Easy way to charge during day and timer at night?

Ideally, I'd like a timer for on at 8 AM-6PM (work time), and then on at 12 AM-6AM (low electric rates at home).

As it is, (I think) I have to turn off the timer during the day to charge at work and then turn it on when I get home.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Toshi

ttoshi said:

Ideally, I'd like a timer for on at 8 AM-6PM (work time), and then on at 12 AM-6AM (low electric rates at home).

As it is, (I think) I have to turn off the timer during the day to charge at work and then turn it on when I get home.

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Hey Toshi,

That's what I would do. Set a timer for the 12 AM-6 AM period and then turn off the timer when I get to work. What type of EVSE are you using at home? Maybe it would be easier to just put a timer on it.

There are two timer setting you can use. But aside from that, there is the "immediate charge" button on the cluster to the left of the wheel that will override the timer and charge immediately. No need to turn the timer on/off, just plug in at work and hit the button. Viola!

GeekEV said:

There are two timer setting you can use. But aside from that, there is the "immediate charge" button on the cluster to the left of the wheel that will override the timer and charge immediately. No need to turn the timer on/off, just plug in at work and hit the button. Viola!

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Correct, but if it's a shared charging station the car won't start charging again when plugged back in...

If your EVSE has a timer, I would time that for you 12am to 6am, then push the timer off button when you get home. Use the car timer for work hours 8am to 6pm and it will charge whenever it is plugged in.

Why don't you just set the timer to run from 12am to 6pm? Then it will charge at night as you want, and at anytime it is plugged in during the work day. It should already be fully charged (whether 80% or 100%) by 6AM, especially if you are charging during the day, and if for some reason (power outage?) it isn't, it's probably a good idea if it keeps charging after 6AM anyway.

Of course, that's a great solution! I have the standard Nissan-recommended 240V charger that doesn't have a timer (currently), so this 12am-6pm timer setting should work great!

Thanks,
Toshi

davewill said:

Why don't you just set the timer to run from 12am to 6pm? Then it will charge at night as you want, and at anytime it is plugged in during the work day. It should already be fully charged (whether 80% or 100%) by 6AM, especially if you are charging during the day, and if for some reason (power outage?) it isn't, it's probably a good idea if it keeps charging after 6AM anyway.

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davewill said:

Why don't you just set the timer to run from 12am to 6pm? Then it will charge at night as you want, and at anytime it is plugged in during the work day. It should already be fully charged (whether 80% or 100%) by 6AM, especially if you are charging during the day, and if for some reason (power outage?) it isn't, it's probably a good idea if it keeps charging after 6AM anyway.

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Hmmm... This may not be true... My wife and I were surprised yesterday when the night before she came home ~30 minutes after the timer was to have started, and the charging did not start. It seems like charging will begin if the car is plugged in at the start time, but not if plugged in later?

Bill

Electric4Me said:

Hmmm... This may not be true... My wife and I were surprised yesterday when the night before she came home ~30 minutes after the timer was to have started, and the charging did not start. It seems like charging will begin if the car is plugged in at the start time, but not if plugged in later?

Bill

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Are you sure you have an end time on that particular timer, or just a % threshold? With an end time, you create a timer window, without, it's just a start point, and (correctly, I think), if you miss the start point and don't have a window, it shouldn't start, because that could lead you to go past a TOU price boundary without intending it...to put it another way, how long after a start-only time would be reasonable for it to look backwards and decide if you meant to start, vs. waiting for the next instance of the start time?

If you do in fact have an end time on the timer, then this doesn't help...