Scheduled charging vs Scheduled Departure

[UncertainTimes]

Here’s my situation. Just got a M3P, have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed, will be on a TOU electricity plan with super off peak from 12am-6am. I usually leave for work around 6:30am on weekdays with a 50 mile round trip commute. If I charge everyday or every other day I’d only need roughly 1.5-3 hours to charge. Is it better to schedule charging so that it finishes close to my departure time or use the Scheduled Departure feature? I’m leaning away from Scheduled Departure because my car is in a garage and I don’t need the cabin pre-conditioning and using the AC unnecessarily. Is it optimal to have charging finish near departure time so the batteries are still warm or should I just set it to Scheduled Charging everyday at 12am and just forget about it?

 

[jjrandorin]

Since the round trip isnt 150 miles or something, imo the main concern would be getting the charging in during your super off peak time. The "complete charging right before departure" advice is more around the fact that, with a cabin pre conditioned and battery warmed, you will usually use less battery in the beginning of your trip making those things happen.

Its not like you are not using that electricity at all, it is just "switched" to doing that stuff from the wall connector vs the battery of your car when you are on the road at the beginning of the trip. In your case, for your regular commute, it doesnt matter, so its likely "easier" to just have charging set to begin shortly after your super off peak period begins.

This would be helpful as you settle into your normal routine of just plugging in when you get home, and let the car start charting in the middle of the night when your electricity is cheap, without worrying about if it will be done on time if you did a lot more driving than normal.

Trying to time it to be done for your normal commute means that, if you did a lot of extra driving or something, you might not have a full charge the next day.

On the "charge every day or every other day" thing, there isnt any reason not to plug in every night, if you have charging in your garage. You dont "have" to, of course, but there is NO reason not to. Tesla specifically says there is no advantage at all of "running it down to charge it back up" so there isnt any reason not to charge every day unless you just "dont want to" for some reason.

 

[Rottenapplr]

Use scheduled departure. Why? Because tesla stupid software doesn’t end charging at the exact departure period. It usually aims to finish charging 1 hr or so before you leave (which is super annoying it really should finish charging at the set end time). So it should finish charging at 530-545am in your scenario.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Since the round trip isnt 150 miles or something, imo the main concern would be getting the charging in during your super off peak time. The "complete charging right before departure" advice is more around the fact that, with a cabin pre conditioned and battery warmed, you will usually use less battery in the beginning of your trip making those things happen.

Its not like you are not using that electricity at all, it is just "switched" to doing that stuff from the wall connector vs the battery of your car when you are on the road at the beginning of the trip. In your case, for your regular commute, it doesnt matter, so its likely "easier" to just have charging set to begin shortly after your super off peak period begins.

This would be helpful as you settle into your normal routine of just plugging in when you get home, and let the car start charting in the middle of the night when your electricity is cheap, without worrying about if it will be done on time if you did a lot more driving than normal.

Trying to time it to be done for your normal commute means that, if you did a lot of extra driving or something, you might not have a full charge the next day.

On the "charge every day or every other day" thing, there isnt any reason not to plug in every night, if you have charging in your garage. You dont "have" to, of course, but there is NO reason not to. Tesla specifically says there is no advantage at all of "running it down to charge it back up" so there isnt any reason not to charge every day unless you just "dont want to" for some reason.

I do prefer the simpler method of just plugging it in every night and leaving the charging start time the same.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Use scheduled departure. Why? Because tesla stupid software doesn’t end charging at the exact departure period. It usually aims to finish charging 1 hr or so before you leave (which is super annoying it really should finish charging at the set end time). So it should finish charging at 530-545am in your scenario.

Yea it seems odd that they hard coded in 6am as the end of charging. Hopefully future versions will allow more tailored charging schedules based on individual TOUs, work schedules etc.

 

[Rottenapplr]

Yea it seems odd that they hard coded in 6am as the end of charging. Hopefully future versions will allow more tailored charging schedules based on individual TOUs, work schedules etc.

I don't get why they coded it this way. Case in point, I have scheduled departure at 830. It finishes charging by 700-730am.

 

[jjrandorin]

I don't get why they coded it this way. Case in point, I have scheduled departure at 830. It finishes charging by 700-730am.

Occams razor generally applies to cases like this (paraphrased, "the simplest answer is probably the correct one"). The "simplest answer" is that tesla is a California based company, and most utilities in CA have a TOU period that ends at 6am in the morning for the super off peak rates.

Since its highly likely that Tesla is operating under some form of "Agile" project managment (which is a specific type of project managment), they likely pushed out whats called a "minimum viable product" during a sprint, and the engineer(s) responsible for the "MVP" for this feature coded it that way because it made sense to them, with the idea that they would get back to it later.

 

[ponzu]

I am on a TOU plan with off-peak hours of 9 PM to 4 PM. Basically, I do no want the car to charge between 4 PM and 9 PM. I do not commute.

If I go to the scheduled charging menu, it has three tabs: OFF, Start time and Departure Time (if memory serves).

