[kgvickers]

I suspect this has been discussed but I've not found the right search term .... sorry.

Should I charge immediately after getting home around 6pm ... or use the delay charging feature so that the battery will be fully charged and warm (from charging) at about 6:30am when I leave for work?

Right now the temps are great here in Fort Worth but come January or February it's usually in the 30s-40s in the AM. So my question really applies to that time of year.

Thanks.

 

[ctiomico2003]

I believe the term you are looking for is preconditioning.
I have done this with my Gen I Volt in CA but it did not really yield additional miles for me so I stopped doing it. At 30 - 40 degrees, it may be worth having the car warm up for you to give reduce the mileage lost while on the road.

You can do either option. I would do the scheduled charging if you are concerned. Just know your options for overriding (like the put EVSE in, remove, then back in quickly to override the schedule or using the on screen directions to override).

The active management of the battery is pretty good as is. As long as it is plugged in at night, it will take care of itself.

No issues from my battery and I'm hovering near 100K.

 

[Barry]

Yes, that is an excellent idea for the reasons you stated. Additional benefits include that in warm weather, you are charging after battery cool-down and during cooler hours, so less heat stress on the battery and less use of the active cooling system. Also, delayed charging reduces the time that your battery dwells at its highest state of charge, which is also good for battery health. And to top all that off, it is friendlier to the grid, which helps keep energy costs and environmental impact down.

There are a lot of wins. The only downside that I can see is that if you unexpectedly need the car sooner, it has less charge. But since it is a Volt, that is never a real problem.

By the way, one thing I have noticed is that the car usually finishes charging early by roughly a half hour. But I suppose there are various factors that affect that, so your resluts may vary.

 

[llninja]

Just plug it in and forget about it. I stopped playing the hypermiling and maximizing efficiency game almost 2 years ago. Any games you play might help, but is probably not worth the few dozen feet you will gain in range.

 

[linkim]

I have my charging protocol set to charge at night, ending at 5AM. I have TOU so never charge at home during the day or early evening when electricity rates are high. Then in the early morning, I charge my LEAF. I only have one Blink EVSE in the garage but this arrangement is working so far.

 

[hellsop]

I suspect this has been discussed but I've not found the right search term .... sorry.

Should I charge immediately after getting home around 6pm ... or use the delay charging feature so that the battery will be fully charged and warm (from charging) at about 6:30am when I leave for work?

Right now the temps are great here in Fort Worth but come January or February it's usually in the 30s-40s in the AM. So my question really applies to that time of year.

Thanks.

The Volt will, if left plugged in, keep the battery in operational temperature range, at least for a few days. And, because too hot is not really better than too cold, that includes chilling as well as heating the battery.

(And while we don't know for sure what the cold end of the permitted operational range is, Volts parked outside run on pure EV down in those temperatures, so it doesn't seem to be a problem. And what if you want ice cream at midnight? Would you rather have a flat battery then or a charged one?)

Basically, I don't think it's worth doing. Even if provides some benefit somehow, the margin between doing and not doing is SO SLIM that it doesn't seem like it will make a noticeable difference. I'm a big believer in the idea that a difference which makes no difference is no difference. So I don't notice less than 2-4 miles of range, because if I take one road instead of another, I can get the range estimate to vary that much the next morning. I don't pay attention to MPG changes less than about 5 as meaning anything other than "It was 80 last week. Today it's 50." 3 PSI in my tires isn't worth doing anything about. I can get another five miles of range by driving 50 on the interstate, but that seems to make people mad, so I speed up until I've passed the slowest car on the highway, pull back into the right lane and set the cruise control there. There's so much engineering in this car to make it better than everything else on the road than a Gen 2 that there's just not enough gain in doing any more work as a driver than "be sensible".

 

[llninja]

I have my charging protocol set to charge at night, ending at 5AM. I have TOU so never charge at home during the day or early evening when electricity rates are high. Then in the early morning, I charge my LEAF. I only have one Blink EVSE in the garage but this arrangement is working so far.

An ex-coworker of mine built a box where you plug the J1772 of the EVSE into the box, then plug two J1772's into both cars. The box will split the charge between the two cars until one car is full, then it will reset the connection to the car not fully charged to charge at whatever higher rate it can handle. Since he built it himself, it didn't cost very much because it was sweat equity in terms of labor. It sounds like this would be perfect for you, except when you throw TOU into the mix. At that point, you might was well just get a second EVSE or use a 110V EVSE in tandem with your Blink.

 

[kgvickers]

....... what if you want ice cream at midnight? .....

Ha, you had me at ice cream!

I appreciate all the replies. I'm an old electrical engineer by trade and I think all engineers are, to some degree, a bit anal and particular (I know, the understatement of the day).

I enjoy discussing the theoretical aspects of anything engineering related. But from a practical standpoint I'm an 80-90% solution guy - the 100% solution is usually too expensive and impractical.

I actually could not justify getting the Volt from a financial standpoint - my old car had depreciated to near nothing but worked fine and probably would have been good for another 50K miles. But after driving the Volt all I could think about was getting one. So here I am.

Cheers!

 

[llninja]

Ha, you had me at ice cream!

