Charging Procedures

[minnow83]

Hello everyone. My Model Y is my first electric vehicle so I am trying to better understand how the charging process should work. I read that it is best for the vehicle to stay plugged into the charger at all times - I have the Tesla J1772 charger.

My questions:
1) What is happening to the car/charger once my charging stops after it reaches the 80% limit set and the charging cable remains plugged into the vehicle? The % charged on the vehicle is staying at 80% so I would assume that there is some continuous charge that is taking place? Of should the car still be draining its battery due to Sentry and other factors and then restart the charging process automatically after it reaches a certain level?
2) Is there a certain point where I should remove the cable from the vehicle after it's been charged? For example, if I haven't driven in # of days. Or depending on weather or other conditions?

Thank you in advance. The idea of trying to manage a battery is new to me so just trying my best to maximize the longevity. Any other advice will be also greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Sophias_dad]

1) there's about a 3% window, where the car will discharge to keep Sentry and stuff running, then start charging again back to your desired level

2) If believe Tesla, then just leave it plugged in all the time. As a datapoint, I plug in my car when it gets below 40% or so and unplug it when I go on any trip, it can sit for days or a week being unplugged.

 

[minnow83]

1) there's about a 3% window, where the car will discharge to keep Sentry and stuff running, then start charging again back to your desired level

2) If believe Tesla, then just leave it plugged in all the time. As a datapoint, I plug in my car when it gets below 40% or so and unplug it when I go on any trip, it can sit for days or a week being unplugged.

Thank you!!!

 

[jcanoe]

No need to obsess about charging all of the time. You can plug in to charge once a day. If you have an Off-Peak utility rate as part of a Time of Use (TOU) rate plan you will want to set up scheduled charging so that charging always starts at the beginning of the Off-Peak window, i.e. in some cases (looking at southern CA) the TOU-5 plan Off-Peak window is from midnight to 0600.) Alternately you can set up Scheduled Departure Charging so that charging will always complete by the end of the Off-Peak window. If charging at 120V (Level 1) it may not be possible to complete charging (i.e. to 80%) within the Off-Peak window. Scheduled Charging and Scheduled Departure Charging generally work best when you have 240V (Level 2) charging at home. Some Tesla owners do not have access to home charging and rely on using the Tesla Supercharger locations as required (this may only be several times per week depending on how many miles driven.)

 

[minnow83]

Thank you!

 

[minnow83]

No need to obsess about charging all of the time. You can plug in to charge once a day. If you have an Off-Peak utility rate as part of a Time of Use (TOU) rate plan you will want to set up scheduled charging so that charging always starts at the beginning of the Off-Peak window, i.e. in some cases (looking at southern CA) the TOU-5 plan Off-Peak window is from midnight to 0600.) Alternately you can set up Scheduled Departure Charging so that charging will always complete by the end of the Off-Peak window. If charging at 120V (Level 1) it may not be possible to complete charging (i.e. to 80%) within the Off-Peak window. Scheduled Charging and Scheduled Departure Charging generally work best when you have 240V (Level 2) charging at home. Some Tesla owners do not have access to home charging and rely on using the Tesla Supercharger locations as required (this may only be several times per week depending on how many miles driven.)

Thank you!

 

[father_of_6]

trying my best to maximize the longevity

If your primary concern is battery longevity, and your driving habits allow, you should set your charge limit to 50%.

There's a good amount of data showing the degradation curve based on the car's typical sitting state of charge, and right at about 56% there's an added degradation hit. If you care to read more, search the forums for user AAKEE.

I've had my charge limit at 50% for more than a year... we almost never hit below 20% (or 30%), even on our heaviest driving days.

If you need it, set it higher... but if you can get by at 50%, that's the way to go.