Leaving your charger plugged in the wall uses energy, too.

Eriamjh1138 said:

I wondered how much power my OEM charger would use when plugged in, but not connected or charging my car.

Using my Kill-A-Watt device, I plugged the charger in, but left it disconnected from the Bolt. It registered about 50 watts.

Charging aside (which draws up to 12A or 1,440 watts), if you leave the charger plugged in all the time, you will use about 438 kWHr of energy just to power the charger! That's enough to charge your Bolt over 7 times!

Assuming you charge for about 10 hours per day, ever day, it would only be 255 kWHrs or just over 4 full Bolt charges.

So, I recommend putting the charger on a switched outlet so you can shut it off when not charging.

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SparkEVPilot said:

How many hours did it take for your Kill-A-Watt to register 0.050 kWh?

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Watts and kilowatts are power. Kilowatt-hours is ENERGY. A kilowatt-hour is 3.6 million joules (another unit of electrical energy).

Power is Energy divided by time. Power is a rate. Energy is a total.

Power * Time = Energy

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Eriamjh1138 said:

SparkEVPilot said:

How many hours did it take for your Kill-A-Watt to register 0.050 kWh?

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Not 0.050 kwhr. 50 watts (0.050 kW). Read what I wrote carefully (had to go back to make sure I didn't make a mistake... Nope.) But it would take one hour.

I'm doing a 24 hour measurement right now and the charger is pulling a constant 50 watts plugged in. It's about 10-12 typical bright LED lamps (or one old-school incandescent light bulb.). That's a lot!

Even though the Kill-A-Watt tool is rated for 15 amps, I bet if I charged my Bolt through it, even at only 12 amps, it would melt. I may try it... when I can watch it.

Electrical units lesson:

Watts and kilowatts are power. Kilowatt-hours is ENERGY. A kilowatt-hour is 3.6 million joules (another unit of electrical energy).

Power is Energy divided by time. Power is a rate. Energy is a total.

Power * Time = Energy

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I had solar panels installed about 18 months ago and really learned the value of electricity. We unplugged a ton of little or unused electronic devices, like chargers, DVD players, TVs, computers, etc. Everything plugged in waiting for you to turn it on consumes energy. It adds up. I've lowered my electrical consumption by 30% without changing anything (other than installing a few power strips to shut things off).

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SparkEVPilot said:

Are you using a P4400 Kill-A-Watt meter or a Kill-A-Watt EZ meter? I have both. I plugged my L1 EVSE, that came with my 2014 Spark EV, into my P4400 Kill-A-Watt. The cable was not connected to the car. I set the meter to measure watts and it read 2.5 watts. in 24 hours this would give me 60 watt-hrs or 0.060 kWh per day or about 22 kWh per year. A 50 watt power draw by your unplugged EVSE seems way too high. See if you can find an EV driver with the same EVSE and give that EVSE a try.

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Eriamjh1138 said:

SparkEVPilot said:

Are you using a P4400 Kill-A-Watt meter or a Kill-A-Watt EZ meter? I have both. I plugged my L1 EVSE, that came with my 2014 Spark EV, into my P4400 Kill-A-Watt. The cable was not connected to the car. I set the meter to measure watts and it read 2.5 watts. in 24 hours this would give me 60 watt-hrs or 0.060 kWh per day or about 22 kWh per year. A 50 watt power draw by your unplugged EVSE seems way too high. See if you can find an EV driver with the same EVSE and give that EVSE a try.

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I can only tell you what my KAW is measuring. It is The P3 P4400.
I doubt it is "too high" as you say. If others would like to measure theirs and chime in, they are welcome.

I'll have my 24 hr+ measurement tomorrow. However, it consistently says 45-55 watts on the display with the L1 charger plugged in.

This is the charger the 2017 Bolt (and Volt) comes with.

I do know that this charger is made by Clipper Creek. That's about it.

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