Charger starts going during on-peak hours, well before scheduled time

[2cool4school]

I am signed up for off-peak program with my electirc company.
Issue #1: Charging is scheduled for 11:30 PM, yet after I come home from work and plug in the charger (Tesla Wall Connector), it would start running for no apparent reason - you can tell by the green light moving down on the charger, and the electrical meter is spinning. At the same time, the screen still shows "Charging will start at 11:30 PM". You can override it by pressing the button on the handle of the charger, and that would stop the charger, but that is an inconvenience. This is happening during the highest rate which is 10x the normal rate!
Issue #2: When I turn on climate control in the morning to heat up the car (again, this happens during the hightest rate window), the wall charger starts going. I want the car to use the battery during that time and not the wall charger, but the only way to do that is to go to a cold garage and unplug the charger before starting warming up the car.
As a result, I paid more for on-peak use than I did for off-peak use - ouch, baby, very ouch! Dear Tesla Engineers, if you are reading this, Model 3 desperately needs an option to suppress charger use outside of charging window.

 

[derotam]

When you plug into the wall, the car will use shore power for it's high voltage functions, such as pre-heat. These functions other than charging the battery are not part of the schedule. The schedule only affects charging.

Edit: I do agree that for those people on TOU plans, that suppressing all shore power except for certain time windows would be a good idea.

 

[brkaus]

I don't like lots of options. Makes it too complicated for the average user & more room for bugs.

It shouldn't use that much energy to pre-heat for a few minutes.

The reason to pre-heat for a long time is if one is worried about range. In that case, it should be using shore power.

I've never noticed it taking energy prior to starting a charge, unless I'm sitting in the car. It stops a few seconds after I get out.

Always an option to put a timer on the outlet.

 

[2cool4school]

When you plug into the wall, the car will use shore power for it's high voltage functions, such as pre-heat

But why whould it pre-heat right after I just returned home and plugged in the charger? The car is still warm, there is no need to pre-heat. This is very intrusive and seems like a bug to me.

 

[2cool4school]

The reason to pre-heat for a long time is if one is worried about range. In that case, it should be using shore power.

It IS using shore power during the hightest rate, which is more than 10x the off-peak rate for me. That is exactly the problem - paying more for on-peak than for off-peak totally defeats the purpose of having a TOU plan. I should be able to choose whether or not I want to use shore power for pre-heating, as I am not concerned about range at all.

 

[derotam]

But why whould it pre-heat right after I just returned home and plugged in the charger? The car is still warm, there is no need to pre-heat. This is very intrusive and seems like a bug to me.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that that is what it is doing... there are other functions that would end up using shore power, I just don't know what those are. It would be interesting to know how much power it is using over what time frame right after you plug it in. I

 

[brkaus]

If your rate is 10x, I'd get a timer on the charger.

 

[2cool4school]

If your rate is 10x, I'd get a timer on the charger.

For the tag price, I want my Tesla car to be my timer. I am pretty sure most of the owners who are on a TOU plan would agree.

 

[derotam]

For the tag price, I want my Tesla car to be my timer. I am pretty sure most of the owners who are on a TOU plan would agree.

The "tag price" is absolutely no indication that it will have every conceivable option/feature/capability that YOU or anyone else wants. Nothing in any literature did Tesla ever say that it would have fully configurable charging timing in every possible situation.

For the cost of my fast food I expect my order to be correct, but here we are with my order being wrong probably 50% of the time.

 

[miimura]

My Model 3 works with Off-Peak charging exactly as expected. The only defect I've seen is that for a while the app didn't indicate when it was set to charge, instead displaying only "Charging Stopped". Now it's back to the expected behavior, showing the scheduled charging time.

When you first plug it in, it will activate the EVSE and check the voltage. Then it will ramp up the amps to the set value to check for voltage drop. Then it will shut down and go to sleep until the time you've chosen to start charging.

If you choose to remotely activate the climate control, I would expect it to use the grid power to maintain your charge level. If you don't want it to do that, go out and unplug it first.

 

[Big Earl]

My Model 3 works with Off-Peak charging exactly as expected. The only defect I've seen is that for a while the app didn't indicate when it was set to charge, instead displaying only "Charging Stopped". Now it's back to the expected behavior, showing the scheduled charging time.

