Charging - plugged-in climate control and EVSE overhead

wsbca said:

drees said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

funny though, my wi fi i checked it, it uses between 40-80 watt so not a whole lot difference.

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Ouch - what kind of wifi device do you have? Mine uses about 5w. An older one I had drew 10w. If you replace yours with a low power one it will pay for itself in a year.

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Agreed - I just put the power strip which has my Cisco cable modem, Belkin Wifi Router (which has a fairly big, warm wall wart) and Sunpower data gateway all on it on the Kill-a-watt - 12 watts total. Looks like the cable modem is 4-5, router is 5-6, gateway is 1.

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well i dont know what the wifi does when its idling. i tested it while streaming netflix since that is what it does most of the time. we stream two boxes (roku and wii) along with a few computers, etc. and both moto X's when home.

i am using a netgear "wireless G" while watching it, it did go as low as 7 watts or so. i think the netflix boxes draw all the time even when not streaming. the wii is on nearly all the time, and the Roku doesnt even have an on off switch...

the netgear box i just bought less than 3 months ago (the old one burned up. the new one runs a lot cooler but still puts out heat)

i think we just transfer too much data. right after we turned comcast back on, i monitored data transfers and we were doing about 20 GB a week

Jimmydreams said:

The Clipper Creek is drawing 5 watts at idle. I agree about the Blink. I think 30w is a bit much, even given it's wifi connectivity, etc. :?

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Hey Jimmy, my TED shows between 2 and 8 Watts for my EVSE circuit when the disconnect is OFF! Do your MTUs show exactly zero reliably when there is zero current flowing? Have you calibrated them to show zero if they show a baseline of a few Watts, and if so, how do you do that?

Thanks.

Boomer23 said:

Jimmydreams said:

The Clipper Creek is drawing 5 watts at idle. I agree about the Blink. I think 30w is a bit much, even given it's wifi connectivity, etc. :?

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Hey Jimmy, my TED shows between 2 and 8 Watts for my EVSE circuit when the disconnect is OFF! Do your MTUs show exactly zero reliably when there is zero current flowing? Have you calibrated them to show zero if they show a baseline of a few Watts, and if so, how do you do that?

Thanks.

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Hmmm...good point, Boomer. I haven't turned off the breakers. Let me go turn off the breaker and see what it reads. I'll be right back.

Ok, I'm back. With the breaker off and zero current flowing, I'm reading 0.000kW on that MTU. So there must be some current flowing even with the unit at idle. Also, if I put my ear to the Clipper Creek unit, I can hear a very faint hum, so that is also evidence of a small current being used.

Boomer23 said:

Jimmydreams said:

The Clipper Creek is drawing 5 watts at idle. I agree about the Blink. I think 30w is a bit much, even given it's wifi connectivity, etc. :?

Click to expand...

Hey Jimmy, my TED shows between 2 and 8 Watts for my EVSE circuit when the disconnect is OFF! Do your MTUs show exactly zero reliably when there is zero current flowing? Have you calibrated them to show zero if they show a baseline of a few Watts, and if so, how do you do that?

Thanks.

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I don't think you can calibrate for an offset.

The two MTUs that I have show 0 when the breakers are off, which is a good thing. But their nominal calibrations are off. I have to set one to 0.97 and the other to 1.08.

greenleaf said:

I don't think you can calibrate for an offset.

The two MTUs that I have show 0 when the breakers are off, which is a good thing. But their nominal calibrations are off. I have to set one to 0.97 and the other to 1.08.

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What made you see the need to calibrate them and how did you know what/how to make the offset??

Jimmydreams said:

greenleaf said:

I don't think you can calibrate for an offset.

The two MTUs that I have show 0 when the breakers are off, which is a good thing. But their nominal calibrations are off. I have to set one to 0.97 and the other to 1.08.

Click to expand...

What made you see the need to calibrate them and how did you know what/how to make the offset??

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The MTU calibration is under the Advanced pull-down menu. If you don't see it, you might need to update your firmware.

I calibrate the values so that they will match with my electric meter and the power generation from my SMA inverter.

greenleaf said:

I calibrate the values so that they will match with my electric meter and the power generation from my SMA inverter.

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Careful calibrating with the SMA inverter - most are known to be at least a few percent optimistic if not more...

greenleaf said:

Jimmydreams said:

greenleaf said:

I don't think you can calibrate for an offset.

The two MTUs that I have show 0 when the breakers are off, which is a good thing. But their nominal calibrations are off. I have to set one to 0.97 and the other to 1.08.

