Charge off peak only but keep battery warm when cold

[strahanjen]

I have Chargepoint Home flex charger. If I only charge between midnight and 6am, my rate is only 3.8 cents per kwh. I live in MN where temps can be below zero. I want to be able keep the battery warm without actually charging the truck during peak hours. Is this possible? Is there a way to set up so that during peak hours the charge is just enough to keep the battery warm but does not fully charge during that time?

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[TaxmanHog]

Follow your TOU limitations for the bulk of charging needs, use SYNC CHARGE to set the schedule.

If the truck calls for a spontaneous warming cycle at times outside your TOU window and assuming the flex EVSE allows it to flow at any time you have a spontaneous demand, typically the warming cycle consumes 2 to 8 kWh of energy, even at peak price it won't be to costly.

 

[Kansan]

This is from my 12v battery monitor on my 24 Flash. The truck was parked at the airport and plugged in to a public ChargePoint. This was a very cold day (for KC) - probably near 0-5F. I didn’t check on it during the day and there were no departures scheduled. It’s not a direct measurement of energy for battery warming. I’m assuming the voltage drops were the modules waking for some reason and the voltage increases were the system warming the HVB. I don’t have any data for cold days while unplugged.

 

[GarageMahal]

A key point is that you will need to have the truck control the schedule and cannot use the EVSE to manage the restrictions.

A great update from Ford would allow for percentage based charging restrictions. For example charge to 60% any time but only go to 90% between 9pm and 6 am.

I personally dont know if the truck will draw power during restricted hours to heat the battery.

 

[Heliian]

When plugged into a level 2 evse, the truck will automatically maintain the battery regardless of time of use or time of day. No worrying required.

 

[Adventureboy]

It will pull power outside of the charge window to maintain the battery temperature. I've noticed it warming the battery the hour before my window closes and then later in the day before my window opens. Based on the pattern I see, it seems Ford has put some thought into getting the battery to temp before the end of the window to minimize use outside of the window.

 

[RickLightning]

It will pull power outside of the charge window to maintain the battery temperature. I've noticed it warming the battery the hour before my window closes and then later in the day before my window opens. Based on the pattern I see, it seems Ford has put some thought into getting the battery to temp before the end of the window to minimize use outside of the window.

No, that's just coincidence.

It warms the battery when it wants to warm the battery. It's also unnecessary, so if your electricity cost is too high at times you can use an intelligent EVSE to prevent the warming.

 

[TaxmanHog]

It will pull power outside of the charge window to maintain the battery temperature. I've noticed it warming the battery the hour before my window closes and then later in the day before my window opens. Based on the pattern I see, it seems Ford has put some thought into getting the battery to temp before the end of the window to minimize use outside of the window.

Are you using the trucks "Charging App" on the SYNC screen to define the charging window?
I'll run a test Saturday / Sunday to confirm your suspicions.

 

[TaxmanHog]

The BMS on the truck decides when to execute a warming cycle simply based on HVB temperature, as long as you're plugged in and the EVSE allows energy flow the truck will decide when to do it, I've observed various times, a couple were middle of the night ~1am others were ~5 or 6 am. coinciding with lowest outside temperatures and enough time has lapse from last being plugged in.

 

[Calvin H-C]

There's a couple of things at play when it comes to limiting when your vehicle will charge and when it will draw a small amount of power to keep things warm. The first is the vehicle's charge schedule (if configured) and the second is what your EVSE can control.

The Lightning's schedule will have it charge during the window you have configured. However, if it calculates there will not be enough time given what rate the EVSE is saying is the maximum it can provide, it will start early. My Focus Electric will just wait until it's scheduled start time, as far as my experience tells me, but given it has a 33 kWh battery, a 32 A EVSE has plenty of time to charge it from depletion to 100% between midnight and 7 am.

Since our "ultra low rate" is from 11 pm until 7 am, but the schedule for both vehicles starts at midnight. I don't want the Lightning starting before 11 pm, so it's Emporia EVSE is programmed to only provide charging from 11 pm to 7 am. The vehicle won't charge before 11 even if it wanted to, unless we manually enable it through the app.

