Top-off Recharge?

You could do the experiment, and see if the car actually takes some additional charge. In my experience (due to similar life demands) it has not--but I haven't been empirical, e.g. Kill-a-Watt

 

i've tried it after 5-6 hours and it wouldn't take a charge. don't know about 12 tho.

 

I always charge my PIP at dusk (power comes on my outlet when it's dark enough) and drive my PIP to work at 7am with a full charge (12.6 EV)

 

Rob,
I don't get why it isn't practical for you to set the timer for your regular morning departure. You could set it for a "finish" time of 8:00 am (it will be done by 7:30 if it works like mine does). It isn't in effect until you push the button, so if you plug in when you arrive home it will charge just as it does now to cover the evening trips. Then when you are home for the night, you activate the timer, plug in, and you're good to go. Or did I miss something in your explanation of your routine?
Edit: Just read it again a couple of times, and see that what I missed was that you are charging each day at 5pm, and then not always going out. So forget the above.

 

you missed the nights when he doesn't have to take his kids anywhere, but the car needs to be charged in case they do.

 

bisco, thanks, see my edit of my post.

 

looks like you gave rob a good idea roger.

 

Because of minute charge depletion, I just set my Pip to finish charge at 5 AM. I leave for work at 5 AM. BTW, you should use that setting instead of the start setting to further minimize charge depletion if you leave the same time every morning.

If I am absolutely sure I have to go somewhere in the evening, then I will charge it right away. Otherwise, I set the timer. My reasoning being the PiP will still get 50 mpg in hybrid mode. The more you use the battery now, the shorter it's lifespan. It only has a finite number of charge/discharge cycles. I, for one, don't plan on keeping the car past 200k miles. when the battery goes kaput. So when it goes in 10 years, that's when I get another car. I hope it lasts that long.

Also, I don't know if it applies to the PiP or not but over on the Leaf forum, they advise against charging past 80% if you don't use it right away. It's bad for battery life to have charge above 80%. If the PiP doesn't have this problem, then ignore. My point doesn't change.

 

it has been said that the finish timer finishes way before the set time?

 

Will the PiP even charge above 80%?

 

depends on what you mean by charging over 80%. you cannot charge more than +-80% of total capacity, but you can charge 100% of 'available' capacity. i.e. the amount the software limits you to.

 

Isn't that a difference between the PiP and the Volt (or is it the Leaf), that you tell the latter to recharge to 100% SOC, whereas the PiP cuts it off at somewhere around 82% SOC, and there is no way to override it? (Yes, I know, there is probably some OBD-2 parameter you can zap, but I am talking about normal usage.)

 

I think with the Leaf you can go 100% or set it to stop at 80%. The PiP, as well as the Volt IIRC, will charge up to about 85%.

 

the question was, should you charge more than 80% if you're not going to drive right away. there is confusion in the owners manual about leaving batteries in a full state of charge. full being when the charger shuts off, i think the people who wrote the manual know the batteries aren't fully charged.

 

I cannot assert this absolute certainty, but I think the advice about not leaving the battery charged to its maximum is concerned about days or weeks, rather than hours. They aren't specific in the manual what they mean here. In any case "maximum charge" is only 85% of the true capacity of the battery, so you are never leaving it 100% charged.

 

I just hope it fails at< 10yr/ 150k miles