# Best Third Party Apps for Setting Charging Times?



## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

My electric utility (ConEd) now has a great program for EV owners, called SmartCharge. It's different from their usual Time of Use options, in that it _only_ relates to electricity used to charge the car (they install an extra doohicky in the car to monitor that). There are various payouts, including lower rates from midnight to 8 am, bonuses for any summer month when there's no charge from 2-6 pm, and $5 a month just because.

Our Model 3 is charged off of a regular household outlet at about 12A. We don't drive a lot even in regular times (less than 10,000 miles per year) and during the pandemic that's dropped further. So 12A generally works for us, even if we avoid 2 - 6 pm, and in many weeks we could do most of our charging from midnight to 8 am.

The problem, of course, is that the native ability of Teslas to schedule charging is pathetic...there's no option for "only charge from midnight to 8 am," for example.

Of course, there are third party apps that will do this.

Does anyone have any specific recommendations for apps?

Here are my priorities:

* The app needs to be able to set up a regular schedule of times to start and stop charging.

* It should be easy to temporarily override the schedule.

* The app should be as stable and unobtrusive as possible. I don't want to mess with phantom power drain, interference with regular functions of the car, etc..

* I'm OK with some up-front cost and/or a modest monthly subscription fee.

* I don't need a lot of extra bells and whistles beyond that.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Without any third-party apps, you can tell your Tesla to start charging at 10:30 pm. I picked 10:30 pm because Duke Energy here is also using the SmartCharge Rewards program - that one setting works perfectly for making sure all of my charging is inside the off-peak window! You can override the schedule by just using the "Start Charging" button.

The only difference is I'm charging at 220 volts - but it shouldn't matter, because 10:30 pm to 8 am will give you 9.5 hours of charging overnight, which is the maximum you can get with SmartCharge Rewards.


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## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

JasonF said:


> Without any third-party apps, you can tell your Tesla to start charging at 10:30 pm. I picked 10:30 pm because Duke Energy here is also using the SmartCharge Rewards program - that one setting works perfectly for making sure all of my charging is inside the off-peak window! You can override the schedule by just using the "Start Charging" button.
> 
> The only difference is I'm charging at 220 volts - but it shouldn't matter, because 10:30 pm to 8 am will give you 9.5 hours of charging overnight, which is the maximum you can get with SmartCharge Rewards.


Thanks, Jason, but that doesn't solve the problem at all at 120 V.

In six hours, I can add about 30 miles. That's fine--we don't generally average more than 200 miles a week, which would be 10,000 miles a year.

But the pattern isn't that we drive 30 miles each day, reliably--it's not a commuter vehicle in that sense for us. Instead, maybe we drive a hundred and fifty miles in one day, like we did yesterday when we went to a drive-in movie. Five nights of 30 mile/night charging, and that will be recouped.

Just telling the car when to start charging doesn't limit us to the discount period. It would start charging at midnight, and then still be charging even when it hits the penalty period at 2 pm, unless we stop it manually.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Easily solved for 120v.


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## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

garsh said:


> Easily solved for 120v.


Thanks, Garsh--I did consider that option. But the outlet is outside and it's proven darn inconvenient to put timers in it before, back when we used it for, e.g., Christmas lights. They don't tend to plug in to that outlet stably, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable running 12 A through one of them in the middle of the night, night after night.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

DocScott said:


> They don't tend to plug in to that outlet stably


You probably need to replace the outlet itself then. You don't want to charge your car regularly from an outlet that doesn't make good contact.

As for running 12A through a timer, it shouldn't be a problem. I would look for one that is UL (or ETL) listed, designed for outdoor use, and rated to handle more than the 1440 watts the car will pull. My earlier reply was a bit flippant, but these should all work:


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