Home charging - what's our routine/schedule preference

[NorfolkMustard]

With regards to home/work charging, what charging routine/schedule do you use now, and what would you like to do?

i.e. do you currently just plug it in when it's getting low and leave it to fill up to your SoC % target, or do you charge only during off-peak for cost and/or sympathetic grid load reasons, or perhaps you track the grid CO₂ intensity/forecast and synchronise your charging for when that's (or predicted to be) lowest during the day/week ? Or something else?

I'm looking for inspiration for the charging scheduling service I'm developing, see what I should spend time on this weekend

Current suggestions I fancy doing:
1. Let me plug in any time after 5pm (i.e. when I get home from work) but don't start charging (unless it's DC), wait for off-peak hours to start and stop charging
2. Workout what my car needs to reach SoC% target, then charge during the cheapest octopus agile 30minute slots to reach that target by XXam tomorrow morning.

 

[ACarneiro]

I plug in every time when I get home. Car starts charging at 00:15 when my Economy 7 cheap rate kicks in and charges for as long as it takes it to get to 80%. Usually 5 hours is enough after a daily commute.

Tesla recommend keeping the car plugged in when not in use, so I do just that

 

[Jeeves]

At the moment, I plug in as soon as I get home, but I have the Charge After 9pm set on Weekdays to reflect the off-peak periods on EDF’s Go Electric tariff.

Occasionally, I do need to have some more juice for the evening so I disable the timings.

I’m going over to Octopus Agile soon and still coming to terms with how I will manage that. I might give the ev.energy app a go or continue to do what I’m doing now.

One thing I have started doing lately is to manually turn on Climate about 30min before departure in the morning. This warms the battery to increase efficiency and eliminate regen limits because I charge to 90%. My departure time fluctuates which is why I don’t schedule it. Having discovered a use for Siri Shortcuts, it is now easy to do with one voice command instead of a few taps on the phone. The car draws 7kW whilst it is preheating to mitigate the effect of battery use that peaks at 13kW(6 max for the cabin and 7 for the stators to heat the battery coolant).

 

[WannabeOwner]

I normally charge at work - so that starts as soon as I plug in.

Charger at work trips a couple of times a year so i have ALERT set up if at WORK and if SOC is too low to be able to reach 90% by e.g. 17:30 (in TeslaFi, I have 3 "Is charge below X%" events to roughly cover it). Of course they trigger if I visit client and don't rock up at work until midday ... some better "Oh Oh - You were charging just now ... Power Cut maybe?" monitoring would be far better

At WORK I charge to 80% normally, but 90% on Fridays - Scrooge mode

At HOME [don't normally plug in] charging starts at 00:15 for E7. That's using the car's schedule (in case it fails to get WiFi instructions).

If at HOME then TeslaFi drops the limit to 80% at 23:55 and then raises it to 90% and restarts charging (if completed) just over an hour before departure (to warm battery).

Also turns off charging at 07:00 (end of E7). Would be nice to have easy way to override that when i want a 100% charge ...

I have to remember to change everything by an hour when clocks change (my E7 is 1:00 - 8:00 in Summer), so an option for that would be icing-on-cake ...

Both Home (Mon-Fri) / Work turn on HVAC 15 minutes before normal departure.

I have a 100% charge schedule too, aimed to raise limit to 100% 1.5 hours before departure. But I have to remember to disable anything else that would "adjust" the Limit And I have to remember to turn that OFF afterwards although I do get ALERT from TeslaFi if it is left on 100% charge

So an "Override everything and just do THIS" would be nice, along with "Turn this schedule OFF/DISABLE after run" (whereas TeslaFi only offers to Delete it, so you have to recreate it and all steps again next time, from scratch).

Having multiple steps as part of a single schedule would be nice, and either "Hours after start" or "Hours before departure" choice.

If I told the car to charge to 100% for 05:30 departure, and it needed to start before 00:00 E7, that would be nice

A Winter HOME schedule [given that I prioritise charging at WORK] that stopped the car's normal "Scheduled Start at 00:15" and just charged for an hour before departure would be nice - to warm that battery / provide REGEN on cold winter nights. Perhaps linked to Ambient Temperature so I don't have to remember to turn it off in the Spring!

what I should spend time on this weekend

Ah, sorry, given that the above will only take a few minutes could you also please add the ability to choose the "override" schedules ("Full 100% by 05:00" and "Overnight pre-condition by 05:30, overriding Tesla Schedule") via Alexa too please

 

[BK11SBY]

Tend to plug in when below 100 mile range left (211 miles at 90%) with schedule to start after 11pm just to be sympathetic to the grid. Always fully charged by the morning no matter what as I have 32a charging at home.

