[206KZ]

We finally have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed where the Volvo cord will reach. The big plug is quite difficult to pull out of this 240v outlet. I wonder if it’s okay to just leave it plugged in all the time with the white ring glowing?

The Chargepoint Flex on back-order will stay plugged in all the time, so seems like it should also be fine for the Volvo cord, but I would love to hear the wisdom of the crowd.

 

[Privacy Guy]

We finally have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed where the Volvo cord will reach. The big plug is quite difficult to pull out of this 240v outlet. I wonder if it’s okay to just leave it plugged in all the time with the white ring glowing?

The Chargepoint Flex on back-order will stay plugged in all the time, so seems like it should also be fine for the Volvo cord, but I would love to hear the wisdom of the crowd.

I leave mine plugged in all the time. I read removing and reinstalling places more stress in the plug and reduces its live.

 

[seahull]

Still at 120v, but I now have a related concern. It now seems I will have to leave my P8 always plugged in - it is charging really slowly. Plugged in at 4:26 yesterday afternoon at 28%. Now, 16 hours later it has only reached 45%. At this rate, which is about 1% per hour, it will take another 44 hours to reach 90%.

The instrument cluster suggests this is providing between 10 and 11 amps. Which at 114v shown should be 1.14 to 1.25 kW, but is in reality only 0.79 kW. Where is my power going, if not to battery? I looked under the car and couldn’t see puddle of joules under there or other signs of electrical leakage.

I do need to get my direct wired ChargePoint Flex installed, but in the past 4 weeks it never charged so slowly.

I had never driven it below 50% before. And when I plugged it in, it predicted charging complete in 22 minutes, but at 0 mikes per hour- I thought something was wrong already and took a snapshot.

 

[scans]

Still at 120v, but I now have a related concern. It now seems I will have to leave my P8 always plugged in - it is charging really slowly. Plugged in at 4:26 yesterday afternoon at 28%. Now, 16 hours later it has only reached 45%. At this rate, which is about 1% per hour, it will take another 44 hours to reach 90%.

The instrument cluster suggests this is providing between 10 and 11 amps. Which at 114v shown should be 1.14 to 1.25 kW, but is in reality only 0.79 kW. Where is my power going, if not to battery? I looked under the car and couldn’t see puddle of joules under there or other signs of electrical leakage.

I do need to get my direct wired ChargePoint Flex installed, but in the past 4 weeks it never charged so slowly.

I had never driven it below 50% before. And when I plugged it in, it predicted charging complete in 22 minutes, but at 0 mikes per hour- I thought something was wrong already and took a snapshot.

Is the AC on when you are looking? I find that when the AC is running, the charging speed when plugged into a 120V outlet will drop from 3 mi/hr to 0 to 1 (zero because it only shows whole numbers).

While you might be getting up to 15A on that outlet, the transmission process is hardly that efficient.

 

[seahull]

Good point. At the moments I was taking the pictures, the AC was likely running. And it appears so from the pictures.

But that does not answer what happened in the intervening 16 hours with the car was locked and no AC, when the SOC only increased by 17%. That is only 13kWh in 16 hours, from where I calculated the 0.8 kW. The difference between that and the 15 amps on the circuit would be ~70% charging losses, or at the 11 amps indicated would be 58% charging losses.

 

[scans]

Tomorrow I will be charging at an office via a 120v over 8 hours or so. Will let you know my results.

 

[Woomi]

Good point. At the moments I was taking the pictures, the AC was likely running. And it appears so from the pictures.

But that does not answer what happened in the intervening 16 hours with the car was locked and no AC, when the SOC only increased by 17%. That is only 13kWh in 16 hours, from where I calculated the 0.8 kW. The difference between that and the 15 amps on the circuit would be ~70% charging losses, or at the 11 amps indicated would be 58% charging losses.

Never test 110/120V condition, even input is 10A/114V, you cannot charge that speed.
1. AC/DC convert issue. The onboard charger has to pumping up 110V AC to 400V DC. Not sure at this efficiency, but it shouldn't be able to achieve 90%. I guess it should be close to 80%.
2. System will use some power. Since you connected to the wall, system leakage will lower the charging current.

If we charging from the 220/240V, AC/DC conversion efficiency should be little better.
This is only one I can guess.

 

[volvo.rechargelv]

We finally have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed where the Volvo cord will reach. The big plug is quite difficult to pull out of this 240v outlet. I wonder if it’s okay to just leave it plugged in all the time with the white ring glowing?

NEMA 14-50 outlets can be damaged and made to be unsafe by frequent plugging and unplugging. I've owed a Tesla for 4 years and have seen many comments regarding this question in the Tesla forums. My Tesla charger has been plugged into my NEMA 14-50 all that time without incident. I've also read that these types of chargers use next to no wattage while idle.
Now that I have a second EV, I'm using a NeoCharge splitter so that I can keep both the Tesla and the Volvo chargers continuously plugged in and charge one car or the other at any time (or both if I lower the charging rate on both cars down to 20 amps).

 

[seahull]

Never test 110/120V condition, even input is 10A/114V, you cannot charge that speed.
1. AC/DC convert issue. The onboard charger has to pumping up 110V AC to 400V DC. Not sure at this efficiency, but it shouldn't be able to achieve 90%. I guess it should be close to 80%.
2. System will use some power. Since you connected to the wall, system leakage will lower the charging current.

If we charging from the 220/240V, AC/DC conversion efficiency should be little better.
This is only one I can guess.

