Non-scheduled, TOU charging, how?

[HankLloydRight]

Ok, I now live in an area with TOU rates. I also don't commute and WFH most of the time.

What I want is to just tell the car: "Do not charge the car between 12pm and 8pm on weekdays. Otherwise, always charge to the pre-set charge limit".

But it seems dead set on scheduling for a timed departure at 12noon and doesn't actually start to charge when I plug it in. I do not have a regular departure time as-if I'm a commuter plugging in my car at night to be ready for the next day.

Currently, I have to go into the app and manually 'start charging' if I want the car to charge well before it thinks it needs to charge. And even then it often stops charging on its own.

Is there any way to do what I want? Maybe I missed something in the scheduled charging setup, but I don't think so.

 

[Need]

Change schedule charging slider to "Start Charging at"
Change time to 8pm
Change to Weekdays

That should do it right? You can only tell it when to start (or when to end). You can't just exclude certain time period of the day unless you use one of the app that remotely control your car.

 

[beatle]

Change schedule charging slider to "Start Charging at"
Change time to 8pm
Change to Weekdays

That should do it right? You can only tell it when to start (or when to end). You can't just exclude certain time period of the day unless you use one of the app that remotely control your car.

That's how I would do it. Note that the car will top itself off whenever it drops 3-4% below your target charge percentage. It will ignore your schedule for that.

 

[DerbyDave]

That's how I would do it. Note that the car will top itself off whenever it drops 3-4% below your target charge percentage. It will ignore your schedule for that.

Yes, I noticed with the cold weather the car is now taking energy just to maintain the battery if it is plugged in, and this usage is not dependant on scheduled charging.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions, but as of right now, I'm limited to 120v charging, so if I am very low on charge, and start charging at 8pm, I'm still far from 80% or 90% by noon the next weekday. So I'd want it to stop charging at noon and resume again at 8pm. From what you're all saying, that's not possible?

 

[beatle]

Pretty sure the car will keep charging until it reaches your desired charge point. There is no "stop charging" time that you can schedule.

 

[pilotSteve]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions, but as of right now, I'm limited to 120v charging, so if I am very low on charge, and start charging at 8pm, I'm still far from 80% or 90% by noon the next weekday. So I'd want it to stop charging at noon and resume again at 8pm. From what you're all saying, that's not possible?

Exactly what I want too as I have 120V for the next few months and TOU rates. I can only specify start time and that can continue charging past 3:30pm and cost 3x the off peak rates.

 

[ordel]

Why not use a third party smart plug that allows you to set a schedule? Pretty sure that many of the common smart plugs have a much higher max rating than the power draw of a 120v charger.

 

[ucmndd]

That's how I would do it. Note that the car will top itself off whenever it drops 3-4% below your target charge percentage. It will ignore your schedule for that.

No it won’t. If your charge drops 3-4% below the set point, it will schedule a charge to start during the next available window, not immediately.

 

[ucmndd]

From what you're all saying, that's not possible?

Correct. There’s no way currently to set charge “blackout” hours. Agree it would be a useful feature.

 

[ohmman]

You’re looking for an exclusion period, basically. I think it’s a great idea.

 

[beatle]

No it won’t. If your charge drops 3-4% below the set point, it will schedule a charge to start during the next available window, not immediately.

That's not been my experience at all. If left on the charger, my car will top itself up every 27 hours or so which amounts to about 2.75kwh. I even posted about it earlier this year: Unscheduled top ups

It sounds like the OP needs a charger that will schedule the window since the car does not offer this ability. Here's an example, though it'll certainly cost you: https://www.amazon.com/ChargePoint-Home-Electric-Vehicle-Charger/dp/B07WNXTHNW.

 

[brkaus]

I have high priced charging from 2pm to 7pm.

I have set the car to start charging at 7:15pm.

I have teslafi set to stop charging if I am home, the car is awake, and charging at 1:45pm.

the delayed start keeps it from using electricity if I come home at 3pm and plug in.

I do have to manually start charging if I come home at 10am and want to charge. I could probably add a teslafi event every 30min to start charging if I am home & plugged in outside of the high priced times.

 

[beatle]

Ah, that's a good tip. Even as a TeslaFi user I did not know you could use it to schedule your charges.

 

[Need]

Why not use a third party smart plug that allows you to set a schedule? Pretty sure that many of the common smart plugs have a much higher max rating than the power draw of a 120v charger.

I don't think the normal smart plugs will work. The ones that I got for the house are like 8 amp max. I think 120v Tesla charging draws more than that.

But I think if OP is working from home, it would be rare for him to charge more than 32 miles per day on the weekday (8pm to 12pm = 16 hours, 16 x 2 miles = 32 miles). So maybe just set an alarm to turn off charging at noon manually if needed.

For me, I used to schedule the charging at 10pm, but now I am working from home, I don't need to. I sized my solar panels to cover my home usage and drive 40,000 miles/year between our 2 Tesla's. Now we are working from home, we drove like under 2000 miles for the last 6 months. We have so much energy left over...

 

[ucmndd]

That's not been my experience at all. If left on the charger, my car will top itself up every 27 hours or so which amounts to about 2.75kwh. I even posted about it earlier this year: Unscheduled top ups

... if the need to charge comes up within 6 hours of whatever scheduled start time you have set. Else it will schedule a charge to start during the next available window. I think Derbydave was right in your other thread when he posted this manual excerpt:

“When you set a scheduled charging time, Model S displays the set time to begin charging when you are parked at the scheduled location. If, at the scheduled time, Model S is not plugged in at the location, charging starts as soon as you plug it in, provided you plug it in within six hours of the scheduled time. If plugged in after six hours, charging does not start until the scheduled time on the next day. To override this setting, touch Start Charging or Stop Charging”.

I can say definitively, after nearly a year of very limited COVID driving, that once my car drops 3% below the set point, it schedules a charge to start at my 12am start time. Unless - as observed above - it drops below the threshold between 12am and 6am, in which case it will start to charge immediately.

 

[beatle]

That explains why mine have been immediate. It takes 27 hours to drop past the SoC threshold. If it were 18-24 hours, I'd still receive a scheduled charge.

 

[ordel]

I don't think the normal smart plugs will work. The ones that I got for the house are like 8 amp max. I think 120v Tesla charging draws more than that.

Amazon smart plugs are rated at 15 amps, as an example. Pretty sure a 120v Tesla on a 5-15 outlet draws only 12 amps. Seems well within safety ratings, no? If safe, this would solve the OP's problem, cheaply and efficiently.

 

[beatle]

True, I forgot that he was on 120v, but that would be far and away the cheapest/easiest option.

 

[gnuarm]

No it won’t. If your charge drops 3-4% below the set point, it will schedule a charge to start during the next available window, not immediately.

Yes, and that is a PITA. I can plug in my car and it won't start charging. I've actually bought a Wi-Fi controlled switch for this and when the switch turns on, the car won't start charging until 8 pm. So I have to disable the feature in the car entirely.

Lame car.