Scheduled charging

[IChillinz]

Hello all,

I'm starting to use the scheduled charging option so it it starts charging a few hours after I get home. My question I have is will it continue charging until its complete? The reason I ask is I currently still only have 120 in the garage. I"m getting 240 completed to be setup in the garage Tuesday. I was on a day trip today and got home and at current state will take over 24 hours to a full charge.

Will it keep charging until complete the daily charge limit I have set? or will it stop in the morning since I have it set to a scheduled charging time.

 

[goldenstate01]

It will begin charging at the time you scheduled and keep charging until it reaches the battery percentage you set. It will only stop when it’s done charging or if you stop it.

 

[SolarPoweredY]

So what if I want it to stop charging before peak hours begins, no matter what the charge is at that point

 

[wws]

Adjust the max charge percentage so that the charge time corresponds to the time when your power rates go up.

 

[papercut]

Adjust the max charge percentage so that the charge time corresponds to the time when your power rates go up.

Well, that's not very handy. Here's a scenario: I have two cars to charge during the off-peak hours (10pm – 6am, so 4 hours of time for each car) and I can only change one car at a time. Both cars are standing outside and the ambient temperature varies between -10 C to -30 C (14 F – -22 F) from night to night. So I should guesstimate the max change percentage for both cars every evening?

This, and fully working pixel headlights, and I'm finally ready to buy my first Tesla after seven years of waiting…

 

[Frank99]

Yes. It would be a real handy improvement for Tesla to enhance scheduled charging with start/stop times - “only charge between 10 pm and 6 am”. It’s not there today, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it showed up at some point.

 

[papercut]

Hmm. If went on to read the user manual (both US and Finnish) – as that's where the answer usually can be found – and it says for scheduled charging that "NOTE: Your vehicle aims to finish charging before 6am (end of off-peak hours). If given sufficient time to charge, charging may stop at 6am, even if your scheduled departure is later." My scenario would apparently work.

Nevertheless, adding an option to specify charging times exactly would be a good improvement.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Yes. It would be a real handy improvement for Tesla to enhance scheduled charging with start/stop times - “only charge between 10 pm and 6 am”. It’s not there today, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it showed up at some point.

Hmm. If went on to read the user manual (both US and Finnish) – as that's where the answer usually can be found – and it says for scheduled charging that "NOTE: Your vehicle aims to finish charging before 6am (end of off-peak hours). If given sufficient time to charge, charging may stop at 6am, even if your scheduled departure is later." My scenario would apparently work.

Nevertheless, adding an option to specify charging times exactly would be a good improvement.

It's an obvious thing, but apparently not to Tesla, who went with the "It works for California" approach.
The Volt had scheduling from the start.
You can specify different schedules for weekdays and weekdays.
And you can specify different periods of the day, off-peak, mid-rate and peak.
I believe it works the same in the Bolt.

In Maine we have TOU periods that are peak weekdays 7am-12pm, and 4pm-8pm, with 12pm-4pm weekday shoulder. The rest off-peak, along with (full) holidays. The Volt scheduling made it easy for me to charge off-peak.

Now we also have the Kona and that's just a basic single period (which I set to 8pm to 7am). You can override it at the charging port by pressing and holding a button for 3 seconds, although we have rarely used that, and will likely use it less now we have more experience with the vehicle.

 

[wws]

It's an obvious thing, but apparently not to Tesla, who went with the "It works for California" approach.
The Volt had scheduling from the start.
You can specify different schedules for weekdays and weekdays.
And you can specify different periods of the day, off-peak, mid-rate and peak.
I believe it works the same in the Bolt.

In Maine we have TOU periods that are peak weekdays 7am-12pm, and 4pm-8pm, with 12pm-4pm weekday shoulder. The rest off-peak, along with (full) holidays. The Volt scheduling made it easy for me to charge off-peak.

Now we also have the Kona and that's just a basic single period (which I set to 8pm to 7am). You can override it at the charging port by pressing and holding a button for 3 seconds, although we have rarely used that, and will likely use it less now we have more experience with the vehicle.

The charge scheduling is one thing that GM did really well in the Volt, and the Bolt EV for that matter, compared to Tesla. Was one real surprise when I bought the Model 3. As you point out, one can enter an entire complicated rate schedule into it, and it will minimize charging costs as best it can.

In the Tesla, I generally set my scheduled start time to midnight, which is when the off-peak rates start, and it is easily finished in a few hours. But occasionally when I forget to plug in, and manually start charging in the morning, it needs to end at 3 PM - when the off-peak rates end. So once it starts charging I just bring up the Tesla app in my phone and adjust the charging limit until the finish time is around 3 PM.

 

[wws]

Well, that's not very handy. Here's a scenario: I have two cars to charge during the off-peak hours (10pm – 6am, so 4 hours of time for each car) and I can only change one car at a time. Both cars are standing outside and the ambient temperature varies between -10 C to -30 C (14 F – -22 F) from night to night. So I should guesstimate the max change percentage for both cars every evening?

This, and fully working pixel headlights, and I'm finally ready to buy my first Tesla after seven years of waiting…

Do you drive enough that you need to charge both cars every night? For example could you get by alternating charging one car one day, the other the next?

I know some do fine with it, but 12 amp 120V charging sucks. Even with our Volt, we only used 120V charging for about a month before I bought a 240V EVSE. Sounds like your upcoming 240V install will be a game changer.

 

[papercut]

Do you drive enough that you need to charge both cars every night? For example could you get by alternating charging one car one day, the other the next?

Yes, the other car is an e-Golf and it can easily manage the necessary daily ~80 km @ 60 km/h (50 miles, 40 mph) during winter, but not twice without charging. This basically means that regardless of the other car, both cars need to be charged during the same night. And honestly, I don't expect M3 LR could manage more than two days without charging (longer distance to drive at higher speeds, pre-heating mandatory).

 

[Gasaraki]

Yes. It would be a real handy improvement for Tesla to enhance scheduled charging with start/stop times - “only charge between 10 pm and 6 am”. It’s not there today, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it showed up at some point.

I rather pay more than realize that the car only had 60% charge instead of the 80% I needed just because I wanted save a few bucks.

 

[papercut]

I rather pay more than realize that the car only had 60% charge instead of the 80% I needed just because I wanted save a few bucks.

Definitely, but it's still a poor excuse to not have proper scheduled charging options.