[coolmob]

Hello everyone,

I bought the Tiago EV XT Long Range 2 months ago and have already done about 5500 Kms on the same. As my running was high, I opted for a EV considering the low running costs.

So, my EV charges from a separate three phase electricity meter which powers the parking of the house and has 8-10 LED lights and the elevator taking load from it. I haven't changed or added anything on that meter except the EV.

My average driving each day is about 80 Kms and my battery at the end of the day is mostly around 50-55%. So, by that logic my Tiago EV having a 24kWh battery should use about 12-14 units per day to charge resulting in approx. 400 Units of extra electricity consumed during the month. The car is charged daily and is usually plugged in at 10-11PM and removed from charging at 8-9AM in the morning. Also, I use only the charging box and charger provided and installed by TATA.

Now this month I have got the first bill which reflects the full 30-day charging cycle of my EV and the car is consuming 30+ units per day resulting in 900 Units extra to charge! My bill with the same load used to be around 130-140 units a month and this month with the EV charging is 1039 units.

I am unable to understand how it is consuming so much electricity when its more than the battery capacity and the battery is almost never below 50%. This is making it almost as expensive to run as a CNG or even some petrol cars!

Can anyone explain what could be wrong and how to go about fixing this?

[Shreyans_Jain]

It is likely that the meter is defective. There is no conceivable other way that so much extra load is being put on a dedicated EV charging connection.

That being said, why did you opt for a separate connection and meter? You already have a tried and tested connection running for your house. Why not just pull a line from that?

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread moved to the Electric Cars forum.

[mercedised]

My suggestion would be to get a separate meter installed just for EV from your local electrician and monitor the usage for another month.

[mally2]

Originally Posted by mercedised

My suggestion would be to get a separate meter installed just for EV from your local electrician and monitor the usage for another month.

Sir I am curious if there is any other way to do this other than a meter, I have a 15a plug and want to monitor similarly, any other plugin device you know of ?

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by mally2

Sir I am curious if there is any other way to do this other than a meter, I have a 15a plug and want to monitor similarly, any other plugin device you know of ?

There is no need for any plug in device. Just get a simple analog single phase meter from your neighbourhood electrical shop. Get your local electrician to hook it up to with the 15amp socket from which you charge your car. You’ll get the units consumed straightaway, no multiplication factors involved. The consumption should be similar to what your iRA app shows or what you anticipate.

[Thilak29]

Get a smart plug and use it while charging - it can identify if it is indeed using more units than it should.

In ZConnect app too there is a way to see how many units were consumed in a month, correlate with that.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by coolmob

Can anyone explain what could be wrong and how to go about fixing this?

This is very surprising but not possible. Either there is something else consuming electricity on the same connection or the meter is defective.

Having said that that unit consumed will always not be exactly same as what your car capacity is as there are some heat losses of around 5%. My nexon EV max (40.6 KWH) takes around 43 units of electricity to charge from near zero.

[wheelguy]

Also do note, it consumes more units to charge from say 0 to 50 than to charge from 50 to 100. Try charging from 10% to 60% if your usage/routine permits.

Anyhow there should be something else also wrong, check for it. Few years back, had similar issue at my place, despite us consuming less power compared to our neighbors who had more members at home and more ACs and more usage, we are getting electricity bills significantly higher than them. First checked all devices and wiring at home and then complained to our power distributor APEPDCL, they came and inspected the connection. Few days later they voluntarily changed the meter and the wire coming from pole to our meter. Then our electricity bills came back to normal.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by coolmob

Hello everyone,

.......

Can anyone explain what could be wrong and how to go about fixing this?

Apologies if my question sounds stupid, can anyone else take advantage of your charging set up. ie. Is your charger vulnerable to someone else being able to use it?

To assure yourself, see if you can use a public charger for a few days/weeks to charge the car and check if this changes your electricity consumption and by how much?

[aim120]

Also make sure the meter is not calculating reactive power, old meters even if its digital cannot differentiate between reactive power aka phantom power vs active power.

