[themc11]

Hi Folks,

New 2018 Volt Premier owner. I am trying to setup rate scheduling correctly but must be missing something odvious. Reading through the manual I am trying to setup charging of Off-Peak time only.

Here is what I have done so far:
1.Set it to Delayed (Electric Rate and Departure Time)
2.Planned departures for all days 10:00am
3.Charge Completion is latest possible
4.Charge during Off-Peak Only
5.Rate Schedule - Yearly
6. Rate schedule for Weekdays of 12:00am - 7:00am (off peak), 7:00am - 7:00pm (peak) 7:00pm - 12:00am (off-peak)
7. Weekends (off-oeak)

I plug in my car and it starts charging before 7:00pm....car time is set correctly. What am I missing?

Thanks

 

[jcanoe]

2017 Volt Owner's Manual, page 121 (Should be the same for 2018 Volt)

Delayed (Electric Rate and Departure Time)

If the selected electric rate settings result in a very long charge completion time, the vehicle will start charging immediately upon plug in. (Are you attempting to fully charge the Volt using Level I, 110V at the default 8 amp setting? That would take 19 hours.)

 

[themc11]

Level 1 yes but on 12 amps so ~12 hours. Battery was fully empty when I tried it so let me test today on partially depleted battery.

 

[themc11]

2017 Volt Owner's Manual, page 121 (Should be the same for 2018 Volt)

Delayed (Electric Rate and Departure Time)

If the selected electric rate settings result in a very long charge completion time, the vehicle will start charging immediately upon plug in. (Are you attempting to fully charge the Volt using Level I, 110V at the default 8 amp setting? That would take 19 hours.)

That looks like what it was. It is in delayed charging mode this time. I guess I need to RT_M more carefully

 

[jcanoe]

If you start using Station Charging (Level II charging) this will no longer be an issue.

 

[volt_dc]

Looks like you have it setup correctly, it shouldn't start charging until 7pm till 7am, are you sure the car is charging before 7pm? use the mychevrolet app to verify if car is charging/not charging.....took me awhile to get the off peak,peak settings correct but it's running fine now.

 

[caskConditionedAle]

If you start using Station Charging (Level II charging) this will no longer be an issue.

I will second this motion. I've always used level I because my utility charges a flat rate and does not use time of use pricing. If that situation changed, a level II charger would be at the top of my Xmas list.

 

[JRRF]

I will second this motion. I've always used level I because my utility charges a flat rate and does not use time of use pricing. If that situation changed, a level II charger would be at the top of my Xmas list.

For me, even though TOU gives you a break for off-peak, the peak rates are so high that unless you need to put 60 miles back into your car each night, it's not worth it.

 

[El Dobro]

TOU isn't worth it for me.
https://www.pseg.com/info/environment/ev/rlm-rs_rates.jsp

 

[hellsop]

Looks like you have it setup correctly, it shouldn't start charging until 7pm till 7am, are you sure the car is charging before 7pm? use the mychevrolet app to verify if car is charging/not charging.....took me awhile to get the off peak,peak settings correct but it's running fine now.

The Fine Manual says 12-amp full charges take approximately 13 hours. Where does "12 hours" come from?

 

[Barry]

Yes, the problem was that there was not enough off-peak time to fully charge the car before your next departure. That is why it started charging during peak. The car puts a higher priority on giving you a full battery for your departure. I'm not sure, but I think there is a way to change that priority.

 

[themc11]

Yes, the problem was that there was not enough off-peak time to fully charge the car before your next departure. That is why it started charging during peak. The car puts a higher priority on giving you a full battery for your departure. I'm not sure, but I think there is a way to change that priority.

Yeh I am going to have to look into this because I only make a long commute 2 times a week so it does not need to fully charge overnight since I have a couple days between commutes.

 

[JRRF]

TOU isn't worth it for me.
https://www.pseg.com/info/environment/ev/rlm-rs_rates.jsp

And I thought I paid a lot for electricity.

 

[snic]

I just noticed some similar weirdness with charging on a rate schedule. When I got home today at around 8 pm, the car was about 60% or 70% charged. It's set to charge during mid-peak (6 pm to midnight) and off-peak (midnight to 8 am), with preference to charge as late as possible, departure time 7:15 am. Charging is at 12 amps. I confirmed all these settings after I noticed that it started charging immediately.

Under these conditions, you'd think the car would wait until about 3 am and start charging (since it should take about 4 hours for the 30-40% of battery capacity it needed to charge), right? Well, no. It charged immediately up to 79% (which it reached at 10:30 pm) and then stopped. It is not going to take 7 hours and 15 minutes (midnight to 7:15 am) to charge the remaining 21%. So why did it waste my money by charging so much during mid-peak hours?

 

[dirtdiver]

And I thought I paid a lot for electricity.

the absolute cheapest rate of any rate at san Diego gas and electric is .24/KWhr. They give you a baseline amount for that and then it goes up from there as you use more. Solar is pretty popular out here... some of my neighbors are claiming payback in 4-5 years.

 

[dirtdiver]

you guys ought to consider the plug adapter mod to charge at 220v. For less than $50 you can gain a lot of flexibility in when you charge and how often you charge.

 

[El Dobro]

And I thought I paid a lot for electricity.

The chart is slightly off for RS rates. I pay just under .17/kWh.

 

[themc11]

you guys ought to consider the plug adapter mod to charge at 220v. For less than $50 you can gain a lot of flexibility in when you charge and how often you charge.

I plan to but will have to get a 220V plug installed in my garage from the Garage Panel

 

[snic]

I plan to but will have to get a 220V plug installed in my garage from the Garage Panel

In my case, I park outside, so the 220V plug would have to be outdoors. Maybe not impossible, but I suspect that an electrician would charge several hundred dollars to run the line about 20 feet from the circuit breaker subpanel in the garage (which, by the way, is full as it is, probably adding even more expense).

 

[themc11]

My garage panel is a dedicated 40 amps so should save on some costs. I assume the previous owner of this house had it installed for a hot tub?