'Cheaper' rates are from 11:30 pm to 7:30 am,

Isn't that E8 then

I wish I had 8 hrs at low rate

 

It is still called E7, seemingly up here it is colder for longer in the year so us folk get 8 hours off peak as opposed to down south where it is only 7 hours. That is what the Hydro guy said.

 

Mine was fitted by Scottish Hydro but doesn't change with the clocks so Summer is 00:35 to 08:35, Winter 23:35 to 07:35. (Clock must be slightly out hence the change at 35mins lol). Changed to Scottish Power for the best rates. Does amaze me that we have so many Wind Farms up here we still pay more than South of the Border.

 

Wind Farms up here we still pay more than South of the Border.

I imagine that is because the cost of infrastructure installation and maintenance is higher as in general places are more remote.

 

I am hoping that when I test the timer charging in the Ampera this weekend it does as it is meant to. I will give it a few weeks and then start shopping around for the best supplier rates.

I use the delayed charge every night (not with a Rolec though) and it works a treat. I found Flow Energy (that well known energy supplier) incredibly cheap for E7.

 

Added to the list when I start the comparison.

 

11:30 pm to 07:30 am should leave plenty of scope to make sure it is always after midnight that it kicks off the charging cycle.

 

yes good idea - you could just tell it that off peak is 12.00 to 7.30 peak 7.30 to 12 - that would work.

Otherwise you have to say off peak is 12 to 7.30 peak is 7.30 to 11.30 and then another off peak is 11.30 to 12 (you can't say off peak is 11.30pm to 7.30am) its gets it knickers in a twist and is very confusing until someone on SpeakEV told me the golden rule!

 

I don't use that method gets too complicated, just set the departure time everyday for 6am and as it only takes 4hrs to fully charge fits in well in the window and when the clocks change you just reset the clock.

 

hmm surely that way if you plugged in at, say 5 o clock in the evening it could charge straight away at peak rate or do you know that it always charges immediately before the departure time (so in your example it will always charge between 2 and 6am)? If you put the rates in you can then also configure it to only charge during the off peak times.

 

If you set the departure time to 6am it calculates back and starts charging so it is fully charged at 6am. So it can start charging anytime from 2am depending on the current state of charge in the battery. Only if it's fully depleted will it start at 2am. If you arrive home after a late night and you are within that window then you force the car to charge immediately by plugging in remove the plug and reinsert for instant charging. Have used this method for over a year now, works perfectly for me and at the clock change I adjust the vehicle clock only. If you plug in during the day it automatically sees the departure time and defaults to delayed charging with the normal 2 beeps.

 

Oh great if you're sure "it calculates back" that would work too (but I think its an undocumented feature).

From what you describe there is no need to force the immediate charge if arriving home during that 2 to 6am window - it would do it anyway.

 

If you arrive home in the early hours and there isn't sufficient time to charge before the departure time you'll get 4 beeps to tell you so it's easier to just force immediate charge to override delayed charging.

 

Extract from the manual: Delayed Departure Time: The vehicle estimates the charging start time considering the programmed departure time for the current day of the week. Charging begins at the start time and is complete by the
departure time only if sufficient time is allowed after the charge cord is plugged in.

 

Sorry to drag back an old thread, but had our E7 meter fitted today and the wife has gone back to ICE mentality when she realised it was not just come home and plug the car in and go indoors. I was planning just to switch from immediate charging to departure delayed timing set for 5.30am. As we have 32a Rolec so the car gets a full 16amps it is charged from empty in 4 to 4 1/2 hrs so would start to charge 12.30am to 1am well within the E7 12am to 7am limit.

However, like I said the wife went ICE mode and bitched and moaned about then having to muck about with immediate charge settings and when she charges at work from 8am using the 10amp EVSE Brick, then switching it back to delayed time charge when coming home for the overnight charge.

