Off Peak Charging - How Do You Do It?

[fishheavy99]

Hi All,

What is the best practise for off-peak charging? I set up a scheduled charge with a start time of 9:15pm, which makes sense, but the departure time is confusing, mine varies, I don't really want it doing anything other then making sure it doesn't charge past 9am.

My off-peak times are 9pm-9am M-F and All Day on Weekends.

Weird there isn't a setting to just tell the car when it can and cannot charge...

 

[jkoya]

Our local utility gives us solar customers extra incentive to charge between 12 AM and 6 AM, so I just set the charge to start at 12 AM. I don't worry about the departure time...

Our 2016 Volt does have the capability to set charging during set times, seasons, rates, etc, but I honestly prefer the Tesla system better. It's more intuitive to me ......

 

[jmaddr]

What is your input?

At 240V/48 amps of the HPWC, even a 0-100% charge won’t take near 12 hours. At 240V/32A of the mobile charger, you are still charging at 30mph which means a full charge is less than 12 hours.

if you are charging at 120V, your concerns are valid but...dang...that’s painful for reasons other than expensive electricity.

 

[CrayZ1]

Our local utility gives us solar customers extra incentive to charge between 12 AM and 6 AM, so I just set the charge to start at 12 AM. I don't worry about the departure time...

Our 2016 Volt does have the capability to set charging during set times, seasons, rates, etc, but I honestly prefer the Tesla system better. It's more intuitive to me ......

You would not like a Charge Start programmer for a Volt or other PHEV. You want the battery conditioned, and 100% when you leave to maximize your range. For long range EVs, this is not much of an issue unless you have a low speed EVSE and a longer commute, then there is a problem:

Say your circuit only allows 12 amps x 120 volt where you charge (normal wall outlet). And you have to leave for work at 6 am. If you program charging to always start at midnight, you are adding 35 miles. Which is enough for some people, but not all. If you drive 50 miles a day, would you like the charger to automatically start at 8:15 pm so you have enough kWh? Or if you ran some errands, start even earlier?

Departure based charging is also better for your battery. It preheats the battery naturally by the charger at the coldest part of the day.

 

[jkoya]

Say your circuit only allows 12 amps x 120 volt where you charge (normal wall outlet). And you have to leave for work at 6 am. If you program charging to always start at midnight, you are adding 35 miles. Which is enough for some people, but not all. If you drive 50 miles a day, would you like the charger to automatically start at 8:15 pm so you have enough kWh? Or if you ran some errands, start even earlier?

Not an issue for me as I am not charging from a normal wall outlet, I am no longer concerned about a departure time and the Volt is no longer a daily driven car. A complete charge (electric range at 0 and car switches to gas) takes a little less than 4 hours, so it is finished before 6 AM. Also, my off peak rates are cheeper from midnight to noon as opposed to 8 pm to midnight. The longest I have seen it charge was 6 hours, so it has always finished within the solar customer discount the utility company provides.

coldest part of the day.

According to google, the coldest part of the day is in the early morning hours just after sunrise.

 

[CrayZ1]

Not an issue for me as I am not charging from a normal wall outlet, I am no longer concerned about a departure time and the Volt is no longer a daily driven car. A complete charge (electric range at 0 and car switches to gas) takes a little less than 4 hours, so it is finished before 6 AM. Also, my off peak rates are cheeper from midnight to noon as opposed to 8 pm to midnight. The longest I have seen it charge was 6 hours, so it has always finished within the solar customer discount the utility company provides.



According to google, the coldest part of the day is in the early morning hours just after sunrise.

For us that's 7 am right now.

Jaguar could not figure out departure charging either, but you program in a departure, and it preheats the interior and battery for optimum range. You still have program in your start time.

Some days I would drive 150 miles or more and have to manually start the charge just to be safe.

 

[jjrandorin]

Hi All,

What is the best practise for off-peak charging? I set up a scheduled charge with a start time of 9:15pm, which makes sense, but the departure time is confusing, mine varies, I don't really want it doing anything other then making sure it doesn't charge past 9am.

My off-peak times are 9pm-9am M-F and All Day on Weekends.

Weird there isn't a setting to just tell the car when it can and cannot charge...

I think you are confusing yourself a bit here, because you dont have to configure scheduled departure time. Just set a scheduled charge time (which is start time) and ignore departure time.

 

[jkoya]

Jaguar could not figure out departure charging either, but you program in a departure, and it preheats the interior and battery for optimum range. You still have program in your start time.

Do you have an I-Pace ? How do you like it ? I've yet to see one on the road .....

 

[CCIE]

Our local utility gives us solar customers extra incentive to charge between 12 AM and 6 AM, so I just set the charge to start at 12 AM. I don't worry about the departure time...

Our 2016 Volt does have the capability to set charging during set times, seasons, rates, etc, but I honestly prefer the Tesla system better. It's more intuitive to me ......

I wish Tesla had the GM system. In the Volt you tell it when your off-peak rates are (days & hours) and give it an estimated departure time for each day. Then it will schedule charging within the off-peak window and complete charging by the departure time.

Tesla's system is primitive by comparison. Even the new departure-based charging setting is flawed because it assumes everyone's off-peak ends at 6am (mine ends at noon).

 

[Rocky_H]

I set up a scheduled charge with a start time of 9:15pm, which makes sense, but the departure time is confusing, mine varies, I don't really want it doing anything other then making sure it doesn't charge past 9am.