Not sure what I should not be testing. But I am testing the supplied cable plugged into a 15A 110V A/C circuit. And now at 24 hours, it has reached 55%, from the starting point of 28%. That is charging 27% in 24 hours. At this rate 0-100% would take 4 days.

Until now, I had started charging at between 60 and 70% and it was always up to 90% the next day by Noon (ready for lunch run). But I was not watching as closely.

Are my expectations wrong? What charging speeds are others seeing with 110V?

 

[Rat]

There are a lot of statements in this thread without sources. "I've read ..." etc. It seems counterintuitive that leaving electronics plugged in and on (light glowing) would be better for it than unplugging. Clearly more juice is being used. It seems counterproductive to buy an environmentally-friendly car and then waste electricity. Still, if an authoritative source can be cited for why it's better for the plug or for the EVSE, I'll leave mine plugged in. It is handy to have the light always on in the garage like a night light. The general rule I've always read is never to leave transformers plugged in when not in use. Is the Volvo cord always converting (i.e. wasting) current when not actively charging?

 

[sbixby]

Is the Volvo cord always converting (i.e. wasting) current when not actively charging?

At the very least, one or more LEDs are glowing inside the body of the charger; it/they generate enough warmth to keep the area around the light warm.

LEDs draw so little current it's not worth worrying about. The charger's body probably has some sensor electronics that too stay powered, but again, very little current. I'd be willing to suggest we're talking <1 mAh at 240v -- versus the 40,000 mAh when charging.

I'm personally reluctant to leave mine lit up; it's in the corner of my garage and a few feet away is a strip of plexiglass window, and it's easy to see the flashing light from the street. Probably paranoia on my part. I don't want to generate more heat by putting tape over the light ring either.

 

[volvo.rechargelv]

There are a lot of statements in this thread without sources.

A quick Google search of "unplugging NEMA 14-50" revealed what I have known for some time (I've owned a Tesla Model S since 2017 and have read countless forum postings regarding most aspects of owning an EV). Though I could not find an authoritative source that states that the frequent re-plugging into a NEMA 14-50 is unsafe, if you look at my search, you will see numerous forum posters' opinions that these types of plugs will be weakened and damaged by plug cycling.

As far as the question of the power draw of the charger while idle, this discussion in the Tesla Forum shows a few people who actually measured the current usage while idle: Tesla Forum. One of the commenters, TeslaTap, was the most highly respected poster in the official Tesla Forum before Tesla corporate closed their forum recently. His comment: "I measured less than 1W when idle. Really not worth unplugging. Cost at 1 W (and it's less) at $.30/kW would be $2.62 year."

 

[He Keith]

We finally have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed where the Volvo cord will reach. The big plug is quite difficult to pull out of this 240v outlet. I wonder if it’s okay to just leave it plugged in all the time with the white ring glowing?

The Chargepoint Flex on back-order will stay plugged in all the time, so seems like it should also be fine for the Volvo cord, but I would love to hear the wisdom of the crowd.

I leave mine plugged in and laying on the floor in the garage. Hope to have my Wallbox tomorrow so when car gets back from ceramic coat on Wednesday I can just leave it in the Wallbox.

 

[Woomi]

Not sure what I should not be testing. But I am testing the supplied cable plugged into a 15A 110V A/C circuit. And now at 24 hours, it has reached 55%, from the starting point of 28%. That is charging 27% in 24 hours. At this rate 0-100% would take 4 days.

Until now, I had started charging at between 60 and 70% and it was always up to 90% the next day by Noon (ready for lunch run). But I was not watching as closely.

Are my expectations wrong? What charging speeds are others seeing with 110V?

Well, these days, the charger efficiency improved a lot. it looks 95~96% at 110V condition. It looks there's big power consumption from the car system side.

 

[scans]

OK. Started charging a little before 1pm EST. Turned the AC off when I took the picture. Let's see how we do by 9pm tonight. And, yes, it is 93 degrees F here today.

 

[He Keith]

I know when I used 120V last week if I was in the car fiddling with settings the HVAC was cycling even though I turned temp warmer and the crage rate was toggling between 0 and 1 mph charging. When I gotou out and locked car it jumped to 3mph and was pulling 12A

 

[scans]

View attachment 832

OK. Started charging a little before 1pm EST. Turned the AC off when I took the picture. Let's see how we do by 9pm tonight. And, yes, it is 93 degrees F here today.

So, three hours later, it's up to 64%, but the expected completion time keeps slipping and is now 7:46 am.

 

[seahull]

And it gets worse. I did drive for about 5 miles last night and dropped SOC from 55% down to 52%. And plugged it back in after.

Charging failed. SOC is lower than when I started. I reconnected it perhaps 10 times before I could get it working again.

I could see that the physical connection appeared to be an issue. As I wiggled the connector, the light adjacent to the connector flashed on and off. And it only worked when I pulled upwards in it as I plugged in.

 

[scans]

So, three hours later, it's up to 64%, but the expected completion time keeps slipping and is now 7:46 am.

So, 8 hours and it got to 71%. 10% in 8 hours. Or 20 miles in 8 hours. Or almost 3 mi/hr. Meh.

 

[seahull]

So, 8 hours and it got to 71%. 10% in 8 hours. Or 20 miles in 8 hours. Or almost 3 mi/hr. Meh.

Thanks for that data point. Sounds like the rates I was seeing (when working) are typical. So nearly 4 days to charge from 0 to 100%. Fine for WFH COVID-lockdown jaunts, but I will need the 240V 48A solution hooked up soon to add flexibility.