Scheduled Charging - Start Yes, Stop No

[CWFLY]

So, do I understand this correctly...
You can schedule the Charging START time, but not the STOP time?

Off-Peak is not only good for my wallet, but also good for the community because we don't have to build additional power plants if EV charging is done off-peak.

Options:

1. Reverse engineer a nightly charge percentage. Crude and a hack. Won't work for me.
2. Set an alarm at 6am and remotely turn off charging. No chance. I'm not going to have my phone (a computer) wake me up to tell me to push a button on the same computer. That's patently absurd.
3. Is there a 3rd party Tesla App that turn charging on/off?
4. Is Tesla even thinking about this?

 

[TexasEV]

It’s just not an issue. Schedule charging to start when your off-peak rate starts. The car charges so quickly from a 14-50 outlet or HPWC that with typically daily use most people will reach the 80 or 90% charge limit long before the off-peak period ends. If you’ve depleted the battery so much that it takes longer to charge, then you need the extra charge so just pay the few cents more for the few hours.

 

[kev1n]

I wish they just gave you a week by days and select green/red on time slots when you want and not want to charge as M-F and Sat/Sun are different hourly rates for me

 

[liuping]

It’s just not an issue. Schedule charging to start when your off-peak rate starts. The car charges so quickly from a 14-50 outlet or HPWC that with typically daily use most people will reach the 80 or 90% charge limit long before the off-peak period ends. If you’ve depleted the battery so much that it takes longer to charge, then you need the extra charge so just pay the few cents more for the few hours.

Not everyone can charge at 40Amps, some people have only 220v 30 amp outlets available (24amp charging) or even just a 120V outlet (12 amp charging).

Charging only during the super off peak rate period every night could average to enough to keep the car charged.

It's a simple option and there is really no reason not to have it for those people who need it. Even our 2013 Volt has the ability to set the start and end time.

 

[liuping]

I wish they just gave you a week by days and select green/red on time slots when you want and not want to charge as M-F and Sat/Sun are different hourly rates for me

That would be helpful too. Our super off peak rate period on weekends is midnight until 2pm, but just midnight to 6am during the week.

The Tesla Powerwalls have weekday/weekend TOU settings, hopefully they will add it to the cars at some point.

 

[CWFLY]

It’s just not an issue. Schedule charging to start when your off-peak rate starts. The car charges so quickly from a 14-50 outlet or HPWC that with typically daily use most people will reach the 80 or 90% charge limit long before the off-peak period ends. If you’ve depleted the battery so much that it takes longer to charge, then you need the extra charge so just pay the few cents more for the few hours.

It is an issue for some. Not everybody is "typical", nor is their "daily use" the same day to day.
We don't all work 8-5 Monday-Friday. For instance, I drive 100 miles one-way to work, but only go to work once a week.

Few cents? Why choose a software implementation that knowingly costs the customer more money, and creates a bigger carbon footprint (more power plants to handle peak load). Coding an "end time" into the software is extremely simple, and makes good sense. Everybody wins!

 

[TexasEV]

You can recover those 200 round trip miles in about 7 hours of charging at 32A from a 14-50 outlet. Even less from a HPWC at 40A or more. Is your off peak rate shorter than 7 hours?

 

[arcus]

NEMA14-30 user here, which gives me 17 m/hr of charge. It's rather simple math to find out how many hours it will take to charge based on the initial SoC and what my desired level of charge will be, then setting the charging start time accordingly. Calculators were not allowed on math tests when I was going to school, maybe that is why it I find it simple

 

[liuping]

You can recover those 200 round trip miles in about 7 hours of charging at 32A from a 14-50 outlet. Even less from a HPWC at 40A or more. Is your off peak rate shorter than 7 hours?

Super off peak rates are frequently midnight to 6am, just 6 hours, so yes. less than 7 hours.

And as I said earlier many people don't have 15-40 outlets in their garage and cannot charge at 32Amps.

