Advice for potential Roadster owner

[hcsharp]

In cooler climes give the battery some time to cool down before starting to charge. If you have driven e.g. 100 Km you just need to replace about 20 kWh. At 13A that would take 7 hours. So starting your charge at 1 am will be enough to get you recharged fully again by 8 am. Mostly the fans will then not be needed anymore.

While it's true you won't get as much noise by waiting, it is also not as good for battery longevity. Best would be to charge it for a few minutes until the front fans go off which immediately cools the battery. Then it will be sitting at a cooler temp while waiting and cooling more to do a full charge later.

[kgb]

While it's true you won't get as much noise by waiting, it is also not as good for battery longevity. Best would be to charge it for a few minutes until the front fans go off which immediately cools the battery. Then it will be sitting at a cooler temp while waiting and cooling more to do a full charge later.

In various other threads, other owners have expressed the desire for a more "automated" charging system. We know that TM reads this forum, so pay attention, because this type of activity is exactly the type of activity that should be automated. Many other forum readers (and myself) have noticed that the owners find themselves taking an active roll in the charging process. The owners should be able to put some information into the car, such as, electricity rates and peak/off peak times. Then, the owner would only have to tell the car what time by which the vehicle should be charged. The car could then do things like (1) apply the fan briefly (which I understand it does regardless of whether it is charging or not) (2) it could charge the car from a particularly low SOC to midway immediately then save the rest for off-peak times or (3) something else. The car (TM) knows what's best for battery longevity, and the owner knows when he/she wants the car to be ready, the rest can be some automation algorithm that cares for battery health, charges at lower rates, and has the car ready in the morning.

[sauhlir]

In various other threads, other owners have expressed the desire for a more "automated" charging system. We know that TM reads this forum, so pay attention, because this type of activity is exactly the type of activity that should be automated. Many other forum readers (and myself) have noticed that the owners find themselves taking an active roll in the charging process. The owners should be able to put some information into the car, such as, electricity rates and peak/off peak times. Then, the owner would only have to tell the car what time by which the vehicle should be charged. The car could then do things like (1) apply the fan briefly (which I understand it does regardless of whether it is charging or not) (2) it could charge the car from a particularly low SOC to midway immediately then save the rest for off-peak times or (3) something else. The car (TM) knows what's best for battery longevity, and the owner knows when he/she wants the car to be ready, the rest can be some automation algorithm that cares for battery health, charges at lower rates, and has the car ready in the morning.

Yes, and take it a step farther. If you have more than one car and a limited supply of electricity, allow the drivers to explain what they want for the two cars (perhaps one really needs to be fully charged and the other doesn't, and one needs to be ready earlier than the other) and let the cars and the grid negotiate the best way to make this happen.

[fraccy]

Congratulations. That feeling you have doesn't wear off.

The noise is the fans cooling the battery prior to charging. The length of time it runs depends on ambient temperature as well as how hard you drove (you may have pushed the temp up). I sometimes find that my garage gets hot as a result of the fans running so I leave the doors open for a few minutes after plugging in and most of the warm air generated dissipates.

Thanks for this it helped. I also realised my tiny garage makes the sound seem a lot worse. I charged outside elsewhere at the weekend and it wasn't nearly as bad.

My only wish for improved charging software is to be able to quickly check the car's current charge status on a website from my phone.

[Doug_G]

My only wish for improved charging software is to be able to quickly check the car's current charge status on a website from my phone.

You want a Tesla Tattler.

[fraccy]

You want a Tesla Tattler.

O.o

I do. I do want a Tesla Tattler!

[hcsharp]

In various other threads, other owners have expressed the desire for a more "automated" charging system. We know that TM reads this forum, so pay attention, because this type of activity is exactly the type of activity that should be automated. Many other forum readers (and myself) have noticed that the owners find themselves taking an active roll in the charging process. The owners should be able to put some information into the car, such as, electricity rates and peak/off peak times. Then, the owner would only have to tell the car what time by which the vehicle should be charged. The car could then do things like (1) apply the fan briefly (which I understand it does regardless of whether it is charging or not) (2) it could charge the car from a particularly low SOC to midway immediately then save the rest for off-peak times or (3) something else. The car (TM) knows what's best for battery longevity, and the owner knows when he/she wants the car to be ready, the rest can be some automation algorithm that cares for battery health, charges at lower rates, and has the car ready in the morning.

I've implemented most of those features in my home-made HPC. In my climate we don't need to cool the battery down as much as warm it up. So I have a Quick Cool Down/Warm Up button. I'm kinda busy with work this week and next but at some point I'll post some pics...

[fraccy]

I don't know much about the Roadster yet, but I was wondering, the fact it aggressively cools the battery when you plug it in I assume is because it uses the information that you've actually plugged it in to know its going to charge and be sat still. I dont fully understand what temperature things need to be for charging versus driving etc.

Would it not be desirable if say, about 5 minutes before you get home (if you're not driving hard), you could tell it you were *going* to charge very shortly. The earlier it gets that information the more efficiently it should be able to act. It could then take that as permission to expend battery energy to start the cooling process (at least partially) before you get home? Where I live, the last couple of miles are always very slow through town and the car is cooling off a bit anyway?