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ChargePoint Home Charger question

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by amy2421, Aug 11, 2018.

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  1. Aug 11, 2018 #1
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    Question for those who have installed the ChargePoint Home Charger... on their website, it says that I can utilize local utility info for time-of-use rates to suggest the best charging times to avoid peak rates. I can't find anywhere in the app or in my profile on the website where I can enter this info to have this displayed. So far, I have found the option to enter an average rate per kwh which it uses to calculate the cost of my charging. But in my area, we have different rates based on the time of day so I was hoping it could more accurately track it based on the utility info. What am I missing here?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Aug 11, 2018 #2
    Andrue

    Andrue New Member

    I seem to remember this as part of the set up, but can't remember details. When I go into the app and select 'home charger' and then select 'settings', I see my utility info. I hope this helps.
     
  3. Aug 11, 2018 #3
    KentuckyKen

    KentuckyKen Well-Known Member

    Kentucky
    Go to Home Charger, then Settings, then Utility Plan and enter your Electric Utility Information. Then select the residential plan you are on.

    Love my CP, just wish my utility had off peak rates. Maybe they just did. My CP app is now listing a new plan it didn’t show when I installed it 2 months ago.
     
  4. Aug 11, 2018 #4
    JJim

    JJim Active Member

    I didn't find that feature in my Chargepoint app. I think it is not available in Canada.
     
  5. Aug 12, 2018 #5
    Numbernine

    Numbernine Member

    I was noticing this issue too - glad it's not just me. It doesn't bother me too much that Chargepoint can't automatically get the electricity price information from my provider, but I do find it annoying that I can't set any time-of-use price information in the app (or the website). It seems like you can only set a cents/kWH price and that's it - it makes it hard to get the true cost if you have time-of-use rates! :(
     
    amy2421 likes this.
  6. Aug 12, 2018 #6
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    Yes this is exactly right. I don't mind entering the information into the app but it is very annoying that there is only one entry allowable for "average" price per kwh. I've put in 10 cents for now but it would be really nice to have this accurately calculated based on the consumption and time of day.
     
  7. Aug 12, 2018 #7
    Atul Thakkar

    Atul Thakkar Active Member

    Toronto
    I am in Canada and it did pick up the rate and utility company based on my address when I registered and it does great job. I suggest you to call their toll free number to get help
     
  8. Aug 12, 2018 #8
    Numbernine

    Numbernine Member

    Interesting. Inside the Chargepoint app, I set my address to somewhere else, and then I set it back to my correct address. After doing that and going back to Settings, I now have a 'Utility Plan' option and can choose from an electricity provider and the app appears to get rates from that provider!

    ... The only problem now is that I can only choose from one provider - Hydro One - and I live in one of the few Ontario regions not serviced by Hydro One. Sigh. :rolleyes:
     
  9. Aug 12, 2018 #9
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    This is very strange. Based on your findings, I changed my address in the app to an address two blocks away, and suddenly the option for setting my utility and choosing the rate plan, both accurate for my hydro co and time of use meter, appeared in the settings! Yay! Then I changed it back to my own address... and the options for setting the utility disappeared again!!! So I have put it back to the other address, with the utility co and time of use setting in place, and will see what happens the next time I charge. At the moment, the charges I've done so far are still calculated cost based on the 10c/kwh average I'd entered manually when I first set up my account.
     
  10. Aug 12, 2018 #10
    JJim

    JJim Active Member

    It appears that the Chargepoint app put my name before the address, after removing my name the app suggests a correct address form google and I chose it then the options to select utility plan and utility price appear. Thank you .
    @amy2421 try to use the suggested address when putting your address to see if it works or not.
     
  11. Aug 12, 2018 #11
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    No I tried using the autofilled address but it still didn't work. I found a house 2 doors down and their address works, so that is what I'm going with.

    My charge this evening is showing cost calculated with the local hydro time of use rates. My previous charges are still showing cost calculated with my average rate that I inputted so it doesn't look like the app will change anything retroactively. Not that it's a big deal, as I was pretty close with the rate I entered so it's only off by a few cents either way.
     
