Preconditioning whilst connected to the charging station

[Jose Moreira]

Hi,

Does anyone know a way/trick, to precondition the car whilst connected to the charging station, but without charging the battery?

I really do not need to charge the car everyday, as depending on my week, an usage from 100% to 20% of SOC can last me for 4 to 5 days.

But as the temperatures are quite low in this time of the year (at least -5°C during the night), it would be nice to have the car plugged into the charger, and drain the power for preconditioning from the grid and not from the battery itself.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestion/trick on the subject!!!

 

[Urbanengineer]

Hi,

Does anyone know a way/trick, to precondition the car whilst connected to the charging station, but without charging the battery?

I really do not need to charge the car everyday, as depending on my week, an usage from 100% to 20% of SOC can last me for 4 to 5 days.

But as the temperatures are quite low in this time of the year (at least -5°C during the night), it would be nice to have the car plugged into the charger, and drain the power for preconditioning from the grid and not from the battery itself.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestion/trick on the subject!!!

set your low cost charging until much later than you plug in. The mini doesn’t charge to 100% until near departure.

 

[Jose Moreira]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion!!!

I think that the way it works, is that the car always tries to be at 100% at the set departure time, independent of the time slot that one defines for low cost charging.

Even so and from your suggestion, what I can try is to have the car plugged and with a time slot for the low cost charging and preconditioning/departure to well after the time I plan to drive the car, and start the climatization manually on the App, and then see how it goes.

But at the same time, if my trips are short and back home, either I have to plug the car only after the set preconditioning/departure, or then, always fiddle with the time slots. Either way, is a little of an hassle and not a very neat solution.

 

[FrankinCarp]

If ones daily use is on the order of 10-15%, why be reluctant to charge daily? The difference in cost to do say 5-8 kWh recharge times 4-5 times per week vs one 25-30 kWh cycle.

As for the MINI charging system somehow pausing and only completing 100% to match the departure time, I fail to see that ever happening with my Mike.

My low cost window starts at 7:02 pm. Charging starts at 7:02 and ALWAYS gets to 100% as soon as it can, usually by 10:00 pm.
If my departure time is during the low cost window, it will start the climate/conditioning about 20-30 minutes before the scheduled departure time but the SOC is already at 100%.

As for conditioning via the charger vs battery, the MINI app allows you to start the conditioning immediately with a simple press of the fan blade icon.

If you want to avoid the charging of the battery, I suppose you could set the low cost charge mode to 20-30 minutes before the desired departure time but you will have to fiddle with those scheduled charge times to match departures times.
Just don’t forget to reset for when you will need the 100% SOC.



Mike Wazowski [emoji1063][emoji1063][emoji1063]
[emoji4][emoji4] & [emoji23][emoji23] more [emoji298]️[emoji298]️[emoji298]️ than [emoji33] [emoji33] & [emoji22][emoji22]

 

[Urbanengineer]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion!!!

I think that the way it works, is that the car always tries to be at 100% at the set departure time, independent of the time slot that one defines for low cost charging.

Even so and from your suggestion, what I can try is to have the car plugged and with a time slot for the low cost charging and preconditioning/departure to well after the time I plan to drive the car, and then see how it goes.

But at the same time, if my trips are short and back home, either I have to plug the car only after the set preconditioning/departure, or then, always fiddle with the time slots. Either way, is a little of an hassle and not a very neat solution.

you can set one of your hot buttons to the “when to charge” page and get in a habit of setting the check box when charging in public / etc. I wish mini would just realize the place we set as our home was given an option of when to set low cost charging, and new chargers not near home were always set to charge immediately unless specified to.

 

[SpeedyRS]

As for the MINI charging system somehow pausing and only completing 100% to match the departure time, I fail to see that ever happening with my Mike.

My low cost window starts at 7:02 pm. Charging starts at 7:02 and ALWAYS gets to 100% as soon as it can, usually by 10:00 pm.

It’s definitely possible to plug in with a departure time set and the car won’t begin charging until it needs to to meet your required departure time. You just have to set a departure time in the car (or on the app if your app lets you se the charge & climate timer ), plug it in and away you go. The issue may be that your departure time is outside of what you’ve told the car is your charge window. UK energy prices as they are right now I pay a flat rate 24/7 so it doesn’t matter when I charge, so I’m the car my charge window is all day. Last week I plugged in at 5:35pm on Tuesday evening with a departure time set for 9am on the Wednesday morning, and my EVSE (currently set to charge immediately) shows it didn’t begin charging until just over 90 mins before my departure time (it was a top-up ahead of an 80 mile round trip). Something like this may work for the OP and allow preconditioning without the charge.

