when is "off peak" and can I adjust it?

[Calliope]

I just got my MY a week ago, and I typically do not charge it from a home outlet, except when I'm at my cottage. So, here I am, and I'm trying to plug my car in overnight, so that it charges during the "off peak" hours of my power company, which are M-F 7pm-7am (and all day Saturday and Sunday), and I can't figure out how to do that.......The touchscreen has an option for charge during "off peak" hours, but I don't know what Tesla considers "off peak". I hit that option wishing for the best, but found at 7:30 am the car was still charging (so I stopped charging remotely with my iPhone app). My Nissan Leaf allowed me to set a start and stop time option for charging, but if Tesla has that option I can't figure out where to find it (and the manual was of no help).

I am more concerned with the time of charging instead of a departure time or a battery max level......For instance, right now I'm on a NEMA 5-15 outlet (the 14-50 adapter has already been ordered, but hasn't arrived yet), so it will take well over l2 hours to charge the car - but since I won't be driving every day, I'd like it just to stop charging at 7am and restart at 7pm. Is that possible? Do I have to set my iPhone alarm to remind me to do it manually? Is there a 3rd party app to help, or something?

It seems Tesla has decided my priority should be full battery in the morning, rather than prioritizing charging on my schedule. Is there a way around that?

 

[jcanoe]

The setting you want is found under the Charging settings within the vehicle (these settings are not accessible from the Tesla app.)

There is a elongated button labeled Scheduled Charging, you can use this to specify the time you want charging to start or to complete charging. I suggest you set charging to complete by 7:00 A.M. That way charging should complete before the on peak rate period starts. However, depending on the state of charge of the battery and the battery charging limit you have set this could take more than 12 hours and start charging earlier than 7:00 P.M. the night before. For daily use set the charging limit to no more than 80%. If the battery is at 20% state of charge (SOC) and you want to charge to 80% SOC that will take more than the 12 hours using the supplied 5-15 plug adapter for the hours you have available during the off peak window so you may want to do this is steps; set the charging limit to 50%, then the next day raise the charging limit to 80%.

If you toggle the Scheduled Charging button you access Scheduled Departure. That one sets the time when you normally leave so that the vehicle can automatically precondition the battery and the passenger cabin before you depart. It is mostly used in winter. Preconditioning will use the most recent climate control settings.

 

[Calliope]

to specify the time you want charging to start or to complete charging.

Right -- but I can't (apparently) do both i.e. specify the time I want it to start and end. Only one or the other, it seems.

 

[jcanoe]

Right -- but I can't (apparently) do both i.e. specify the time I want it to start and end. Only one or the other, it seems.

That is correct, you have to choose either when to start charging or when to complete charging. Originally Tesla programmed the Scheduled Charging to assume that the electric utilty off-peak usage time always ended at 6:00 A.M. your local time. Now you can specify when you want charging to end, i.e. when the off-peak rate period ends and the Tesla vehicle will always complete charging by that time, usually about 20 minutes before the set charge completion time. At least now you can specify 7:00 A.M. or even 2:00 P.M. or whenever your utility specifies that the peak rate period starts.

 

[angus[Y]oung]

It seems Tesla has decided my priority should be full battery in the morning, rather than prioritizing charging on my schedule. Is there a way around that?

Right -- but I can't (apparently) do both i.e. specify the time I want it to start and end. Only one or the other, it seems.

@Calliope that is correct. Since you're charging via a 5-15 very slowly, and you've told the Tesla to be at your charge limit by 7am, it has computed that in order to go from your current SOC up to your configured charge limit at this slow rate by 7am, it had better start right away.

 

[Calliope]

Yes, whether I'm charging with a 5-15, or a 14-50 next week, I decided to dump any Tesla-assisted timing because it doesn't suit my needs of working via the clock and not the charge level. I'll set the bloody alarm on my iPhone and turn it on and off via the app. Tesla is like Apple in this way -- they are telling you (what they've decided is) the best way to do something and you'd better like it, because they don't allow you to change it much. I use an iPhone anyway, and I'll still use my outlet to charge my Tesla, but it leaves a frustrating "grrrr...." in my throat.

 

[AlexHung]

You should take a look at OptiWatt