Charging times! It helps! ....

[ColoradoMike]

Just found out that charging times makes a difference! Not Prices..but when folks take more electricity .... it helps us all!

WE pay for a certain charge but after an hour chatting with our electric association they would like us to charge at differing hours.

Makes sense?

WE usually just plug in the car but after talking with our COOP for charging, they would like us to charge when electric is lower.

Haven't figured it out yet but any help would be awesome!

EDIT: after chatting with our company, we are confused on how to set up a TIME for charging. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[jjrandorin]

You can setup "Scheduled charging" ( NOT scheduled departure) and schedule your charging to take place starting at a time that:

1. Will generally get you to your desired amount of charge
2. finishes before grid demand starts to get higher in your area.

In general this tends to be sometime after midnight, so schedule your charge to start after midnight and the car will start charging at that time, to whatever set point you have set for your charging.

In my case, I have my model 3 set to start charging at 3am and my wifes model Y to start charging at 4am. Both finish before 6-6:30am based on my wall connector charging speed and general usage of the cars.

Here is how Tesla explains to setup scheduled charging (note, I personally dont recommend scheduled departure and suggest you ignore that part of the following manual excerpt).

==========================================

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn how to schedule charging and departure times.

www.tesla.com

Toggle between Scheduled Departure and Scheduled Charging by touching Controls > Charging > Switch to Scheduled Charging/Scheduled Departure when Model 3 is in Park.

Using Scheduled Charging​

Use Scheduled Charging to specify a daily time in which you want Model 3 to start charging.
With Scheduled Charging selected, enable the feature then set a daily time to start charging.
Note
Scheduled Charging starts charging immediately if Model 3 is plugged in up to six hours after the scheduled start time. However, if Model 3 is plugged in after six hours of the scheduled charging time, charging may not start until the scheduled time on the next day.

 

[alexgr]

Just found out that charging times makes a difference! Not Prices..but when folks take more electricity .... it helps us all!

WE pay for a certain charge but after an hour chatting with our electric association they would like us to charge at differing hours.

Makes sense?

WE usually just plug in the car but after talking with our COOP for charging, they would like us to charge when electric is lower.

Haven't figured it out yet but any help would be awesome!

EDIT: after chatting with our company, we are confused on how to set up a TIME for charging. Any help would be appreciated!

Does your electric company offer a lower [night] charging rate? What's the carrot?
We have a 2.5 cent/kWh for night hours, so if Tesla eventually makes V2G (vehicle-to-grid) available, we could safe big time.

 

[rpiotro]

Set it to charge in the wee hours of the morning. That is when demand is lower. I'm on "time of use" rates from 9 PM to 9 AM weekdays and all day weekends and holidays. I can also choose an 8 to 8 or 7 to 7 timeframe. That should be a guide.

The off peak is about 10¢ per Kwh and on peak about 21¢ per Kwh. Run the dishwasher at night, finish showers before 9 AM, laundry on the weekends. It worked out to about $300 per year savings. Without making any sacrifices. Even more now that I can charge my car cheaply. It costs me less than 3¢ per mile to operate.

They should offer you a price incentive for doing so if it is that important. During the wee hours the demand is so low they have excess capacity. You can't easily just throttle those generators.

 

[dakhlkt22]

You set charging start time right in the app. Depends on your utility/coop's best time, but usually midnight might be a good time.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If you need more flexibility there are also some smart EVSEs that have more control over charging times.

 

[ColoradoMike]

Does your electric company offer a lower [night] charging rate? What's the carrot?
We have a 2.5 cent/kWh for night hours, so if Tesla eventually makes V2G (vehicle-to-grid) available, we could safe big time.

They do not offer a discount. But they did state that charging late at night when power draw is lower than during the daytime it helps the system as a whole. We are part of a COOP so anything to help the folks out I am willing to do. So my "carrot" is essentially doing something I can do to help out our "grid" and since we are able to do so we will.

 

[eskudo12791]

Read your electric bill, see what schedule you are on, research that schedule and see if it has peak-off peak hours, set your car to start charging at the beginning of off peak hours

 

[alexgr]

They do not offer a discount. But they did state that charging late at night when power draw is lower than during the daytime it helps the system as a whole. We are part of a COOP so anything to help the folks out I am willing to do. So my "carrot" is essentially doing something I can do to help out our "grid" and since we are able to do so we will.

What's COOP?

 

[ColoradoMike]

What's COOP?

"Cooperatives are created by people who have a specific need and who are willing to work together to operate and organize a company that will meet that need."

Probably not the best definition.

Our company MVEA...is a community that folks actually have a VOTE on power. Not "shareholder" stuff but actual folks that can vote on where power and other issues are related to that. As a community, we CAN and DO, have a say on power.

