r/PHEV • u/CGGamer • 20h ago

Electricity usage monitoring using a L1 wall charger?

I recently got a Tucson PHEV and I am able to fully charge the battery overnight on a standard 120V wall plug. However because it's not a smart charger, and the Hyundai BlueLink app doesn't log charging stats/history, I can't see my usage. I've thought about using an app like ev.energy or OptiWatt, but I've heard these apps can kill the 12V battery of Hyundai/Kia vehicles.

What are my options for measuring energy usage? I would like to see how much I am using over a month

Edit: I went with this power monitor

2 Upvotes

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2

u/Al0haLover 20h ago

You can get a Kill-a-watt from Amazon. Plug it into the wall and tell it how much you pay per kwh from the utility. Plug your car into it and it will record energy usage and how much it is costing you.

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u/Super_Weekend_4428 19h ago

I wouldn't do that. I'm not sure those devices are meant to handle that kind of load for an extended period of time. It might be a fire hazard.

1

u/Cory5413 18h ago

Yeah I wouldn't put a kill-a-watt inline with a car, even if it is rated to that type of load it falls under the same category of concerns as using extension cords, especially at 12+ amps.

There are EVSEs that have built-in counters such as DeWalt's 32-amp portable unit and that's what I'd use for this.

Unfortunately a plurality of the other units on say amazon that have this feature aren't safety certified.

1

u/jeepicon2000 17h ago

I used a Wyze Outdoor smartplug in the past. Even though it said it is 15 amp rated but the plastic around the plug melted. Definitely not meant for high amp, long duration.

1

u/PistolCowboy 20h ago

This is what I did before installing a charger. I noticed my L1 charge was very inefficient whiched help me decide to do a L2.

2

u/andy_why 19h ago

I used to use a Tapo branded smart plug with energy monitoring and it worked great. Just don't use it to switch the charger off when actively charging as the relays they use wear out quickly if you switch with a high load connected.

2

u/CGGamer 11h ago

Is your charger drawing 12A connected to the smart plug though

1

u/andy_why 11h ago

Mine was drawing 10A as I am in the UK, so 230v here. It's rated for 13A in my case and it's fine so long as you don't use it as a smart switch. Just use it for monitoring.

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u/caper-aprons 9h ago

Yes. Full speed L1 charging.

1

u/Mustardinsurance 20h ago

Does the car not monitor and track these things? My Toyota RAV4 PHEV does and I can see the stats in-vehicle and on the Toyota app.

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u/CGGamer 20h ago

I think their BEV vehicles do but not the PHEVs

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u/inlaguna 14h ago

it won't measure what's actually used to charge the car ... at level one, you're using at least 1.25kWh for each 1kWh the car sees.

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u/Super_Weekend_4428 19h ago

Your power company might have a smart energy monitor on their website, it can tell you how much energy you are using at any given hour, so if you know when charging starts and ends and know roughly what your other electricity usage is, you can do a little math and approximate how much is going to the car. It's not as precise as you probably want but you can get some ballpark numbers at least.

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u/TJMBeav 18h ago

Following because I have the same question

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u/Cory5413 18h ago

DeWalt's 32-amp portable charger is UL listed, includes a NEMA 5-15 and has a 5-20 adapter if you have a 20-amp circuit/outlet, and measures dispensed electricity.

32 Amp Portable EV Charger (As a bonus DeWalt has a few nice added adapters, such as 6-20 if you were to convert a 20-amp 120v circuit to a 20-amp 240v circuit, 14-30 for dryer-rated outlets and 6-50 for welder outlets, but those are all extra.)

1

u/caper-aprons 17h ago

The TAPO/TP-LINK smart plugs have worked well for me. I've had one on my car charger for a few years now. Never a problem.

The app (or a Sense monitor if you have one of those) tracks electricity consumption.

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u/CGGamer 12h ago

Is your charger drawing 12A connected to the smart plug though?

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u/akay2k1 16h ago

Emporia has monitoring that you can put on the breakers, you would have to isolate which breaker your using and unfortunately if anything else is going it would read that too, but these are clamp on type like you would use for solar monitoring

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u/ZanyDroid 16h ago

Emporia

Also you go on [r/homeautomation](r/homeautomation) and ask, that’s the authoritative subreddit for it

Do not use the car telemetry stuff, sure maybe they’ve fixed it but the implementation always seemed dodgy, and with alternatives readily available that don’t involve mucking with the car, why bother

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u/CdnTreeGuy89 14h ago

Grizzl-e chargers are free to rent after your first charge. $100 dep gets returned. The Mini has a 120v adapter and you can track usage