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delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:37 am
by SJM
At the moment we cannot set up our ID3 to charge overnight on the cheaper electricity
If we plug it in it starts charging straight away
We can control, it partly by setting up charging with the app on our phone when we are actually in the car
Then stopping it but we then have to wake up when the cheap rate starts and start the charging from our phone
Apart from tearing our hair out we are losing sleep !
Our dealer has not been able to help us so far
Any ideas ?

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 1:08 pm
by Robsto
Hi I have spoken to my dealer about this problem and according to vw they hope to fix it in January next year. In the short term I fitted a sonoff basic timer into the control cct of my rolec charger. Cost £10.00 You need wifi for it to work and must be 2.4 MHz band. So far over the last 4 weeks it has worked great I can give you a wiring diagram if you are interested

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:33 pm
by Deleted User 192
No timed charging yet, but it will come from VW.

For the time being I've switch my Octopus tariff from Go (very cheap from 00:30-04:30) to Agile (expensive from 16:00-19:00) and am charging during the day - usually in the mornings and on sunnier days as I have a small installation of solar panels.

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:57 pm
by SJM
Hello Robsto
We are certainly have wifi but signal not always great, which is another thing that concerns me about the id3
Not sure if we are confident enough to go down this route but it would be useful to see what is involved
so yes to the wiring diagram, thank you

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:34 pm
by Robsto
Hi sjm
I am not able to copy a picture onto this forum this is the procdure The sonoff is connected to the control cct and not the main charging cct. Remove the live and neutral wires (brown and blue wires)connected to the controller at the top terminals marked L & N. Connect these wires to the input of the sonoff controller Connected the output from the sonoff back into the connectors use similar sized cable approx. 1.5mm. Set the sonoff up using app on phone As I said once set works great for setting times to charge. Hopefully the major software update promised by vw in January will sort out this basic problem for us

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:48 pm
by SJM
Thank you Robsto but we will continue to nag our dealer about the software update

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:49 pm
by Sindidziwa
I'm just using a granny lead at present and plug that into a Wi-Fi enabled socket ( that can be set with a routine to switch it on and off by Alexa or Google home. You just have to remember not to switch on and off more than once as it won't charge the second time. Given that we aren't doing massive mileage (only 2000 so far) I can't quite square the cost of a fast charger...

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:56 pm
by pdk42
SJM wrote: Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:37 am At the moment we cannot set up our ID3 to charge overnight on the cheaper electricity
If we plug it in it starts charging straight away
We can control, it partly by setting up charging with the app on our phone when we are actually in the car
Then stopping it but we then have to wake up when the cheap rate starts and start the charging from our phone
Apart from tearing our hair out we are losing sleep !
Our dealer has not been able to help us so far
Any ideas ?
Hi - I'm new to the forum, having just put an order in for an ID.3 (1st Edition). I'm not new to EVs (got a Tesla too) and have a home EVSE (wall box) already. However, it's "dumb" and can't be set to charge at a specific time so this ability to do scheduled charging is actually quite important to me. I'm working on the assumption that it will come with the Dec/Jan big update, but I could really do with an interim solution.

I think this might be a potential route : https://smartcar.com/volkswagen/

I *seems* to offer an API to access some features of the car, including charging control. I'll do some more digging...

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 11:39 pm
by pdk42
Another solution would be to use a contactor in the wall-box circuit controlled from a simple timer. However, that'll only work if the car will start charging when power is brought up on the wall box. Could anyone confirm whether this is how the ID3 operates?

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:01 am
by Deleted User 192
pdk42 wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 11:39 pm Another solution would be to use a contactor in the wall-box circuit controlled from a simple timer. However, that'll only work if the car will start charging when power is brought up on the wall box. Could anyone confirm whether this is how the ID3 operates?

I read somewhere of a guy who added a wifi-enabled relay inside his charger (invalidating the warranty), another who had a wifi-enabled breaker in his consumer unit - I can’t remember if this was specifically for the ID3 though.

Obviously you could simulate the effect of those to test the ID3 response by turning the breaker off, plugging the car in, then turning the breaker on.

I’ll wait for the software solution next month :-)

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 11:54 am
by P645865
Ive been charging via the "granny cable", while waiting for the VW Charger to be installed, and have been using a HIVE programmable 13a. socket luckily the Hub signal reaches the garage. Works fine I can set a schedule for night charging plus manually switch on and off via the app if needed. Car charging starts when supply is switched on. Only draw back is slow charge rate and no stats.
This method may continue for some time as VW have stopped installation of the charger in the UK due to non compatibility with the UK grid if load shedding is necessary . A solution is yet to be agreed with the UK DNO's.

