Where did all the electricity go?

ten8bike

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I plugged Mr. Ed in last night, and double checked that it would charge between midnight - 5AM, to 90%. (It has never gotten to 90%, only the mid-80's, which is why I set it there).

We have solar, and a Tesla power wall battery; on a regular, non-car charge night, the power wall stays well charged. On the nights I plug in the car, the power wall is down to 30% (we stop it at 30%, because if there is a power outage, that much is always in reserve).

Any way, this morning the power wall was at 30%, but the car only charged 5%...from 68% - 73%. The charger was secure in the car.

The Ford app said it was plugged in, and would finish charging tonight. Huh?

Where did all the electricity go? Will it charge tonight?
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What is the size of the Powerwall? Unless it is the same size as the car battery the percentages don't match. The DC in the Powerwall has to be converted to AC. There is loss in that process.
Then the AC has to be converted to DC in the car and then multiplied up to the battery voltage. There is even more loss in that process.
 
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ten8bike

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What is the size of the Powerwall? Unless it is the same size as the car battery the percentages don't match. The DC in the Powerwall has to be converted to AC. There is loss in that process.
Then the AC has to be converted to DC in the car and then multiplied up to the battery voltage. There is even more loss in that process.
I can’t answer the ac/dc question. I just know that since February it has never done that.
 

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How do you know the Powerwall wasn't fully charged to begin with? Cloudy day?

How do you know that you didn't use more power elsewhere in your home last night?

I think you'll have to pay attention to things and see if it happens again, otherwise it's anybody's guess what actually happened.
 
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ten8bike

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How do you know the Powerwall wasn't fully charged to begin with? Cloudy day?

How do you know that you didn't use more power elsewhere in your home last night?

I think you'll have to pay attention to things and see if it happens again, otherwise it's anybody's guess what actually happened.
We”re in CA… we’re in a drought. Sun all day.
We’ll see what happens tonight.
 


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ten8bike

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How do you know the Powerwall wasn't fully charged to begin with? Cloudy day?

How do you know that you didn't use more power elsewhere in your home last night?

I think you'll have to pay attention to things and see if it happens again, otherwise it's anybody's guess what actually happened.
Plus, the car would just use the PGE electricity to charge when the power wall runs out.
 

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We”re in CA… we’re in a drought. Sun all day.
We’ll see what happens tonight.
Do you have the Tesla app installed in your phone and linked to your Powerwall setup? It shows for each 24 hour day how many kWh came from grid and solar, and shows how much went to battery and to your house panel. If the Powerwall gets down to 30% sometime during the night, you will draw from the grid instead, and you can see exactly what time that happened if it did. Just look at the graphs and when they switch from above zero to below zero on the Energy Usage screen. Each color represents source/use. Yellow is solar, blue is your home panel, green is Powerwall, white is grid. If you then scroll down, it will provide you sums for daily/weekly/monthly/annually.
 
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MachEPilot

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The powerwall is only 13Kwh a MME ER can take 88Kwh. The powerwall doesn't supply enough current to charge your car alone. I too have solar panels and a Tesla powerwall. Watch the Tesla app's power flow when charging your MME, most will come from the powerwall, and some will come from the grid (at night). When your powerwall gets down to your reserve, it will draw more from the grid. I've set my charging hours to 4am to 11am or 70%, our house uses the powerwall and the charging doesn't drain it until the sun starts hitting our solar panels. As the powerwall hits reserve, the solar panels kick in. The whole time, there is additional draw from the grid. When the car's done, the solar panels charge the powerwall and push power back out to the grid.
 
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ten8bike

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Well, I didn't want this to get into a discussion about the power wall. I just wonder why the car was supposed to be charging for 5 hours (either from the power wall, or PG&E) and only gained 5% power. Why didn't it charge properly, and where did all the electricity go for that five hours.
 

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Any update today? Did it charge or not last night?
 
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ten8bike

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Update- 24 hours later, same car, same charger, same power wall and same PG&E grid...Mr. Ed charged! Of course, the app indicates the car is charged about 7% more than the car indicates it is actually charged, but I'm used of that now. (Any Ford folks here who can explain why the app thinks the car is charged more than it actually is??)
 

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Update- 24 hours later, same car, same charger, same power wall and same PG&E grid...Mr. Ed charged! Of course, the app indicates the car is charged about 7% more than the car indicates it is actually charged, but I'm used of that now. (Any Ford folks here who can explain why the app thinks the car is charged more than it actually is??)
I am sure you already know about this, but is it possible you had set a charge time and there was some conditioning going on during charging? My Aerovironment app shows a direct correlation between what % charge it calculates vs what the car says. What app do you use that says 7% more than what the car says?
 
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ten8bike

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Except for the date on the calendar, everything was the same.
It is the FordPass app which always thinks the car has more charge in it than the car actually has.
 

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Make sure the FordPass app has UPDATED to the vehicle. I've noticed that if I open it up, it may give me readings from 10 hours ago. I refresh, and it gives me 4 hours ago. This MAY be due to Ford having server issues and not polling as often, don't know.
 
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ten8bike

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Make sure the FordPass app has UPDATED to the vehicle. I've noticed that if I open it up, it may give me readings from 10 hours ago. I refresh, and it gives me 4 hours ago. This MAY be due to Ford having server issues and not polling as often, don't know.
Thank you. It seems to be a glitch which has been happening for months.
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