Are you always plugged in at home?

[frautumn]

EVSEs get energized at 9PM weekdays until 1PM, 24 hours weekends.

I've seen a few responses mention that the EVSE gets energized during certain hours. I take that to mean that they are using the EVSE charger's scheduler rather than the Lightning's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't using the EVSE scheduler cause the Lightning to not be able to condition during the off hours? Eg for the example above where the EVSE is off from 1PM - 9PM, on hot or cold days the Lightning would not even know that it's plugged in and wouldn't be able to condition the battery on super hot or cold days.

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[VTbuckeye]

I've seen a few responses mention that the EVSE gets energized during certain hours. I take that to mean that they are using the EVSE charger's scheduler rather than the Lightning's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't using the EVSE scheduler cause the Lightning to not be able to condition during the off hours? Eg for the example above where the EVSE is off from 1PM - 9PM, on hot or cold days the Lightning would not even know that it's plugged in and wouldn't be able to condition the battery on super hot or cold days.

You are correct. It does limit the battery conditioning, but it isn't any different than if the vehicle is parked at any other parking location that does not have power to charge (typical work parking lot). In the winter I have seen power reduced into the 70-80 percent range when very cold. I would never know it without the truck telling me (a lightning with 82 percent power available in non-aggressive driving feels like a lightning with 100 percent power available).

 

[hturnerfamily]

I've thought about all the back-n-forth about 'charging', 'when to charge', 'how often to charge', 'how much to charge'... it brings to light the truth:

NONE of us are the same, have the same options, have the same miles per day, have the same lifestyle, or have the same schedules. The Truck doesn't care. The battery doesn't care. Plug in if you think you need to, don't plug in if you don't - it matters not.

I think there are too many conversations that lead to the dreaded 'charging police' who swarm to swaggle their pointing finger at you and say that you 'must' do it 'this way', or 'that way'... no. There is no exact answer. Just do what you need to do to make it work for your life and your travel and your situation. The battery doesn't care. And nobody else should care how you do it, either.

 

[RickLightning]

I've seen a few responses mention that the EVSE gets energized during certain hours. I take that to mean that they are using the EVSE charger's scheduler rather than the Lightning's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't using the EVSE scheduler cause the Lightning to not be able to condition during the off hours? Eg for the example above where the EVSE is off from 1PM - 9PM, on hot or cold days the Lightning would not even know that it's plugged in and wouldn't be able to condition the battery on super hot or cold days.

Yes.

I have my EVSE, and my vehicles, set to the same hours, my off-peak hours. Therefore, if I set a departure time, or remote start, or hit "charge to 100%) during my peak hours, it requires me to override the EVSE's settings (takes less than 30 seconds). Therefore, I'm making a conscious decision to spend peak electricity.

Why?

1) Ford OTA updates sometimes kick the vehicle to charge to 100%. By setting the hours in the EVSE also, I prohibit this from happening during peak hours.

2) While heating, or cooling, the battery MAY be something that is done in rare circumstances (less than 1/2 dozen in 2 years of Mach-E ownership), I don't want that happening during peak hours. This is a "nice to have", i.e. a parked vehicle not plugged in is fine during cold temps, but sometimes the vehicle will pull power in short bursts on a very cold night.

 

[RickLightning]

I've thought about all the back-n-forth about 'charging', 'when to charge', 'how often to charge', 'how much to charge'... it brings to light the truth:

NONE of us are the same, have the same options, have the same miles per day, have the same lifestyle, or have the same schedules. The Truck doesn't care. The battery doesn't care. Plug in if you think you need to, don't plug in if you don't - it matters not.

I think there are too many conversations that lead to the dreaded 'charging police' who swarm to swaggle their pointing finger at you and say that you 'must' do it 'this way', or 'that way'... no. There is no exact answer. Just do what you need to do to make it work for your life and your travel and your situation. The battery doesn't care. And nobody else should care how you do it, either.

Yes, the battery does care. Whether an owner can see a measurable difference in battery performance / longevity over the period of ownership (without hooking up instruments) is the unknown.