When you first plug it in, it will activate the EVSE and check the voltage. Then it will ramp up the amps to the set value to check for voltage drop. Then it will shut down and go to sleep until the time you've chosen to start charging.

If you choose to remotely activate the climate control, I would expect it to use the grid power to maintain your charge level. If you don't want it to do that, go out and unplug it first.

Be sure to unplug before opening a car door during on-peak hours, since opening the door will start the climate control if it was on at the end of the last drive. If plugged in, the climate control will use shore power regardless of the scheduled charging time.

 

[Glamisduner]

There should at least be a Charging End time at minimum. I agree for the cost of these cars, they should include some more charging options. My 2014 chevy volt had this functionality and needed it way less since it only had a small battery.

 

[Dana1]

There should at least be a Charging End time at minimum. I agree for the cost of these cars, they should include some more charging options. My 2014 chevy volt had this functionality and needed it way less since it only had a small battery.

You can change the maximum charge % to shorten charge time.

 

[Glamisduner]

You can change the maximum charge % to shorten charge time.

That's what I do but it's a hassle, you have to start the charge them start playing with the charger to see what you can do within 6 hours, then the next day you have to set it back again or you won't get a full charge...

 

[RandyS]

I think something is wrong if the car starts charging or using energy before your timer period starts. I've owned a Tesla since 2013 and mine respects the timer and doesn't turn on to charge before the midnight hour when it should...

 

[Magnets!]

I would also like the feature that is being suggested here. Just to summarize what I think the issue is....the car is not charging when it's not supposed to be, but the car does use 'shore power' when plugged in. Just eyeballing my daily electric usage I would guess for my car it amounts to about a kWh per day. But it would depend on how often you 'wake' the car and how long it takes to get to sleep, air temperature, BMS activity, software updates, etc.

I get Tesla probably wants to keep their interface clean and simple to use for new owners, but a menu option such as this could be accomplished very easily with an 'advanced options' tab or something.

 

[NathanielHrnblwr]

The car isn't charging, it's using shore power for climate controls. If you have the car set to 70, the fans will run and heat/cool will engage when necessary. It's not using a ton of power, but if this bothers you, turn off the climate controls or turn the fan down to something like 1.

I don't bother (also on TOU), and once the car locks, it stops using shore power within the minute.

 

[gnuarm]

For the tag price, I want my Tesla car to be my timer. I am pretty sure most of the owners who are on a TOU plan would agree.

That just seems such a reasonable idea. It doesn't need to complicate charging if you aren't interested in using this feature. Just like the delayed start, it can be ignored if you don't want to set it.

I've wondered if something can be done directly with the HPWC. It has means of communicating with other HPWCs to control charging rates. I've read about OpenEVSE which does allow programming in ways that would let an app control power. I don't think anyone has written such an app yet.

The comms port on the HPWC could allow a similar feature which could support cutting all power through the HPWC. This would be useful for TOU, in particular preheating from battery without disconnecting the cable. I don't know if anyone has reverse engineered the comms port on the HPWC, but I bet so. The trouble is for someone who might develop a product to control the HPWC through the comms port is if Tesla were to provide functionality in either the HPWC or the car that nullifies the utility. Then all that work would be for naught.

 

[gnuarm]

The "tag price" is absolutely no indication that it will have every conceivable option/feature/capability that YOU or anyone else wants. Nothing in any literature did Tesla ever say that it would have fully configurable charging timing in every possible situation.

For the cost of my fast food I expect my order to be correct, but here we are with my order being wrong probably 50% of the time.

Hmmm... and you continue to order fast food? I think I see the problem.

 

[Glamisduner]

Yes, my

I would also like the feature that is being suggested here. Just to summarize what I think the issue is....the car is not charging when it's not supposed to be, but the car does use 'shore power' when plugged in. Just eyeballing my daily electric usage I would guess for my car it amounts to about a kWh per day. But it would depend on how often you 'wake' the car and how long it takes to get to sleep, air temperature, BMS activity, software updates, etc.

I get Tesla probably wants to keep their interface clean and simple to use for new owners, but a menu option such as this could be accomplished very easily with an 'advanced options' tab or something.

If there's a charging start time they could at least put in a stop time. But it would be much more useful if you could at least put in a different time for each day of the week. Such is the world we live in where we need to schedule power usage. Big difference between. $.08 per kWh and $.50+ kWh especially when it's it most power hungry thing in your household.