baragona said:
I have covered parking and an East facing wall at my office for afternoon shade.
With my commute, I can definitely use the timer for 80% charging regularly (and maybe lower) so I'm hoping to make an effort to extend the life of the battery..
Is it best not to go below 20% charge also?
Correct, you don't want to go too low either. But if you have to, you have to, right? I think it's more important that you don't stay at a low SOC for too long. So if you can recharge asap when you're low, it helps.
But you're going to be juggling a lot of things in the hot weather. If your battery is deeply discharged when you get home then you want to charge right away, but then you also want to wait until the battery cools down enough to start charging. And you may also have peak/off peak hours to consider for minimal charging cost.
I'd say if you're below 20%, charge to 20-30% and if the battery is still hot and you're at peak time, then stop charging and do a delay charging to 80% by 8am or whenever it is that you have to leave for work. That way, the battery has a chance to cool down and you can wait until off-peak charging time.
If you already have level 2 charging, then you have more option because the charging time is shorter. For sure you're going to want to charge your Volt before your LEAF because your Volt has TMS to help keep the battery cool.