Switch to turn off Blink?

trentr · May 19, 2011

I plug-in at work during the week and rarely use my Blink charger at home. Currently, I unplug the unit or use the circuit breaker to turn it off. It is actually not connecting to the internet anyway. So, is it ok to use the circuit breaker as a switch? If not, how hard would it be to install a regular switch? My Blink has a plug that connects to an outlet. This is to save electricity of course.

thankyouOB · May 19, 2011

Use the plug at the bottom in the safety box.
That may just be for hardwiring.

Unplug it.

greenleaf · May 19, 2011

trentr said:
I plug-in at work during the week and rarely use my Blink charger at home. Currently, I unplug the unit or use the circuit breaker to turn it off. It is actually not connecting to the internet anyway. So, is it ok to use the circuit breaker as a switch? If not, how hard would it be to install a regular switch? My Blink has a plug that connects to an outlet. This is to save electricity of course.

I think you would need a heavy duty disconnect, rated for at least 40A.

Or just use the breaker -- which will eventually wear out. The breaker alone is about $10 or so but the replacement could cost you more if you want an electrician to replace it.

However, as part of the EV project, you are supposed to have internet connection with the Blink network.

davewill · May 19, 2011

trentr said:
I plug-in at work during the week and rarely use my Blink charger at home. Currently, I unplug the unit or use the circuit breaker to turn it off. It is actually not connecting to the internet anyway. So, is it ok to use the circuit breaker as a switch? If not, how hard would it be to install a regular switch? My Blink has a plug that connects to an outlet. This is to save electricity of course.

Neither the receptacle nor the circuit breaker are designed for frequent use. I'd also worry a little bit about the Blink itself. I'm sure they didn't design it for frequent power cycles, either.

Anyway, if you're planning to continue to disconnect on a daily or semi-weekly basis, I'd consider installing a switch designed for the job.

Rake · May 19, 2011

correct, circuit breakers are not switch rated.
Ideally, the handle should ony be used to reset the circuit in the event of a malfunction.

trentr · May 19, 2011

Yes, I'm waiting for Blink to update the SD card so that I get the latest firmware(1.5?). The current firmware I have is so unreliable with wi-fi and even ethernet hard-wired. If Blink can reduce the stand-by wattage, then I don't need to turn the unit off. I read that it is consuming 22 watts or so on stand-by. That's way too high esp if I rarely use the unit. Currently, I only use it on weekends. Guess, I'll just wait for the next firmware that will reduce vampire loads. By the way, Comcast set-top boxes consume 25 watts on standby, this is the one w/o DVR.

TomT · May 19, 2011

I've measured mine at 12 watts. Not enough for me to even give it a second thought.

trentr said:
Yes, I'm waiting for Blink to update the SD card so that I get the latest firmware(1.5?). The current firmware I have is so unreliable with wi-fi and even ethernet hard-wired. If Blink can reduce the stand-by wattage, then I don't need to turn the unit off. I read that it is consuming 22 watts or so on stand-by. That's way too high esp if I rarely use the unit. Currently, I only use it on weekends. Guess, I'll just wait for the next firmware that will reduce vampire loads. By the way, Comcast set-top boxes consume 25 watts on standby, this is the one w/o DVR.

sparky · May 20, 2011

mogur said:
I've measured mine at 12 watts. Not enough for me to even give it a second thought.

Agreed. My Blink standby power only represents about 2 weeks of LEAF driving per year... oh wait; never mind, that's 450 miles.

Coffee_Slurry · May 20, 2011

Standby is 12.4W here, measured by the SDG&E meter.
That's 8.9kWh a month, 107kWh a year.

To put it in perspective, a modern fridge/freezer is 52W average, so the Blink is using about 1/4 the power of my fridge, which doesn't seem right.

TomT · May 20, 2011

You could probably save more than that by just going on a diet and losing 20 pounds <Grin>!

sparky said:
mogur said:

I've measured mine at 12 watts. Not enough for me to even give it a second thought.

Click to expand...

Agreed. My Blink standby power only represents about 2 weeks of LEAF driving per year... oh wait; never mind, that's 450 miles.

sparky · May 20, 2011

mogur said:
You could probably save more than that by just going on a diet and losing 20 pounds <Grin>!

I like it; reduce my carbon footprint and my Caloric a**print!

scm6079 · May 22, 2011

I sooo need to do that myself!!

