Need help understanding 2013 charging override /timer use

[bradbissell]

So I have a question for other 2013 owners... I would like to see if anyone else has done this before I get myself stuck with a low battery...

Can you set the timer override button to long life mode (80% charge) and also have a charge timer set to go to 100%?

The reason I ask is that I would like to have the timer set to end at 5:30am with a 100% charge when I leave for work, and then when I get to work have the car charge to 80% without me having to go out to the car to stop it.

I really want to limit the amount of time spent at 100% and figure sitting at work with a "full" battery for 7 hours isn't be best option.

Anyone have the answer?

 

[planet4ever]

I don't have a 2013, but I think the timer on your SV works pretty much like the one on the 2011-2012. (Yes, I know you have an additional 80% control. Also, the 2013 S is a whole different story.) From sad experience with my timer I would recommend you not use the override switch away from home, but disable the timer instead. It's three clicks to disable and three more to re-enable, but the settings are retained. That seems like a lot of extra trouble, until the time you come out to your car and discover you can't make it home because there was a momentary power failure or someone disconnected you "just for a few seconds". When using the override, your car will revert to the overnight settings if charging stops for any reason.

Ray

 

[bradbissell]

Great thing with the 2013 (SV) is that I can lock the EVSE cable to the car, so no chance that someone can unplug me without really working at it. Also, the 6.6kwh charger is amazing when away from the house.

Currently I am only using the L1 evse at home, so I don't want to risk using it at work and have it stolen. Yes, I can lock it, but I don't really trust that when it comes to copper thieves. My feelings on L1 charging while at work will change once I have L2 hooked up at home. Need to call an electrician... ugh.

 

[RonDawg]

Presuming that the 2013 SV and SL models' timer functions (the S model's timer I believe is much more limited) is the same as the 2011/2012 models, can't you use the second timer to do just what you are asking? Basically:

1. Set Timer 1 to end charging at 5:30 AM at 100% charge
2. Set Timer 2 to start charging at 7:00 AM (or whatever time you choose) until it reaches 80%, no end time specified

 

[RLewisCA]

I was curious about this myself, so I just finished an experiment this week. Here is what I found:

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf with no timers set, the car will charge to 80% when you plug in.

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, and have timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in an 80% charge. This is regardless of what percentages the timers are set at (80% or 100%).

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, but your timer is set to 100% and you let the charger on the car turn on automatically according to the timer's schedule, and you have that particular timer for that particluar day set to 100%, the car will charge to 100%.

If you have long life mode turned off, with no timers set, the car will charge to 100% when you plug in.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in a 100% charge. This is regardless of what percentage is set on any timer.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, and let the timer control the charging, the percentage of charge will be governed by what percentage you have designated on the timer.

I think that should cover any questions about how 'long life mode', timers and the timer off button interact.

 

[davewill]

I concur that the timer override is not the best way to go. Here's what I recommend. Set up your timer for 1AM to 6PM. Change the target amount charge manually when you arrive at work, and at home. That way, when you plug in the evening, the car will wait until 1AM to start charging up to 100%. You can play with those times to sync with your needs.

 

[bradbissell]

Thanks RLewisCA! I had just started the experiment this evening, so you have saved me a step. I will use the override at work and timer at home.

 

[RegGuheert]

Thanks RLewisCA! I had just started the experiment this evening, so you have saved me a step. I will use the override at work and timer at home.

Reading the 2013 manual, in the SV and SL you set the overrides using ZeroEmission->Settings->Long Life Mode (80% Charge) and the timers work just like the 2011/2012s. I'm pretty sure ZeroEmission->Settings->Long Life Mode (80% Charge) defaults to ON, which is good because it prevents dealers from easily charging to 100% all the time, but owners may wish to change it to OFF in order to be able to override their 80% timers.

The "S" trim level appears to be a bit more difficult to manage because all the timers and the override button all seem to be tied to the same Long Life Mode, meaning there is no mechanism for override without changing the setting. I could be misunderstanding this, however.

 

[planet4ever]

The "S" trim level appears to be a bit more difficult to manage because all the timers and the override button all seem to be tied to the same Long Life Mode, meaning there is no mechanism for override without changing the setting. I could be misunderstanding this, however.

That's not the way I read the manual. Both long life mode and timer are controlled through the "dot matrix liquid crystal display" on the dash, but under Settings there is one setting for "Charge %" and a separate one for "Charging Timer". The real differences are that a) there is only one timer, not two, b) only an end time can be set, and c) it always applies seven days a week. None of those differences would bother me, because on my 2011 I only use one of the two timers, I don't set the start time, and I make it apply every day.

Ray

 

[RegGuheert]

Both long life mode and timer are controlled through the "dot matrix liquid crystal display" on the dash, but under Settings there is one setting for "Charge %" and a separate one for "Charging Timer".

So if I set "Charge %" to 80%, how do I go about charging the car to full without first turning it on?

 

[MarvGordon]

Just a note.... Timers can't be set concurrently for the same day. It's one or the other.... (at least on the 2013 SL) Ex.. Monday can be either OFF, Timer1 or Timer2. You can't set a Timer1 AND Timer2 for Monday.

I set my Timer1 to 80% 10PM to 4PM for each day of the week. I have my default setting to range mode (or whatever it's called..100%).

