Off-peak Hours confusion…

[Mattopotamus]

I've just kept it simple and stuck with setting a start time to charge. I am fortunate to have 240v charging, so all charging can easily be completed during off-peak times if I set a start time. Unless you cannot complete your charge during off-peak, I would just set a start time and roll with that.

Eg, I have a super off peak pricing from 11pm to 7am. I just set my charging to start at 11pm, and it will generally be completed within 1-2 hours. I don't have to fiddle with the peak settings, departure, etc.

I also very much agree the charging interface is a mess. Why not just give a simple setting that allows you to set a charge window from "x" to "x". (11pm - 7am). The car could then figure out the best way to charge only using that window.

 

[JCtx]

I just set my charging to start at 11pm, and it will generally be completed within 1-2 hours.

I want to do exactly that. So how did you do it? It's very confusing, especially for a new owner. I'd appreciate if you can just take a picture of what you did on your screen, to do it exactly the same. Thanks brother.

 

[smartypnz]

Exactly the same issue. This morning it pre-heated the car just fine to depart at the scheduled time, but it immediately started charging upon plugging in when I got home today.

You might want to watch it.... upon plugging in it connects and 'checks' the source for a few minutes to make sure all is okay with the connection. Most likely after that it waits to charge based on your settings.

 

[Brock-WI]

I think I am getting a handle on this. Now if we set the off peak to end at 7a the car will back up and charge to complete before 7a, I am finding with Teslafi it is usually done 20 to 30 minutes before this time. Also in Teslifi it will show you what time the car will start charging at which is interesting.

Now if I set a departure of 8a and turn climate on /pre-heat on will it use only the battery or will it suck that power from the wall/grid being after the 7a off peak time?

 

[scottwith1t]

You might want to watch it.... upon plugging in it connects and 'checks' the source for a few minutes to make sure all is okay with the connection. Most likely after that it waits to charge based on your settings.

I wish this was the case, but unfortunately not. TeslaMate shows it charge all the way to what I've set as the max.

The functionality seems straight up broken.

 

[smartypnz]

The functionality seems straight up broken.

May be.... but still working as always for both our Teslas. (One now uses 'start at' the other now using 'finish by'.)

 

[scottwith1t]

May be.... but still working as always for both our Teslas. (One now uses 'start at' the other now using 'finish by'.)

Well that is annoying, so it SHOULD be working, just isn't.

And it definitely preconditions the cabin, so its not like the car is ignoring the setting or it isn't set correctly, it just doesn't seem to impact charging.

If I set the off peak charging times it abides by those rules (ie: midnight to 7am, it'll start charging at midnight) but the functionality where it'd calculate charging to finish just prior to scheduled departure just straight up isn't working.

The car just updated to 2020.48.30 040912887bad and the behavior hasn't changed.

I've rebooted via thumb wheels and by brake/thumb wheels with no change.

 

[michaelnorbert]

Well that is annoying, so it SHOULD be working, just isn't.

And it definitely preconditions the cabin, so its not like the car is ignoring the setting or it isn't set correctly, it just doesn't seem to impact charging.

If I set the off peak charging times it abides by those rules (ie: midnight to 7am, it'll start charging at midnight) but the functionality where it'd calculate charging to finish just prior to scheduled departure just straight up isn't working.

The car just updated to 2020.48.30 040912887bad and the behavior hasn't changed.

I've rebooted via thumb wheels and by brake/thumb wheels with no change.

From Brock-WI posts earlier. Have you done this? I had to redo mine after the holidays and followed these steps and it worked.
Steps again
1. Schedule Departure
2. Car will charge during off-peak hours to depart by 8:00 AM
3. toggle Off-Peak Charging on
4. Select Weekdays
5. hit the "Change off-peak hours"
6. set "Utility off-peak rates and at" 7:00 AM

 

[scottwith1t]

From Brock-WI posts earlier. Have you done this? I had to redo mine after the holidays and followed these steps and it worked.
Steps again
1. Schedule Departure
2. Car will charge during off-peak hours to depart by 8:00 AM
3. toggle Off-Peak Charging on
4. Select Weekdays
5. hit the "Change off-peak hours"
6. set "Utility off-peak rates and at" 7:00 AM

Didn't work :-(

Charges as soon as I plug in.

weird.

 

[Brock-WI]

Ours started charging right away Friday evening so I switched it to all days instead of week days. I am assuming since Saturday morning was a weekend it started charging right away Friday, which was during an on peak time.

