Limiting charge via the app

bp1000 · Apr 24, 2015

Hi guys

Can you limit the kW draw whilst on charge and ideally control this via the app?

Car not here yet, p85d coming and i would like to charge it via solar when possible.

My ideal scenario is to be working upstairs, have the car plugged it but not charging. When the solar array is output a reasonable kW, open the tesla app and enable charging with a limit below the solar output. Can you set this kW limit like this?

I'm lucky that i work from home quite a bit and i have the ability to charge during the day. The low mileage that will get put back into the car from solar suits a lot of my frequent but short trips. My expectations are realistic and i understand solar charging is slow but this is fine for me. I have a free charger at work and superchargers will mostly be used for longer journeys with a 32amp wall charger at home for backups for long journeys.

thanks

wraithnot · Apr 24, 2015

bp1000 said:
Hi guys

Can you limit the kW draw whilst on charge and ideally control this via the app?

Car not here yet, p85d coming and i would like to charge it via solar when possible.

My ideal scenario is to be working upstairs, have the car plugged it but not charging. When the solar array is output a reasonable kW, open the tesla app and enable charging with a limit below the solar output. Can you set this kW limit like this?

I'm lucky that i work from home quite a bit and i have the ability to charge during the day. The low mileage that will get put back into the car from solar suits a lot of my frequent but short trips. My expectations are realistic and i understand solar charging is slow but this is fine for me. I have a free charger at work and superchargers will mostly be used for longer journeys with a 32amp wall charger at home for backups for long journeys.

thanks

At least with the version of the iPhone app I am using, you can only set the charge limit (how full the battery gets before charging stops), start charging, or stop charging from the app. If you want to lower the charging current (and therefore lower the charging power) or change the time when charging automatically starts, you have to do that in the car itself.

If you lower the charging current at a specific location from within the car, the car applies that lowered amperage whenever it is at that location and you can use the app to start and stop charging so that may accomplish what you want to do.

Ingineer · Jun 15, 2015

This would of course require coding an app using the Tesla API, but theoretically you could set the charge amps low enough, then use a coarse PWM algorithm to start and stop the charging as needed to consume most of the kWh from the panels. For instance, let's say you have a 5kW array, set your charge max amps to 20A, then the app would cycle the charger on and off at 20A (4.8kW) as needed to keep up with the solar kWh. It would read the kWh from the car and your solar system and adjust it's timing accordingly to use up all the solar. Neat idea, but definitely needs a lot of custom programming and that program would have to be running to control the car.

Jays200 · Dec 14, 2017

Reviving an older thread.

I'd love to be able to change the amperage of my car charging via the app as my car is often at home during the day whilst I'm at work. With 5kW of solar export, 5A on 3 phase with my HPWC is approx 3500W but I would like to use my UMC to get 5-16A at single phase and about 250V thus enabling finer resolution to maximise self consumption of my solar.

Obviously, with my PW2 reserved, I'd love this this to be fully self controlling as I hate giving my utility any of my solar given feed in is 7 cents but consumption is 26 cents per kWh.

I don't think changing charge current can be done via the app but surely this is a simple app update away.

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Limiting charge via the app

bp1000

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wraithnot

Model 3 VIN #2942 Model S VIN #5785

Ingineer

Electrical Engineer

Jays200

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