[DaveC]

Does anyone know if it matters when you remove the charging cable after the Model 3 has stopped charging? At home I charge with a Tesla wall connector that's on a 60amp / 235volt circuit. (Of course it only draws 48amps.) Is there any advantage to leaving the cable attached, or can it cause a problem. I'm sure many people who charge at night leave the cable connected until morning and this is not a problem. But is there some advantage to doing this? This may all be much ado about nothing, but I thought I'd ask.

 

[W.W.]

Ive always lived by the notion that a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla. The benefit of leaving the car plugged in over night is that if you pre-heat, pre-cool in the morning that you would be using land power rather than out of your battery capacity. To each their own but I plug it in when I get home it charges as scheduled and I unplug as I go to leave in the morning. I could see the charge cable getting frozen up possibly if you charge outside and you have a brutal winter storm overnight but then you may run into your charge cable being frozen up but you can always avert that with a pre-heat. Just my two cents

 

[Ed Woodrick]

It doesn't matter

 

[Toadmanor]

I leave mine plugged in for 4-5 months as I leave Minnesota for warmer climes in the winter. Not one issue doing so. I set it to 50% and it charges up when it needs to.

 

[Klaus-rf]

The only hard and fast rule about the charging cable is you MUST remove it before driving the car. It will not go into any gear with the charge cable connected.

 

[Bigriver]

The only hard and fast rule about the charging cable is you MUST remove it before driving the car.

I love that that is one item that Tesla fully thought through and fully implemented in the design! 😊

 

[Achooo]

Ive always lived by the notion that a plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla. The benefit of leaving the car plugged in over night is that if you pre-heat, pre-cool in the morning that you would be using land power rather than out of your battery capacity. To each their own but I plug it in when I get home it charges as scheduled and I unplug as I go to leave in the morning. I could see the charge cable getting frozen up possibly if you charge outside and you have a brutal winter storm overnight but then you may run into your charge cable being frozen up but you can always avert that with a pre-heat. Just my two cents

A related question: My car is scheduled to charge after 10 pm when time of use electricity rates are lower. Once charging is complete, as long as the car is plugged in, does it continue to run off of the grid? Some days, I keep the car plugged in well into the peak time of use rate in the middle of the day. If I precool during this time, am I using expensive grid power to do so?

 

[iChris93]

If I precool during this time, am I using expensive grid power to do so?

Yes

 

[Toadmanor]

Yes

However, maybe not. Where I live Time Of Use disallows me to use that circuit for ANY power other than within the time of use hours. No electricity will flow through that circuit outside of Time Of Use hours. So if that is the case wherever you are I say you are not using any expensive power but rather, the power in the battery.

 

[JasonF]

A related question: My car is scheduled to charge after 10 pm when time of use electricity rates are lower. Once charging is complete, as long as the car is plugged in, does it continue to run off of the grid? Some days, I keep the car plugged in well into the peak time of use rate in the middle of the day. If I precool during this time, am I using expensive grid power to do so?

Once the battery reaches its set level, the car will only use a few watts to cycle pumps and maintain the battery. If you start the A/C, it will use about as much as any other inverter A/C unit at low power (around 500-ish watts).

 

[iChris93]

However, maybe not. Where I live Time Of Use disallows me to use that circuit for ANY power other than within the time of use hours. No electricity will flow through that circuit outside of Time Of Use hours. So if that is the case wherever you are I say you are not using any expensive power but rather, the power in the battery.

True. I did not think of that because my whole house is under time of use and I do not have a separate meter for my car.

 

[Achooo]

However, maybe not. Where I live Time Of Use disallows me to use that circuit for ANY power other than within the time of use hours. No electricity will flow through that circuit outside of Time Of Use hours. So if that is the case wherever you are I say you are not using any expensive power but rather, the power in the battery.

That is an interesting way to set it up. You must have a separate meter for that circuit. Where I live everything runs off the same meter. So anything I run in those night time hours is theoretically cheaper. We set a delay on our last load of laundry, dishwasher, and TESLA accordingly.

 

[Toadmanor]

That is an interesting way to set it up. You must have a separate meter for that circuit. Where I live everything runs off the same meter. So anything I run in those night time hours is theoretically cheaper. We set a delay on our last load of laundry, dishwasher, and TESLA accordingly.

Interesting, Here there is no standard TOU unless you set a separate meter socket for an EV. I normally pay .119 cents for electricity except for my Tesla which from 11 PM to 7AM can charge at .035 cents per KWH. Outside of that time the outlet is "dead".

So, yes there is a separate meter socket for my 50 AMP 240 Volt Tesla charging line.

 

[Achooo]

Interesting, Here there is no standard TOU unless you set a separate meter socket for an EV. I normally pay .119 cents for electricity except for my Tesla which from 11 PM to 7AM can charge at .035 cents per KWH. Outside of that time the outlet is "dead".

So, yes there is a separate meter socket for my 50 AMP 240 Volt Tesla charging line.

Wow, your rates for electricity are so much lower than mine here in So Cal. My nighttime special rate is 12 cents per kWh. During peak times it goes up to 35 cents per! And the it is 17 cents per during some in between periods.

 

[SimonMatthews]

Interesting, Here there is no standard TOU unless you set a separate meter socket for an EV. I normally pay .119 cents for electricity except for my Tesla which from 11 PM to 7AM can charge at .035 cents per KWH. Outside of that time the outlet is "dead".

So, yes there is a separate meter socket for my 50 AMP 240 Volt Tesla charging line.

I think you mean 3.5 cents per kWh, or $0.035 per kWh.

Either way, that's very cheap.

 

[JoeP]

I leave mine plugged in 100% of the time. The only time tehre's signficant non-charging use is in the winter (it gets down to 20s here in the detached garage) and i select pre-heat. Then it will use up to 4KW for ~5-10 minutes as it heats up the car (and maybe the battery?) it decreases fairly quickly though. I generally precondition in the winter because i want the car to be not frigid and i dont want to waste range doing it. Even doing that, regen is generally limited for the first 15 min or so if i drive *uphill* and 20-30 min if i drive downhill after starting.