Charge in Time Slot Fail

[GvilleGuy]

You have to check w your electric company. I switched to an ev plan: 9 cents/kw super off peak; 30-something cents off peak; 60-something cents on peak. Estimated to save over $1k over a year (2 EVs in our household).

Agree - it just depends on the local electric provider. Duke Power in my area has a beta EV charging programs that pays $1,000 over a year for not charging at their peak times. (Only a 6 hour window per day where I can't charge, so it's easy to participate and save money)

 

[Pete MINI ES]

You have to check w your electric company. I switched to an ev plan: 9 cents/kw super off peak; 30-something cents off peak; 60-something cents on peak. Estimated to save over $1k over a year (2 EVs in our household).

I'm glad I can charge my car at work.

 

[Puppethead]

To be honest, I don't think you're saving much at all by charging at night versus daytime - a few cents, maybe? Certainly not worth the hassle. Anyone have more exact information beyond just my hunch?

My electric company has EV metering (second meter) where they charge 4¢/kWh off-peak (nights/weekends) and 14¢/kWh peak. Regular electricity is 12¢/kWh. So I save a lot by charging during the off-peak times. In October I charged about 400 kWh for a cost of about $45, which is what I see every month. Much nicer than the $300+/month for gasoline I used to pay.

 

[Cindy B]

Thanks for confirming this. Yes, I was hoping to save $ and avoid the expense of another EVSE and related electrician expenses. This might be really tough, however. Yes, getting the charge back to 80 or 100% and then using only 15% per day might make overnight top offs at low rates possible on Level I.

You say get it back to 80%. Why did you say 80% instead of 100%? Was this to avoid fully charging the battery to improve longevity? Or is this because charging from 80% to 100% (assuming 20% used per day) is slower than charging from 60% to 80%? I think I have only been getting ~2-3%/hour while charging from 15% to 30% so god forbid it is slower than that.

Tx!

I second putting in a Level 2 charger. The 110V slow charger really won't work out if you're driving everyday. I should add it is normally very easy and simple to install the 220V outlet for the charger yourself. -- No electrician needed. There are excellent installation videos on Youtube. I put mine in for $91.00 in materials from Lowes in an afternoon. It would have been even less, but I bought extra wire just to be on the safe side. The cheapest electrician's bid I got was $635.00!

 

[Zen]

Hi all,

I just got my car this week and have now failed twice to have it charge in the middle of the night (when rates are lowest).

The first night it simply didn't charge at all overnight. I set the Charge in Time Slot to midnight to 3p. I can't remember my other settings.

Today at 4p, I reset the Charge in Time Slot to midnight to 3p. I also chose a 3p tomorrow/Friday departure time (not sure why I should need to set a departure time to set a time slot - sometimes I need to charge but don't know when I will next leave home). At 515p, however, the car started charging (almost 7 hours before I wanted it to start).

Anyone know what I (or the car) am doing wrong? I checked the clock on the car and it had the correct time. I also wondered whether the car started charging early to ensure it got to 100% by my 3p tomorrow departure time. I don't think this is it, however, as I still got a warning that the car wouldn't fully charge by my departure time.

Thanks in advance!

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Spring for a level two charger. You will have this car for few years and then probably another EV. The convenience of plug and charge will pay off in the long run.

 

[JoeC]

This plan would work. However, I've not played with the J1772 to Tesla adapter; does the car dial down its draw automatically to not overload the adapter, or do you have to do that manually via the touchscreen? Because, frankly, I don't trust software, envisioning the car's rebooting or a firmware flash resetting the draw back to full blast.

To answer your other question, "yes," the advantage of having linked EVSE is that they can apportion the limited power intelligently.

Take me, for instance. 60A was all my panel could spare. But, my Tesla and MINI draw 48A and 32A respectively. I could never charge them together; I would have to use timers and be sure I didn't have timer overlap. If one car were charging on its timer and I wanted to charge the other car, I'd have to shut off that timer before initiating the other car. I'm not sure my wife would have been up to the decision matrix, and I could have done it, but it would have been a source of concentration and worry.

But now, with the intelligent sharing, we plug in and charge whenever we want: alone, together, immediately, on timers, absolutely any permutation. Worst case, we each get 24A until one of us is full, and then the other gets up to 48A. Never any chance at overload.

Thanks again, F14Scott. Yes, I think that two linked EVSEs will be the best option in the short-term given my power constraints. It looks like Tesla, JuiceBox, and Wallbox all have power sharing between boxes. I am leaning toward the JuiceBox as it has an outlet option (which Tesla does not have) and doesn't require wiring between boxes - they speak via wifi (unlike Tesla and Wallbox).