In the Start Time tab, I could set start time to 9 PM, say.

If I go to Departure Time, there is a small print about how the car will stop charging so many hours before departure time and will condition itself to the right cabin temperature. I do not need the car to condition the cabin or wake up. I would not mind if it stopped charging at 4 PM -- if I plugged it in at 12 PM, say. If I plug the car at 12 PM, I meant for it to charge from 12 PM to 4 PM and not wait until 9 PM.

Are Start Time and Departure Time mutually exclusive or complementary? If I set Start Time to 9 PM (beginning of my off-peak), do I need to worry what the Departure Time is?

Asking because vampire drain has been bad. In 2020, this should be the #1 topic as so many of our cars are sitting in the garage most of the day. I am reading about things I can shut off (my sentry mode is off; disabling summon standby makes sense, but I have to find it; is data sharing needed for the Tesla app or only third party app? unplugging USB drive and forgetting WiFi is not something I would have thought off, but makes sense). I want to make sure my charging settings are not waking the car up unnecessarily. I often catch it running fans as if air conditioning itself for no reason.

 

[Rocky_H]

Are Start Time and Departure Time mutually exclusive or complementary? If I set Start Time to 9 PM (beginning of my off-peak), do I need to worry what the Departure Time is?

Those are mutually exclusive, where you would have to pick one or the other. And the departure time thing is a broken, buggy mess, so I would recommend not using it. Just set a start time that begins in your cheaper window after 9PM.

 

[andrewsjra]

I schedule my departure and 6:30 AM and it finishes charging an hour earlier at 5:24 AM. The real kicker is when I came out to the garage at 6:50 it appeared my car was preconditioning the battery. Shouldn’t this have been completed prior to 6:30? Or so do you think it preconditions it a few times in case you don’t depart at the scheduled time?

 

[Gasaraki]

I tied scheduled departure once. I didn't like that if I set the scheduled departure at 6:30am, it never starts charging when I get home and plug it in. I don't want it to sit at 30% till god knows when it decides to start charging. I don't have different pricing based on time so I want it to charge once I plug it in but leave 10-15% of charge left then start to charge the remainder how ever long it determines it would take to charge the 15% before my scheduled departure. Obviously this is too hard for Tesla to program in...

 

[jjrandorin]

I tied scheduled departure once. I didn't like that if I set the scheduled departure at 6:30am, it never starts charging when I get home and plug it in. I don't want it to sit at 30% till god knows when it decides to start charging. I don't have different pricing based on time so I want it to charge once I plug it in but leave 10-15% of charge left then start to charge the remainder how ever long it determines it would take to charge the 15% before my scheduled departure. Obviously this is too hard for Tesla to program in...

I understand that, but dont know why you marked my post "disagree" because of it. Its not like I was saying "tesla should have done it this way". I was just speculating as to why it is the way it is currently. Since you disagree, and marked my post as such, you must have some other theory as to why they did it that way.

 

[Pro2coL]

I understand that, but dont know why you marked my post "disagree" because of it. Its not like I was saying "tesla should have done it this way". I was just speculating as to why it is the way it is currently. Since you disagree, and marked my post as such, you must have some other theory as to why they did it that way.

Haha. Too bad this thread died out. It was just getting good. @jjrandorin I like and agree with your speculation. Maybe because I’m a Certified Scrum Master, maybe cause it makes sense. Either way, the programming could have been better or at least some type of explanation as to why they chose to do it that way. Could be a good reason that we just are not aware of.

 

[Gasaraki]

Haha. Too bad this thread died out. It was just getting good. @jjrandorin I like and agree with your speculation. Maybe because I’m a Certified Scrum Master, maybe cause it makes sense. Either way, the programming could have been better or at least some type of explanation as to why they chose to do it that way. Could be a good reason that we just are not aware of.

Well that's partly the issue here. If they explained their thinking or how it actually works in the manual, at least people might understand their flawed logic (or not).

 

[blueloon]

Here’s my situation. Just got a M3P, have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed, will be on a TOU electricity plan with super off peak from 12am-6am. I usually leave for work around 6:30am on weekdays with a 50 mile round trip commute. If I charge everyday or every other day I’d only need roughly 1.5-3 hours to charge. Is it better to schedule charging so that it finishes close to my departure time or use the Scheduled Departure feature? I’m leaning away from Scheduled Departure because my car is in a garage and I don’t need the cabin pre-conditioning and using the AC unnecessarily. Is it optimal to have charging finish near departure time so the batteries are still warm or should I just set it to Scheduled Charging everyday at 12am and just forget about it?

I would use the scheduled departure feature. I myself was confused about just how that worked, since I tried to use the scheduled start feature unsuccessfully. Apparently there's a software bug that Tesla knows about. What scheduled departure does it charge the car in the most efficient and economical way possible. So if you're leaving at 6 am, depending on your charge point, the car will start charging when plugged in when the software calculates the time needed.

 

[Togg]

I think someone at Tesla really needs to take a look at these 'features' because they are poorly documented, don't do what you want, and really could be much better.