ToU charging protocol

[ADDZ71]

Hope someone might have some insight. I have a charging schedule setup for 1-6 am. A couple of times recently I have plugged in on my home charger (ChargePoint) with <20% SoC and it has begun charging outside of the scheduled window. I do not have any departure times at. I am okay with it not completing the charge or it can’t be done on the 5 hour window. Anyone know why it charges prematurely?

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[Maquis]

If it can’t reach your target in the window, it will start immediately. The only workaround is to lower your target when you know the condition exists.

 

[ADDZ71]

@Maquis Makes sense! Thanks! I used the slider in the app and it changed to “waiting until…”.

 

[NJDevFan30]

If you have a ChargePoint Home Flex you can set the charge schedule in the app. In my experience, it's more reliable than scheduling in the car.

 

[ADDZ71]

@NJDevFan30 you are correct except for a problem that I encountered during the winter months when my ToU plan has two charging windows x2 (M-F and Sat/Sun) that have the discounted rates. The CP Homeflex is not as good as the car app. It should be superior during the summer months when the discounted window is only nighttime.

 

[Gil McC]

What does ToU mean?

 

[ADDZ71]

@Gil McC time of use

 

[RickMachE]

@NJDevFan30 you are correct except for a problem that I encountered during the winter months when my ToU plan has two charging windows x2 (M-F and Sat/Sun) that have the discounted rates. The CP Homeflex is not as good as the car app. It should be superior during the summer months when the discounted window is only nighttime.

We have a window that is quite large, so it's always done, unless you plug in just before the peak rate kicks in (11AM to 7PM M-F). Here's what we do.

1) Set the charging hours in the car.
2) Set the same hours in the charger's app (currently OpenEVSE boards in JuiceBox chargers).

Why do we do both?

1) Prevents the issue you had with it starting early.
2) Prevents the vehicle from warming the battery during peak hours without our intervention (happens a handful of times a year).
3) Prevents the vehicle from preconditioning for a departure time during peak hours without our intervention.
4) Prevents our utility company, which pays us $100 a year per vehicle for Ford's SmartCharge (looks like maybe $50 going forward) from telling us "charge now" during peak hours.

It's easy to go into an intelligent charger's settings and tell it to charge now, or change hours.

 

[ADDZ71]

@RickMachE agreed. My windows are pretty narrow in the winter 11 am - 4 pm and 1-3 am. Considering that many times the car is not home during the daytime window it is challenging to use the ChargePoint schedule since it doesn’t allow you to schedule two windows plus different weekday and weekend windows. It works good most days only when we come in with low SoC is it unable to complete during a regular window which is when it starts early. Summer the only window is 1-6 am so either the car or the ChargePoint schedule works fine.

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