 

[JP1611]

I plug in as soon as i arrive home and it starts charging immediately, if I’m not planning to use the car the following day, i don’t bother.

I don’t schedule charge as my electricity tariff is a single rate.

 

[GalacticHero]

When I got the 3 I changed my electric service to the Time of Use plan which is presently 80% of the fixed rate plan during the Off Peak 9pm to 9am time. I program the charging to start at 9pm and have a reminder on my phone to turn off charging at 9am, for days I'm home. I am still using the 120V NEMA 5-15 and have a 50 mile work commute (25 each way.) I slowly lose charge during the week and then make it up on weekends. During the winter when charge efficiency is down both coming and going I sometimes have to start the charging as soon as I get home, even though it's during the more expensive "shoulder" period between On and Off Peak times. I also work 1 miles from a Supercharger and supplement there as necessary.

It all changes next Wednesday. I'm finally getting a NEMA 14-50 receptacle installed in my garage. That will easily fit a full recharge into the Off Peak period. Also, my current TOU service plan is a beta program from my utility. They've already announce the success of the plan and are switching everyone to TOU next summer, although with a different rate and time structure than the current beta plan. The Off Peak start time is going to be later and since my work time doesn't change, I'm going to lose some of the cheapest charging period, but that won't be a problem with the Level 2 charging.

 

[nightowl]

I tend to be fairly lazy and plug in when I'm unlikely to be driving for a couple of days and then leave it plugged in, otherwise I just usually don't plug it in. Charging scheduled as economy 7/off-peak time begins.

Since having a charge point installed, it obviously charges a fair bit quicker however would be placing extra load on the grid.

No gas here so I have several storage heaters and an immersion hot water tank, all of these together draw more power than the car charger. Immersion is scheduled to heat up toward the end of off-peak time (it's running off an eddi so can heat one element at a time.) I'm in the process of wiring my storage heaters up to a WiFi switch which has timer capability - they'll come on toward the morning (before off-peak period ends) rather than run for the entire off-peak period.

So in theory the peak draw from the grid should be smoothed out a bit by doing this.

If I can switch to Octopus Go with a smart meter I'd be more looking at getting as much stuff charged/heated during the cheapest rate though. Can't switch currently because my meter is some kind with an extra terminal that they don't do smart meters for yet.

 

[mick4545]

I plug in with charge level set to 50%. It stays like that until I have a trip planned. Then I set a scheduled start time to finish charging at the departure time.

I only charge to what I estimate for the trip, for example, if I think I will use 40% will charge to 70% and aim to arrive back with 30%, then back to 50% regardless of time of day.

 

[arg]

I have long thought that my ideal charging setup would have:

• UI on the chargepoint itself so that when I am plugging in I choose between three options: a) Normal mode, b) Get me a full charge by tomorrow morning, c) Charge NOW and damn the consequences.
• Normal mode guarantees a minimum of x% by the morning (say 50%), and otherwise charges opportunistically up to a max of y% (say 90%).
• Both modes a) and b) aim to achieve their target in the optimum fashion - using local solar if available, using the lowest cost and/or lowest carbon intensity to get the job done.
• For the example of simple E7 tariff and nothing else to optimise, mode b) will aim to fit in the E7 period but may need to start earlier to get the full charge by the target departure time. With something more complex like Octupus Agile, it will look at the forecast cost between now and then to pick the best time(s) to charge.
• Normal more will do the same as mode b) to hit the guaranteed target, but it will also aim to charge towards 90% over several days, using excess solar if available, otherwise picking the lowest cost/lowest carbon time to charge over the next week.
• I want the basic UI on the chargepoint, but there also needs to be a way to set the departure time (presumably on an other device - phone app or similar) - there will be a default time, but you may want to override it. When setting an explicit departure time for mode b), cabin pre-heat should be done too; it could be done up to 30 mins early if that is cheaper, or could be done using battery energy if an absolute full charge isn't required.

No, I don't have any of this implemented - at the moment I just use the car's timer to start at the beginning of the E7 period and manually stop it if it is going to run on unnecessarily past 7AM.