I appreciate all the replies. I'm an old electrical engineer by trade and I think all engineers are, to some degree, a bit anal and particular (I know, the understatement of the day).

I enjoy discussing the theoretical aspects of anything engineering related. But from a practical standpoint I'm an 80-90% solution guy - the 100% solution is usually too expensive and impractical.

I actually could not justify getting the Volt from a financial standpoint - my old car had depreciated to near nothing but worked fine and probably would have been good for another 50K miles. But after driving the Volt all I could think about was getting one. So here I am.

Cheers!

Exactly. Don't let math tell you that this car is worth it. Let your butt in the driver's seat and the grin on your face be the justification. Go test drive one, get to the front of a stoplight with a pony car or ricer boy next to you, and when the light turns punch it up to the city speed limit, then release the throttle. If one of America's finest is ahead, they'll pass you, get clocked for the ticket, and you would have still pwned them at the jump.

Similarly, the math on getting a L2 charger will never work out if you are trying to save pennies by computing the number of times you might need a shorter charge to fill the battery. But the freedom of being able to drive, drain the battery, come home, putsy around, and leave again fully charged is well worth it. Just pay for the L2 with the gas money you have saved and don't try to compute the ROI.

 

[Barry]

I am not going to argue that delayed charging is worth the trouble for added range or reduced cost, but just for the record, the added trouble might just be a few screen taps to set the mode and departure time (a one time set-up). After that, you just plug it in like always. That's not very much "trouble." About the same as writing this post.

 

[deeks]

By the way, one thing I have noticed is that the car usually finishes charging early by roughly a half hour. But I suppose there are various factors that affect that,.......................

'17 VOLT-I have noticed,regularly,that each hour of L2 home charging produces about 18 electric miles on my DIC.This facilitates estimate of recharge time required.-Don

 

[llninja]

I am not going to argue that delayed charging is worth the trouble for added range or reduced cost, but just for the record, the added trouble might just be a few screen taps to set the mode and departure time (a one time set-up). After that, you just plug it in like always. That's not very much "trouble." About the same as writing this post.

You didn't account for the lost EV miles from the ice cream midnight run. Luckily I have cheap flat rate electricity where shifting to time of use doesn't help much, if at all.

 

[rmay635703]

The battery temperature standards are tighter key on than off

If you have time turn the car on a tad before leaving with lights and heat off

Battery will heat up and give nearly full summer range in winter.

 

[okko]

The battery temperature standards are tighter key on than off

If you have time turn the car on a tad before leaving with lights and heat off

Battery will heat up and give nearly full summer range in winter.

I need this explained a bit more...........

 

[llninja]

I need this explained a bit more...........

Don't believe it. My battery range drops like a rock when it gets cold - up to half. I don't like to freeze and use comfort 72

 

[Upper5Percent]

The battery temperature standards are tighter key on than off

If you have time turn the car on a tad before leaving with lights and heat off

Battery will heat up and give nearly full summer range in winter.

I want to see proof of this...

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

Exactly. Don't let math tell you that this car is worth it. Let your butt in the driver's seat and the grin on your face be the justification. Go test drive one, get to the front of a stoplight with a pony car or ricer boy next to you, and when the light turns punch it up to the city speed limit, then release the throttle. If one of America's finest is ahead, they'll pass you, get clocked for the ticket, and you would have still pwned them at the jump...........

Ha, I love it..........I actually did this to a guy in a Vette the other day. He sped around me and first to the stop light
When the light turned green, I punched it and left him in the dust, he pounded the gears to catch me, I release the throttle and he sped up, pulled in front of me and we both turned into Walmart...........OH, the look on his face

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

You didn't account for the lost EV miles from the ice cream midnight run. Luckily I have cheap flat rate electricity where shifting to time of use doesn't help much, if at all.

Same here.....from my bill....Energy Charge
300 kWh $ 0.09294500
689 kWh $ 0.05417800
Then, after 1300 kWhs, the rate goes down to $0.03748600
Pretty cheap in my book. We are actually encouraged to use MORE to get the better rate
After ALL charges, our "average" is $0.1244 per kWH

 

[llninja]

Same here.....from my bill....Energy Charge
300 kWh $ 0.09294500
689 kWh $ 0.05417800
Then, after 1300 kWhs, the rate goes down to $0.03748600
Pretty cheap in my book. We are actually encouraged to use MORE to get the better rate
After ALL charges, our "average" is $0.1244 per kWH

My electric bill is riddled with fees

Distribution delivery charge summer $0.04613
Purchased electric summer $0.04343
Purchased electricity adjustment -$0.00389275
Supply cost adjustment $0.00112
Transmission service charge $0.00914
Clean energy assistance charge $0.00178
Renewable energy adjustment $0.001196
EDT cost recovery $0.001256
Electric Envirnomental Adjustment $0.0025904
Plus a fixed $5.45 Illinois state electricity excise tax.

If I take my total bill and divide by the kwh used it comes out to about 11.7 cents per kWh with all the taxes and charges included.

 

[Sean-a-Tron]

I set my Volt to be fully charged by 4AM. I don't need it ready by that time, instead, it's to use our power plants idle power. It also means it'll charge at the coolest times during the hot seasons. This will make charging slightly more efficient.