[Davibolt]

I have consistently been coming out in the morning during peak hours, only to find that my car continues to charge even though it has been programmed to only charge during off-peak hours. The hours are correctly programmed for the season/utility company schedule. (6AM-9AM is Peak time) — this results in my paying three times the price for electricity, as opposed to off-peak rates. Occasionally, it will show up as “delayed charging“, so I know that the off peak program scheduling for the bolt is working.
But this is infrequent and the majority of times I am finding that the car continues to charge even though I have entered the correct “peak-rate” time in the schedule. How can I get the car to charge as programmed? (I use the Chevrolet Bolt charger with my 110 V wall outlet in my garage.)

 

[121 Kw]

There are conditions it'll start charging in peak, namely if you need more charging than it calculates it can do in the time you have given it to charge.

If you say you need to use the car at 6am, and it calculates that if it starts charging at non-peak time and it cannot meet the target charge level by 6am, it will start in peak time. Try changing your leave time to 1pm or such. If you find you are getting in the car and it's not all charged up, you need a L2 charger to stay in non-peak time.

 

[121 Kw]

**Or maybe I'm not reading your post right. When are you plugging in the car? How many kw's are you expecting it to need? Peak starts at 6am?

 

[Davibolt]

thank you for your reply! Even though I have it switched to not “override“ the charging schedule just to give me enough for a departure time, I have endeavored now to change all my departure times in hopes that it will allow me to charge using only off-peak hours.
I will let you know how things turn out in the next day or so.

 

[Vertiformed]

You said you had the off-peak hours programmed correctly, but have you actually told the car to only charge during those hours?

Also, the car will draw power for battery conditioning regardless of the TOU hours. You'll help with this aspect if you choose time-of-departure charging, because that'll influence when it adjusts battery temp.

If you really want to prohibit any use of power outside designated times, smart chargers like a JuiceBox can do that (or you can just unplug the car).

 

[Davibolt]

Thanks. I “told my car“ that it can charge during ”Off-Peak Hours Only.” I see that there are all these ”scheduled departure times” for every day of the week. Honestly, I tried my best to get rid of that part because I don’t have a scheduled departure every day of the week.

Off peak during these winter months is 12 noon to 5 PM. I was involved in teaching up until 5:45 PM, and when I went out to check if it had gone into the “delayed charging” which signifies that it has stopped charging for a while to accommodate the schedule of ”Off-Peak Hours Only”... since we were now beyond 5 PM. What I found was that it was still charging even though we were outside of the window of ”Off-Peak Hours Only”
I realize I could spend $500 on a juice box or similar and get it installed for another several hundred dollars. other than this scheduling issue, it works great for me just to charge from my wall outlet using the Chevrolet bolt charger, which I paid for when I bought the car.

I wish I could “reset“ the whole charging thing and it would probably work properly then with the reboot.

It would be great if Chevrolet would read some of these threads and allow me to “update“ the software using a link that they send me for a reboot… Without having to take it in to the Chevrolet dealer service. ?

 

[wonderbolt]

You can try this but any personalization will be restored to Factory, not just your charge settings, display layout, audio adjustments, favorites, etc...

Page 142 of my owners manual
Vehicle Personalization --> Personalization Menu --> Return to Factory Settings

 

[Vertiformed]

@Davibolt, maybe you could send some snapshots of the relevant Bolt screens? Since lots of us use TOU charging and it works fine, I have to think you've maybe made a mistake somewhere that you just can't see for looking, and maybe fresh eyes would reveal it.

 

[RSC]

On the Spark EV, and I think on the Bolt, there is a "Priority Charging" setting. When enabled, the car will charge immediately up to 40% regardless of rate schedule. Could this apply in your case?

 

[SparkE]

And it can be turned off. Page 129 (or search for "Priority Charging") :


Priority Charging
The priority charging feature will work when the Departure charge mode is selected. This feature is designed to ensure that the high voltage battery has a minimal amount of energy prior to delaying a charge. Upon completion of priority charging, the vehicle will return to normal Programmable Charging operation.

The feature can be enabled/ disabled by selecting On/Off from the Charge Mode tab on the Charging screen when the Departure charge mode is selected. When enabled, Priority Charging will only prevent Programmable Charging while the high voltage battery is recharged from a depleted state to a 40% state of charge.

(Although this shouldn't be related to "Priority Charging" , as the complaint is that the car continues charging when going from off-peak to peak rates - not that it starts too early.)

 

[Davibolt]

First of all, let me say thank you to everyone who chimed in to assist me! I am in awe of the help which everyone was so willing to give. This has been my first experience using a crowdsourcing form, and I am very impressed!

So I read and considered every comment and have been fiddling with the equipment and finally came to realize that when I recently switched over to a different Internet service provider, I did not enter in the new password and Wi-Fi information… Thus, my car has not been connecting to Wi-Fi!

Then as a consequence, I noticed that the clock was set at a.m. instead of p.m. - and that explains why nothing was charging when I was expecting it to, because it was using the opposite part of the day - p.m. instead of a.m. and vice versa.
I’ve corrected all that now and will keep fingers crossed that tomorrow morning will be a bright new day with everything working properly!
Once again, thank you to everyone for your help in this matter… You are all awesome! ?

 

[ZoomZoom]

Also, the car will draw power for battery conditioning regardless of the TOU hours. You'll help with this aspect if you choose time-of-departure charging, because that'll influence when it adjusts battery temp.

I have the same observation as above.

Then as a consequence, I noticed that the clock was set at a.m. instead of p.m. - and that explains why nothing was charging when I was expecting it to, because it was using the opposite part of the day - p.m. instead of a.m. and vice versa.

