Charging Timer to avoid Peak Rates

Can someone help me figure out how to program my charge timer?
I have a 2016 Leaf SV. I have to charge at work and at home every weekday. When at home, I would like to wait until off-peak rates start at 8pm. But I still want to charge during the daytime before 5pm, without having to remember to push the timer off button. I also want to charge without time restrictions all through the weekend to make sure I don't accidentally get stranded on an odd trip.

After some experimentation, I found a schedule that almost works: put the start end time after the stop end time, as in the picture below:





The only problem is that this will not charge on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Why not? I added the Sunday entry so that it will at least charge on Sunday evenings. Since I can't figure out why it works the way it does, I feel like I'm running the risk that there could still be some other bug in my program that will leave me stranded someday.

Can someone explain to me what went wrong?

Set start to 8:10 pm and end to 6:00 pm (so car does not start charging on peak in case clock in car does not match clock in electric meter) for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Set start time to 8:10 pm and end time to 8:10 pm for Friday and Saturday. Make sure end time for Sunday through Thursday is set before the time you normally arrive home from work on Monday through Friday so car does not try to charge when you plug in after arriving home.

Gerry

Thanks Gerry. I just went out and tried your instructions, but it didn't seem to work as expected. It's 4:30pm on a Sunday, so I would like the car to charge as soon as I plug it in. But after adding the second timer and plugging back in, I get the sweeping lights indicating it's waiting for the timer. Does it need to go through a week to sync up or something?

Once you activate the timer, it will only charge during an allowed time. Setting a second timer with start and end times the same, essentially turns the timer off.

To get what you want to work, just use one timer. Set the start time for 8:10pm and the end time for 6pm for every single day. This will start your nightly charging after 8pm, and will start charging if you plug in anytime during the day before 6pm.

Setting the timer is a little easier to wrap your head around, if the times don't cross midnight. This would let you use the second timer for a different charging schedule on weekends.

I do similar to what you want to do, but set my start time to 2:00am and end time to 7:00pm. This does my daily charging during the coolest hours, and allows me to plug in and charge anytime during the day, if needed.

ytrottier said:

Thanks Gerry. I just went out and tried your instructions, but it didn't seem to work as expected. It's 4:30pm on a Sunday, so I would like the car to charge as soon as I plug it in. But after adding the second timer and plugging back in, I get the sweeping lights indicating it's waiting for the timer. Does it need to go through a week to sync up or something?

Click to expand...

Unless the 2016 is different than my 2011 and 2015, the settings I suggested should work. Did you have Timer 1 set for Sunday through Thursday 8:10 pm ON and 6:00 pm OFF and Timer 2 set for 8:10 pm ON and 8:10 pm OFF for Friday and Saturday with both timers active? Please double-check your settings and try again. It may have failed because you were already on Sunday when you set the timers so it missed the Saturday time start.

The settings I use are Sunday through Thursday (Timer 1) 9:10 pm ON and 8:50 am OFF with Friday and Saturday (Timer 2) set to 9:10 pm ON and 9:10 pm OFF. With these settings, the car will charge between 9:10 pm and 8:50 am weekdays and anytime Saturday and Sunday regardless of whether it is plugged in before or after start times. It will charge immediately if plugged in during allowable charge time and wait until the next start time if plugged in on peak. To avoid am/pm confusion with my timers, I have the clock set to 24-hour mode so my times are actually displayed as 21:10 ON and 08:50 OFF for the Sunday through Thursday settings with 21:10 ON and 21:10 OFF for Friday and Saturday.

It would be easier to set up the charging profile you want if ther were mor than 2 timers, but setting the start and end time for Friday and Saturday to the desired start time for the rest of the week should work. Set the end time for Sunday through Thursday to be before you normally get home to avoid immediate charging when you plug in Monday through Friday evenings.

Good Luck,
Gerry