Am I Charging Correctly?

[AndyEVTM3]

Hi any advice is very welcome...
I’ve Had an M3 RWD for about a week and just wanted any views on my charging regime.

I do about 150 miles per week and charge at home with a Gen 3 wall connector, I can charge at 30A as required.
My car has an LFP Battery which I understand likes to be charged at 100%

What I normally do is set the charging to start at 00:00 as I have economy 7 tariff.
The car is normally finished charging at about 4 in the morning.

As I have retired I don’t set any time for the charge to complete or precondition as I don’t go out at a regular time.

I then drive the car when required.

Question is is this the correct procedure, and should I leave the car plugged in all the time even if it doesn’t need charging? And do it every day?
What about driving after charging in the cold weather?

Thanks fo any comments.

 

[adasko]

I have economy 10 tariff. I have cheaper/off peak rate at 4:30am - 7:30am, 13:30 - 16:30, 20:30 - 00:30.
Rates are 45p at peak and 14p off peak. I decide to get hypervolt charger because it allowed me to schedule charging.
Car is plugged all the time and charger only sending electricity in off peak times.

 

[yessuz]

I would only add one thing to consider, and it's nothing to do with charging, but related to preconditioning the car before leaving on a journey. This has to be one of the best features of an EV, and I'm sure we've all had smug faces of late as the car does its thing and the neighbour is hacking away at the ICE

Whilst plugged in the car will draw power from the wall when preconditioning, so you would be using expensive non economy 7 electricity. You could unplug the car e.g. 15 mins before leaving and then start the preconditioning. I am not sad enough to try and calculate what this might save in a year, but I mention it for what it's worth - which might be £1 for all I know

you can start preconditioning on the app and then press the un-plug caharger.

it will re-plug 1 minute later or so

 

[Buzzliteyear]

I have set up a set charge time set in the app and a stop charge via Siri Shortcuts. Even with the car connected to the power and not charging it just draws 3Watts. Like others have said if left plugged in, then you can preheat or defrost without taking much power from the battery.

 

[mick4545]

What are your thoughts on keeping the car plugged in during heavy rain for those of us who don’t have covered parking? I don’t plug in when rain is forecast. I know it’s safe.

Regular commuters have no choice I suppose.

 

[spooksman]

What are your thoughts on keeping the car plugged in during heavy rain for those of us who don’t have covered parking? I don’t plug in when rain is forecast. I know it’s safe.

Regular commuters have no choice I suppose.

I must admit I plug mine in regardless of weather - I've always assumed that water getting to the electrics is a problem that's been solved.

I live in the North West, I'd never be able to charge with our weather...

 

[Buzzliteyear]

With the cable plugged in, it should be fine since its covered. Wouldn't dream of washing the car with it plugged in, as I'm sure in the manual it says to avoid aiming a pressure washer at the window/door seals and the charge port door.

 

[DJP31]

What are your thoughts on keeping the car plugged in during heavy rain for those of us who don’t have covered parking? I don’t plug in when rain is forecast. I know it’s safe.

Regular commuters have no choice I suppose.

I would remove that worry from your mind and just plug in. The car will be absolutely fine and you'll have on less thing to worry about - there's enough of that in life as it is

 

[Jason71]

With the cable plugged in, it should be fine since its covered. Wouldn't dream of washing the car with it plugged in, as I'm sure in the manual it says to avoid aiming a pressure washer at the window/door seals and the charge port door.

I think one of the reasons they added car wash mode is you can actually accidently open the charge port with a pressure washer due to the pressure it exerts. Done it myself a couple of times .

 

[WannabeOwner]

can it still draw electricity from the house to do updates or whatever mysterious things it wants to do when it’s parked

I'm not sure it will draw power for anything other than "climate" - e.g. pre-condition the car for a trip. (Battery heater too I guess ...)

The "other things", like software updates, will drain some power (I assume from battery) and if SOC falls far enough it will top up "tonight"

Others may know better than me though.

 

[WannabeOwner]

What are your thoughts on keeping the car plugged in during heavy rain for those of us who don’t have covered parking?

Thunder storms (i.e lightning) are the only thing that bothers me with the always-plugged-in approach, particularly if I am away from home and no chance to unplug.

 

[NewbieT]

We’ve had lots of switching going on this week. I def. need to get SPD’s fitted.

 

[Adopado]

What are your thoughts on keeping the car plugged in during heavy rain for those of us who don’t have covered parking? I don’t plug in when rain is forecast. I know it’s safe.

Regular commuters have no choice I suppose.

Mine is plugged in more or less every night fully exposed in all weathers… and has been since early September 2019. I initially worried about the exposed DC connectors and even used a 3D printed cover for a few weeks … but it didn’t fit too well and tended to get stuck so gave up with it when I realised that there were no reports of problems leaving the pin/sockets exposed.

 

[mick4545]

I charge mainly at home and cover the DC connectors with tape to keep dust out.

 

[WannabeOwner]

to keep dust out.

A reason for plugging the car in Wall Charger's can have a dummy socket to plug into for that purpose, but being a lazy person I just dangle the plug over the wall-unit, so that the plug is pointing down to stop it collecting rain, but spiders and other things accumulate so, for me, "car plugged in" keeps the wand's plug clean - at least whilst the car is at home