I turned off my charge timer

[johnrhansen]

Yes indeed. My utility doesn't have peak pricing, and I'm not thinking it's going to make any difference the battery life if the car sits for 5 extra hours with 80 percent charge on it... So I think I'm going to leave my charge timer off from now on. Just plug it in when the charge gets below 40 percent, and have it immediately charge to 80. This way I don't have to worry about not having juice in there if I need the car in the middle of the night, and I don't have to keep hitting the off button when I have to charge during the day.

I'm not 100 percent confident in my EVaptitude so I'm posting here fishing opinions from some of the wiser people here on the wisdom of my change in policy.

 

[uwskier20]

Yes indeed. My utility doesn't have peak pricing, and I'm not thinking it's going to make any difference the battery life if the car sits for 5 extra hours with 80 percent charge on it... So I think I'm going to leave my charge timer off from now on. Just plug it in when the charge gets below 40 percent, and have it immediately charge to 80. This way I don't have to worry about not having juice in there if I need the car in the middle of the night, and I don't have to keep hitting the off button when I have to charge during the day.

I'm not 100 percent confident in my EVaptitude so I'm posting here fishing opinions from some of the wiser people here on the wisdom of my change in policy.

I recently started the same practice. Previously, I had the "End" timer set to my routine departure times, delivering a 100% charge. However, I've decided that being "always ready" at 80% probably won't lead to problems. I now charge at home and trickle at work (can't do the round-trip at 80% any longer), thus avoiding the extreme highs and lows.

 

[Stoaty]

I think that is a reasonable policy. Personally, I have relaxed my charging policy a bit, so that I keep the SOC at 50% during the day (on weekends) instead of letting it get down to 30%. When I get home at night I leave the Leaf in the low 30's percent SOC until 4:00 AM, then charge to 80% to be ready for the work day. That is because I have a regular, highly predictable schedule. While I have no proof that my policy is any better than charging to 80% right away, theoretically it is somewhat better. Since it doesn't impact my use of the Leaf at all or inconvenience me in any way, I am staying with it for now.

 

[nosuchthing]

Ha-ha! I never turned it on! Why bother? I charge when I need to charge and mostly at night anyway. Why complicate life? It's complicated as it is already...

 

[asimba2]

There are so many Leafs at my place of employment that the only way I can charge is to do it in the morning (since I get to work early) and let it sit at 80% all day. On Thursdays it charges to 100% and stays that way for most of the day. As someone stated the other day, I'm trying to remember to make the car serve my needs rather than the other way around.

I have not tried the end timer yet. If I want the car charged to 80% for my 6:00am departure time, I assume the car knows the 1) state of charge, 2) the charge rate (trickle vs 16A, 20A, 30A) and therefore automatically determines what time to start charging so it reaches 80% before 6:00a.m? Does it work?

 

[essaunders]

I've switched to 'charge now to 80%' for the winter. I'd rather be able to blast the heat on my unplanned evening trip then be wondering how low the battery will get.

I'll probably switch back to an 80% end timer for the summer again.

 

[Nubo]

Even though I don't currently use time-of-day pricing (PG&E's byzantine rate structure made it sardonically punitive for us), I do recognize the reasons behind TOU though, and so I practice end-timer charging so that my EV power consumption happens during the wee hours. I figure it's better for the battery to charge when cooler, better for the environment and also our local infrastructure (transformer). So, that's my good-neighbor policy. I do charge during other periods as needed, but it's not needed all that often.

It sounds like PG&E might be simplifying the EV plans and when we add another EV it will probably make sense for us.

As EVs gain wider adoption, I expect time-of-use plans to become more user-friendly. The utilities are already starting to recognize hot-spots in high-adoption locales. Especially when you start talking about higher-power vehicle charging such as Tesla, which go all the way up to 20kW -- three times a normal home's peak load.

 

[uwskier20]

I have not tried the end timer yet. If I want the car charged to 80% for my 6:00am departure time, I assume the car knows the 1) state of charge, 2) the charge rate (trickle vs 16A, 20A, 30A) and therefore automatically determines what time to start charging so it reaches 80% before 6:00a.m? Does it work?

Correct. Previously, I had end "End" timer set to 7:00am on weekdays and 11:00am (I loaf around on weekends, what can I say?) on weekends, with no "Start" timer set. When you plug in, the car briefly draws power (3-5 seconds) from the EVSE to gauge available power, and calculates the start time accordingly. In my experience, the estimate is rather conservative, and charging is often completed 45-60 minutes before the prescribed "End" time.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

... charging is often completed 45-60 minutes before the prescribed "End" time.

I've noticed the same, and also that the 'early finish' time is somewhat variable. Is it using the extra time for pack balancing? Since this happens between 5 and 6 AM for me, I haven't gone out to look at the KillAWatt yet.

I've got the EV A time-of-use rate from PG&E (if memory serves), so the charge timer is a valuable ally in using electricity at sensible times.

 

[ksnogas2112]

I do basically the same thing since day 1. My timer is set to 250/300pm so it starts charging immediately whenever/whereever i plug in. However, the home Schneider EVSE has a delay start function so in summer when I try to cool the pack of before charging I set the delay start at the EVSE instead of monkeying with the timer in the car.

 

[johnrhansen]

yesterday was full of lots of unexpected trips. I started out the day at 60 percent, thinking I only had 20 miles to drive the next day, I didn't plug in the night before. I wish I had that extra 20 percent. from now on, not only am I going to charge right away, I'm going to plug in every time I park at home and charge to 80 percent. I don't think it should impact the battery much. It says right in the owners manual not to charge all the time between 80 and 100, but it doesn't say anything about charging between 60 and 80.

 

[DaveEV]

... charging is often completed 45-60 minutes before the prescribed "End" time.

I've noticed the same, and also that the 'early finish' time is somewhat variable. Is it using the extra time for pack balancing? Since this happens between 5 and 6 AM for me, I haven't gone out to look at the KillAWatt yet.

I believe most of the variability is because the car estimates/rounds charge time to the nearest 30 minutes and is also pessimistic in it's estimate by a similar amount.

 

[Nubo]

... charging is often completed 45-60 minutes before the prescribed "End" time.

I've noticed the same, and also that the 'early finish' time is somewhat variable. Is it using the extra time for pack balancing?

Seems dependent on the amount of charging to be done. Iirc, there was some speculation that the computer seems overly pessimistic about charge times because the estimation profile was based on Japanese electrical standard (100/200 Volts vs 120/240 in the US).

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I tried to set mine when I got it but it didn't seem to work as I expected, so I was always 80% except 100% on Saturdays. Now I'm 100% all the time and i plug it in when I get home. I don't care anymore frankly, I want it to have as much capacity as possible.

 

[pkulak]

When I heard that the 2014 doesn't even have a 80% mode, I figured 100% can't be that bad. However, some days I barely drive at all and then I'd have to remember NOT to plug in that night. I don't like remembering stuff; I like to just plug in every night. Now I just have an 80% timer set for the early morning and push the timer off button if I ever need 100%.