Click to expand...

What made you see the need to calibrate them and how did you know what/how to make the offset??

Click to expand...

The MTU calibration is under the Advanced pull-down menu. If you don't see it, you might need to update your firmware.

I calibrate the values so that they will match with my electric meter and the power generation from my SMA inverter.

Click to expand...

Yep, I had to download and install the latest TED firmware in order to be able to enter a calibration multiplier. My TED system is brand new, but the firmware was a previous version. Note also that you will lose current monthly totals if you install an MTU calibration factor. I used a 2.0 factor for my main MTU to get around the fact that my incoming main power feeds from the meter are split and I could only clip the CTs around one pair of leads. Seems to be working okay.

driveleaf said:

AV describes their unit as drawing 5watts in idle mode. Irritating.

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Leviton's Evr-green 160 is 10 watts idle power.
http://communities.leviton.com/message/2149#2149
That would be 87.6 Kw a year or $9.64 at .11/ kilowatt. Not that bad. I can live with it.

botsmaker said:

Not that bad.

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Not too bad - but enough that you might consider having a switch so you could switch it off the 12 hours a day your car isn't plugged in to it...

Gotta remember that on a typical TOU rate, you are likely to be charged at rates MUCH higher than 11c/kWh (over 30c/kWh), especially in the summer.

I have to wonder, everyone is so worried about how much power the EVSE is drawing, when we have things like the FIOS Motorola ONT, and the associated Verizon WR424MI WiFi router, have to see how much that takes, I imagine it's way more than a 30W constant load... I mention this, as I just (finally) got FIOS Internet in my area. And of course we all have converter boxes and HDTVs as well..

Amen mitch.... I advised my router went from 20-80 watts and everyone thought that was outragoeus so I started monitoring it more often since my killawatt ain't doing anything until my Leaf arrives and I found that 100 watts does happen when I am streaming Netflix to both tvs at once

DaveinOlyWA said:

Amen mitch.... I advised my router went from 20-80 watts and everyone thought that was outragoeus so I started monitoring it more often since my killawatt ain't doing anything until my Leaf arrives and I found that 100 watts does happen when I am streaming Netflix to both tvs at once

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Wow, what type of router is that?! I'm running a couple of different Netgear routers (one router, one in AP mode) and their power supplies can't even provide much more than 20 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps).

mitch672 said:

I have to wonder, everyone is so worried about how much power the EVSE is drawing, when we have things like the FIOS Motorola ONT, and the associated Verizon WR424MI WiFi router, have to see how much that takes, I imagine it's way more than a 30W constant load... I mention this, as I just (finally) got FIOS Internet in my area. And of course we all have converter boxes and HDTVs as well..

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After reading the thread(s) about idle EVSE current draw I broke out my Kill-A-Watt and started measuring the devices in my living room. The one I was worried about most was my cable modem/wireless access point, but both together only drew 13W. Not bad. The DVR was also quite low. So I was on the whole pleasantly surprised at how frugal the devices were.

The Motorola ONT is the optical interface Verizon installs to terminate their fiber to the home (FTTH) network in your house. It has a battery backup for up to 4 POTS lines, the coax interface for MOCA, and an Ethernet port as well. Then they install an Actiontech MI424WR router as well. There isn't much you can do about this load, as it provides your Internet, WiFi, cable tv and phone service. I'm going to get out the kilowatt and measure it this weekend. On the positive side, it did replace an old Toshiba DOCSIS cable modem and a Linksys RV-082 dual WAN router. The point being, sometimes we just have to live with these loads, and sometimes you can shut them off... Verizon FIOS being one you probably can't do much about.

drees said:

botsmaker said:

Not that bad.

Click to expand...

Not too bad - but enough that you might consider having a switch so you could switch it off the 12 hours a day your car isn't plugged in to it...

Gotta remember that on a typical TOU rate, you are likely to be charged at rates MUCH higher than 11c/kWh (over 30c/kWh), especially in the summer.

Click to expand...

I have been considering adding a DPDT series switch. As a mobile homeowner, I plan to do my own install after getting the proper permits. Lowes has a 240V/30 amp rated switch that can be easily added to the system. Since I'm planning to use level 2 at less that 16 amps input (with 20 amp breaker) a 30 amp size is perfect. The switch can be mounted inside a weatherproof cover such as used for outdoor outlets. The area for the EVSE is a carport with protected outdoor exposure. A proper switch is much better that using the indoor breaker as a disconnect. I need to first go over the NEC code about outdoor mounted switches.