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leave the Volvo cord plugged in?

9K views 31 replies 12 participants last post by  He Keith 
#1 ·
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.
 
#3 ·
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.


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#4 · (Edited)
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.
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
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.
 
#8 ·
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).
 
#10 ·
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?
 
#11 ·
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.
 
#13 ·
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.
 
#15 ·
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.
 
#16 ·
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
 
#18 ·
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.

833


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.
 
#21 ·
AC 120V is useless unless you are in a pinch and have nothing else. It took like 18 hours to add 25% last week until I got my NEAM 14-50 installed. Then I limited car to 36 AMPs for now and my Wallbox came yesterday and I mounted it today, will be setting it up later today and off to nightly 12am-6am charging every few days.
 
#24 ·
Heck the Grizzl E which is built like a tank is only $479, less than the cable and will be easier with mounting and storing the cord. And my Wallbox was only $600 as there was a $50 coupon on Amazon.
 
#26 ·
If you are going to charge at 240 then you need an outlet installed either way. Charging at 50 for most people is overkill, 40 amps is plent and the plug-in unit does 40 amps. I did my own NEMA 14-50 outlet and for my Wallbox ($600) took all of 20 minutes to mounts and set up. That said the Wallbox app is clunky, but hopefully I won’t be in it much.
 
#28 ·
One other thing to keep in mind the Volvo cord is short compared to all the EVSEs on the market allowing you more flexibility as to where the outlet and car charge port are located. Based on where I mounted the outlet and EVSE I can park in either position in my 2 car garage and jack in.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Correct, technically the charger is inside the car and the thing on the wall or built-in the MFG cable is just a power delivery controller, it does nothing other that to supply x AMPs per what the car asks for up to the max it can deliver. The car takes that power converts it to charge proper internal voltages for the batteries and regulates that charging and when to stop. Technically it is the same for you phone, wall adapter it is just a power converter to deliver 5v DC at a mac watts, all the smarts about charging are in your phone.

EVSE - Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment
 
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