Not entirely certain how it works but I would like to believe that our members can have a say.

 

[alexgr]

"Cooperatives are created by people who have a specific need and who are willing to work together to operate and organize a company that will meet that need."

Probably not the best definition.

Our company MVEA...is a community that folks actually have a VOTE on power. Not "shareholder" stuff but actual folks that can vote on where power and other issues are related to that. As a community, we CAN and DO, have a say on power.

Not entirely certain how it works but I would like to believe that our members can have a say.

I thought COOP is an abbreviation of something, not just a short of cooperative.
Watching local battles between HOA members, sometimes even real gun battles, I'd say "what could go wrong with a cooperative!?" I mean what if the majority votes to ban electric vehicles as an extreme example? They would if they could in some places where I live.

 

[CyberGus]

I thought COOP is an abbreviation of something, not just a short of cooperative.
Watching local battles between HOA members, sometimes even real gun battles, I'd say "what could go wrong with a cooperative!?" I mean what if the majority votes to ban electric vehicles as an extreme example? They would if they could in some places where I live.

"As late as the mid-1930s, nine out of 10 rural homes were without electric service. For many years, power companies ignored the rural areas of the nation.​

​

The first official action of the federal government pointing the way to the present rural electrification program came with the passage of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Act in May 1933. This act authorized the TVA Board to construct transmission lines to serve “farms and small villages that are not otherwise supplied with electricity at reasonable rates.”​

​

On May 11, 1935, Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 7037 establishing the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Within months, it became evident to REA officials that established investor-owned utilities were not interested in using federal loan funds to serve sparely populated rural areas. But loan applications from farmer-based cooperatives poured in, and REA soon realized electric cooperatives would be the entities to make rural electrification a reality.​

​

Today, about 99 percent of the nation’s farms have electric service. Most rural electrification is the product of locally owned rural electric cooperatives that got their start by borrowing funds from REA to build lines and provide service on a not-for-profit basis. REA is now the Rural Utilities Service, or RUS, and is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture."​

History

Learn about the movement that gave birth to America's electric cooperatives and NRECA.

www.electric.coop

 

[shyboy]

I live in northern VA, my utility company offered the OffPeak / Peak charging plan.
The cost was 7cents off peak rate and 22 cents peak rate.
If I stay on my current plan my all time rate is 13cents.

We tried hard to follow the self established rules not to use unnecessary power during peak hours. Few thing were beyond control, like HVAC can't be stopped, the refrigerator, sump pump etc can't be turned off during peak hours. Only thing we could control was the laundry, dishwasher and EV charging.

Upon seeing the first month comparison, we got $130 more than my usual bill.
Tried further hard by setting the thermostat by few degrees, but second month it was $158 more than usual bill.
I tried to opt-out but was told that if you optout during the month, it will take effect from the next billing cycle. so I end up in this plan for another month, which cost me another $120 more than my usual bill.

Lower rate for EV charging during night, might be very little difference on your bill. the huge hit is your other utilities, like HVAC/heating or other heavy appliances. It also depends on the weather temperature too, if one month you AC kicked in more, and its during peak hours, then you are screwed.

It may saved you few if you can turned off hvac during the peak time, in my case, everybody stays home, doing remote work, and turning off hvac is not an option for me.

 

[jkdman123]

I live in northern VA, my utility company offered the OffPeak / Peak charging plan.
The cost was 7cents off peak rate and 22 cents peak rate.
If I stay on my current plan my all time rate is 13cents.

We tried hard to follow the self established rules not to use unnecessary power during peak hours. Few thing were beyond control, like HVAC can't be stopped, the refrigerator, sump pump etc can't be turned off during peak hours. Only thing we could control was the laundry, dishwasher and EV charging.

Upon seeing the first month comparison, we got $130 more than my usual bill.
Tried further hard by setting the thermostat by few degrees, but second month it was $158 more than usual bill.
I tried to opt-out but was told that if you optout during the month, it will take effect from the next billing cycle. so I end up in this plan for another month, which cost me another $120 more than my usual bill.

Lower rate for EV charging during night, might be very little difference on your bill. the huge hit is your other utilities, like HVAC/heating or other heavy appliances. It also depends on the weather temperature too, if one month you AC kicked in more, and its during peak hours, then you are screwed.

It may saved you few if you can turned off hvac during the peak time, in my case, everybody stays home, doing remote work, and turning off hvac is not an option for me.

Here in SoCal the electric provider (SDG&E) provides an online tool to see what your predicted bill would be if you switch plans. They've been pushing hard for everyone to go to time-of-use vs. the tiered flat rates. I'm on the tiered plan (pay one price for the first tier of X kWhs and then a higher price for the next tier above that) and whenever I check to see what my bill would be on a TOU plan the tool always says I'll pay more. Some plans up to $700 more per year, so I am sticking with my tiered plan as long as they'll let me.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

OK, so if you're in a co-op and you want to help out, just ask them when's the best days and times to charge in different seasons.

