Smart Plug / Outlet questions

IIRC, there's a limit of three outlets on one GFCI circuit. It might be four but I don't have time now to check. But yes, it's typical to gang them like that to save expense. Frankly, I think they are inexpensive enough to not worry about ganging them.

 

While smart plug or smart outlet can be used to remotely Turn ON or Turn OFF simple electrical device plugged into it by supplying or shutting off the power source, I just don't think it alone can be used with an EVSE to schedule time of charging.

Suppose you use the smart plug to turn on and off the power source at the wall. With the EVSE plugged into the car without any schedule on the car, that is to say it is functioning as "Charge Now" mode, if the power source is OFF by the smart plug, then EVSE is off and can't charge. Then if the power source turns ON by the smart plug, yes EVSE will be on, but I don't think charge will start unless you first unplug and re-plug in the EVSE at the car side to reset the "Charge Now" mode. I can test it when I get home, but I am pretty sure your can't start charging by simply turning on the power source at the wall.

 

Yeah, I will let you know when I get home. Very simple to test. Although I don't think the smart plug can be used to START the charging when EVSE is already connected to the car, I do realize that it can be used to STOP the charging by simply cutting off the power. But I don't think that is what you want for your purpose.

In any case, for your purpose, doing what @jerrymildred suggested to use the Departure schedule is the best way to make sure you don't get surprise expense on your TOU charging.

 

I'm sure glad we don't have to putz around with those TOU hassles. Then again, no one here gives us any money if we buy a BEV.

 

OK, I just tested with my PRIME and OEM EVSE. I stand corrected for what I said earlier. As it was confirmed, keeping the Charge Now and charger cable plugged in at the car side, but unplugged at the wall, the car indeed started charging when the wall plug was inserted. And, of course, it stopped charging when unplugged. So, in theory, yes you can use a smart plug or outlet to control the START and END of the charging session. But, I still think plugging directly into the outlet and using the departure schedule is safer.

 

There are EVSEs with wifi and scheduling capability built in. For example Chargepoint home chargers. That is the best (but most expensive) option because you get safe scheduling and a dedicated circuit.

I think using a smart outlet might be alright, but it might not last long if it's breaking a 12A load on a regular basis. When you start charging, the EVSE powers up first then charging starts a couple seconds after, so at least it's not making contact under load.

 

OP,

learn to use the Toyota system, it's safer. More links in the chain is...


Rob43

 

For sure this is wrong, at least on the PIP.

(I see that you now tried this.)

Several times I've been charging and there was a loss of power from the grid. And when the power went back on the car started charging normally. I'm pretty sure that the car cannot tell the difference between unplugging and plugging in at the wall outlet vs plugging in/out of the connector from the car. But even if it can sense this difference it handles both equally as well

Mike

 

Yeah, as I tested, plunging at the wall did start the charging. But the reason I thought it would not work was because I have experienced problems with a brief power outage during the course of charging. In my case, several times I had the MID error message "Charging Stopped Check Charging Source” shown. As far as I can remember, all of those were caused by a very brief power outage during a night with power returning normal quickly. Even though the power was back, I have seen that message on MID and the charging session was stopped.

There is a some explanation for this error message in the manual.

 

I obviously don't know how your house is wired, but in my house the garage-door openers are on a dedicated circuit from the electrical panel, while the wall outlet I actually use is shared with other outlets in the house. (Pro tip: You can't charge your Prime on the same circuit an air fryer is running on!)

If you plan to use an existing outlet, it would probably make sense to find out what other outlets in the house share that circuit.

On the other hand, I generally charge using scheduled charging that's configured to start at dark o'clock, when we are unlikely to be using any high-current-draw appliances. That makes the issue much less problematic.

 

3/4 HP requires 560 watts (1 HP = 746 watts)
560 watts = 120v * amps...therefore amps is 560/120 = 4.67 amps, not 2.7 amps.
Probably 2.7 amps is the typical value, not the rated value

Mike