Keeping it plugged on a Level 2 charger at home

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bulls96

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Just want to confirm with u guys if it is OK to leave the Clarity plugged in to our Level 2 Charger at home (a Siemens versicharge)

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If it's in the garage it's plugged in. We haven't made much use of the remote climate feature but that is the main reason I'd leave it plugged in. In the summer the garage can easily be between 110 and 120 degrees F so having the car cooled off 10 minutes before using it would be helpful. Then in the winter having the car warm up would be equally useful. Use the house AC instead of the battery to precondition the car.

As the car has the charge controller built in you can't over charge the battery.

In general I've read a lot about not keeping batteries on a charger too long. But that hasn't proved to be a problem for me. All of my garden equipment are battery powered. I have seven batteries that are in their charge stations if they aren't in use. My lawnmower battery is now seven years old, on the charger 24/7, and it still performs well enough to do both of our lawns.
 
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the EVSE only delivers power to the car when it requests it, and stops power when full?
 
bulls96 said:
I wonder if it makes any difference in the power bill. Probably not.

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Our Bosch EVSE draws about 5 watts while it's turned on, but not charging. As miniscule as that is, I push the EVSE's on/off button after charging to turn it off and not waste 5 watts of electricity.
 
My ChargePoint has a very comforting green glow around the stored handle. Always lets me know it’s ready when I pull into the garage. Slowly pulses when it’s on a schedule and turns blue when successfully plugged in. So it must be drawing some very small amount of power to run the LED and be ready to respond to WiFi communication but since it’s hardwired there’s no way to check the standby consumption.
 
Not in my manual, but I called their support number using your second recommendation (BTW, they have fantastic customer support) and asked. They said 5 Watts which I assume is 5 W per hour.
If so, that comes to 43.8 kW/yr or about 33 cents/month at my rate of $0.09287/kW.
 
Living in the SouthEast, we are subject to sudden lightning storms during Summer and early Fall seasons. A few years ago, we had a lightning hit on a pine tree near the house that went down the tree through the root system and into our house and my neighbors. My neighbor had about $10k in damaged electronics, and I lost a garage door opener, plus a Transfer Switch logic board, along with an array of power adapters in the house.

I don't even want to think about what that might do to my Clarity, if it would be plugged in during such an event. Consequently, I limit my Clarity connect time to those periods when there is a low risk of storm activity, and I don't leave it plugged in too long after charging has been completed.
 
I am going out of town for a week.

Is it better to leave the car in my garage plugged in or unplugged with a full charge?

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I definitely wouldn't leave it plugged in, for the same reason as I mentioned on my previous post. I don't understand what benefit would be derived from leaving it plugged in and exposed to possible AC line hits, but maybe I'm missing the point.

If you are concerned that there might be some loss of charge after the idle week, you could easily just plug it in when you get back to top it back up.
 
I can hear my Versicharge switch off when battery is full. Leaving unplugged for a week will drain battery only a fraction of one percent
 
When our car is in the garage it's plugged into the L2. The car is going to self regulate. No worries.
 
bulls96 said:
I am going out of town for a week.

Is it better to leave the car in my garage plugged in or unplugged with a full charge?
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There was a thread somewhere that pointed out the batteries lose power pretty slowly. So, it seems you won't lose much power while you're gone. Were I you, I'd leave it unplugged.
 
vicw said:
Living in the SouthEast, we are subject to sudden lightning storms during Summer and early Fall seasons. A few years ago, we had a lightning hit on a pine tree near the house that went down the tree through the root system and into our house and my neighbors. My neighbor had about $10k in damaged electronics, and I lost a garage door opener, plus a Transfer Switch logic board, along with an array of power adapters in the house.

I don't even want to think about what that might do to my Clarity, if it would be plugged in during such an event. Consequently, I limit my Clarity connect time to those periods when there is a low risk of storm activity, and I don't leave it plugged in too long after charging has been completed.
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So would it make sense to attach it to a surge protector? I know that in my office we have medical equipment that costs in excess of $70,000. Every piece of equipment like this is connected to a surge protector.
 
ozy said:
So would it make sense to attach it to a surge protector?
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A surge protector that can handle a 30 or 50 amp 240 volt system would be expensive.

Why are we assuming the Clarity doesn’t have effective on-board surge protection?
 
Even if the Clarity as an onboard surge protector, do you really want to find out how expensive that would be to replace it if “took one for the team”?
I bet it’s much less expensive to put in a whole house surge protector. They run $100 to $250 plus installation.
I picked an Intermatic that has replaceable modules so I don’t have to buy a new one or pay an electrician if it soaks up a surge. I got an open box on Amazon for $200 and paid $70 to have it installed. It’s $40 to replace a fried module and it’s plug and play. Cheap insurance for a $30,000 PHEV and a $15,000 solar PV system.
It’s the black box at the top. It also came with the mounts and cover to flush mount.
5E3FAA81-8F08-4007-A453-43E4DEC7E526.webp
 
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ozy said:
So would it make sense to attach it to a surge protector? I know that in my office we have medical equipment that costs in excess of $70,000. Every piece of equipment like this is connected to a surge protector.
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YES - I do have a whole house Surge Protector installed, but I still think there is a potential risk to damage of sensitive electronics, especially from a nearby lightning strike that could overwhelm the Protector. For that reason, and the high potential of those kinds of events living in the SouthEast, I don't leave my Clarity connected to the charger any longer than necessary, or when there are reports of potential lightning strikes in our area .

I really want to avoid possible damage to the electronics in the Clarity, resulting with intermittent or solid failures that could be very difficult to isolate, (especially considering the modest technical local Honda expertise with PHEVs),and possibly very expensive and time consuming to repair. To each his own, but its just not worth the risk for me.
 
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