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 4:32 pm
by pdk42
scott28tt wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:01 am
pdk42 wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 11:39 pm Another solution would be to use a contactor in the wall-box circuit controlled from a simple timer. However, that'll only work if the car will start charging when power is brought up on the wall box. Could anyone confirm whether this is how the ID3 operates?

I read somewhere of a guy who added a wifi-enabled relay inside his charger (invalidating the warranty), another who had a wifi-enabled breaker in his consumer unit - I can’t remember if this was specifically for the ID3 though.

Obviously you could simulate the effect of those to test the ID3 response by turning the breaker off, plugging the car in, then turning the breaker on.

I’ll wait for the software solution next month :-)
I guess if it really is next month then I agree - but you never know...

Modding the charger internally is actually a sensible option. I might look into that.

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:53 pm
by NorwichComputersAndy
Ohme Smart charger worth a look. Has a 4g card installed and you can program charging schedules etc and also links into the octopus go and the other tariff so only charges when free / green or sub 5ppkwh energy available ✅

Quite a nice looking unit too with an inbuilt cable - will send a pic of mine in daylight tomorrow

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 5:52 am
by Deleted User 192
I didn’t go for the OHME partly as I found it ugly having 2 separate boxes and a loose cable to have to hang off the front of my house, much preferred the look of the Pod Point.

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:46 am
by NorwichComputersAndy
scott28tt wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 5:52 am I didn’t go for the OHME partly as I found it ugly having 2 separate boxes and a loose cable to have to hang off the front of my house, much preferred the look of the Pod Point.
This is mine - in a narrow carport so it couldn’t stick out past the electric meter which my father in law mullered 😂

7FA79D79-EA1A-43A0-A68E-9ABCC90D1052.jpeg

Also the schedule feature was a big part for the 5p pkwh!

I do also prefer the look of pod points though!

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:14 pm
by Deleted User 192
NorwichComputersAndy wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:46 am
This is mine - in a narrow carport so it couldn’t stick out past the electric meter which my father in law mullered 😂

Too many dangly bits for my liking ;)

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 6:18 pm
by NorwichComputersAndy
scott28tt wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:14 pm
NorwichComputersAndy wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:46 am
This is mine - in a narrow carport so it couldn’t stick out past the electric meter which my father in law mullered 😂

Too many dangly bits for my liking ;)
Never had a complaint about my dangly bits from the wife - She did say it is was a bit long. 🤣

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 6:19 pm
by pdk42
pdk42 wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 4:32 pm Modding the charger internally is actually a sensible option. I might look into that.
Answering my own post here... I think it should be quite easy to add a timer to any dumb charger. The principle is to switch the "pilot" connection (CP) which is a low-voltage signalling pin that's used to communicate between the car and the supply point. The attached diagram I got from the EVOneStop web site, which shows the wiring for a QUBEV wall box, but the principle is the same for any type. All that's needed is to splice a timed switch into the CP line.

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:06 am
by Ollyk
I’ve owned a Nissan Leaf for 3 years and got an ID3 a month ago. I’ve been trying to work out how to do delayed charging as I’ve got half price electricity overnight. The dealership didn’t know how to do it, VW customer service didn’t know how to and I was going to take it back into the garage next week for them to do another software update but yesterday I came across a way to do it...

Under “vehicle” click “locations” then add current position as home then you can set desired overnight times to charge. It’s a bit strange as you have to add in departure times in the morning. I think this is so the ID3 knows when to get to the desired charge by.

Last night it worked fine and it was the first time in a while I didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to swipe to start charging!!

Hope that’s helpful for people. One question I wanted to ask was- how can you get airflow into the cabin without impeding range and using the AC? I used to be able to let air into the leaf but it seems harder to do on the ID3.

Thanks, Ol

Re: delayed charging to benefit from cheaper electricity

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2021 7:23 am
by Deleted User 192
Timed charging has been available since the 2.0 software was released in December, I’m glad it worked for you as it doesn’t as expected for many others, often under-estimating the current needed to reach the configured percentage levels.

There’s an option in Classic Climate to turn off the AC, but you must still have the fan running (even at the lowest speed)