameras.
...
I like these conveniences and can't figure out why some people expect to have their cake and eat it too.

I agree with you, I like these features and I am willing to pay for them with charge percentage. The problem is the gross inefficiency of their implementation.

A PoE system with 6 cameras recording 24/7 will use less than 1.5 kWh a day. This includes all the hardware and network gear required.

Sentry mode is reported to use 7.2 kWh drain in a single day. There is a lot of room for improvement.

 

[SGAstros]

I just did a 9 day trip, decided to take a shuttle to the airport since I didn't want to leave my CT in the lot. I have Sentry turned off when at home. Started with 80%, was at 43% when I got back.

Also, I'm pretty sure there was at least one, if not two, different updates so far that reduced the overnight drain from 2-3% down to 0%. But then the next update would go back to 2-3%... Anyone else notice this?

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