I have a Schnieder L2 at home and set the dealy each night so charging starts in the middle of the night and ends when the car reaches 80%. I drive 37 miles to work and plug in at the parking ramp (free charging!!). The car reaches 80% and stops. I usually leave the office between 4:30 and 6:00. If i need a few more miles I use the app to manually start charging after 4PM (car will then charge over 80%.)

With this technique the car usually sits with a %20-%30 charge in the evening until charging kicks in the wee hours of the morning. Once a week or so I kick in the manual charge and get %90-%100 for a few extra miles after work.

Keeping fingers crossed for long battery life!

 

[Staque]

I was curious about this myself, so I just finished an experiment this week. Here is what I found:

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf with no timers set, the car will charge to 80% when you plug in.

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, and have timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in an 80% charge. This is regardless of what percentages the timers are set at (80% or 100%).

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, but your timer is set to 100% and you let the charger on the car turn on automatically according to the timer's schedule, and you have that particular timer for that particluar day set to 100%, the car will charge to 100%.

If you have long life mode turned off, with no timers set, the car will charge to 100% when you plug in.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in a 100% charge. This is regardless of what percentage is set on any timer.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, and let the timer control the charging, the percentage of charge will be governed by what percentage you have designated on the timer.

I think that should cover any questions about how 'long life mode', timers and the timer off button interact.

Am I correct that the above can be simplified as such?

1. If no timers are active, or you press 'timer off,' it will do whatever you have configured (80% or 100%) in settings.

2. If a timer is in use, it will do whatever the timer says.

I suppose this also means that you can set your timer to 24/7 and 100%, with "long life mode" enabled, then you will charge to 100% by default, but you can press "timer off" to get an 80% charge?

 

[SimonMTL]

Question: if I am left with 10% battery, how long does it take to charge up to 80% on a 6.6kW 2013 Leaf? 3 hours, or less?

 

[planet4ever]

Question: if I am left with 10% battery, how long does it take to charge up to 80% on a 6.6kW 2013 Leaf? 3 hours, or less?

It depends on your charging station (EVSE), the temperature of the battery, and how much the battery has degraded. For a new battery at an ideal temperature (20°C, 70°F) its total usable capacity might be nearly 22 kWh. Your charge% gauge is not exact, but let's pretend you want to put 70% into the battery, making that about 15 to 15.4 kWh to be added. Charging at home with a 30A EVSE at 240v you can pull 6.6 kW from the wall and feed 6.0 kW to the battery. 15.4 kWh / 6.0 kW = 2.56 hours, or about 2½ hours.

Charging at a public station running 208v (as many do) could boost that to nearly 3 hours. Charging at home with a 16A EVSE (as some are) might bump that to 5 hours. If the battery is cold, or degraded, it won't hold as much and the times will come down somewhat, but of course it won't take you as far, either.

Ray

 

[Ingineer]

One of the features I considered adding to the EVSE upgrade when I was hip-deep in coding, was a delayed-start feature. This way your EVSE could be set to delay for X hours when you plug it in, which would help commuters target their off-peak times without needing to mess with the timers in the LEAF. With all the other features, and the possible support hassle, I ultimately shelved this idea, but if I could come up with a good UI mechanism, it could be added.

-Phil

 

[SimonMTL]

It depends on your charging station (EVSE), the temperature of the battery, and how much the battery has degraded.

Thanks for the complete answer, I had forgotten that by calculating the amount of kWh to charge up, I can get an approximate time for charging to x%. Cheers!

 

[Redjr]

Question: if I am left with 10% battery, how long does it take to charge up to 80% on a 6.6kW 2013 Leaf? 3 hours, or less?

Ray is much more mathematically precise, but let me add....

Based on my limited experience with my 2013 SV, and even less use of this:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Siemens-Versicharge-30-Amp-Nema-4-Indoor-Outdoor-Electric-Vehicle-Charger-Rear-Fed-VC30BLKR/203352374#.UZV4931dXMI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes.

My generalized (and imperfect) data suggests that I can fill up (about) 3 battery bars per hour while charging.

 

[LEAFfan]

I was curious about this myself, so I just finished an experiment this week. Here is what I found:

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf with no timers set, the car will charge to 80% when you plug in.

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, and have timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in an 80% charge. This is regardless of what percentages the timers are set at (80% or 100%).

If you turn on the 'long life mode' on the 2013 leaf, but your timer is set to 100% and you let the charger on the car turn on automatically according to the timer's schedule, and you have that particular timer for that particluar day set to 100%, the car will charge to 100%.

If you have long life mode turned off, with no timers set, the car will charge to 100% when you plug in.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, then hitting the 'timer off' button and plugging in will result in a 100% charge. This is regardless of what percentage is set on any timer.

If you have long life mode turned off, and timers set, and let the timer control the charging, the percentage of charge will be governed by what percentage you have designated on the timer.

I think that should cover any questions about how 'long life mode', timers and the timer off button interact.

Am I correct that the above can be simplified as such?

1. If no timers are active, or you press 'timer off,' it will do whatever you have configured (80% or 100%) in settings.

2. If a timer is in use, it will do whatever the timer says.

I suppose this also means that you can set your timer to 24/7 and 100%, with "long life mode" enabled, then you will charge to 100% by default, but you can press "timer off" to get an 80% charge?

If you set/enable a 2013 to long life mode, it will stop at 80% no matter other settings, or so it has been posted.