Preferred Charging START TIME (and 80% Charging)

[NightFox]

...On the 1st July new legislation made it a requirement for home charges to use off peak charging, and green electricity. Power companies can if required stop charging to EV,s at peak demand...

Can you provide more details? The only change I was aware of was that home chargers would only be eligible for the OLEV grant if they had some form of "smart" functionality. I know there's been plenty of speculation that what you mentioned could theoretically by imposed at some point in the future, but that doesn't seem to "fit" for right now? Or do you mean the requirement is just for them to be able to? Even then, I only see the current legislation as relating this to whether the installation is OLEV grant-applicable or not.

I also don't see that under the current infrastructure energy suppliers would even know who's got an EV charger, much less being able to remotely control charging at peak times - there's no interaction between EV installers and energy suppliers that I'm aware of.

[Ipace Ken]

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articl ... andates%2F

link above, also a useful YouTube explaining the new legislation below

[******]

Just an update on this. This works perfectly now. Well almost. With the Wallbox Pulsar, the maximum it will delay starting by is 12 hours. In other words, if you plug your car in more than 12 hours before the scheduled start time, it starts charging the car straight away. Maybe they thought anyone plugging in more than 12 hours in advance must want a charge immediately? No idea but it’s a small glitch. As a workaround, if you don’t trust yourself to plug the car in later on, you can schedule a second start time and turn it on for only a minute. That seems to be enough to prevent the car from charging straight away, and you only pay for a minute of peak rate charging.

So for example, if you plug your car in at 8 am and want to start charging at 00:30, you would set a time for 12:30 to 12:31 and then another from 00:30 to whenever you want to finish charging.

[ChrisMc]

Just an update on this. This works perfectly now. Well almost. With the Wallbox Pulsar, the maximum it will delay starting by is 12 hours. In other words, if you plug your car in more than 12 hours before the scheduled start time, it starts charging the car straight away. Maybe they thought anyone plugging in more than 12 hours in advance must want a charge immediately? No idea but it’s a small glitch. As a workaround, if you don’t trust yourself to plug the car in later on, you can schedule a second start time and turn it on for only a minute. That seems to be enough to prevent the car from charging straight away, and you only pay for a minute of peak rate charging.

So for example, if you plug your car in at 8 am and want to start charging at 00:30, you would set a time for 12:30 to 12:31 and then another from 00:30 to whenever you want to start charging.

Good info GD, thanks. Mine is booked in next week for the update.

[DougTheMac]

I am mystified by the recent posts on this, because I never had any problems with my car stopping looking for a charge. I have a simple electromechanical timer on my Rolec charger, normally set for my off-peak time (0100-0800 BST), and I often used to plug in at c1800 and just left it to it. It never failed to charge. (After having started this thread and worked out the methodology for setting the preferred start time, I came to the conclusion it was all just too hard and reverted to the simple timer approach).
My car has been in the bodyshop for a month now so no recent experience...and no H228 or SOTA yet either...

[1IPACE]

OK got that, had started to figure it out myself too. Nice to know why it sometimes ignored my time settings and started straight away.
It is all a bit crazy but getting there slowly.

[OneR]

Thanks DougTheMac, it all now makes sense, great post. I just need to sort our Vehicle Creep and WiFi connection and I'm good.

[WhiteWhippet]

Hello Doug

I have been trying to make this work for a year. I follow the process exactly as described but charging keeps coming immediately. Tried again last night.

Car only needs 20% to full (about 3 hours). At 7pm arrived home set departure time next day 8.30am) and preferred charging period 1am to 8am. Pressed on after closed down screen. Plugged in car (blue flashing) but car was actually charging. Remote says it was awaiting charge, screen in car said it was awaiting charge (in Blue) but car was actually charging. Went to remote stopped charging and got message "problem with preferred timing" restarted charging and got awaiting charge. Car stopped charging and charger light flashed showing it was awaiting charge. 30 minutes later car started charging again. Was going to give up until I saw your post.

