Colorado CORE Demand charge, and Charge on Solar

[IronCoffee_Max]

CORE is my energy provider. The way it works is the price of energy is about 11 cents per kWh, but between 4-8 they charge a "Demand Charge". What this is is over the course of 30 days, they look at my MAX demand and charge $3 per kW for that max. So if during any ONE of the 30 days I use 10 kWh from 4-8, I get charged 10*3 = $30.

What the means for me is that I really want to keep my grid usage at 0 from 4-8. Charge on Solar works great for that…but it's terrible the rest of the day for me because we drive at odd hours and sometimes we drive a couple hundred miles so need to charge. What I'd really like is to not use CoS until 4-8, but then turn it on. Or alternatively set my minimum charge as high as possible outside those hours and then as low as possible during those hours.

In other words:
Option 1:
8pm - 4pm: CoS = off
4pm - 8pm: CoS = on

Option 2:
8pm - 4pm: Minimum charge = 80%
4pm - 8pm: Minimum charge = 30%

@offandonagain - is this something NetZero can do? Or does anyone have any suggestions otherwise?

 

[jjrandorin]

Is there some reason you cant just charge in the middle of the night and ignore charge on solar completely (beside "the environment" I mean).

 

[IronCoffee_Max]

Is there some reason you cant just charge in the middle of the night and ignore charge on solar completely (beside "the environment" I mean).

We have two cars - sometimes 3. Sure, if I setup some sort of complex schedule, was really disciplined about plugging in one car or the next… but really the whole point is to make life simple. We'd like to just plugin when we're home and not have to think about complex schedules.

 

[jjrandorin]

We have two cars - sometimes 3. Sure, if I setup some sort of complex schedule, was really disciplined about plugging in one car or the next… but really the whole point is to make life simple. We'd like to just plugin when we're home and not have to think about complex schedules.

Shrug.. I also have 2 teslas, with 2 wall connectors (setup for power sharing) and I "just plug in" just like you and both cars are set to start charging at different times between 12 midnight and 6am, provided they are lower than what I have the charge limit set to.

No complex schedules, etc. "Simple" just like you said (and I agree with, which is why I am asking about ignoring charge on solar as it seems to be very very much "not simple".)