Will energy usage to charge vary with voltage, charger used?

[DarkStar]

Yes, 30 watts overhead is required for this unit to function. but it is a larger overhead consumption than is necessary for a relay.

30 watts is way too high, especially if they are using a latching contactor!

 

[mitch672]

Yes, 30 watts overhead is required for this unit to function. but it is a larger overhead consumption than is necessary for a relay.

30 watts is way too high, especially if they are using a latching contactor!

the unit has several radios in it (Wifi, Cellular and ZigBee), along with the LCD display, and LEDs, this all takes power to run, not to mention is probably has an embedded low power dedicated controller/PC in it as well.

TINSTAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee

FYI, here is a good summary of all of the availble (or soon to be availble) EVSE's:

http://www.pluginamerica.org/accessory-tracker?type=EVSE

Specific to the Blink: http://www.pluginamerica.org/accessories/ecotality-blink-evse

 

[DarkStar]

My guess is that it will end up using less than 10-20 watts when it is actively communicating (very brief moments), even lower when it is idle. BTW, no cellular in the consumer units, just WiFi and ZigBee. I've played around with ZigBee and WiFi and combined they would use less than 1 watt. Assuming they have an LCD that is always-on, we're taking about 2-3 watts max...

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Your units are all messed up.
I feel like I'm becoming the "kW != kWh" grammar nazi here, but come on.. we're supposed to be the EV cognoscenti, right?

21,600 watts is 21.6Kw/month, I see no problem here.

Again, "21.6Kw/month" is nonsense. Gibberish. Has no technical meaning whatsoever. Think about it.

That's like saying "55 MPH/month." You can try to assign it some kind of meaning, but it would be weird.

 

[garygid]

Using 1 watt (1 W) for hour consumes 1 watt-hour (Wh) of energy.
1 W usage rate for 24 hours is 24 Wh of energy used.

30W used for 24 hours is 720 Wh of energy.

1000 Wh is one (1.0) kWh (kilo-watt-hours).

Using 200 W (rate) for 100 hours, uses 20 kWh (20,000 Wh) of energy,
and at 25¢ per kWh, would cost you $5.00 on your bill.

Hope this helps, Gary.

 

[mitch672]

Your units are all messed up.
I feel like I'm becoming the "kW != kWh" grammar nazi here, but come on.. we're supposed to be the EV cognoscenti, right?

21,600 watts is 21.6Kw/month, I see no problem here.

Again, "21.6Kw/month" is nonsense. Gibberish. Has no technical meaning whatsoever. Think about it.

That's like saying "55 MPH/month." You can try to assign it some kind of meaning, but it would be weird.

Had you bothered following my math, you could see it was a kwh calculation, based on the 30 watts X 24 hours X 30 days, to get to a monthly # of watts, divide by 1,000 gives you kwh, but of course you couldn't be bothered with simple math. I also calculated the cost/month & year @ 11 cents/kwh as well. Those of us who know everything, are really bothered by those of you who think you do.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Had you bothered following my math, you could see it was a kwh calculation, based on the 30 watts X 24 hours X 30 days, to get to a monthly # of watts, divide by 1,000 gives you kwh, but of course you couldn't be bothered with simple math. I also calculated the cost/month & year @ 11 cents/kwh as well. Those of us who know everything, are really bothered by those of you who think you do.

Dude, you do whatever you like with your own math. I did mine. If you can multiple watts by hours and come up with watts, then there's no helping you.

Units matter.

 

[planet4ever]

30 watts / month is 21,600 watts total/month

Your units are all messed up.
I feel like I'm becoming the "kW != kWh" grammar nazi here, but come on.. we're supposed to be the EV cognoscenti, right?

kW is instantaneous power. If the Blnk EVSE mooches 30W continuously, it adds about 21 kWh a month to your electric bill.

When your whole Baseline is 300 kWh for the month, that's not minor.

21,600 watts is 21.6Kw/month, I see no problem here.

There certainly is a problem there. What you obviously meant to say was that 21,600 watt hours is 21.6kWh/month.

That's the main thing GroundLoop was pointing out, but I think he was also making another very significant point when he referred to "Baseline". It's a problem you may not have, Mitch, but if you live in a state like California with tiered usage, an extra 21kWh can bump you into the next tier, which will make your marginal rate per kilowatt hour skyrocket.

Here is a true example from where I am for someone on the standard rate schedule (not time of day adjusted):
Use 16.4kWh/day: marginal rate is $0.135/kWh
Use 16.5kWh/day: marginal rate is $0.286/kWh

Now, "marginal rate" is just like for income tax - you don't pay that rate for everything, but that is the rate you pay for the last thing you add to the load. In this case, what is being added is the EVSE and the LEAF.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Right on all counts, planet4ever.

I look at all loads in my house and try to compute their monthly contribution to the total. It's like a budget.
In SDG&E's case, I'm allotted 10.5kWh/day for Baseline, and the first "tier" (100 to 130%) is not all that much more expensive.

However, 130%+ gets expensive, and beyond that into Ludicrous Cost. So I'm really careful to keep the overall tally at the end of the month below 400kWh.

One important point is that the EVSE (EV Project, San Diego) will be on a second meter which is always TOU. The 22kWh idle consumption added by the Blnk EVSE will not contribute to my household tier, BUT, it will be distributed evenly over the 24 hour day. This means that the high-cost TOU tier will bear some of it. The overall cost of a constant 30W load on the EVSE meter will be spread between the clocked rates.

If you're on the "best" extreme-spread Experimental TOU plan, this will hurt even more, as that 30W load will be using expensive electricity during peak time. It works out to about $2 to $3/month. But it gives us something to consider while the cars get assembled.

 

[mitch672]

well, I suppose you westerners have to take the bad with the good; you are getting your cars first, and you have a much more advanced electric structure than we have out here on the right coast. My rate is about .11 per KWH, inlcuding distribution charges etc, its not based on usage. In fact my house is kind of on the large side, and uses about 1600Kwh/month on average, less in the winter, more in the summer. I am in the process of downsizing over the next few years, and will be getting a much smaller house that was in my family... I am considering PV for the new house as well, but our insolation out here is also terrible (4.5-5.5 hours/day average usable power producing), so even that is terrible.

Oh well, you can't have everything, there's no place to put it

 

[tps]

if they are using a latching contactor!

My guess is they are not using a latching contactor for safety reasons (fail safe). The main point of the ECSE is safety, and I'd guess that safety is more important than small savings in power consumption.

 

[garygid]

However, the relay (contactor) should only be powered when actually supplying power when the attached EV requests it. The power to activate it should no be part of the "idle time" power consumption.

 

[DaveEV]

To put a 30w vampire load in perspective:

A 30w vampire load is propel your LEAF about 80 mi/month. For me, that's ~15% of my commuting miles. That is far from insignificant.

I really hope it uses 5w or less.