By PCST do you mean set 1am start by do not set a finish time. Is that possible?

[DougTheMac]

Hello Doug

I have been trying to make this work for a year. I follow the process exactly as described but charging keeps coming immediately. Tried again last night.

Car only needs 20% to full (about 3 hours). At 7pm arrived home set departure time next day 8.30am) and preferred charging period 1am to 8am. Pressed on after closed down screen. Plugged in car (blue flashing) but car was actually charging. Remote says it was awaiting charge, screen in car said it was awaiting charge (in Blue) but car was actually charging. Went to remote stopped charging and got message "problem with preferred timing" restarted charging and got awaiting charge. Car stopped charging and charger light flashed showing it was awaiting charge. 30 minutes later car started charging again. Was going to give up until I saw your post.

By PCST do you mean set 1am start by do not set a finish time. Is that possible?

Hello WW
After writing the original post many months ago, I’ve actually given up completely on using it, as even when it worked, it was too much of a faff. I now rely entirely on the mechanical timer in my charge point, over-riding it or changing the times when necessary. I’ve also become much more relaxed about not charging to 100% - if I can be bothered, I change the timer, or, more often, wait until my %SoC is down to c40% which means a 7h charge leaves me well under 100%. But I don’t fret about it.
All this is not much help I’m afraid, but as I am also away from my car for a couple of months, I can’t try anything.
My only off-the-cuff comment is, for how long does the car charge when it starts? I think, from memory, that it always charges for a minute or so before “sleeping”. Logically, it has to do this so that it “knows” how much power will be available when it does need to start, so it can work out if it has enough time in the set window.
The only other suggestion would be to try setting a much later DT (say 1800 next day) and then change it back to 08:30 with the app when you wake up.
Or fit a mechanical timer...

[ChrisMc]

Hello Doug

I have been trying to make this work for a year. I follow the process exactly as described but charging keeps coming immediately. Tried again last night.

Car only needs 20% to full (about 3 hours). At 7pm arrived home set departure time next day 8.30am) and preferred charging period 1am to 8am. Pressed on after closed down screen. Plugged in car (blue flashing) but car was actually charging. Remote says it was awaiting charge, screen in car said it was awaiting charge (in Blue) but car was actually charging. Went to remote stopped charging and got message "problem with preferred timing" restarted charging and got awaiting charge. Car stopped charging and charger light flashed showing it was awaiting charge. 30 minutes later car started charging again. Was going to give up until I saw your post.

By PCST do you mean set 1am start by do not set a finish time. Is that possible?

Hello WW
After writing the original post many months ago, I’ve actually given up completely on using it, as even when it worked, it was too much of a faff. I now rely entirely on the mechanical timer in my charge point, over-riding it or changing the times when necessary. I’ve also become much more relaxed about not charging to 100% - if I can be bothered, I change the timer, or, more often, wait until my %SoC is down to c40% which means a 7h charge leaves me well under 100%. But I don’t fret about it.
All this is not much help I’m afraid, but as I am also away from my car for a couple of months, I can’t try anything.
My only off-the-cuff comment is, for how long does the car charge when it starts? I think, from memory, that it always charges for a minute or so before “sleeping”. Logically, it has to do this so that it “knows” how much power will be available when it does need to start, so it can work out if it has enough time in the set window.
The only other suggestion would be to try setting a much later DT (say 1800 next day) and then change it back to 08:30 with the app when you wake up.
Or fit a mechanical timer...

I nearly always set up a later departure time, 18:00 the next day or now I even set it a week in advance, saves me having to do it each day, so far doing this and setting up as explained upthread has never failed me. I rarely worry about preconditioning, so the advanced time does not bother me, it can be a month in advance for all I care.

PS when I first set it up and plug in the charger, my charger turns blue and the main dash starts flashing blue, after about 5 seconds I double lock the car and the only time I use my app is to check if it is waiting a charge, the Jag remote app also flashes blue under the Range tab, I never use the app to set anything up with regards timed charging and departure times. Don't know if any of that will help you or not?