Best Way to Charge Overnight?

[jordanM3]

Hey guys I just had a quick question for you experienced M3 owners. So I just picked up my SR+ M3 yesterday and I absolutely love it! So I get home at 7pm and last night I decided to plug it in and use the "scheduled departure" charging for 8am, which is the time I leave in the morning for work. I have read online that for some people the departure charging does not always work and will not even charge. This morning it worked flawlessly and I have able to have my car warm and the battery ready to go at 90% at 8am. I am just worried that one night my car won't charge and I won't be able to make it to work. So, would it be better for me to plug in at 7pm when I get home and just schedule my charging to start a 2:30am? That way when I wake up I use climate control to warm up and its still charged. I just need some help. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mike Hawk]

How much % do you use on your daily commute? That will tell you if you'd be okay with 'missing' a nightly charge session.

I use 20% and set my limit to 80%. A couple times my charging has been interrupted and then stopped by minor 1-2 second power outages. I don't have charging notifications turned on / didn't notice the notification so I got out to a car in the morning that was only ~60%. A bit of a nerve racking moment but alas no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

I also do not have a time of use rate plan so shifting my charging session time doesn't really buy me anything.

I ditched the scheduled departure crap. Hard stopping @ 6am doesn't work for me and NEMA 6-20 wasn't powerful enough to warm away some of the cold dots I have sometimes. Also the cabin prep was wonky and my departure time can vary by up to 30 minutes. So now I'm back to just waking my car ~5 min before I leave and set the temp. It's in a garage so it only gets down to ~55fish, so it won't take me much time to get up to 68 before departure.

 

[Rockster]

If your commute enables you to just set the car at 80% and begin charging it when you plug in after arriving home in the evening that's the simplest thing to do. That way you can just plug in and just forget about it.

Barriers to this simplicity would be if you need more than 80% (then just set it to 90% if you must) or if you have radically different electrical rates at different times of the day. In that case, you may want to set a specific start time in the car so that charging begins during the lower rates. (This is different than the scheduled departure. You're scheduling the start of the charge.)

 

[KenC]

Never used the Tesla scheduled departure, I use the one in the Stats app. I charge up almost to 59% when I plug in at night. Then in the morning Stats ups the charge to 61%, and turns on the heater. If the Tesla scheduled departure could do something like that, then try to get an almost full charge for your commute when you plug in, then in the morning have it charge a little more when it turns on the heater. That sort of thing.

 

[ssgstorm]

I use scheduled departure. Been using for a couple weeks now..works perfect. I leave at 7:15, I have 90% charge and car at 70 degrees when I leave

 

[Mo City]

I set mine to begin charging at 2:30am each night. It usually finishes ~7:00am which is 2-3 hours before in leave in the morning.

Keep it simple.

 

[srs5694]

If your commute is long enough that you can't manage two days' driving without a charge, you may want to look into charging options along your commute, just so you're familiar with them if something goes wrong. (Even if you don't rely on scheduled charging, a power outage could cause problems.) Superchargers are the obvious choice for this, but they're still sparse enough that they might not be accessible along your commute. Check PlugShare for Level 2 EVSEs, which will be slow, but possibly fast enough to get you where you need to go without too much hassle. You can also use PlugShare to look for CHAdeMO chargers, which Teslas can use via a $450 adapter. It's probably not worth the $450 as insurance against a low-charge commuting eventuality, but if you have other reasons to buy the adapter, then such insurance would be another reason to buy the adapter.

 

[SOULPEDL]

Related question, I'm trying to limit charging to within a window of (low cost energy) time, 11PM-5AM. I can't figure out how to bookend it. Seems I can either pick when to start or end. So I'm just setting start time, and adjusting the charge current as needed to make sure it's going to be done before 5AM. (I was hoping it would talk to the solar/PW side of the App which knows my peak/cheap cost periods already).

 

[gecko10x]

Related question, I'm trying to limit charging to within a window of (low cost energy) time, 11PM-5AM. I can't figure out how to bookend it. Seems I can either pick when to start or end. So I'm just setting start time, and adjusting the charge current as needed to make sure it's going to be done before 5AM. (I was hoping it would talk to the solar/PW side of the App which knows my peak/cheap cost periods already).

If your phone is iOS, use the Stats app: Set the Smart Battery Prep to bump it 5-10% an hour or so before you plan to leave, and set the car to start charging at 11pm. That way it'll charge most of the way at 11pm, and the last 5-10% just before you leave in the morning.

 

[SOULPEDL]

Android here...

I think it will come in time - car/house integrated on the same schedule.

 

[Rocky_H]

I can't figure out how to bookend it. Seems I can either pick when to start or end. So I'm just setting start time, and adjusting the charge current as needed to make sure it's going to be done before 5AM.

Huh? I'm not following. You're trying to get it to finish within the time window. So you start it at the start time, and get it to fill as fast as it can. Done. What kind of "adjusting the charge current" would you need to do?