Level 1 Charging

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I park my car outside on the driveway and so far level 1 has served me well. However, when winter comes I would really like level 2 to preheat the car before I head out in the morning and have full battery charge. I'm thinking it will come in very handy especially when it snows all night and then have to dig out the car! Brrrrrr even thinking about it gives me a chill in this summer heat :confused:
 
lorem101 said:
I park my car outside on the driveway and so far level 1 has served me well. However, when winter comes I would really like level 2 to preheat the car before I head out in the morning and have full battery charge. I'm thinking it will come in very handy especially when it snows all night and then have to dig out the car! Brrrrrr even thinking about it gives me a chill in this summer heat :confused:
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Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think once a L1 charge is complete, you can turn on climate system with either key fob or HondaLink.
 
MikeB said:
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think once a L1 charge is complete, you can turn on climate system with either key fob or HondaLink.
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Yes, and if car has fully charged but is still plugged in, AFTER you initiate the climate control, the charge will start up again. This has been my experience. Others?
 
Steven B said:
Yes, and if car has fully charged but is still plugged in, AFTER you initiate the climate control, the charge will start up again. This has been my experience. Others?
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Do you have the charging schedule setup? My experience is with the charging schedule it won't start charging again automatically... I need to start it manually
 
Odobo said:
Do you have the charging schedule setup? My experience is with the charging schedule it won't start charging again automatically... I need to start it manually
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Yes. Schedule is set. Confirmed the behavior again this morning. Charge had stopped per my set stop time. Charge had reached 94%. I enabled the Climate Control via the key fob and then went to check the car and the charging light had come on. Checked the app and it also confirmed the Climate Control was on and the vehicle was charging.

I'll next try to check if there is any differing behavior if I enable climate control via the app.
 
Steven B said:
Yes. Schedule is set. Confirmed the behavior again this morning. Charge had stopped per my set stop time. Charge had reached 94%. I enabled the Climate Control via the key fob and then went to check the car and the charging light had come on. Checked the app and it also confirmed the Climate Control was on and the vehicle was charging.

I'll next try to check if there is any differing behavior if I enable climate control via the app.
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Wait.... Are we talking level 1 charger or level? I have the same experience with a level 2 charger..... But not with level 1 at home. But I only tried it once at home maybe I missed something...
 
This is not related to Climate Control but is about Level 1 charging (may be Level 2 also).

I just got my car 3 days ago and I have set up a timer for 7pm to 7am as this is the cheapest electricity for me. I noticed that if I plug the car in before 7pm, the car does automatically start charging at 7pm and stop charging when it's full or when it's 7am. But if I plug the car in after 7pm, the car won't start charging until I long press the charge button on the key fob and I noticed the next morning it didn't stop charging after 7am (I presume that's because using the key fob means I am overriding my timer programming). Is this normal behavior? I always thought if I plug in after 7pm, it will just start the programming and will start charging and stop at 7am...

Does it make a difference if I use the Honda Link app to start charging if I plug in after 7pm or does it behave the same as the key fob? Will probably try this later tonight
 
iluvscuba said:
This is not related to Climate Control but is about Level 1 charging (may be Level 2 also).

I just got my car 3 days ago and I have set up a timer for 7pm to 7am as this is the cheapest electricity for me. I noticed that if I plug the car in before 7pm, the car does automatically start charging at 7pm and stop charging when it's full or when it's 7am. But if I plug the car in after 7pm, the car won't start charging until I long press the charge button on the key fob and I noticed the next morning it didn't stop charging after 7am (I presume that's because using the key fob means I am overriding my timer programming). Is this normal behavior? I always thought if I plug in after 7pm, it will just start the programming and will start charging and stop at 7am...

Does it make a difference if I use the Honda Link app to start charging if I plug in after 7pm or does it behave the same as the key fob? Will probably try this later tonight
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Normal behavior that most of us would likely prefer to be different:
1) If the vehicle is not plugged in BEFORE the scheduled charge time, the vehicle will not start charging until the next day at the scheduled charge time.
2) Key-fob-initiated charging ignores any schedule and charges until full, unplugged, App "stop charging' selected, or key fob pressed again (I think).
3) App-initiated charging ("start charging") ignores any schedule and charges until full, unplugged, key fob press, or App "stop charging" selected.

Our preference would be if the vehicle is plugged in after a charge is scheduled to begin, the vehicle should start charging and finish charging per the schedule.

Side note: I think if you plug in the Honda J1772 cable into the car, but don't insert the 110V plug into the wall, the App will report the car is plugged in. I saw this once but didn't confirm the behavior later. One the one hand, I can understand that with L2 EVSE, the App would report 'plugged in' but I would have thought with its own EVSE that it could recognize whether the EVSE was plugged in and report 'plugged in' only if both conditions were true (J1772 and 110V plugs).
 
Steven, you didn't answer my question (may be).

I want to know if I plugged in after the start of the schedule (7pm in my case), does your car start charging or do you have to manually start charging as in the actual behavior of the Clarity?

ok, re-read your reply a second time, not exactly sure if you meant that your 1,2,3 are the default Clarity behavior or if that is what you want it to behave. As I see #1 seems to be what I have experience and #2 is what I've done (unplugged after 7am), haven't tried App stop charging. And I haven't try #3 yet
 
iluvscuba said:
Steven, you didn't answer my question (may be).