Having not fancying leaving it on immediate for her work and only plugging in at 12.30am every night for the E7 is there any way using the delayed / timed / yearly off peak mid peak settings to enable the car to be plugged in a 6pm ad not start charging until say 1am ready for 6.30am journey then plugged in again at 8am on the EVSE brick and begin immediate charging ready for 4pm leaving work?

I will study the Volt manual but I think this is to much for the car. I need Donald's thinking cap here!

My first thought was to just to pay a sparky to fit a IP65 rated outdoor 230v 24h programmable timer between the consumer unit and the Rolec EVSE and leave the Volt on immediate charge and use the timer to switch the supply live at 1am daily to start the charge. Or see if ChargedEV can fit a Timer unit to the new Rolec EVSE boxes (not sure where though as I have the unteathered type 2 socket ones with no space left.)

Any ideas?

 

If you set to only charge from 12:30am, I think that all your wife has to do when she gets to work is plug the cable in, take it out, re-plug and that over-rides the delayed timer? Surely she can do that???

 

You're unlikely to find a timer unit that can handle the sort of current flow that a car needs to charge, even if it's rated for 13A on a plug in EVSE, I would not be comfortable with that personally unless it's specially designed for the purpose.

On the leaf, when public charging, I've just got in the habit of plugging the car in and pressing the button to override the charge timer - is there not a similar button on the volt? A google search says there is, and it also says:
"Delayed charging can also be overridden by unplugging and plugging back in."

 

If you want to follow your original thought, the way you do timers for heavy loads is to have an ordinary timer like this:

Digital Compact Din Rail Mounting 7 Day 24hr Programmable Timer | QVS Electrical Wholesalers

driving a contactor rated for the full load:

Excel 230v 40 Amp 2 Pole 2 Module Contactor | QVS Electrical Wholesalers

Put those two in a DIN-rail box suitably rated for the conditions (preferably further back up the cable so it can be indoors or sheltered) and switch the power to the whole chargepoint.

That's not ideal, particularly if you expect it to interrupt charging at full power - that will be rough on both the Rolec and your new contactor compared to the normal situation where the car's electronics gently ramp down the current before the contactors open. The turn-on side is less stressful, so if you expect the car to normally have finished charging before the timer turns off it's probably OK. Other downside of this is a couple of watts of power wasted in the 2nd contactor.

Better in prinicple (but still not quite ideal) is to have a timer that switches the pilot wire in the cable going to the car; at least with the Rolec the wires are all accessible so this is easy to do in principle, though as you say there's the question of where to mount the timer: there's probably room inside the Rolec but you'll want access to the timer's buttons in case you want to override it to do some daytime charging.

 

If you set to only charge from 12:30am, I think that all your wife has to do when she gets to work is plug the cable in, take it out, re-plug and that over-rides the delayed timer? Surely she can do that???

I read this in the manual last night. Now have just set a delayed timed charge to finish at 5.30am weekdays and 6am weekends. I then tried the charger in then out then in agin within 5 seconds and it beeped and started charging immediately. Showed the wife and she tried it and it worked for her too so shes ok with this. But the EVSE brick is always at her work these days so she will live trial this with the EVSE brick on Monday morning. As long as the brick initiates immediate charging override manually then problem solved.

Thanks

M

 

I'm pretty confident it will. I think the charging is over-ridden by a charge cable being put in, taken out (shake it about) and back in - I don't think it matters which cable.

 

Fortunately my Eco 7 supply was originally installed decades ago to supply storage heaters. So it had its own huge contactor switched by the meter. Although I stripped out the heaters years ago I kept using the separate circuit to drive my hot water tanks, (Its a lot cheaper than oil out here in the wilds of suffolk) The supply feeds a separate consumer unit that has both my hot water tanks and two 16a outlets for the EVs. Even having had the meter recently changed, it still uses the contactor (that ws changed when I moved the supply from overhead to underground) Faultlesss.

 

I thought all electric cars could have a charging setting for each location, as the car knows where it is from GPS....