What time do you charge your car?

[gg_got_a_tesla]

After mknox and Robert.Boston assured me at TESLIVE 2013 that daytime charging at my workplace is not necessarily bad in terms of the demand at that time and how green (or not) the power sources might be, I pretty much plugin exclusively from 8:45 am - 5:15 pm at work. I've stopped charging at home unless I'm running low on weekends.

 

[mknox]

After mknox and Robert.Boston assured me at TESLIVE 2013 that daytime charging at my workplace is not necessarily bad in terms of the demand at that time and how green (or not) the power sources might be, I pretty much plugin exclusively from 8:45 am - 5:15 pm at work. I've stopped charging at home unless I'm running low on weekends.

Generally from a system capacity point of view this is true. Depending on where you are, however, the generation fuel mix may be a bit dirtier. Here in Ontario, we have a lot of nuclear and hydro for baseload, and bring on coal and gas to handle peaks. We have a fair bit of wind that tends to be higher at night.

I charge off-peak simply for economic reasons, and because workplace charging has become "complicated".

 

[kendallpb]

If it falls within a two of those time frames, pick the one in which most charging occurs

I voted 4-8 AM, because since timed charging showed up, I set it for like 5 AM I think it was. Now that we're in winter, I moved my charging later, so the battery will hopefully be warmed up when I get going. I think it's set to start at 8 AM, so really I'm charging in the 8 AM-12 PM slot right now. But I expect most of the year (any non-winter months ;-) ) I'll be charging back in the 4-8 AM range.

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. I have no ToU. I use a HPWC at 60 amps (hmm, how do I get that fixed so it'll charge at 80?).

 

[omarsultan]

5.x and above should let you charge at 80A

 

[AC1K]

what i REALLY would like is the option to do this

i tell the Tesla what times it is allowed to start charging, and what time i need it full (or charged to the specified cut off)

EX: 01:00 - 06:30

then the car will figure out the correct amperage so that it will charge from it current capacity to the specified cutoff using nearly all of the time available.
that way in the winter the battery is kept warm before you need it in the morning.

alternatively you can specify when you need it (0630 before you go to work) and it will start charging at max amps and be ready maybe 5 minutes before the cut off time.

 

[clea]

what i REALLY would like is the option to do this

i tell the Tesla what times it is allowed to start charging, and what time i need it full (or charged to the specified cut off)

EX: 01:00 - 06:30

then the car will figure out the correct amperage so that it will charge from it current capacity to the specified cutoff using nearly all of the time available.
that way in the winter the battery is kept warm before you need it in the morning.

alternatively you can specify when you need it (0630 before you go to work) and it will start charging at max amps and be ready maybe 5 minutes before the cut off time.

+1 ... I usually do this manually and set my charge start time to try to finish as close to when I leave as possible to minimize the time spent in a higher SOC and to have the battery warmed up for when it's time to leave.

 

[kendallpb]

5.x and above should let you charge at 80A

Thanks - I thought there was also a fuse thing going on. I'm at 4.5 and might not upgrade till January ;-) but I'll keep this in mind.

 

[AC1K]

+1 ... I usually do this manually and set my charge start time to try to finish as close to when I leave as possible to minimize the time spent in a higher SOC and to have the battery warmed up for when it's time to leave.

yeah high SoC is stressful to the battery, my normal driving is 60% charge max down to a minimum of 40%
whats cool is my lenovo laptop has a feature to allow up to 60% charge too, and after 2 years i still have 105% capacity (shipped with 110%)

 

[bareyb]

I charge at 1:00 a.m. and I charge it to 70% at 20 Amps 220 Volt as I heard here that it can make the battery packs last longer.