High inductive loads such as a charger will have high reactive power.

Your escom can only charge you for the active power, so make sure the meter is not faulty or not a old one that cannot measure active power.

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by mally2

Sir I am curious if there is any other way to do this other than a meter, I have a 15a plug and want to monitor similarly, any other plugin device you know of ?

You can get something like this: https://www.amazon.in/Monitoring-Sui...dp/B0BRQCJ57Y/

There are many options and more expensive ones with display, make sure you get something rated for 16A. As others have said EV charging should at most take 5% more, so there is some problem. Once you have cracked this mystery, you can use a smart plug for other purposes.

[coolmob]

Mod Note : Please edit or multi-quote (QUOTE+) your replies instead of back to back posts. Thanks.

Originally Posted by shortbread

Apologies if my question sounds stupid, can anyone else take advantage of your charging set up. ie. Is your charger vulnerable to someone else being able to use it?

To assure yourself, see if you can use a public charger for a few days/weeks to charge the car and check if this changes your electricity consumption and by how much?

Its not a stupid question! Many people have shared parking in this age of high rises. But I have an independent house with a gated parking and only one EV in the house. So that problem does not arise.

Originally Posted by wocanak

You can get something like this: https://www.amazon.in/Monitoring-Sui...dp/B0BRQCJ57Y/

There are many options and more expensive ones with display, make sure you get something rated for 16A. As others have said EV charging should at most take 5% more, so there is some problem. Once you have cracked this mystery, you can use a smart plug for other purposes.

This seems interesting. I have asked both the electrician and discom people to come and check. They would be visiting tomorrow mostly. I have asked them to carry the clamp meter to check and match the current flowing through the car charger and the usage being shown in the meter.

Originally Posted by aim120

Also make sure the meter is not calculating reactive power, old meters even if its digital cannot differentiate between reactive power aka phantom power vs active power.

High inductive loads such as a charger will have high reactive power.

Your escom can only charge you for the active power, so make sure the meter is not faulty or not a old one that cannot measure active power.

I have a new digital meter which is barely 3-4 years old. The electric department has said someone will visit tomorrow to check so let's wait for the result.

Originally Posted by mercedised

My suggestion would be to get a separate meter installed just for EV from your local electrician and monitor the usage for another month.

I have been informed that discoms now provide separate EV meters where there is no fixed monthly charge or free units but a flat rate of Rs 4.50 per unit consumed. But you cannot use it for anything else and they require proof of EV ownership and a photo of your company provided charger to install it.

If I cannot figure out what's wrong here, I might get the EV meter installed and then check the usage to know for sure where the fault is.

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Also do note, it consumes more units to charge from say 0 to 50 than to charge from 50 to 100. Try charging from 10% to 60% if your usage/routine permits.

Anyhow there should be something else also wrong, check for it. Few years back, had similar issue at my place, despite us consuming less power compared to our neighbors who had more members at home and more ACs and more usage, we are getting electricity bills significantly higher than them. First checked all devices and wiring at home and then complained to our power distributor APEPDCL, they came and inspected the connection. Few days later they voluntarily changed the meter and the wire coming from pole to our meter. Then our electricity bills came back to normal.

Since my car usage consumes approx. 50% of the battery each day, not charging it to 100% leads to range anxiety and also the chances of going below 10% by the time I would reach home increase leaving no margin for any unforeseen circumstances.

[nstark13]

There's a certain threshold for lower power consumption by default, and if you exceed this certain threshold (in KW) the electricity supplying company increases the total load capacity of your connection resulting in higher bill even though you've consumed less units and/or even if no consumption.

Please make sure to check with the electricity supplying company about the load capacity of your connection and if it was increased/changed in recent times.

[spoth001]

If you have flexibility of using alternate power supplier(like we have in Mumbai Adani/Tata etc.), call them and have it evaluated to understand what is happening. Better to understand from their perspective as well.