[rbon]

I traded in my Leaf yesterday and leased a 2017 Volt premier which I brought home yesterday. I have a Level 2 charger and am familiar with Level 2 charging as I did it with my Leaf for 3 years. I have the Electric Vehicle rates through PG&E and want to charge my Volt ONLy during Off Peak times. The leaf interface for setting delayed charging was very easy. You just set the hours you want to use. I am confused by the Volt interface which appears to require me to set the Peak times and the Mid Peak times as well as to enter a Departure time for each day. I would appreciate any guidance about the simplest and most straightforward method of configuring the Volt interface to charge only from 11 pm through 7 am.

Also, sometimes I may charge using the trickle charger (as my wife will be using the Level 2 charger). I still want to charge only on Off Peak hours. To make charging faster, should I set the charging for 12 amps or leave at at 8 amps? Does it depend on what size circuit brakes I have?

Many thanks for any guidance on this topic

 

[AZ EV Driver]

How you set it up is dependent on how your Off Peak times are configured by PG&E. Departure time can be set to when your OFF Peak time ends (7 am in your case) or when you want the charging to be completed. Peak time and Mid Peak time (if you have it) pretty much explains itself, in your case Peak would be from 7 am to 11 pm. The programming is in the Volt so it applies to both L1 & L2 charging. For L1 12 amps charging you will need to setup your "home" GPS location - see the owner's manual. The amp level doesn't apply to L2 charging. The Volt or the EVSE doesn't know what size circuit breaker you have so you will have to investigate to make sure it is appropriate for a long term current draw situation (20 amp dedicated is probably the best).

VIN # B0985

 

[canehdian]

There are two ways to charge via schedule

1) charge only during x hours
You program windows of the day with peak/mid-peak/off-peak and change the setting to charge only during off-peak
If you plug in outside of these hours, it will go into standby and wake up to charge when the window starts
2) departure time
The computer will calculate backwards from departure time and only start charging when necessary in order to have you leave with a full charge at departure time.

Sounds like you want to just use 1)
You put in a departure time, but it will just ignore it, it's going to charge immediately upon the off-peak window starting.

 

[jsmay311]

The above answers are good.

The reason it has you select a departure time is because there is an option to either

• have it charge ONLY during off-peak hours, even if that means you won't get a full charge before your departure time, OR...
• have only a *preference* for off-peak hours, but also allow charging during mid-peak or peak hours when necessary to get a full charge before the departure time.

(The latter is what I do.)

 

[GSP]

The easiest way to set up is just enter your departure time only and charge based on departure time. I leave before the off-peakwindow ends, and the Volt only takes 4-5 hours for a full charge. You can easily temporarily override and charge immediately when needed.

However if I had to pay PG&E rates ($$$$), I probably would enter the peak and mid peak times as well. It might come in handy, even though it can be a pain to program them into the Volt.

GSP