How much energy does the Ford Mobile Charger use when not connected to the car?

[mkazen]

I have full house monitoring for power, but not individual circuits, so it makes it hard to know how much an individual item is using. We leave our mobile charger plugged into the wall (240v, 50A outlet), but only plug it into the car about once a week to charge overnight. Has anyone measured the amount of energy wasted by keeping the charger plugged into the wall when it's not actively charging the car?

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[Guss-E 2021]

This was answered interested another thread but of course I cannot for the life of me remember the original topic. I do believe the take away is that the "vampire drain" is negligible. Based on my electricity bills, I'm inclined to agree. I leave my Homeflex plugged in. Have to in order to access the unit through my phone. I think my gaming PC is bigger offender than my car charger.

 

[bshaw]

It will consume a minuscule amount of power unplugged when compared with the car plugged in. Like maybe ~10W?

 

[macchiaz-o]

This info from the government's testing may help address your concern:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...rmanent-fixture-in-my-garage.4411/post-183230

 

[Peugfan]

I have full house monitoring for power, but not individual circuits, so it makes it hard to know how much an individual item is using. We leave our mobile charger plugged into the wall (240v, 50A outlet), but only plug it into the car about once a week to charge overnight. Has anyone measured the amount of energy wasted by keeping the charger plugged into the wall when it's not actively charging the car?

Less than 2 watts when idle: Webasto Go charger (same as Ford unit) (Tech Data Section 3).

https://dealers.webasto.com/service/files_content.aspx?Files_FileId=28478

 

[Mach-Lee]

I have full house monitoring for power, but not individual circuits, so it makes it hard to know how much an individual item is using. We leave our mobile charger plugged into the wall (240v, 50A outlet), but only plug it into the car about once a week to charge overnight. Has anyone measured the amount of energy wasted by keeping the charger plugged into the wall when it's not actively charging the car?

FYI, you shouldn't run the battery all the way down before recharging it, that's worse for it. It's worthwhile to charge once you've used about 10% battery.

And the idle watt draw is minimal, just leave it plugged in all the time. It's not good for the outlet to keep plugging it in, wears out contacts.

 

[AtomicInternet]

I really like my Shockflo charger. I only charge at 120v since I don't do a lot of driving.
My watt meters lowest reading is 0-0.5w, so it's likely this pulls even less than 0.5w vampire.
I can hear an audible click when it switches from 3.5 to 0.5, so there's definitely a relay that disconnects when not in use.

Plugged into car, finished charging: 3.5w
Plugged into car, not charging: < 0.5w
Unplugged from car: < 0.5w

https://a.co/d/b9NDxaG

 

[mkazen]

FYI, you shouldn't run the battery all the way down before recharging it, that's worse for it. It's worthwhile to charge once you've used about 10% battery.

And the idle watt draw is minimal, just leave it plugged in all the time. It's not good for the outlet to keep plugging it in, wears out contacts.

We charge the car when we go below 40% and charge up to 90%.

 

[Mach-Lee]

We charge the car when we go below 40% and charge up to 90%.

Every time you pass through 50% it puts stress on the battery, so I would charge more often than that.

 

[RedStallion]

My Grizzl-E is drawing 0.7W from 220V when idle (whether connected to the car or not), I would expect Ford mobile charger to use about the same power.

 

[mkazen]

Every time you pass through 50% it puts stress on the battery, so I would charge more often than that.

Do you have a source for that? This is the first time I've ever heard that.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Do you have a source for that? This is the first time I've ever heard that.

It has to do with lithiation stages of the graphite anode, 50% is around the Stage II transition point. Minimizing stage transitions will reduce the degradation of the surface active material. Lots of papers out on the graphite stage transitions, here's one:

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/23/6697

In short, try to minimize your depth of discharge so you stay between 50-90% on most days. Small frequent charges are better for the battery than long infrequent charges.

 

[mkazen]

It has to do with lithiation stages of the graphite anode, 50% is around the Stage II transition point. Minimizing stage transitions will reduce the degradation of the surface active material. Lots of papers out on the graphite stage transitions, here's one:

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/23/6697

In short, try to minimize your depth of discharge so you stay between 50-90% on most days. Small frequent charges are better for the battery than long infrequent charges.

Interesting, but also looking at the data we're talking about a maximum of 8% loss over 4000 charging cycles. So charging once a week means this will impact me in decades...

 

[Mach-Lee]

Interesting, but also looking at the data we're talking about a maximum of 8% loss over 4000 charging cycles. So charging once a week means this will impact me in decades...

True, the charge rates were pretty slow in the study, so the effect would be amplified at the much greater discharge rates in EVs (but then you get other effects happening at the same time). So it's hard to say exactly how much effect it would have in an EV application, but minimizing phase/volume changes is still a good idea if you want maximum lifetime.

There are also volume changes that happen at the cathode over the SoC range, so in general it's still a good idea to minimize depth of discharge to reduce volume change and microcracking.

 

[RickMachE]

Interesting, but also looking at the data we're talking about a maximum of 8% loss over 4000 charging cycles. So charging once a week means this will impact me in decades...

What's your reasoning for not plugging in nightly and charging to 90%?

- Charger is a pain to use / reach the vehicle
- Don't see the benefit of charging nightly (Ford recommends keeping the car plugged in)
- Have some belief that going from 40 to 90% in one night is better than going from 80 to 90% 5 nights?

Just curious why people don't do what is recommended, and their reasoning. Clearly you can do what you want of course.

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