Is it normal to lose 8.3% charge a week with no driving?

[Volusiano]

My Leaf has been parked in the garage for a week now while we're on vacation. I notice that it has dropped from 83% to 75% SOC in one week. Is that normal? Sorry if it's been asked before. I wasn't sure what keywords to search for this subject...

 

[thankyouOB]

My Leaf has been parked in the garage for a week now while we're on vacation. I notice that it has dropped from 83% to 75% SOC in one week. Is that normal? Sorry if it's been asked before. I wasn't sure what keywords to search for this subject...

i dont think so. But given the small increments that could break the threshold between 10 bars and 83% and dropping down a bar, it may be something really insignificant.

 

[Lopton]

the problem is that those are carwings numbers right? Which means your actual charge %'s are something different then that. you could have went from 80% to 78% and carwings wouldn't know the difference.

 

[garygid]

It looks like it dropped one Bar, right?

Actually, it might not have lost any charge at all. Drive enough to lose 2 bars and get most of the way through using the third bar, but the 3rd bar is still there.

Then, turn the car Off, and back On, and the car will show just 9 Bars (looking like 3 Bars lost).

Looking at Carwings, the only place you see Percentage Charge, down 2 bars is listed as 83%, and down 3 bars is 75%.

Your actual loss might be nothing.

 

[Volusiano]

Yes, this is through Carwings because I'm not at home to see the actual SOC on the display. I charged my Leaf up to 83% one week ago when I left, disconnected it from my Blink, and I've been monitoring it through Carwings daily to see if it's been holding up the charge or not. It's been showing 83% all this time until yesterday when it dropped to 75%. It's showing 75% today, too.

Carwings readings have been pretty consistent for me since I've had the car a few weeks ago. So I'm inclined to believe that Carwings is telling me correctly that I've lost about 8.3% of my original 83% charge since a week ago. You guys don't think that Carwings readings are accurate at all?

 

[RSH]

I suppose the exact percent battery loss during a week of inactivity will be know as soon as either Gary or Robert take a vacation; they will read exact SOC percents on their SOC digital readers before leaving and on return, and will calculate the difference. When are one of you two going on vacation? Hopefully sooner rather than later. :mrgreen:

 

[jimcmorr]

I suppose the exact percent battery loss during a week of inactivity will be know as soon as either Gary or Robert take a vacation; they will read exact SOC percents on their SOC digital readers before leaving and on return, and will calculate the difference. When are one of you two going on vacation? Hopefully sooner rather than later. :mrgreen:

I bet either one (or both) would gladly take vaca if we were to subsidize their trip! :lol:

 

[davewill]

Yes, this is through Carwings because I'm not at home to see the actual SOC on the display. I charged my Leaf up to 83% one week ago when I left, disconnected it from my Blink, and I've been monitoring it through Carwings daily to see if it's been holding up the charge or not. It's been showing 83% all this time until yesterday when it dropped to 75%. It's showing 75% today, too.

Carwings readings have been pretty consistent for me since I've had the car a few weeks ago. So I'm inclined to believe that Carwings is telling me correctly that I've lost about 8.3% of my original 83% charge since a week ago. You guys don't think that Carwings readings are accurate at all?

It's not that's wrong so much, it's that it steps in 8.3% increments. So the actual decline is probably very small, and you just happened to cross the bar noundary.

 

[garygid]

Of course, if you want to worry, you could have left your LEAF turned ON
in some way.

I accidently left me LEAF "on" yesterday afternoon, and I "thought"
the car was OFF ... and I KNOW to look at the screens. But, the car
did try to warn me by not locking with the normal 2-beep/flash
response, but I just did not pay proper attention. Next time I will.

Every 5 days, the Battery Pack is supposed to turn on and re-charge
the 12v battery, which powers the electronics that are Always-On, like
the Carwings "cell-phone" connection.

The Carwings information is misleading. The Readings are too coarse.

If your car loses another bar in a month, I will be supprised.
That would probably mean that something small was still ON.

But, still no worry, unless you are going to be gone 6 months or so.

NORMALLY, the LEAF does not lose much, but a few have reported
"strange" losses, which they could not explain unless they had left
the car ON in some way.

 

[TomT]

I was gone for three weeks and lost virtually nothing in that time, at least as detectible withing the coarse confines of the SOC tools were are presently given.

 

[DKCubed]

I had the same experience as mogur. I had 75% charge (according to CARWINGS) before going away for 2 weeks and the percentage did not drop. The miles remaining went from 81 miles to 78 over that time, so there was a mild discharge (as expected).

 

[jcesare]

I charged to 80% right before I went on vacation 8 days ago. I just checked and I've lost one bar.