Yes, I realise this might not fit in the scope of what you are planning to write - but this is my ideal!

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I plug in on Fridays for the weekend (when most of my driving is done, my commute isn't significant enough to bother), or sometimes just go up to the local supercharger on a quiet period and fill up (since I still have supercharging miles).

If smart meters ever work here I'll probably setup some kind of timer for the friday charge, but for now I'm on flat rate so it doesn't matter.

 

[roadcred]

I plug in whenever I get home and have my EV Rolec to charge from 12.30 am. It is usually finished before the end of the 4p period.

 

[Keeper]

I plug in whenever I get home and have my EV Rolec to charge from 12.30 am. It is usually finished before the end of the 4p period.

Yep - same. It works a treat! Plus I get my occasional free £5 Starbucks Coffee voucher every so often, which is nice! I’m very pleased just how efficient and co-ordinated it is. It’s just as i imagined how owning an electric vehicle would be like.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I don’t schedule charge as my electricity tariff is a single rate

Would it not be worth your while getting an overnight rate? (there are Pros and Cons of course ...)

Even without that scheduling overnight helps even out the grid, and soak up / prevent curtailment of some excess North Sea Wind

Since having a charge point installed, it obviously charges a fair bit quicker however would be placing extra load on the grid

Interesting thought. Extra load on the grid, for a shorter period of time. Wall Charger 7kW is somewhat more efficient than 13AMP, so there are slightly more "losses" overall at 13AMP

sometimes just go up to the local supercharger on a quiet period and fill up (since I still have supercharging miles).

Each Supercharge increments a Counter (regardless of few/many kWh added), and the Count reduces Supercharge rate once a threshold is reached. The threshold is high, and the reduction is modest, and increases modestly as the Count increases, so probably not a concern - so long as you know

This is for any D/C charge, and applies to MS / MX. I don't know if it is different on M3 ?

 

[LukeT]

I usually have teslafi set the charge limit to 50% at 7am and 80% at 11pm.

This way whenever we plug in the car will charge to 50% if it's low, to get enough in for emergencies, but generally nearly all its charging will be done at times of lower grid carbon. Regardless, every morning it's "full", assuming plugged in.

For routine winter days I then add a schedule line to 90% a bit before departure, maybe some hvac too.

I have long thought that my ideal charging setup would have:

• UI on the chargepoint itself so that when I am plugging in I choose between three options: a) Normal mode, b) Get me a full charge by tomorrow morning, c) Charge NOW and damn the consequences.
• Normal mode guarantees a minimum of x% by the morning (say 50%), and otherwise charges opportunistically up to a max of y% (say 90%).
• Both modes a) and b) aim to achieve their target in the optimum fashion - using local solar if available, using the lowest cost and/or lowest carbon intensity to get the job done.
• For the example of simple E7 tariff and nothing else to optimise, mode b) will aim to fit in the E7 period but may need to start earlier to get the full charge by the target departure time. With something more complex like Octupus Agile, it will look at the forecast cost between now and then to pick the best time(s) to charge.
• Normal more will do the same as mode b) to hit the guaranteed target, but it will also aim to charge towards 90% over several days, using excess solar if available, otherwise picking the lowest cost/lowest carbon time to charge over the next week.
• I want the basic UI on the chargepoint, but there also needs to be a way to set the departure time (presumably on an other device - phone app or similar) - there will be a default time, but you may want to override it. When setting an explicit departure time for mode b), cabin pre-heat should be done too; it could be done up to 30 mins early if that is cheaper, or could be done using battery energy if an absolute full charge isn't required.

No, I don't have any of this implemented - at the moment I just use the car's timer to start at the beginning of the E7 period and manually stop it if it is going to run on unnecessarily past 7AM.

Yes, I realise this might not fit in the scope of what you are planning to write - but this is my ideal!

In a perfect world I'd love some functionality like this but I'd also like car, charge point and single app to work together as one system rather than duplicating/conflicting instructions.

 

[JP1611]

Would it not be worth your while getting an overnight rate? (there are Pros and Cons of course ...)

I've had the car since the end of November and my contract with my current energy supplier ends in May, I'm looking at other options, but i really don't want to increase the peak price of electric or gas to save a little in the early hours of the morning and I've noticed large variations in the standing charges.

I save more than 50% of what I spent on Diesel each month.