I want to know if I plugged in after the start of the schedule (7pm in my case), does your car start charging or do you have to manually start charging as in the actual behavior of the Clarity?

ok, re-read your reply a second time, not exactly sure if you meant that your 1,2,3 are the default Clarity behavior or if that is what you want it to behave. As I see #1 seems to be what I have experience and #2 is what I've done (unplugged after 7am), haven't tried App stop charging. And I haven't try #3 yet
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If you plug in after the scheduled start time, the charging will not start automatically. The three behaviors identified are how things are now. I think most people's preference would be, if there is a schedule set and the vehicle is plugged in after the scheduled start time, then the vehicle will automatically begin charging and finish charging per the schedule.

If your finish time is important, the only solution is after you have plugged in, change the schedule temporarily to pick a time in the future to start. I believe once the vehicle has begun a scheduled charge, if you then go into the app and change the schedule (like back to your default schedule), that change won't take effect until the next day's scheduled charge.
 
So I bought my Clarity today and brought it home to charge and garage outlet is working fine as expected on the 20 amp garage circuit.

What I hadn't considered in all the thinking about circuit loads was if I'd be able to reach the car from a plug. The outlet next to the car was only a two prong NEMA 1 receptical, and the GFCI NEMA 5-15 outlet was across the garage and just out of chord reach of my car. So rather than switch places with my wife's car and make it harder to get the kids in and out I'm plugged into the outlet on the ceiling that the garage door opener is plugged in to and I've got two straps holding up the heavy block on the cable. It's not a great solution, so I think I will be calling an electrician anyways.
 
I can confirm that initiating preconditioning on a charged clarity with the level 1 charger plugged in does also initiate the charger - confirmed both on the app and via the indicator light by the charge port. I actually tried to test whether it would initiate a charge on a partly depleted battery if you turned charging off first, but didn't catch it until 99%, which changed to 100 as soon as I started preconditioning. Will try that next time. Seems every time someone says there is something you can't do with this car there is a work - around. (This is a base model, by the way - so it has the unadvertised preconditioning...)
 
iluvscuba said:
I want to know if I plugged in after the start of the schedule (7pm in my case), does your car start charging or do you have to manually start charging as in the actual behavior of the Clarity?
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If you plug in after the scheduled start time, it won't start charging automatically. But you can override this by unplugging the charger and plugging it back in again within a few seconds and it will start charging. I've tried this a few times and it works every time: you can tell whether or not it's charging by the small green LED beside the charger, it will be off if you plug in after the scheduled start, then blink to green if you unplug and replug. I am presuming it will not stop charging at the scheduled time because it is not charging via the schedule at this point.
 
Screenshot_20180817-090726_HondaLink.webp
 
LazyNova said:
Among people who have not installed level 2 charging and are using the level 1 chord that comes with the vehicle what has your experience been? Has anyone actually installed a dedicated 110V circuit to charge from or is the general assumption that the garage circuit is basically dedicated? Does the circuit breaker ever trip like when you use the garage door opener with lights on?

I'm hoping to get a Clarity in a little while and level 1 charging should be easily sufficient for my 16 mile daily commute. Ideally I would have an electrician install a dedicated 110V circuit for charging and a 220V one in case, but it might be a little difficult since all the slots in my circuit breaker box and a small sub-panel box are already used. Other than the garage door opener I think maybe the garage has maybe 2-3 amps of lights and stuff. I thought I saw somewhere else that the supplied charger drew like 11 amps (although I can't find it again because html escapes for ampersand dominate search results for amp). So it should be fine to just charge as is, especially if I close the garage door before I start?

I think I saw in another thread that level 2 charging may be 10-15% more efficient that would mean something like 300,000+ miles of electric driving per $1000 of installation cost to break even. So level 2 charging is really about charge time convenience.
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A very knowlegable electrician told me that a level 2 charger is harder on your battery in the long term because of the heat generated. I realize the car is designed for level 2 charging but level one is better long term.
 
I haven't had any trouble with my garage GFCI outlet so far; as far as I know, all that's on the same circuit is the garage door opener, my sprinkler system controller, and at least some of my outdoor receptacles, one of which powers my fiber ONT and its battery backup.
 
I am of the mindset:
L1: Good (less than 35 miles per day)
L2 plug: Better
L2 Hardwired: Best

Notes:
L1 you need to make sure you frequently check your wall 3 prong plug for heat build up near the end of the charge. Look for burned areas on the outlet or cord. Check cord for damage. Replace outlet if plug is loose. The Clarity charges only a bit over 10 A so it will likely be fine. Problems start arising up near 12 A, although it can happen at less. Good wiring will be fine, everyone thinks they have good wiring until their outlet melts. The plug should never be hot, although it will get quite warm. The plug will be very hot if your outlet is going to melt. Check carefully to avoid burns.

L2 with Plug: avoid plugging/unplugging repeatedly unless you have outlet designed for this. Replace the outlet occasionally if it gets loose. Make sure no damage has occurred to plug cord.

All EVSEs: Never tightly coil charging cords during use, it causes heat build up. Don't let the charging cord become overly twisted, it can damage the wiring. Set the head out gently on the floor with all the cord and loosely hang the cord back on the charger or cord holder allowing the cord to untwist as you go (careful not to bang the head on anything). I regularly do this to public chargers that get overly twisted. Occasionally check the EVSE to Car cord for damage or hot spots during charging.
 
I am having trouble with the Honda 110V charging cable tripping the GFCI on the garage outlet. There is no wetness or other obvious trigger to the issue, and the temperature is very mild today. I don't believe there is anything else on that circuit at all which is drawing power. Any thoughts? I plugged the cord into a kitchen outlet (non-GFCI) and everything is OK, and it appears to be charging normally.
 
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