How do we know this is true? Absent science, Darren Palmer specifically has said that they're watching usage, and MAY provide more capacity or different charging curves to people that take better care of the battery vs. those that do not. Interview in 2021.

 

[GoodSam]

Being plugged in constantly wastes more power due to electrical inefficiencies.

I do not see any wasted electricity when the truck is not actively charging. My Tesla wall connector, J1172, Gen 3? can be read by the Android "Tewamo" app or by the Apple "Wall Monitor" app, and zero energy is shown outside of charging or departure preconditioning or an update.

As for battery life, I think Kyle, of Out of Spec Youtube fame, likes to only charge to 60% if not going on a trip. My Lenovo laptop allows for setting a max charge of less than 60% to extend battery life. It makes sense if you can get by without a fully charged battery as the Voltage in the cell (and whole battery pack) is lower which is less likely to short through a insulating layer.

I am plugged in, whenever I am home, and charging to 90%. I am relying on the 8 year, 100K mile warranty as backup. I also see that my 18650 lithium batteries around home are charging up to 4.3V, when rated at 3.7V, and they are not failing quickly. Plus, only having an SR battery, I want the miles available. And, having adequate backup power for the house when the grid fails is handy.

 

[Stonebase]

Lot's of good feedback here, thanks. My question is this: say I plug it in and it reaches the pre-set % during the night. When the charging stops is there still some benefit from being plugged in? Is there any harm from being plugged in while not charging? Should I attempt to disconnect soon after pre-set charging is complete?

 

[The Weatherman]

Only benefits to being plugged in. Battery heating in winter (below freezing). Battery cooling in the summer.

No.

 

[XLT Jeffy]

Lot's of good feedback here, thanks. My question is this: say I plug it in and it reaches the pre-set % during the night. When the charging stops is there still some benefit from being plugged in? Is there any harm from being plugged in while not charging? Should I attempt to disconnect soon after pre-set charging is complete?

No harm in leaving it plugged in after it completes your charge.

I plug in daily as I get home from work, have a scheduled charge time for off peak hours discount(11pm-7am), cap at 80% charge, and use scheduled departure times for a comfy cab and preconditioned battery.

 

[Grumpy2]

When the charging stops is there still some benefit from being plugged in?

The following works this way on our 23 Pro.

This assumes your truck has charged itself to the goal, but left plugged in all the time.

Say before I need to make a run to the store, I want to warm the cab and the truck is plugged into my Emporia 40w charger.

If I hit the "fan" shaped icon, the climate inside the truck, the truck climate control runs and the Emporia shows grid current passing to the truck, improved the climate inside the cabin without using battery.

 

[MotoGary]

I plug in every day and charge to 90% and up to 100% when extra range is needed. If I have the option to plug in at home, and there's no downside, why wouldn't I maintain the highest recommended SOC? It takes an extra 10 seconds to plug it in. Some will argue that there is a downside, but I've yet to be convinced.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Whenever I can remember, the truck is plugged in. I sometimes get distracted and forget to plug in. If I need to go on a long trip, I make sure I'm plugged in with a departure time set, and based on the charge rate of my EVSE, I'll set a reminder to tell the truck to charge to 100% so it's at 100% just before I'm ready to go. I don't stress if I forgot to plug in. I have the truck set to charge only during super-off-peak times unless I tell it I need charge to 100%. In the winter I have it set to stop charging at 95% and in the summer I have it set to stop at 85%. The truck resides in a workshop that's neither cooled nor heated. It gets very hot inside in the summer.

There's a lot of hand wringing about all of this and the truth is the battery babysitting a lot of people want you to do isn't necessary.

 

[Grease Lightning]

We have three EVs at home so it can be a challenge to keep them all plugged in to 240 volt overnight. As one is my daughter’s and now that she is 18, will be flying the coup it is not needed to install another L2 EVSE. So we have two L1 EVSE that the less needed cars use. This is usually enough to top up our daily commute in the M3 and Ioniq.

When the Lightning is my daily driver in the winter, I try to keep it on the L2 at night to use the conditioning in the morning to warm the truck and the battery.

So no, not a reason to unplug unless someone else needs to charge.

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