More than 2 charge timers

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LeafyWK

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2017
Messages
6
Hello community of fellow Leaf owners!

There have been many similar and related questions asked, and I have searched and read them all, but none seem to quite match mine.

I'm afraid the answer is simply "this is impossible", but just in case anyone out there can think of something I can't, I figured I'd sign up here and ask before I give up.

It appears that many others with TOU electric plans, their utilities offer simpler plans than mine, and/or they have simple and consistent commute times.
Our utility offers different "peak" times on the weekend than during the week, as follows:

peak (or "partial" peak):
M-F: 7am - 11pm
Sa/Su: 3pm - 7pm

The fact that it is different on weekends, combined with the times spanning midnight, makes 2 timers insufficient to capture all off-peak hours with only two timers.

What I need is 4 timers:
1) Monday-Thursday, on at 11pm, off at 7am the following day
2) Friday, on at 11pm, off at 3pm the following day
3) Saturday, on at 7pm, off at 3pm the following day
4) Sunday, on at 7pm, off at 7am the following day

There doesn't seem to be anyway I can possibly avoid any peak hours without potentially missing out on large blocks of cheap power over the weekend. Neither of us has a consistent schedule, we may take the car to work one day, transit another day, on driving days come back anywhere from 2pm to 7pm, occasionally work weekends, or go out somewhere late on a Saturday arriving back after midnight, and then have errands mid-day Sunday.

I could potentially just manually manage weekend charging, but in addition to the lack of mindless convenience, we would also lose the ability to charge to 80% consistently.

Is there any possibly way, perhaps some more complex aftermarket app than LEAF Manager, or some way to alter the built-in software, to allow for a more complex program than two timers?

Thanks for any ideas
 
I think about the best you could is this:

- M to F: midnight to 7AM
- SA to SU: midnight to 3PM

For weekend evening charging, you would need to do that manually by overriding the timer.
 
hmm, interesting... so then would timer 2 override timer one on Saturday morning, so that it wouldn't shut off at 7am (as timer one requests) because it is still under ON time for timer 2?

Oh, but then Monday, if we didn't use it, it would potentially charge until 3pm! Most of the time it would be fully charged by then, and stop anyway, but with rates about 4 times higher, I'd prefer not to rely on that...
 
Timer 1 would be M to F only, so no override involved...

With the settings I suggested, the timers would operate during off peak times as follows:

Timer 1 - M to F: midnight to 7AM only
Timer 2 - SA to SU: midnight to 3PM only

You would enable both timers at all times. If you need to charge on weekend evenings, then you would have to use the timer override, described in the manual
 
LeafyWK said:
hmm, interesting... so then would timer 2 override timer one on Saturday morning, so that it wouldn't shut off at 7am (as timer one requests) because it is still under ON time for timer 2?

Oh, but then Monday, if we didn't use it, it would potentially charge until 3pm! Most of the time it would be fully charged by then, and stop anyway, but with rates about 4 times higher, I'd prefer not to rely on that...

None of the timers, as suggested by alozzy, overlap. Each day starts at midnight. If you have trouble visualizing it, put it on paper.

To ensure that there are no peak time overlaps, due to clock settings, I would set the timers as follows:

Timer 1
Monday to Friday - Start at 12:10 am - End at 6:50am
Timer 2
Saturday, Sunday - Start at 12:10am - End at 2:50pm

Any charging outside of those time periods (like 7pm to midnight) will require a timer override or manual start with the app. Unless you need to charge, to go somewhere, it is best to charge during the coolest part of the day (after midnight).
 
I see, its the midnight going in to Sunday until 3pm Sunday.
By starting at midnight instead of 11pm, you give up an hour of charging to avoid the additional complication of overlapping days (starting one day, ending the next)

I take it that the answer to my real question is simply "no, it is not possible"
 
alozzy said:
LOL, if you're looking for exactly what you asked for then it's not possible with the stock settings

What about not-so "stock" settings? Is there such a thing as aftermarket settings?
 
You could utilize the Carwings API and write a program that does a timer override at the times you want, but you can't stop charging that way as far as I'm aware. Honestly, your best chance is getting an EVSE that can have timers set up. Or if you're just using 120V then get something like the Wemo Switch https://www.amazon.com/WeMo-Switch-Smart-Wi-Fi-Amazon/dp/B00BB2MMNE and use its app to set up timers.
 
AHH! Yes, that is exactly the sort of idea I didn't think of that I thought I might get from a forum question!
Thank you!!

Just too bad I didn't think to ask until after I had already purchased and installed my EVSE...
But still, I consider my question answered. I'll probably just end up using the first suggestion (about not starting until midnight so I can have the days align better), not perfect, but good enough 90% of the time, and manually override when necessary. So thanks for that one too.
 
We just got an inexpensive GE Durastation, for $200.
Been using alozzy's original recommendation, has been fine.
 
If you want to get the extra hour from 11:00 pm to midnight covered by the timers, try these settings:
Timer 1: Start 11:00 PM and stop 7:00 AM
Timer 2: Start 11:00 PM and stop 3:00 PM
Enable Timer 1 for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Enable Timer 2 for Friday and Saturday

You will still need to override the timers for charging during the off peak period between 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday.
 
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