I think you are confusing yourself a bit here, because you dont have to configure scheduled departure time. Just set a scheduled charge time (which is start time) and ignore departure time.

Yes, the interface is confusing on that, because you actually can't use both of those together, which isn't very clear. You have to pick either start time or end time. So yeah, just pick your start time for when the cheaper rates turn on and it's done.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Hi All,

What is the best practise for off-peak charging? I set up a scheduled charge with a start time of 9:15pm, which makes sense, but the departure time is confusing, mine varies, I don't really want it doing anything other then making sure it doesn't charge past 9am.

My off-peak times are 9pm-9am M-F and All Day on Weekends.

Weird there isn't a setting to just tell the car when it can and cannot charge...

For each location where you charge (though usually only one or two) you can either tell the car when to start charging or when to finish charging, which ever is right for you.

My cheapest power rate is midnight to 6am on a 240v/30A connection. So I normally set the car to start charging at 12:15am and it is normally finished between 2am and 3am.

If you set the car to begin charging at 9pm (for example) why might it not be finished by 9am? You'd have to have a pretty slow charge rate for this to be an issue.

If you are charging on a 240v circuit, just set the car to finish by (say) 6am and let it figure out when to start.

If on a 120v circuit, set to start at 9pm, and attach it to a timer on the 120v socket, so the power is switched off at 9am.
But wouldn't you be leaving for work before then, so perhaps you don't need a timer because you probably would normally have unplugged it and drive off before 9am?
Regardless, on a 120v circuit, occasionally extending the charging window is pretty cheap anyway.

 

[GalacticHero]

Hi All,

What is the best practise for off-peak charging? I set up a scheduled charge with a start time of 9:15pm, which makes sense, but the departure time is confusing, mine varies, I don't really want it doing anything other then making sure it doesn't charge past 9am.

My off-peak times are 9pm-9am M-F and All Day on Weekends.

Weird there isn't a setting to just tell the car when it can and cannot charge...

I have the car programmed to start charging at 9 pm and have a repeating reminder on my phone to remind me to stop charging at 9 am. I'm still using 120V charging so it often won't be finished overnight. Since I can stop charging with the app on the phone, getting the reminder there works well. If I miss the reminder, it's not a huge deal if it runs into more expensive charging for a single day.

 

[DenisNeuf]

I have been struggling with the same question for some time, as I get off-peak rates between 10 PM and 7 AM that are cheaper. I wanted to have the car charge in these hours only when I am at home.
The solution I have found (and that works really well now) is through an Home Assistant (home automation server) that I use for controlling a whole lot of things and especially for interconnecting all these things in my home.
So I have created automations to start turn on the Telsa built-in charger switch at 10 PM Monday through Friday if the Tesla built-in device tracker is "home", and so on. It works fine and does not touch the max range and other settings (that could be another automation.

 

[Rocky_H]

I have been struggling with the same question for some time, as I get off-peak rates between 10 PM and 7 AM that are cheaper. I wanted to have the car charge in these hours only when I am at home.
The solution I have found (and that works really well now) is through an Home Assistant (home automation server) that I use for controlling a whole lot of things and especially for interconnecting all these things in my home.
So I have created automations to start turn on the Telsa built-in charger switch at 10 PM Monday through Friday if the Tesla built-in device tracker is "home", and so on. It works fine and does not touch the max range and other settings (that could be another automation.

How is that any different than just setting the car's start charging time to 10 PM?

 

[DenisNeuf]

How is that any different than just setting the car's start charging time to 10 PM?

Well, this does not prevent you from charging before 10PM anywhere else, as it is conditional and location based, also, you write the rule once and forget about it, and also, where I live, off-peak price is after 10PM on weekdays and all weekend long, so I have a different rule covering the weekends too.

 

[jjrandorin]

Well, this does not prevent you from charging before 10PM anywhere else, as it is conditional and location based, also, you write the rule once and forget about it, and also, where I live, off-peak price is after 10PM on weekdays and all weekend long, so I have a different rule covering the weekends too.

Tesla's scheduled charging is location based as well. I have my charging set to not start till 3am my local time at home, but when I drive into work and plug in, it starts charging immediately.

Nothing wrong with setting up custom automation for stuff at all, but its not necessary to get a tesla to charge overnight. The only difference is, on the weekend it also would not charge until the set time. This is usually fine, as just because someone has off peak electricity rates all weekened, it doesnt necessarily mean they need to charge over the weekend during the day. For spot charging, its really easy to open up the tesla app and change the slider to start charging.

Again, nothing wrong with custom automation, but for this use case it isnt "necessary". We do stuff all the time that isnt "necessary" though, so more power to you

 

[Rocky_H]

Well, this does not prevent you from charging before 10PM anywhere else, as it is conditional and location based,

I was going to see if you knew this. Scheduled start time is tagged at a location, so it already meets that criteria you were wanting where it only applies at home.

where I live, off-peak price is after 10PM on weekdays and all weekend long, so I have a different rule covering the weekends too.

And yes, the 10 PM would apply on the weekend days too, which I don't see what the problem is with that anyway. But sure, it might be useful to let people have a separate schedule for the weekend days.

 

[XLR82XS]

I think you are confusing yourself a bit here, because you dont have to configure scheduled departure time. Just set a scheduled charge time (which is start time) and ignore departure time.

This.

 

[Rocky_H]

Oh yeah, that part may not be clear because the user interface is confusing. You can use either no scheduled times, or start time, or departure time--any of those three. But you do not get to use start time and end time together; you would need to pick one or the other.