Given that we don't drive more than 20 miles per day on each car, have a long low cost charging window (midnight-3p), and are nearby lots of fast chargers (for the very rare occasion when we need a lot of juice quickly), I wonder whether running both off of the existing 30A circuit would be worth trying. This should require the least electrical work. (If we find that the charging times are too long, we could search for ways to upgrade the breaker to 40A or 50A.) I could simply have the electrician split the wire between the 30A breaker and outlet (or run a 2nd wire of the breaker???) and then run the new branch over the ceiling to the other side of the garage and then to the outside, where I will have them install a new outlet and the 2nd EVSE; this would charge the MINI. The first/master EVSE would come off the 14-30 outlet in the garage and charge the Model 3 via a J1772 to Tesla adapter. If we ever upgrade our service or make other changes, hopefully this setup is still useful, allowing us to charge the two cars off the single circuit.

 

[F14Scott]

Thanks again, F14Scott. Yes, I think that two linked EVSEs will be the best option in the short-term given my power constraints. It looks like Tesla, JuiceBox, and Wallbox all have power sharing between boxes. I am leaning toward the JuiceBox as it has an outlet option (which Tesla does not have) and doesn't require wiring between boxes - they speak via wifi (unlike Tesla and Wallbox).

Given that we don't drive more than 20 miles per day on each car, have a long low cost charging window (midnight-3p), and are nearby lots of fast chargers (for the very rare occasion when we need a lot of juice quickly), I wonder whether running both off of the existing 30A circuit would be worth trying. This should require the least electrical work. (If we find that the charging times are too long, we could search for ways to upgrade the breaker to 40A or 50A.) I could simply have the electrician split the wire between the 30A breaker and outlet (or run a 2nd wire of the breaker???) and then run the new branch over the ceiling to the other side of the garage and then to the outside, where I will have them install a new outlet and the 2nd EVSE; this would charge the MINI. The first/master EVSE would come off the 14-30 outlet in the garage and charge the Model 3 via a J1772 to Tesla adapter. If we ever upgrade our service or make other changes, hopefully this setup is still useful, allowing us to charge the two cars off the single circuit.

Now that I see all your charging variables, I'm going to do a 180. At 20 miles each, per day, and with your huge cheap-charge window, you should use your 30A for one car and a standard 120V Level 1 for the other. A Level 1 will put 50+ miles into our EVs per night, and your 30A/240V will add 200+. So, without spending a dime, you have 6x the capacity you need.

New recommendation: go with what you have for a couple months and see if you really need to do any upgrades.

And enjoy the great cars!

 

[JoeC]

Now that I see all your charging variables, I'm going to do a 180. At 20 miles each, per day, and with your huge cheap-charge window, you should use your 30A for one car and a standard 120V Level 1 for the other. A Level 1 will put 50+ miles into our EVs per night, and your 30A/240V will add 200+. So, without spending a dime, you have 6x the capacity you need.

New recommendation: go with what you have for a couple months and see if you really need to do any upgrades.

And enjoy the great cars!

Very good. Thanks again for all the help, F14Scott. Much appreciated!

 

[insightman]

Well, ratfarts. According to this video, the Tesla J1772 Gen 2 does NOT talk to the "regular" (like mine) Gen 2 HPWC.

Double ratfarts: Tesla may have never really had a J1772 EVSE. This article says Tom Moloughney ordered one before the product page became empty, but it has not been delivered. Also, just like everything else Tesla, the company has raised the prices for their non-J1772 Wall Connectors.

Furthermore, Tesla is sending letters telling foot-draggers they can't wait for congress to reinstate tax credits for the Tesla cars they ordered long ago to lock in the price. By December 2nd, they must arrange for delivery or their orders will be canceled and their deposits fully refunded.

 

[ericy]

Thats because the moment that tax credits are reinstated, Tesla will jack up the price.

Double ratfarts: Tesla may have never really had a J1772 EVSE. This article says Tom Moloughney ordered one before the product page became empty, but it has not been delivered. Also, just like everything else Tesla, the company has raised the prices for their non-J1772 Wall Connectors.

Furthermore, Tesla is sending letters telling foot-draggers they can't wait for congress to reinstate tax credits for the Tesla cars they ordered long ago to lock in the price. By December 2nd, they must arrange for delivery or their orders will be canceled and their deposits fully refunded.