 

[FrankinCarp]

It’s definitely possible to plug in with a departure time set and the car won’t begin charging until it needs to to meet your required departure time. You just have to set a departure time in the car (or on the app if your app lets you se the charge & climate timer ), plug it in and away you go. The issue may be that your departure time is outside of what you’ve told the car is your charge window. UK energy prices as they are right now I pay a flat rate 24/7 so it doesn’t matter when I charge, so I’m the car my charge window is all day. Last week I plugged in at 5:35pm on Tuesday evening with a departure time set for 9am on the Wednesday morning, and my EVSE (currently set to charge immediately) shows it didn’t begin charging until just over 90 mins before my departure time (it was a top-up ahead of an 80 mile round trip). Something like this may work for the OP and allow preconditioning without the charge.

I have also experimented with the time ranges for both low cost window and departure times.
I set low cost from 7:02 pm to 1:00 pm and departure time set to 10:00 am.
Plug in EVSE at 4:00 pm.
Mini.app triggers and says charging is paused until 7:02 pm.
At 7:02 pm Mini.app sends notification charging has started and expects full charge by 10:14 pm
At 9:47 pm Mini.app notification says 100% charge has been reached.
At 9:15 am, I go out to Mini and dashboard display says 100%.
At 9:35 am, the climatization process started. This went on until a few minutes after 10:00 am. (BTW. Ambient temperature over night was -34°C)

So… full charging attained well before the set departure time. This has been my experience.

EVSE is GRIZZ[emoji298]️E Classic 40 amp max (not a Smart unit)

Anyone else prepared to test this? Is there some bug I should report? Some flaw in the app logic? Some flaw in the internal charging of the mini?


Mike Wazowski [emoji1063][emoji1063][emoji1063]
[emoji4][emoji4] & [emoji23][emoji23] more [emoji298]️[emoji298]️[emoji298]️ than [emoji33] [emoji33] & [emoji22][emoji22]

 

[SpeedyRS]

I have also experimented with the time ranges for both low cost window and departure times.
I set low cost from 7:02 pm to 1:00 pm and departure time set to 10:00 am.
Plug in EVSE at 4:00 pm.
Mini.app triggers and says charging is paused until 7:02 pm.
At 7:02 pm Mini.app sends notification charging has started and expects full charge by 10:14 pm
At 9:47 pm Mini.app notification says 100% charge has been reached.
At 9:15 am, I go out to Mini and dashboard display says 100%.
At 9:35 am, the climatization process started. This went on until a few minutes after 10:00 am. (BTW. Ambient temperature over night was -34°C)

So… full charging attained well before the set departure time. This has been my experience.

EVSE is GRIZZ[emoji298]️E Classic 40 amp max (not a Smart unit)

Anyone else prepared to test this? Is there some bug I should report? Some flaw in the app logic? Some flaw in the internal charging of the mini?


Mike Wazowski [emoji1063][emoji1063][emoji1063]
[emoji4][emoji4] & [emoji23][emoji23] more [emoji298]️[emoji298]️[emoji298]️ than [emoji33] [emoji33] & [emoji22][emoji22]

I’ll check mine next time I plug in at home in case my EVSE is off and is making it look like it’s charging for departure.

 

[GvilleGuy]

@Puppethead did some nice testing on this topic in a thread from last year. (at least I think this somewhat relates to the discussion here)

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/delayed-charging.11937/#post-147106

To quote them:
"And the magic cutoff value is 30 minutes!

If you set your departure time to 29 minutes after your charge window, the SE won't start charging until near the departure time. Example: 21:00-06:31 depart 07:00, charging starts however long before 07:00 to be at 100% by 07:00.

But if you set your departure time to 30 minutes after your charge window, the SE starts charging immediately at the start of the charge window. Example: 21:00-06:30 depart 07:00, charging starts immediately at 21:00."

 

[Puppethead]

Anyone else prepared to test this? Is there some bug I should report? Some flaw in the app logic? Some flaw in the internal charging of the mini?

This is how my SE low-cost charging for winter is set:

• Charge in time slot set, time slot set to 21:00-07:30
• Automatic climate control for departure turned on
• Weekly departure time set: 0730 MTWTF

I plug in (Grizzl-E Classic) when I get home, around 18:00. After a brief period of handshaking (blinking green light), the Grizzl-E has a steady green light until the SE starts charging around 03:00 (depending on how much charging is needed), but I don't get a notification since I have do not disturb turned on. Here are the notifications I got for today, where it finished charging at 06:48. The climate control was running at 07:30 when I left.

 

[Puppethead]

I did another test, and discovered if you do not have a departure time set (and active for the day), the SE will start charging immediately in the low-cost window. Since it's Saturday, I have no departure time. The SE started charging right away at 21:01.