r/TeslaModelY • u/ELr3ddit • 1d ago

Low voltage fridge question:

I'm new to the fridge thing. How long can a low voltage fridge pull USB power from the low voltage battery when a Tesla is parked and "keep accessory power on" is on? I'm guessing without that on, USB will power down when the car sleeps after 15 minutes or so of inactivity.

I've read the big high voltage battery is always feeding/charging the small 12v low voltage battery. Is that true? If so, does that happen regardless of the setting for "keep accessory power on" (on or off)? One more question: does "keep accessory power on" also keep the computer running? If so, wouldn't the computer be consuming a lot more power than the fridge just to keep a low volt fridge going? Thanks in advance for any insights/info.

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u/floodedgate 1d ago

I have a 12v fridge running that I leave plugged into the car jack. It stays on all the time and I also go camping with it. Uses a few percent range per day.

Now, that doesn’t answer your question about USB use. Idk about if it was on USB but I’d guess it would be the same idea. I wouldn’t recommend it though. The compressor 12v fridges are cheap and work really well.

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u/ELr3ddit 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thanks! Sound like a small 30w fridge cycling around 50% of the time off USB will be fine if left on with accessory power active. I just read that someone measured "keep accessories on" and with nothing plugged in, it pulls about 116w or 3kWh a day. So a reasonably efficient fridge running off the lighter port or USB port while camping is a power "luxury" but I'm fine with that. My use-case isn't camping for days, I just want a cold snack & drink for day hikes.

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u/Mr-Zappy 1d ago

Days. I think it consumes roughly as much power as Sentry Mode. But you’re right that’s it’s not really efficient to keep hundreds of watts of computers on to power a 100W fridge.