Also, the EVSE looks dead to the vehicle before 11 pm, so it won't warm things. This is generally not an issue, since it will keep warm during charging time. In my seven years of driving the FFE, while it would be nice to follow the recommendation to plug in that pops up in the dash everytime I stop in cold weather, I rarely can and there's been no observable issue.

From looking at our Emporia power monitoring, I see that the "keep warm" spikes on power draw are low enough to be provided by a Level 1 EVSE (120 volt outlet). Just a thought, but that might be an option if you want it to keep warm without drawing a lot of power outside of a low rate window.

The Emporia EVSE has the ability to control its output from 6 A to 48 A, but only manually in the app. It would be nice if a schedule could control when different maximums apply.

 

[mb0220]

I have Chargepoint Home flex charger. If I only charge between midnight and 6am, my rate is only 3.8 cents per kwh. I live in MN where temps can be below zero. I want to be able keep the battery warm without actually charging the truck during peak hours. Is this possible? Is there a way to set up so that during peak hours the charge is just enough to keep the battery warm but does not fully charge during that time?

Could also set a departure time for 6am so it proactively warms the battery towards the end of your off-peak period.

 

[Adventureboy]

No, that's just coincidence.

Very much could be coincidence. It seems to do it between 6-7am on the cold days. My window ends at 7am but this is also the coldest part of the day. It will do it more often on the really cold days. No departure time set.

 

[Adventureboy]

Are you using the trucks "Charging App" on the SYNC screen to define the charging window?
I'll run a test Saturday / Sunday to confirm your suspicions.

I set it using the FordPass app which transfers the windows correctly to the truck and is visible on the Charging App.

 

[chl]

I was setting my charge time (using the truck menu) to begin at 1am the super-off-peak time when the cost is 5 to 6 cents per kWh.

But when I looked at charge history, it always indicated it started a few minutes BEFORE 1am and sometimes as many as 14 minutes early. Was it preconditioning? On for heating the battery?

I changed the start time to 2am.

On one cold night the charge history showed power used from 1am to 9:39am when I unplugged it, and battery charged from 78% to 80%, but it used 12kWh.

On another warmer night it showed power used for 22 minutes, from 78% to 80% and 4kWh.

On a different night 06kWh, 78% to 80%, on from 12:49am to 1:27am (38 minutes).

However, it is small change ($) even the 12kWh that went over the super-off-peak time for 3hrs and 39 minutes (max about 12 cents per kWh), so whatever the truck is doing, I can afford it and live with it.

I can't tell when it is using charging power levels and when it is low just keeping the battery warm from the FordPass reported charge history, just to total energy used, so knowing exactly how much it cost me, with different rates at different times, is not 100% knowable.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I was setting my charge time (using the truck menu) to begin at 1am the super-off-peak time when the cost is 5 to 6 cents per kWh.

But when I looked at charge history, it always indicated it started a few minutes BEFORE 1am and sometimes as many as 14 minutes early. Was it preconditioning? On for heating the battery?

I changed the start time to 2am.

On one cold night the charge history showed power used from 1am to 9:39am when I unplugged it, and battery charged from 78% to 80%, but it used 12kWh.

On another warmer night it showed power used for 22 minutes, from 78% to 80% and 4kWh.

On a different night 06kWh, 78% to 80%, on from 12:49am to 1:27am (38 minutes).

However, it is small change ($) even the 12kWh that went over the super-off-peak time for 3hrs and 39 minutes (max about 12 cents per kWh), so whatever the truck is doing, I can afford it and live with it.

I can't tell when it is using charging power levels and when it is low just keeping the battery warm from the FordPass reported charge history, just to total energy used, so knowing exactly how much it cost me, with different rates at different times, is not 100% knowable.

Yup, some of those events included a spontaneous warming cycle or warming prior to charging event.

I just topped up again to 90% in anticipation of another snow event.

Tonight the conversion loss was 31% instead of the usual 8% or 9% when the pack is warm enough that it does not need extra warming. 5.4 kWh for heating, 1.8 kWh for ac/dc conversion,

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