Model 3 Charging Question

[PhilRogers]

I'm a new Model 3 Owner. I have read the manual. I'm just confused about one thing, Scheduled Charging vs. Scheduled Departure. I'm still waiting for my utility, ComEd, to switch me over to hourly pricing. But they tell me their best rates are between 1 and 5am. So here's the question: I want to use the "Scheduled Departure" feature to get the battery ready (It gets VERY cold where I live). But with a 9a departure it tells me that it completes charging at about 5:30, which is past the optimum pricing window. Is there a way to set departure AND charging time, to make sure you get the absolute best rates?

 

[smatthew]

Not yet. Here's what I use to do. First, figure out how long your average charge time is. Have it start that amount of time before 5am.
But, you probably don't want to have it charging past 5am. I have TeslaFi ( a subscription website that monitors your Tesla) set to send a 5am "stop charging" command if my vehicle is at home and still charging at 5am.

 

[PhilRogers]

Thank you very much---that's really helpful. I will check that out! I see you're in the Bay Area where it gets pretty cold, but not the sub-zero stuff we deal with here in the midwest. I haven't gone thru a winter yet but I'm already thinking about it!

 

[qingshan]

I think the difference is:
Schedule - do it all during this period

Departure - make sure it's done by this time (ignores rates)

You can precondition before you leave

 

[PhilRogers]

How do you do that? On the app, just by turning on the heat, does it precondition the battery too? What about in the summer?

 

[qingshan]

Don't know about that. If I hadn't moved back to SoCal from MN in 1975, I'm sure I would have investigated it - enjoy

 

[smatthew]

How do you do that? On the app, just by turning on the heat, does it precondition the battery too? What about in the summer?

You can also set TeslaFi to automatically turn on the climate control system say 15-30 minutes prior to departure.

 

[Resist]

Many people are having trouble charging the battery to full, departure time seems to stop charging around 6am. Apparently it takes into account time of use rates, even if you aren't on that plan. I've had it happen to me when I wanted my battery fully charged for a trip. And as we all know, leaving the battery at 100% unused isn't healthy for it, but is fine if you use it right away. So I don't charge it fully the night before and can't judge how long it needs to charge if I do it in the morning.

 

[PhilRogers]

You can also set TeslaFi to automatically turn on the climate control system say 15-30 minutes prior to departure.

OK help me out here. I signed up for TeslaFi but its user interface is not the most intuitive thing in the world. My car was set for a 9a departure today. I plugged it in when I got home last night around 7p. Ended up not leaving this morning at 9. But when I did get in the car at about noon, it had never charged. It was still at the same place it was when I plugged in last night. Is there something in TeslaFi that would have prevented the charge? This is the first time my car has failed to charge and that's the only variable in my life. And if I decide Teslafi is not for me, how do I tell it goodbye and quit messing with my car?

 

[smatthew]

If you decide TeslaFi isn't for you cancel your account and then go to Tesla.com and change your password. TeslaFi will be locked out.
TeslaFi shouldn't have messed with your scheduled charge. Did you happen to set any rules yet?

 

[Zcd1]

How do you do that? On the app, just by turning on the heat, does it precondition the battery too? What about in the summer?

I also live in the Chicago area and am on ComEd’s hourly pricing. The car will warm/cool to whatever the climate control is set for before you’re scheduled to leave if you use “Scheduled departure”.

I don’t use TeslaFi so I don’t know whether that affected your car’s scheduled charging, but that has never happened to me in 18 months of ownership.

 

[ChicagoSox]

I also live in the Chicago area and am on ComEd’s hourly pricing and i start my charging at 11:30Pm and let it roll have the 40AMP charger as well so it charges faster.

 

[PhilRogers]

If you decide TeslaFi isn't for you cancel your account and then go to Tesla.com and change your password. TeslaFi will be locked out.
TeslaFi shouldn't have messed with your scheduled charge. Did you happen to set any rules yet?

Thank you. I did not set any rules. Couldn't tell how to cancel but saw on another posting to delete the token and change my password, which I did. I hope that does the trick? Is there another way to cancel the whole thing outright? You were so kind to suggest it to me, and I really appreciate it. But I must tell you that I thought the website was really primitive looking and confusing--- It gets such raves from so many people I was expecting a real user friendly experience. Maybe I'm just really slow, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Probably more detail than I needed.

Many thanks.

 

[PhilRogers]

One more thing. Maybe I just never noticed it before but I'm noticing something now----when I unlock the car which of course wakes it up, I'm hearing a clunking sound, from underneath in the vicinity of the left rear passenger door. Is that normal and does anyone know what it is? I'd never noticed it before last night when I was leaving from work.

 

[swaltner]

That noise is perfectly normal. It's present on ALL EVs. It is the contactor (relay) that connects the high-voltage inside the battery to the rest of the car. When the main battery pack is not needed (the car is parked), no high voltage is outside the battery pack to keep everyone safe (service technicians, fire department cutting the car apart after a crash, etc...).

 

[RobbL]

The most complete solution, although it requires an investment, is adding solar panels and a Powerwall battery. With that setup you can use the Tesla app to charge the battery from your solar panels, or if from the grid, when rates are lowest, and you can then charge the car from the Powerwall when you want, such as based on departure time.

 

[Zcd1]

... I'm hearing a clunking sound, from underneath in the vicinity of the left rear passenger door. Is that normal and does anyone know what it is?...

Just wait until you hear the clunks and bangs when Supercharging, or the fans/whirring during battery pre-conditioning immediately before Supercharging...

All completely normal - yes, really.

 

[GZDongles]

How do you do that? On the app, just by turning on the heat, does it precondition the battery too? What about in the summer?

Yes, the battery is preconditioned when you turn on the heat in the cabin. The battery is a large thermal mass, so it takes quite a while to warm up. It's probably an hour to completely warm the battery.

This video has some more information on battery preheating (possibly more than you wanted to know ).

I'm in Michigan, so I'm in the same boat. My plan is to preheat for about 10 minutes for normal drives, then 30 minutes to an hour if I ever need to use the full range of the car.

 

[Dolemite]

On the app, just by turning on the heat, does it precondition the battery too?

Yes

 

[Matsayz]

To the OP... take a look at the Stats app. You can do scheduling/battery prep/charging. It’s worth the money since Tesla won’t give us the options for some reason. This is when it’s really annoying that they release games or music apps but not function stuff.

You can always move the charging slider to the right to have it charge about 15-20mins before you get in the car which will warm the battery before you leave (depending on your charging ability 120v or 240v). And you can always turn the heat on through the app.

see the pics