I have mine set via the car to charge within my TOU and every 8 hours it does take juice for many minutes, sometimes up to 30 regardless of TOU. The fix to that is for me to use my JuiceBox to follow my TOU but my belief is to not starve the car if it wants power. And the JuiceBox has a 'bug' for it's TOU programming that still exists that is slated for a fix in the future. I was told a year ago, in about a year, but it's been 13 months and when I asked 3 months ago I was told no known date for the 'fix.' So, I let the car do the TOU scheduling.

 

[121 Kw]

Side question, where do you live? Noon-5pm is very odd off-peak hours.

 

[hatchy]

That actually makes a lot of sense for solar heavy areas.. but it is odd unfortunately.

 

[p7wang]

All the more reason to have public charging stations so people can keep their cars plugged in, soaking in the excess day time solar.

 

[JanEV]

The schedule only applies to the "Home" location. If the car thinks it is "Away" it will charge as soon as you plug in.

For the schedule to work with Departure settings, you need to have your daily departure times programmed. I have never tried to operate the schedule without setting the departure times. If I do not care about the "departure," I rely on "as early as possible" / "as late as possible" settings with the departure time set 15 minutes before the end of the off-peak period. This way the car will not blow past the end of the off-peak hours even if it needs to do some additional charging dictated by whatever battery maintenance tasks it thinks it needs to perform. If it is programmed for "as early as possible," it will start charging at the beginning of the off-peak time period, and if it is programmed for "as late as possible," it will start charging at the time it thinks it can complete the charge at the end of the off-peak time period.

However, there is a bug in the program. If you readjust the schedule settings at "Home" while plugged in, it may start charging immediately even though it will show delayed schedule for programmed off-peak hours. Therefore, I always change the program (such as the charge limit %, or whether to charge "as early as possible" or "as late as possible") before I plug in the car at home, verify the settings, plug in, and make sure it beeps twice and shows "Delayed Charging." If the car is already plugged in, I unplug it, change the schedule/charge limit, and then plug in again.

 

[planecharlie]

The schedule only applies to the "Home" location. If the car thinks it is "Away" it will charge as soon as you plug in.

For the schedule to work with Departure settings, you need to have your daily departure times programmed. I have never tried to operate the schedule without setting the departure times. If I do not care about the "departure," I rely on "as early as possible" / "as late as possible" settings with the departure time set 15 minutes before the end of the off-peak period. This way the car will not blow past the end of the off-peak hours even if it needs to do some additional charging dictated by whatever battery maintenance tasks it thinks it needs to perform. If it is programmed for "as early as possible," it will start charging at the beginning of the off-peak time period, and if it is programmed for "as late as possible," it will start charging at the time it thinks it can complete the charge at the end of the off-peak time period.

However, there is a bug in the program. If you readjust the schedule settings at "Home" while plugged in, it may start charging immediately even though it will show delayed schedule for programmed off-peak hours. Therefore, I always change the program (such as the charge limit %, or whether to charge "as early as possible" or "as late as possible") before I plug in the car at home, verify the settings, plug in, and make sure it beeps twice and shows "Delayed Charging." If the car is already plugged in, I unplug it, change the schedule/charge limit, and then plug in again.

Thank you for your help. I have been trying to get the off peak programmed for the last week. Your suggestions worked flawlessly..

 

[Herbie Bolt]

I have consistently been coming out in the morning during peak hours, only to find that my car continues to charge even though it has been programmed to only charge during off-peak hours. The hours are correctly programmed for the season/utility company schedule. (6AM-9AM is Peak time) — this results in my paying three times the price for electricity, as opposed to off-peak rates. Occasionally, it will show up as “delayed charging“, so I know that the off peak program scheduling for the bolt is working.
But this is infrequent and the majority of times I am finding that the car continues to charge even though I have entered the correct “peak-rate” time in the schedule. How can I get the car to charge as programmed? (I use the Chevrolet Bolt charger with my 110 V wall outlet in my garage.)

I ended up with a block heater from a free conservation program and set it to run during the 12 hours of off peak rates per day. Works great as I only drive 60Km per day and charging with the level 1 charger adds 80km a night. On weekends I move the charger plug to the live side of the plug and fill to 90% as per the recall recommendations.

 

[rider]

The schedule only applies to the "Home" location. If the car thinks it is "Away" it will charge as soon as you plug in.

For the schedule to work with Departure settings, you need to have your daily departure times programmed. I have never tried to operate the schedule without setting the departure times. If I do not care about the "departure," I rely on "as early as possible" / "as late as possible" settings with the departure time set 15 minutes before the end of the off-peak period. This way the car will not blow past the end of the off-peak hours even if it needs to do some additional charging dictated by whatever battery maintenance tasks it thinks it needs to perform. If it is programmed for "as early as possible," it will start charging at the beginning of the off-peak time period, and if it is programmed for "as late as possible," it will start charging at the time it thinks it can complete the charge at the end of the off-peak time period.

However, there is a bug in the program. If you readjust the schedule settings at "Home" while plugged in, it may start charging immediately even though it will show delayed schedule for programmed off-peak hours. Therefore, I always change the program (such as the charge limit %, or whether to charge "as early as possible" or "as late as possible") before I plug in the car at home, verify the settings, plug in, and make sure it beeps twice and shows "Delayed Charging." If the car is already plugged in, I unplug it, change the schedule/charge limit, and then plug in again.

Three years later, they still haven't fixed the bug. Thanks for the suggested workaround; it saved me some trial and error.