How are you managing your charging schedule

Aferreira613

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For those that don’t drive daily and don’t need to charge daily, how are you managing your charging schedules? Is your car always plugged in, even when a charge isn’t needed? Are you still scheduling a charge nightly in the vehicle’s scheduling app? Or do you plug in only when your battery hits a certain percentage?
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AZBill

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I plug my cars in every night, and set them to charge only during off peak electric rates and to less than 100%. My MME has been plugged in for two days now, sitting at 80% without me driving it. There is absolutely no harm in leaving the car plugged in all the time.

FYI, my 12V battery has never died on me. My other EV, a Bolt, had the 12V AGM fail after 4 years, but the car was still running, not totally dead. I always plug it in as well and charge to 90%.
 

Murse-In-Airy

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For me it depends on what my plans are. If I don’t need to charge I don’t worry about it. I drive 8 miles to work where I can plug in and get a 25% charge while I’m there. Sometimes I can get my weeks worth of charging at work. So I don’t need to plug in at home.
This week I drove a lot and plan to go to a car show that is a ways away this weekend. So I needed a little more juice than work could provide. So last night I plugged in at home.
So my pattern is… I have no pattern.
 

RickMachE

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Car charges, if needed, between 7PM and 11AM Mon-Fri, all day on weekends, which are our off-peak hours. Always plugged in while at home, and set to charge to 90% as recommended.
 

bshaw

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If your charger also supports a schedule, consider allowing the EVSE to provide charge all the time and only configure a schedule in one place (inside the MME).
Seems logical that you should be able to have two identical schedules and have it work out, but there have been posts suggesting otherwise.

Of course, if you need your EVSE to report back to your utility for any off-peak discounts, I guess you'll want to go the other way and only use the EVSE schedule.
 


RickMachE

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I have both the car and EVSE set to the same off-peak schedule. Works fine. In the dead of winter, the car might WANT to charge during peak hours, but the EVSE won't let it, which is perfect.
 
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Aferreira613

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Car charges, if needed, between 7PM and 11AM Mon-Fri, all day on weekends, which are our off-peak hours. Always plugged in while at home, and set to charge to 90% as recommended.
Thank you! So even though it’s always plugged in and has a charge scheduled to run mon to fri, it actually only charges if the battery level drops below 90%?
 

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Always plugged in, Max charge to 90% during off peak hours. Scheduled departure every single day even if I don't use the car at all. Not sure if the latter is helpful or harmful, but my guess it's probably better than not to wake up the car, pull current from the grid and maintain the HVB and LVB. No data to back up this statement, I repeat, just a guess.
 

heisnuts

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Thank you! So even though it’s always plugged in and has a charge scheduled to run mon to fri, it actually only charges if the battery level drops below 90%?
Correct. The car will charge if it is below the max charge percentage you have set and it is within the allowable charge time frame you set up. Now, if the car is plugged in and you open the Ford Pass App and press the charge to 100% button the car will ignore time and charge percentage constraints and start charging immediately to 100%.

Another advantage of having the car plugged in is if you set a departure time the car will precondition both the battery and cabin using the power from the charger. This can be very helpful in colder climates like you seem to be in.
 

redranger04g

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I drive 40 miles a day, and charge about every 3 days. I charge to 85% (unless going on a trip needing 100%) and I'll plug it in when I get to 30%. Works for me and leaves a buffer if I need to run errands after work. Goal is to never have it go below 20% (again, unless on a trip) and never charge more than 85%.
 

RickMachE

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Correct. The car will charge if it is below the max charge percentage you have set and it is within the allowable charge time frame you set up. Now, if the car is plugged in and you open the Ford Pass App and press the charge to 100% button the car will ignore time and charge percentage constraints and start charging immediately to 100%.

Another advantage of having the car plugged in is if you set a departure time the car will precondition both the battery and cabin using the power from the charger. This can be very helpful in colder climates like you seem to be in.
Unless of course it wants to do that outside your set charging hours, in which case it will, and use your possibly peak electric rates to so.

It will also pull juice for short, 15 or 20 minute bursts, throughout the day/night in the cold to keep the battery warm, even if you have it set to not charge then.

The way to keep both of these in your control is to also have an EVSE where you can set the hours.

My peak rate is 72% higher than my off-peak rate. I don't want to charge then unless I decide to.
 

bshaw

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Unless of course it wants to do that outside your set charging hours, in which case it will, and use your possibly peak electric rates to so.

It will also pull juice for short, 15 or 20 minute bursts, throughout the day/night in the cold to keep the battery warm, even if you have it set to not charge then.

The way to keep both of these in your control is to also have an EVSE where you can set the hours.

My peak rate is 72% higher than my off-peak rate. I don't want to charge then unless I decide to.
Aren't the short bursts of drawing power the car attempting to keep itself warm during Winter and protect long term battery health? Or does it fall back to using its own battery to keep warm when the EVSE is not permitting a charge? And your intention is to replace that charge later at an off-peak rate?
 

RickMachE

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Aren't the short bursts of drawing power the car attempting to keep itself warm during Winter and protect long term battery health? Or does it fall back to using its own battery to keep warm when the EVSE is not permitting a charge? And your intention is to replace that charge later at an off-peak rate?
Yes, the short bursts are warming the battery.

Yes, if it gets cold enough the car will use the battery to warm itself, and draw down the battery.

I am not worrying about replacing 1 or 2 or 3% at all.

Examples:

On January 27th, the car charged from 4:36AM to 4:52AM using 1.82kW. It had charged to 90% the prior evening. Assuming an 8% loss, that's 1.67kW, or 1.9% of the battery if it did that without being plugged in. But it doesn't, it has to get a lot colder than that.
 

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Set to charge to 85% indicated (80% actual) 10PM-8AM.

I don't plug in unless I'm down to about 50% to reduce short charging cycles. In extreme temps I would plug in daily though and use a departure time so the battery gets conditioned.
 

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I plug in only when my charge is getting low (less than 50%, preferably approaching 20%) or if I plan a trip out of town. Though this last week, my MME started complaining when the charge was around 40% on days with temperatures in the 70s and nights in the 60s. I do not recall see this before during warm weather.
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