  12. Aug 12, 2018 #12
    Numbernine

    Numbernine Member

    Based on the other comments in this thread, I've tried changing my address in the app to several other addresses in the vicinity and found one reasonably close that lets me correctly choose Hydro Ottawa instead of Hydro One as my utility provider. Looking forward to much more accurate cost calculations going forward! (Wish it didn't take me 2.5 weeks of ownership to figure this out...)
    Speculating (of course), but I suspect the reason it behaves this way is this: imagine that your rates change in the future - you wouldn't want all your old data to be automatically recalculated against the new rate - it wouldn't accurately reflect what your paid at the time!
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2018
    Jleighda and amy2421 like this.
  13. Aug 12, 2018 #13
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    Yeah that's a good point. Also in some areas you can choose alternate providers, so you wouldn't want it to back-calculate your data based on a new provider if the previous charges were with a different provider/rate.

    I'm really glad we figured out a fix for this! This is a great forum!
     
    Numbernine likes this.
  14. Aug 12, 2018 #14
    Front Row

    Front Row Member

    I've not had this problem, I'm on the right address, the right utility, and the right plan,but the charge point rates don't match the utilities rates, off by a couple cents, still haven't figured out why.
     
  15. Aug 12, 2018 #15
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    I looked up the time-of-use rates for my utility and printed out the chart on their website. Below the chart with the rate per kwh, they also listed the add-ons for things like delivery, storage, etc. I added them up and figured out that they add approx. 2.3 cents per kwh on top of the posted time-of-use rate. So in my ChargePoint app, I noticed that the cost for my charge tonight calculated at 8.7 cents per kwh (off-peak) even though the posted rate is 6.5 cents per kwh. So it seems that the info provided by the utility does take into account the add-ons and not just the time-of-use rate. I've only done one charge since switching to the utility-calculated rate option, so time will tell if this is consistently the case.
     
  16. Aug 13, 2018 #16
    Mikep00

    Mikep00 Active Member

    It is under your home charger settings but it dependent on your address.

    I entered my address and it found my correct utility plan for my area right away. For my brother in law who lives 25 minutes away, his address didn’t work (newer subdivision). So we manually set up rate and charging schedule. But about 2 months later Chargepoint added his address (or whoever manages their map data) and now we could select the correct utility plan for his area.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  17. Aug 13, 2018 #17
    Front Row

    Front Row Member

    My problem is that Charge Point is under my posted rates. Charge point is showing my TOU rate at .085 cents per KWH, but my utility's published rates are .12 for this TOU plan. I've doubled and tripled checked that I'm on the right plan in the app. So now I'm just using the manual setting.
     
  18. Aug 13, 2018 #18
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    Is it possible that CP is factoring in the Ontario hydro rebate? Although that is only 8%.

    I plugged in my car during peak rate today and the app did pick up the correct TOU rate with the extra add-on's factored in. (Took one for the team in the name of research.) :)
     
    KentuckyKen likes this.
  19. Aug 15, 2018 #19
    Numbernine

    Numbernine Member

    One other ChargePoint tidbit that I've discovered over the last few days that I thought I'd pass along: if your ChargePoint Home isn't able to connect to your wifi, it will still keep a record of your charging habits while it's unable to connect, and then later when a connection is eventually restored, your charge data gets uploaded and becomes visible on the website and app. If your wifi access point happens to suddenly die (like mine did on Sunday), fear not: your charge history is safe. :)
     
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  20. Aug 15, 2018 #20
    amy2421

    amy2421 Active Member

    I am impressed by how seamlessly the CP app and HondaLink work together. Today is my first day of trying out charging on a schedule to try to maximize off-peak rates, which starts at 7pm. At 7pm, it went from "Not Charging" to "Charging" in the CP app and I checked HondaLink and it also said charging, no delay.

    I also like that there is an option in the CP app to "Start Charging Now" to override the schedule if needed. I thought I'd need to cancel the schedule if I wanted to start charging outside of that time.
     
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