Do you leave your charger powered up when not is use?

[ARealHuman]

What with lockdown, I'm not driving that much and am charging at home about once every fortnight, if that. I'm wondering what people do when their chargers aren't being used for longer periods of time - do you leave it powered up, or turn it off at your consumer box? Are you concerned about the power draw if it's left on? Do you have other concerns if it's left on (e.g. a light that can be seen at night possibly attracting unwanted attention).

A few words of explanation with your vote would be apprecicted!

 

[AussiePete]

I have a 7.2kw Rolec charger that was installed in 2016 when I had an Audi e-tron. I only had the car for a year so since 2017 the charger has been connected and switched on but not in use. It has its own smart consumer unit (again installed at the time) and as it’s not in use the draw is negligible as it has only one small light to indicate power.

I’ve never considered switching it off at the fuse box as the fuse box is in the garage and access is limited by the junk I have stored in front of it

 

[Tango130]

My Zappi 2 standby power consumption is 3w.

Am I concerned about its power draw, not at all, works out at just over 1kW for a two week period.

 

[Jake]

I have 2 Polar Chargemaster points at the front of the house which are left on all the time showing a small orange light to indicate power. When plugged in to a car and charging there is also a green light to indicate power is being drawn. Both have a key switch on the front to stop unauthorised use if required. I would only use the trip switch in the consumer unit to isolate if either of the units were not going to be used for some considerable time. It is convenient to just plug in when required rather than having to switch the units on first which is not instant as they seem to go through a boot up sequence which lasts a minute or so before they are ready to charge

 

[ARealHuman]

Thanks all for the replies so far!

 

[CDR]

I turn off mine as I have a priority board and the contactor is always in an energised state, it only uses 1watt but I just knock it off anyway

 

[ClawzSkunk]

I was advised there was no need to switch it off, in the same way there's no need to unplug a USB charger from the wall. My podpoint has a key which locks the unit when I'm not using it. Even when pluged in and powered it will not charge any vehicles if the key is in the locked position.

 

[Dave S]

Mine (Wallbox) is constantly on. No one ever suggested otherwise when I got it fitted.

 

[Noraf142]

My easee is online all the time. It have the option for ota updates aswell, and it really doesn't use mutch when not in use.
I have it set up so that you need a tag to get it to start.

 

[ARealHuman]

Thanks all

 

[Electrifried]

I have a polar plus from Wallbox, it has an led light displayed around the outer edge of the charger, it was fitted with its own consumer unit but I have never considered switching it off, don’t see the point really.

 

[octagon]

I always switch my charger off at the mini consumer unit when not in use.

 

[Mark Holmes]

I turn mine off too at the fuse consumer unit end.

 

[Noraf142]

Just curious, but why do you turn it off?

 

[Mark Holmes]

Just to protect the internal elements if it not being used, seems silly having it on standby..