I'm sure they won't have any really smart systems, but make sure they know you know that the more information you have the more you can optimize to help.

 

[shyboy]

Here in SoCal the electric provider (SDG&E) provides an online tool to see what your predicted bill would be if you switch plans. They've been pushing hard for everyone to go to time-of-use vs. the tiered flat rates. I'm on the tiered plan (pay one price for the first tier of X kWhs and then a higher price for the next tier above that) and whenever I check to see what my bill would be on a TOU plan the tool always says I'll pay more. Some plans up to $700 more per year, so I am sticking with my tiered plan as long as they'll let me.

In my case, they showed you the comparison afterwards. So I had no way to find out how my bill will looks like before I subscribe.
Once subscribed, then they show you if you were in your old plan, what's your bill looks like.

 

[KenC]

Yes that's why utilities that offer TOU plans offer lower rates at night, because those are off-peak hours, where the load is light, but the utility is making electricity. They're incentivizing people to use electricity at night, to relieve some of the grid strain during the day.

 

[kpanda17]

I live in northern VA, my utility company offered the OffPeak / Peak charging plan.
The cost was 7cents off peak rate and 22 cents peak rate.
If I stay on my current plan my all time rate is 13cents.

We tried hard to follow the self established rules not to use unnecessary power during peak hours. Few thing were beyond control, like HVAC can't be stopped, the refrigerator, sump pump etc can't be turned off during peak hours. Only thing we could control was the laundry, dishwasher and EV charging.

Upon seeing the first month comparison, we got $130 more than my usual bill.
Tried further hard by setting the thermostat by few degrees, but second month it was $158 more than usual bill.
I tried to opt-out but was told that if you optout during the month, it will take effect from the next billing cycle. so I end up in this plan for another month, which cost me another $120 more than my usual bill.

Lower rate for EV charging during night, might be very little difference on your bill. the huge hit is your other utilities, like HVAC/heating or other heavy appliances. It also depends on the weather temperature too, if one month you AC kicked in more, and its during peak hours, then you are screwed.

It may saved you few if you can turned off hvac during the peak time, in my case, everybody stays home, doing remote work, and turning off hvac is not an option for me.

I’m in the same dilemma without making the switch but scratching my head. I work from home and sometimes people are here causing electric use during the day. Use out of our control use would hit that new peak rate which is insane. My utility stated my bill will go down due to the 2x EV charging during the overnight, but cannot show me the hourly use report. I have a new meter. Aren’t these new meters able to report hourly use?

 

[shyboy]

I’m in the same dilemma without making the switch but scratching my head. I work from home and sometimes people are here causing electric use during the day. Use out of our control use would hit that new peak rate which is insane. My utility stated my bill will go down due to the 2x EV charging during the overnight, but cannot show me the hourly use report. I have a new meter. Aren’t these new meters able to report hourly use?

I have smart meter and it provide me the usage on 30 min interval. I can request more shorter, but I think 30 min is more than enough for me.
my EV mostly take 40Kw charging on one charge. (20% - 80%) = This cost me $5.20 if I charge during my regular plan. it will charge $2.80 on nightly reduced rate when I was in off peak plan.

my HVAC during the day takes about 40Kw for maybe 4-5 hours on full AC running. on my regular rate it will cost me $10 / day but on peak rate it will cost me $17.60.

In simple words what I'm trying to say if you can turn off everything during the day then it make sense to get to reduced rate plan, otherwise you will save approx. $3 during EV charging, but may pay over $10 more during the day for you hvac or other appliances.

 

[kpanda17]

I have smart meter and it provide me the usage on 30 min interval. I can request more shorter, but I think 30 min is more than enough for me.
my EV mostly take 40Kw charging on one charge. (20% - 80%) = This cost me $5.20 if I charge during my regular plan. it will charge $2.80 on nightly reduced rate when I was in off peak plan.

my HVAC during the day takes about 40Kw for maybe 4-5 hours on full AC running. on my regular rate it will cost me $10 / day but on peak rate it will cost me $17.60.

In simple words what I'm trying to say if you can turn off everything during the day then it make sense to get to reduced rate plan, otherwise you will save approx. $3 during EV charging, but may pay over $10 more during the day for you hvac or other appliances.

exactly why I am scratching my head with TOU, AC running during the day is a disaster for attempting to move to TOU
also imagine chasing people in the house during the day to not use electricity...not fun
I have not met anyone that has people in the house during the day that have crushed it financially with TOU