Is there anyway to force ONLY off-peak charging?

[henderrj]

Sometime in the not too distant past Tesla added something to help the scheduled departure time charging work better. They start charging to see what kind of current you get and then it will shut it down, if it believes it has more than enough time. That way if you set it to 100% and a scheduled departure time yes, it comes on immediately, but it should shut off if there is enough time to actually reach 100% by your departure time. My problem is as soon as I saw it start I thought "oh no the dumb thing starting right away", so I hit stop charging. Then it never started, so I didn't have my 100% when I got up in the morning. Live and learn!

 

[nBar5EV1]

@nBar5EV1 - do you *also* have settings enabled under the Departure tab? Just curious

No settings enabled under departure.

Sometime in the not too distant past Tesla added something to help the scheduled departure time charging work better. They start charging to see what kind of current you get and then it will shut it down, if it believes it has more than enough time. That way if you set it to 100% and a scheduled departure time yes, it comes on immediately, but it should shut off if there is enough time to actually reach 100% by your departure time. My problem is as soon as I saw it start I thought "oh no the dumb thing starting right away", so I hit stop charging. Then it never started, so I didn't have my 100% when I got up in the morning. Live and learn!

If that’s the case this still doesn’t work because it always starts and never stops lol. I rarely let my car go below 60% SoC and usually charge to 80%. My schedule is more than enough time for my mode y to charge 20%. I wonder if my HPWCs firmware is out of date. I have so much trouble connecting that thing. Really hope that support for that in the Tesla app comes soon!

 

[ArizonaEV]

In my opinion, this is a glaring hole in Tesla's software. They should allow us to set off-peak charging time start and end, as well as minimum and maximum state of charge... then it should just figure the rest out.

I recently tinkered with scheduled charging and it's abysmally confusing and doesn't seem to work right.

I totally agree with you. My ChargePoint charger at my previous house was able to access my local electric company schedule and know that on-peak was 4-7pm during weekdays and no on peak during the weekends.

Now that I moved and got a Tesla Wall Charger V3, I was shocked to see it had no ability to do this.

And I love when you point out what a glaring oversight this is on Tesla part, people start asking about your driving habits and when you leave for work, etc. It has nothing to do with that! I might just want to plug my car in a 2pm and know it will stop at 4pm and restart back at 7pm and not have to worry about on-peak pricing.

Wish I would have stayed with ChargePoint even requiring the adaptor but I thought every Wifi capable charger had this basic functionality.

 

[henderrj]

Our Kia soul EV had a button that allowed you to charge 100% just one time. I've asked Tesla for this for like 5 years now. Simple things to do, but it just doesn't seem important to them I guess.

 

[davewill]

I do this by having EVSEs that I can configure to only turn on during super off-peak (12am-6amM-F 12AM-2PM SS). However, for years I just set the start time to midnight, and the number of times I wasn't done by 6am are so few they're not worth worrying about. If you have a huge commute (or slow charging) that regularly leaves you unable to finish before your cheap rates are over, you're going to have to charge outside off-peak to maintain your charge level anyway.

 

[father_of_6]

I do this by having EVSEs that I can configure to only turn on during super off-peak (12am-6amM-F 12AM-2PM SS). However, for years I just set the start time to midnight, and the number of times I wasn't done by 6am are so few they're not worth worrying about. If you have a huge commute (or slow charging) that regularly leaves you unable to finish before your cheap rates are over, you're going to have to charge outside off-peak to maintain your charge level anyway.

OR... maybe you don't plug in until 2am, and there's enough off-peak time to get you to your minimum (let's say 50%), but you'd happily charge to as high as 80%, as long as it's at off-peak pricing.

It'd be better if we could set a minimum *required* charge, and a maximum... plus the off-peak time range. Then the car would charge to minimum overnight but up to maximum as long as it's still off-peak.

 

[gixxer614]

It’s in the same place. You can either set departure time or start time

 

[E90alex]

There’s really a lot to be desired with the charging options.

Another being no ability to set per day charging/preconditioning schedules instead just “all week” and “weekdays”. I’m not at a typical M-F 9-5 job so my schedule varies throughout the week and I have to remember to change the settings several times a week. There’s no reason I need to pay for a third party app/service and give them access to my vehicle to accomplish that considering those third party services are utilizing Tesla APIs.

 

[Rocky_H]

My ChargePoint charger at my previous house was able to access my local electric company schedule and know that on-peak was 4-7pm during weekdays and no on peak during the weekends.

Now that I moved and got a Tesla Wall Charger V3, I was shocked to see it had no ability to do this.

Every time people bring this up, I still can't see why this is any issue. Since you don't want it to start until after the 4-7 PM time, you set it to start at 7:01 PM, and done. That does what you want.

 

[sfRonH]

In my opinion, this is a glaring hole in Tesla's software. They should allow us to set off-peak charging time start and end, as well as minimum and maximum state of charge... then it should just figure the rest out.

I recently tinkered with scheduled charging and it's abysmally confusing and doesn't seem to work right.

In my opinion, this is a glaring hole in Tesla's software. They should allow us to set off-peak charging time start and end, as well as minimum and maximum state of charge... then it should just figure the rest out.

I recently tinkered with scheduled charging and it's abysmally confusing and doesn't seem to work right.

Agreed!

 

[henderrj]

Every time people bring this up, I still can't see why this is any issue. Since you don't want it to start until after the 4-7 PM time, you set it to start at 7:01 PM, and done. That does what you want.

