Charging Timer Software

[Lee]

The charging timer software, with a start and stop time, does not allow you to block out peak hours. For example, my peak hours are 12 noon to 6 PM Mon-Fri, with no peak hours on Sat and Sun. I cannot insert a 6PM start time and still be able to charge before 12noon. Or, if I select start at midnight and end at noon, the car will not charge from 6PM to midnight! The timer software should allow you to apply a charge/no-charge schedule to each hour of the day and apply that schedule to selected days of the week.

 

[planet4ever]

There are two things you haven't told us that would affect the solution:

1. Are you charging at 120v or 240v?
2. Are you charging to 80% or 100%?

 

[nader]

The charging timer software, with a start and stop time, does not allow you to block out peak hours. For example, my peak hours are 12 noon to 6 PM Mon-Fri, with no peak hours on Sat and Sun. I cannot insert a 6PM start time and still be able to charge before 12noon. Or, if I select start at midnight and end at noon, the car will not charge from 6PM to midnight! The timer software should allow you to apply a charge/no-charge schedule to each hour of the day and apply that schedule to selected days of the week.

My thoughts Exactly. I'm on an E-7 rate schedule and I want noon-6pm, M-F blocked out. It wont do it. If I set it to 6pm-noon and plug in after 6pm it wont start charging. I just gave up and set the noon to noon 80% timer.

 

[planet4ever]

So, how long does it take to charge to 80%? My experience at 240v, even though I get only 12 amps rather the normal 16 amps, is about half an hour per bar. So 2 bars to 10 bars is only 4 hours. Set the timer to start at 2 AM and the car will be ready by 6 AM.

Ray

 

[Lee]

There are two things you haven't told us that would affect the solution:

1. Are you charging at 120v or 240v?
2. Are you charging to 80% or 100%?

Both, depending on how much time I have, how discharged the battery is, and how far I intend to go next outing. I don't want to think about what time I am plugging in; I want the timer to do everything necessary to avoid peak hour charging without any special plug-in planning on my part. Again, I think there is a simple software fix which I described. The one exception will be if I want to pump the batteries to full charge despite peak hours for a long trip later that day, in which case I simply push the timer disable switch.

 

[planet4ever]

Are you charging at 120v or 240v?

Both, depending on how much time I have, how discharged the battery is, and how far I intend to go next outing.

That sounds odd to me. If you have 240v charging available it is definitely more convenient. I also believe, as do a number of other people on this board, that 240v charging is more efficient than 120v -- perhaps much more efficient, like 85% vs. 75%. The numbers are based on measurements, but the explanation commonly used is that the liquid cooling system for the car's charger seems to use quite a bit of energy, and it has to run more than twice as long when charging at 120v.

So, can you do all your home charging at 240v? If so, how does that change your perspective on the timer problem?

Ray

 

[Lee]

Are you charging at 120v or 240v?

Both, depending on how much time I have, how discharged the battery is, and how far I intend to go next outing.

That sounds odd to me. If you have 240v charging available it is definitely more convenient. I also believe, as do a number of other people on this board, that 240v charging is more efficient than 120v -- perhaps much more efficient, like 85% vs. 75%. The numbers are based on measurements, but the explanation commonly used is that the liquid cooling system for the car's charger seems to use quite a bit of energy, and it has to run more than twice as long when charging at 120v.

So, can you do all your home charging at 240v? If so, how does that change your perspective on the timer problem?

Ray

That’s really interesting about the efficiency of 240V vs. 120V charging. However, isn’t battery life prolonged with slower charging (i.e., 120 > 240 > 480)?

Back to the timer issue, so let’s say I arrive home at 3PM on a weekday (a short day in the office). I would like to be able to plug in my car, either 120V or 240V, and forget about it. But to avoid peak hours, I would have to come back to the garage to plug in at 6PM. Having the timer start at 6PM could still be a problem. The car starts charging at 6PM, after peak hours. But then we go out to a late movie and return after midnight. I plug the car in but nothing happens, because remember, my start time is 6PM.

Why not new timer programming software that would allow you to apply a charge/no-charge schedule to each hour of the day and apply that schedule to selected days of the week? That would allow one to plug in at any time, knowing that only peak hours are blocked out.

 

[planet4ever]

Thirty minute DC charging is fast, pumping up to 40 kW, and can shorten battery life if done too frequently. But 240v AC charging is very slow, always less than 4 kW. It can't hurt the battery. Shucks, regeneration when you slow the car down charges the battery way faster than that, up to 20 or even 30 kW.

If you normally charge to 80%, set an 80% timer to start at midnight or one AM and forget about it. If you decide ahead of time to go out in the evening the next day, just hit the override button, or use your computer or iPhone to tell it to start charging, and you'll have 100% the next day. If your honey says, "Let's go out tonight" when you get home, do the same thing and let it charge during dinner and while you're getting dressed for the evening. I really don't see how you could beat those strategies no matter how fancy Nissan might make the timers.

Ray

 

[garygid]

Using the Charging Timer to block noon to 6PM M-F is easy (once you know how):

Program SUNDAY - Thursday as Start 6PM and End 12:00 PM (which is noon the next day, noon Monday - Friday)

Program Friday and Saturday for Start 6PM and End 6PM (which is the next day's evening, Saturday and Sunday evening)

 

[Lee]

Using the Charging Timer to block noon to 6PM M-F is easy (once you know how):
Program SUNDAY - Thursday as Start 6PM and End 12:00 PM (which is noon the next day, noon Monday - Friday)
Program Friday and Saturday for Start 6PM and End 6PM (which is the next day's evening, Saturday and Sunday evening)

If I am giving instructions for, say, Monday, how can the End time be earlier (i.e., noon) than the start time (6PM)? Why would the timer apply Monday instructions to Tuesday, as you indicate above? Have you actually tried this out? Does Nissan clarify this issue anywhere in their manual or other instructions? The Nissan Help folks did not mention this "solution" to me.

This is all new to me; thanks for your patience!

 

[garygid]

The car is smart enough to know that the End time, to be meaningful, must FOLLOW (be AFTER) the Start time. Tough concept, but you will get it better if you draw out a time line for the whole week.

Start at 8 AM Sunday and Stop at 7AM ... means stop at 7AM the next day, in this case, 7 AM on MONDAY.

They assumed it was obvious, I guess, because, to THEM, it was!

Yes, it works.

 

[leaf561]

I am on PG&E E6 plan. So my off peak hours are:

Week days:
Midnight to 10am and 9pm to Midnight

Weekend:
Midnight to 5pm and 8pm to Midnight

User LEAF timer, I tried the following:
Timer 1: 9pm to 10am (Mon to Fri)
Timer 2: 8pm to 5pm (Sat and Sun)

The above didn't work, because on Monday afternoon when I plugged my LEAF it started charging again.

So, my new timer settings are:
Timer 1: 9pm to 10am (Sun to Thu)
Timer 2: 9pm to 5pm (Fri and Sat)

This seems to have taken care of my Monday morning issue. I am still on my first week with my LEAF. I would know know this Friday, if it charges after midnight.

I played with Blink (not used it) and it has separate weekday and weekend concept.