Proper settings for Time of Use (ToU) plan and the 2011 Nissan Leaf Charging Timer - Wrong Results?

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brycenesbitt

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2016
Messages
151
I have PG&E Time of Use (ToU) service E6, for which winter peak rates are Monday-Friday from 5pm to 8pm.

I set the leaf Timer 1 to end at 5pm, start at 8pm. and activated it for M-F. It's been working inconsistently ever since.

For example right now the navigation system says it is Monday at 10:30am, and the blue lights are flashing in sequence 1...2...3....
I know that I can press the charge override button to start charging.

Just to be sure I set the dash clock to 10:30 also, but this made no difference.
This Leaf is affected by the AT&T 2G shutdown ( http://about.att.com/innovationblog/2g_sunset ) but the navigation system clock seems to still keep time as long as I manually set daylight savings time.

What am I missing in my settings? I wish the car to charge any time other than 5-8pm M-F.
 
The blue lights will flash in sequence when you plug in with a timer active. The lights will stop after a period of time (5 minutes?). Charging begins at the time set in the timer.

Another possibility when unexpected charging occurs is that both timers are active.
 
If I understand the timer correctly, your settings are interpreted like this:

1. Is the battery charged ? If not and it is before 5 pm, start charging when a calculation suggests the battery will be full at 5 pm *.
2. Is it 8 pm ? If the battery is not charged then start charging.

I suggest changing the end time to 3 pm to avoid incursions into your peak rate if you use L2 charging. Skip the end timer if you use L1. Over ride manually as needed.

* Note that this does NOT stop charging at 5 pm if the battery is not yet full.
 
Set Timer 1 to start at 8:10 PM and end at 4:50 PM.
Set Timer 2 to start at 8:10 PM and end at 8:10 PM
Activate Timer 1 for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Activate Timer 2 for Friday and Saturday.

I prefer to use 24-hour time to avoid the possible AM/PM confusion. Using 24-hour mode:
Timer 1 start at 20:10 and stop at 16:50.
Timer 2 start at 20:10 and stop at 20:10.
Activate Timer 1 for Sunday through Thursday and activate Timer 2 for Friday and Saturday.

I recommend 10 minutes after the hour to start and 10 minutes before the hour to stop to avoid the possibility of charging briefly on peak if the Leaf's clock is not synchronized to the clock in the revenue meter.

Edited to add some explanation:
Your original Monday through Friday settings do not work because the Monday setting will start charging at 8:00 PM and stop at 5:00 PM on Tuesday. Similarly, the Friday setting will start charging at 8:00 PM on Friday and stop at 5:00 PM on Saturday. This means the car will not charge after 5:00 PM on Saturday until the Monday 8:00 PM start time is reached.
 
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