Charging strategy

Do you need a 2 hour charge instead of a 5 hour charge? If you set your car charger to start at 8:01 pm, will you need the car before 1 am? (Even if you do, how much gas will you burn instead of the full charge? I figure a full charge is worth about $1 in gasoline. A partial charge is worth proportionately less.)

By avoiding the expensive hours, will you ever save enough money to pay for the charging station?

By the way, Chargepoint does not make the charger. It is inside your car. Chargepoint and the others make charging stations, also known as EVSE electric vehicle supply equipment. Toyota supplied us with a Level 1 portable charging station for the 5 hour charge.

 

I have solar, and the power company charges me a fee of 2.3 cents per kwh to buy my power back that I pushed to the grid, so I'd rather charge during the day on off peak hours using my own power from my solar system. I also use the car on occasion multiple times during the day, but want to avoid peak hours of 3-8 pm to charge (all other hours are off peak).

Some Chargepoint EVSEs have their own timer built in, hence my question.

 

Hey Mike, its definitely not possible with the base model. As you mention there might be some special chargers that it will work with. I wonder if something as silly as a mechanical timer would work for your need? Just set it so it isn't on during those hours and then plug the charger that came with the car into that. I imagine it would work exactly as you imagine. My only doubt would be if there is any load issues through the mechanical timer, but I assume the 110 plug isn't doing anything weird.

Others thoughts?

 

Could it be damaging to the EVSE or the car charging system to interrupt power like that?