 

[fgurnee]

This feature is useless. Someone pointed out how the Bolt does it. I had a Bolt and it was so simple to setup off peak charging. The Tesla makes no sense with a single off peak end time parameter. To boot, when I tried it yesterday with an end time, it just kept right on charging past that time. I thought I was nuts to not be able to use it but all of these comments say otherwise. I had previously said my 3rd grade granddaughter could program this interface. Tesla must have gotten a 2nd grader.

 

[scottwith1t]

Didn't work :-(

Charges as soon as I plug in.

weird.

And just like that, suddenly its working as its supposed to again.

Weird.

 

[Brock-WI]

Mine was intermittent as well, on Monday when I plugged it in it started charging right away, unplugged it and checked and it was set on, so I switched it to all week, hoping that is it, plugged it in and it worked, at least the last 3 days it worked...

 

[bb4srv]

The charge start time is calculated based on the amount of charge needed and the charging rate. So it could be an hour before 4pm for a quick charge, or 12 hours before 4pm for a long charge.

This! Everyone is making this more complicated than it is. The assumption is the car will NOT "deny" you a charge just because it's not off-peak. It calculates the total time needed when you plug the car in (based on your amp setting, voltage, and your pre-determined battery charge setting and your pre-determined departure time) and determines when to start the charge.

For areas WITHOUT peak rates, and you want the car to finish charge just before the departure time [so the battery is warm at departure] then just:*Set the off-peak end time the SAME time as your departure time. E.g. If you want to depart at 7AM *AND* want the charge to complete at 7AM then set the off-peak end time at 7AM. If you plug your car at say, 10PM the day prior, it will not charge until the very last moment it needed to complete the charge to 7AM.

If you want to charge right away (say public charger), then just click "Charge Now" in the app or screen.

 

[akenham]

Good summary - one minor correction:

If you want to charge right away (say public charger), then just click "Charge Now" in the app or screen

You don't even have to click "charge now" when at a public charger - scheduled charging is [1] geofenced so that the car remembers this applies to your home address(es) and begins charging right away elsewhere.

[1] not re-tested since 2020.48.x since UK is in a covid lockdown

 

[Brock-WI]

I agree that it just backs up, but we are charging at 32 amps from 40% to 70%, maybe 3 hours, it's set for 7a and starts charging at 6p? I don't think so. Also when it is working it tells you on the screen something let set to complete charging at 7a and it didn't do that when I plugged it in, but then unplugged it and looked and it was definitely highlighted to start and all I changed was the week days to all week and plugged it back in and that screen came up and all was good. Some something is not quite right yet, hopefully it is a small bug and they will catch it.

 

[scottwith1t]

so it previously treated Friday like a weekday, so if you plugged in during the day it wouldn't charge. Then at about midnight it'd start charging for the "weekend".

Now on Friday it charges immediately. Monday through Thursday it seems to act fine.

 

[JCtx]

I was going to do that when we left for a long trip, but since we needed 95% charge, and needed to leave at 6:30am, no way I was going to trust the damn app (or myself. Ha ha) to be correct. Ha ha. So started charging before going to sleep, and verified that car was charging, so car didn't sit at 95% for too many hours (maybe 5). But will mess with that setting one of these days, to learn to trust I'm doing things right. We use the car very little, so my new strategy, knowing the ideal state of charge of our battery pack is supposedly 60%, will be to charge to 70%, and recharge at 50% (or to 80% and 40%, if car needs to get used more). And once every 3 months, charge to 100% before going somewhere, to reportedly 'balance' the pack. Car is only 2 weeks old, so will keep reading to update that strategy if needed .

 

[gnuarm]

I see, but how is the scheduled departure at with an off peak done at time suppose to help? I don't understand...

How I want it to behave is to set a time it can start charging at and stop charging no matter what by xxx.

That is the real issue, "I don't understand". Why can't they do the obvious thing and make it simple and intuitive? I just checked my car and the scheduled start time and depart by times are mutually exclusive settings. The "off peak end" time starts off by being more wordy than needed. What's wrong with "peak start".

Then there is the issue of figuring out how to disable all of it. That is totally not clear to me. I guess if I exit the dialog box and whatever control displayed is grayed out it means the charging will only start when I plug it in and the battery is below the max charge level setting.

 

[Papawai]

Hey @elon this is solved by simply communicating when charging will start based on the car’s calculation. Estimated duration minus start time confirms to the user whether “scheduled charging” or “scheduled departure” is better. You could also just implement the slider.

If you’re looking for a UIE lmk.