I hooked my blink unit to a dryer outlet style plug. Just make sure to leave your unit on some nights to make sure it can phone home and get the firmware updates and report its data. As the Blink team works to fix bugs the next several months of firmware updates are going to be really important.

-Scott

Anonymous · May 27, 2011

FYI, I checked with Blink support about the power usage, and Robert Nowaczewski e-mailed this calculation:

A working unit when it is just sitting doing nothing the unit pulls about 0.2 amp at 245.7 volts AC.

Power is V X I = 245.7 Volts AC x 0.2 Amps AC = 49.14 Watts.
Multiply 49.14 Watts by 24 hours and divide by 1000 = 1.17936
Next Multiply 1.17936 by hourly rate for example (15 cents per kW) = 0.176904 cents per day
Last multiply by 365 days a year by 0.176904 to get $64.57 a year to have blink connected and sitting in garage or roughly $5.38 a month.

This will vary with your rate in your area. The unit basically uses a little less than ½ the energy of a 100 watt incandescent bulb.

As to a ‘stand by’ or ‘sleep’ mode: This has been a common request for a future update and it has been added to development’s list of improvements to be rolled out in the future. At this time, there is not a ‘screen saver’ or ‘resting’ mode.

49 Watts! :shock:

gmuzhik · May 27, 2011

EVLover thanks for the calculations. I just got my Blink installed. I measured the standby current of mine using a clamp on Triplett ammeter from Frys. I got 0.10A. After the 1.6 firmware upgrade, it remained unchanged even when I configured it to turn off the display. I am not able to measure power factor so that might reduce it a bit. Remember for those who have TOU metering, the "vampire" current is charged at varying rates during the day. At peak rates, these can be upwards of 0.38 per KWh or so here at San Diego. We're not talking big money here of course but it does bother me that it is wasting 24 watts of energy, seemingly unnecessarily.

DaveEV · May 27, 2011

EVLover said:
FYI, I checked with Blink support about the power usage, and Robert Nowaczewski e-mailed this calculation:

A working unit when it is just sitting doing nothing the unit pulls about 0.2 amp at 245.7 volts AC.

Click to expand...

49 Watts! :shock:

I highly suspect he's not measuring power factor - many others have and are reporting 10-16 watts at idle depending on firmware revision.

Residential customers don't get billed for reactive power - only actual power usage.

Coffee_Slurry · May 27, 2011

The only meter that matters is the one SDG&E reads, and that one says 10-12W after the upgrade (depending on dimming options).

Put your hand on the top of the case. If it was burning 50W sitting there, it would be warmer.

gmuzhik · May 27, 2011

GroundLoop: How did you determine that the SDG&E meter was registering 10-12 watts? I am interested in doing that myself but I have a smart meter and it is difficult to determine instantaneous power. Google power does not work yet on my net metering for Solar PV.
Thanks.

matth · Jun 23, 2011

Multiply 49.14 Watts by 24 hours and divide by 1000 = 1.17936
Next Multiply 1.17936 by hourly rate for example (15 cents per kW) = 0.176904 cents per day
Last multiply by 365 days a year by 0.176904 to get $64.57 a year to have blink connected and sitting in garage or roughly $5.38 a month.

That's more than 1/4 of my current (pre-leaf) electric bill. But it's actually worse than that. The standby power is running 24/7, and I will be getting the EV rate.

So it's like 49W*$0.25*18hrs + 49W*$.05*6 hrs=~$7/month in the PG&E service area.

And to add insult to injury, I will be working hard to only use power for my Leaf during the off-off peak time, but I'll be forced to use a non-trivial amount during peak time.

We need a more power efficient stand by mode, that's for sure.

DaveEV · Jun 24, 2011

matth said:
We need a more power efficient stand by mode, that's for sure.

The Blink actually "only" pulls 10-15 W when idle depending if the screen is on or not. Or about $2.14/month using your rates.

Still would like to see the vampire draw down to 5W or less... 15W 24/7 for 30 days is enough to drive the LEAF about 40 miles!

TomT · Jun 24, 2011

Boy is that different than what I measure with my TED. Before the dimmer version of the software, I saw 12 watts in quiescent state. Now, with the dimmer activated, I see about half that. I'm sorry, but I refuse to loose any sleep over 6 stinking watts!

EVLover said:
49 Watts! :shock:

Switch to turn off Blink?

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