BTW I'm currently in Florence, Italy and took some pictures of EVs and charging stations. I'll post them as soon as I can get them to my iPad. You can follow my European exploits on twitter @OneSixtyToOne

 

[Volusiano]

Well, I did lock/arm my Leaf before I left, even though it's just sitting in the garage. I can't imagine it being locked/armed taking too much energy. I also assume that if I left something on by accident (although I'm pretty sure I didn't), the process of locking up my Leaf would have given me some warning that something is still on, or would have turned it off for me before locking it.

 

[LEAFer]

I had the same experience as mogur. I had 75% charge (according to CARWINGS) before going away for 2 weeks and the percentage did not drop. The miles remaining went from 81 miles to 78 over that time, so there was a mild discharge (as expected).

That's an interesting comment & experience. Does this tell us that the "miles", as erratic as they are when driving (Guess-o-meter), might be the best indicator with significantly more granularity than the "bars" when the vehicle is "idle" ? IOW, since the algorithm computing the miles based on "driving" history is consistent, and no further driving has occured, then the internally available (CAN ?) SOC/battery voltage is a reasonably accurate reflection of the battery's actual SOC ?

If 3 miles were lost ... in two weeks ... that's a little under 1kWh (generally speaking).

 

[johnr]

It's not that's wrong so much, it's that it steps in 8.3% increments. So the actual decline is probably very small, and you just happened to cross the bar noundary.

Exactly. But why does Carwings charge gauge step in 8.3% increments? Can't it read the exact percentage from the Leaf's BMS? That's just one of the software quirks that drives me nuts.

 

[LEAFfan]

Every 5 days, the Battery Pack is supposed to turn on and re-charge
the 12v battery, which powers the electronics that are Always-On, like
the Carwings "cell-phone" connection.

It will charge your aux battery every five days IF you don't drive it. Otherwise, it will keep it charged as you drive. I tested mine just sitting (in the garage) and it was 12.5V. Has anyone else tested the aux battery voltage sitting and while driving (CAN BUSS info)? If I hadn't leased, I would change the wiring to the solar panel to power something else since the way it is now makes it literally useless. Why would you need a trickle charge to your aux battery if the pack keeps it charged while you drive and or charges it every five days of non use?

 

[Glenn]

I would change the wiring to the solar panel to power something else since the way it is now makes it literally useless. Why would you need a trickle charge to your aux battery if the pack keeps it charged while you drive and or charges it every five days of non use?

Absolutely correct! Many folks feel the Spoiler Solar is just so much greenwashing and belongs in the same package as the eco-trees, except that the trees were included in the base price.

 

[Lopton]

Exactly. But why does Carwings charge gauge step in 8.3% increments? Can't it read the exact percentage from the Leaf's BMS? That's just one of the software quirks that drives me nuts.

+100 I hate that I can't get a SOC read from carwings

-Matt

 

[planet4ever]

It's not that's wrong so much, it's that it steps in 8.3% increments. So the actual decline is probably very small, and you just happened to cross the bar noundary.

Exactly. But why does Carwings charge gauge step in 8.3% increments? Can't it read the exact percentage from the Leaf's BMS? That's just one of the software quirks that drives me nuts.

No, it can't. Or at least it certainly doesn't. The only information Carwings uses is the number of bars. Period.

Volusiano thought he charged to 83%, but Carwings was just misleading him. He charged to 80% because that is what the timer told the BMS to do. 80% is more than 9 bars, so it shows as 10 bars, even though the tenth bar is only "partly full". Carwings saw 10 bars out of 12 and calculated 10/12 = 0.8333, so said 83%. A week later Carwings asked the car, "how many bars?" This time the logic in the car decided it was only 9. So Carwings decided 9/12 = 0.75.

Now, I have observed quite a few times that the car will be showing x bars, but if I turn it off and back on it will show x-1 bars. Yes, there is a chance that I was right on the margin, and the power required to shut down and reboot pushed it over the edge, but it happens too often for me to really believe that. I think there is indeed a software quirk in the car that causes it to use two -- no, make that three -- different formulas for computing bars. We know that it uses different formulas when charging and when discharging. It appears to use a third formula when coming back to life after having been powered down.

But a Carwings software quirk? No, what you are seeing is a data transport design limitation, that was made much worse by a bad user interface design. Their data has one digit precision, and they are displaying it in a form that makes you believe it has two digit precision. Both are design issues, not programming quirks.

Ray

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Why would you need a trickle charge to your aux battery if the pack keeps it charged while you drive and or charges it every five days of non use?

well I for one, would not leave the car outside so recharging from sunlight would not be an option

as far as Carwings. its SOC reports are not on a +/- 1% scale. i havent really used Carwings in so long, not sure what the scale is, but if its 4% then the scale at 83% could be as low as 79% so you might have lost less than half of what you expected.

rumors has it the best SOC to leave Li in storage is more like 40-50%. i wonder if the discharge curve flattens as it approaches that SOC?