Do they not have time of use in boise? I seriously don't know. That was his problem, the cheap electricity time window is fairly small where he lives. And since he didn't need it charged up anymore, he'd like it to simply stop when the rates go up. Seems like a reasonable economic goal.

 

[Rocky_H]

Do they not have time of use in boise? I seriously don't know.

We just have expensive afternoon peak, and that is only for a few months through the summer, but no really cheap super off peak time at night.

That was his problem, the cheap electricity time window is fairly small where he lives.

That is not what was said. I think you may have gotten that backward. The cheap electricity time was 21 hours long. That doesn't sound like a small time window. It said the expensive time was only three hours, from 4-7 PM. It's not hard to start afterward to avoid that.

he'd like it to simply stop when the rates go up. Seems like a reasonable economic goal.

So it starts at 7:01 PM, after the expensive peak time is over. It has until 4 PM the next day when the rates go back up.

 

[henderrj]

We just have expensive afternoon peak, and that is only for a few months through the summer, but no really cheap super off peak time at night.

That is not what was said. I think you may have gotten that backward. The cheap electricity time was 21 hours long. That doesn't sound like a small time window. It said the expensive time was only three hours, from 4-7 PM. It's not hard to start afterward to avoid that.

So it starts at 7:01 PM, after the expensive peak time is over. It has until 4 PM the next day when the rates go back up.

Ah! I may have confused multiple posts. I know that in some places there are 3 tears, with the lowest price being only 4 to 6 hours. That would be where this would make any sense at all. You are correct, of course, for those like us, who have only a 4 to 6 hour high window,, there's no problem ever.

 

[wws]

Every time people bring this up, I still can't see why this is any issue. Since you don't want it to start until after the 4-7 PM time, you set it to start at 7:01 PM, and done. That does what you want.

The problem is that if you then plug in at 8 pm, it will wait 23 hours to start charging. One has to explicitly tell the car to start charging.

Our Volt has a MUCH more sophisticated setup. You can basically program in the entire TOU schedule taking into account peak/part peak/off peak, weekday/weekend, and summer/winter times and dates. The car will automatically optimize for lowest cost and having it ready for you at your desired departure time. GM did a good job on it.

 

[dogmodes]

This is kind of blowing my mind they don’t have this nailed down. I have a chargepoint and it just works, never charges between 11am-7pm unless I start it in app or plug the car in twice within a minute. I tried using Tesla to control it but found the chargepoint more reliable.

If you set Off-Peak charge on departure tab, but then set enabled scheduled charging on charge tab will that stop it from charging during Peak times?

 

[E90alex]

This is kind of blowing my mind they don’t have this nailed down. I have a chargepoint and it just works, never charges between 11am-7pm unless I start it in app or plug the car in twice within a minute. I tried using Tesla to control it but found the chargepoint more reliable.

If you set Off-Peak charge on departure tab, but then set enabled scheduled charging on charge tab will that stop it from charging during Peak times?

Yeah it’s baffling for a company that supposedly prides itself on software and software updates that their charging options are so limited and rudimentary.

You can only have off peak charging or scheduled charging, you can’t have both.

Off peak charging is “finish charging by this time, if possible”. Note that if it cannot get to your desired charge level by the off peak end time, it will keep charging past the off peak end time until it’s sufficiently charged. And there’s no setting for off peak start time so it will charge as early as it needs to in order to finish by off peak end, so it could very well start charging before off peak time starts depending on state of charge and desired charge level.

And scheduled charging is “start charging at this time”. This one doesn’t seem to have as many caveats.

You can’t have it charge ONLY between xx:xx and yy:yy.

 

[Cyberspeed]

I am using a HPWC in my garage. Currently charge at 42 amp. I just tested this earlier to confirm. I set schedule to begin charging at 5:30pm. Charge limit is 85%. SoC when I plugged it in was 62% I’m attaching screen shots for reference.
View attachment 828991View attachment 828992View attachment 828994View attachment 828993

I have the same issue.

was wanting it to start charging at a specific time to reach 100% for a long road trip. Woke up and found it had been sitting for 6 hrs at 100%..

Car did not blow up or loose range (rated range actually went up 13mi per teslafi) however point was I wanted it at 100 the get into the car and leave....

Ive tried 3x and its never worked. Have given up on this.

 

[nBar5EV1]

I have the same issue.

was wanting it to start charging at a specific time to reach 100% for a long road trip. Woke up and found it had been sitting for 6 hrs at 100%..

Car did not blow up or loose range (rated range actually went up 13mi per teslafi) however point was I wanted it at 100 the get into the car and leave....

Ive tried 3x and its never worked. Have given up on this.

Same here. I don’t even try to schedule charge anymore. If I’m road tripping and leaving in the morning, I will wake up early enough to plug the charge in to get from 80% to 100%. Crazy that this feature doesn’t work.

 

[ucmndd]

The problem is that if you then plug in at 8 pm, it will wait 23 hours to start charging. One has to explicitly tell the car to start charging.

Umm, no.

Every time this comes up I can’t help but think that people are massively over-complicating this issue.

 

[wws]

Umm, no.

View attachment 843119

Every time this comes up I can’t help but think that people are massively over-complicating this issue.

LOL! Ok, flawed example on my part. But the basic issue remains. As an example, my PG&E off peak time range is midnight to 3 PM. So with the above heuristic, if I plug in sometime in the morning or early afternoon, I'd like it to start charging immediately and then turn off at 3 PM. Upon plugging in, I can use the charging screen to initiate charging. But there is no way to tell it to stop at 3 PM.

In practice I set an alarm on my phone for 3 PM. Then use the phone app to manually stop charging.