 

[Az_Rael]

You can recover those 200 round trip miles in about 7 hours of charging at 32A from a 14-50 outlet. Even less from a HPWC at 40A or more. Is your off peak rate shorter than 7 hours?

I used to work an evening shift, getting me home around 1AM each night. That bled my charging into the peak hours in the morning daily especially since I only had a 16A EVSE at the time (left over from my Volt)

 

[CWFLY]

The point here, is that it takes practically no effort to put a "STOP" time option in the software interface. And once we set it (like our START time), we can forget it. Just plug-in and it automatically honors our wishes -- every time!

Why would you want anything else?

 

[DriveMe]

Just set the charge percentage limit to whatever you need for your next day. Say, 60%. If it will run into the higher rate hours, so be it. At least you will have the car charged. Or would you rather be short on charge?!

 

[smartypnz]

Sure.... learn what each of the percentage lines will give you.
Use the "mph" of charge to estimate how long it will charge to the level you require from current level
Set level required to the percentage line that will give you your required miles
Have it start at appointed time

 

[CWFLY]

Given these 4 solutions:

1. Set an alarm, wake up, and unplug the car.
2. Ignore the excess cost and excess carbon footprint.
3. Each day, calculate charge setting (added miles) necessary to terminate by 6am.
4. Program supports a "stop" time. Set and forget!

I'll choose #4. I've never been much of an enabler, so I just wait until Tesla recognizes this minor oversight.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

There’s a lot they could do to make these cars better, but they just want us to suffer.

 

[felialcho]

The point here, is that it takes practically no effort to put a "STOP" time option in the software interface. And once we set it (like our START time), we can forget it. Just plug-in and it automatically honors our wishes -- every time!

Why would you want anything else?

Just got my model 3, and found there is no comprehensive weekly based scheduling. Agreed that STOP time option is a good compromise for this. Hope Tesla can implement soon.

 

[Petra]

I'll admit, it would be nice if Tesla would add fancy depatrure timers like the Bolt has, which allow you to program in your utility rate schedule... even the 2012 Leaf that I used to have came with both start and basic departure timers.

I've been doing quick math to adjust the start timer in my Model S to complete at target times for the past 3 years. Inexplicably, the charge timer can't be set from the Tesla app either.

 

[forkee]

I use "dashboard for tesla" app. There are others I believe as well that will also enable you to set "stop charging"

 

[TT97]

If you have a TeslaFi account, you can program to stop charging at set times (and can be customized by different days of the week).

 

[eprosenx]

I wish they just gave you a week by days and select green/red on time slots when you want and not want to charge as M-F and Sat/Sun are different hourly rates for me

Even one better:

I want them to build a database of all the electrical usage plans in the country and let me tell the Tesla that at this charge location I am on Portland General Electric rate schedule 7. Then I can tell it “only charge during off peak”. It would automatically download updated data on exactly which days and times it could charge (times change with the seasons and holidays vary).

What I ask for would have a non trivial data component to keep up to date (so more than just a software thing). I wonder if someone sells a data source of this info?

I am sure all of these types of features are on Tesla’s roadmap, but they just have a lot of competing priorities. The great news is that over time they can add more features like this!

Furthermore, the clear future is to have my car talking to my power company and participating in demand response programs. Have my car stop charging when necessary or start charging when a surplus of power exists that needs to go somewhere. I could tell my car that 80% is my optimal level, but that I am fine with the demand response system playing in the 70-90% range.

P.S. Other cool things could be features where the car slow charges overnight at the optimal rate for efficiency but that factors in your target leaving time in the AM and will speed up charging if needed to hit that (though this assumes that 48a is not the most efficient speed - it might be).

P.P.S. I also really want a feature to tell the car to be fully range charged to 100% at 8am when I plan to leave on a trip. I don’t want to remember to start the charging when I wake up and I may not have enough time to pack those last electrons in there. It seems to take aboit 1:20 to go from 90 to 100%. I don’t like leaving the car at 100% state of charge all night.