Adjusting the charge current

[oilerlord]

Hi Guys,

My car is finally getting shipped to me next week. I'm excited to finally driving electric. I have a question about being able to set the charge current through the menus. According to the owner's manual:

Example: changing the charge current
: Setting the maximum charge current
X Press the=or;button on the steering
wheel to select the Sett. menu.
X Use or:to select the E-CELL
submenu.
X Press the or:button to select
Max. Charge Current.
X Press to confirm.
X Press or:in the submenu to
select desired maximum charge current
:.
X Press theabutton on the multifunction
steering wheel to confirm.
The high-voltage battery is charged with
the selected maximum charge current.

(Sorry, some formatting was lost from the user's manual above)

I bought a Clipper Creek HCS-40p - capable of charging at 7.7kW. What are the different charge settings possible in the car's menus? The reason I ask is that I also have home solar, and would like the ability to adjust charging for sunny or cloudy days - so that I'm generally using my own power instead of buying it from the grid. Most of the time, I'll just need top-ups and 3.3kW (or less) charging will be all I need.

 

[wtzouris]

All those charge current settings are for 120v (Level 1) charging only. Not sure why you would want to charge at 8 Amps Level 1 !
That's 0.96 kW charging.

 

[TheStig]

It has been a while but I feel like when I tested this those settings do apply to L2 charging.

The options are 8/12/18 or something like that, and 18A draw would require 240/30A or higher EVSE.

To test it without a current meter..... On a decent sized L2 EVSE start a charge at "max" note the time to 100%, reduce the current in the menu and see if the time to 100% increases. On a 40A L2 setup, the time to 100% would about double. Can't miss it.

It is possible you have to disconnect and reconnect the EVSE at the car in order for it to be applied.

 

[GlennD]

L1 and L2 settings are fiction. The pilot only knows duty cycle. Units like the OpenEVSE check the voltage and select the proper table but for example you force the L2 table under L1 conditions then the L2 settings are used. L1 and L2 are artificial conditions. The pilot only has a duty cycle. 30A is a symmetrical square wave. Full info is available at the OpenEVSE web site.

 

[TheStig]

We haven't answered the question, does setting the charge current in the dashboard menu below max actually reduce amperage pulled from the wall. I tend to think it does.

 

[GlennD]

I see no reason to use it regularly but eighteen months ago I tried it and it did reduce my L2 current. There has been several firmware updates since then but I would guess it still works. For me it is just easier to set the OpenEVSE current. It has 2A steps from 10A to 80A the spec max.

A J1772 compliant car will follow the pilot so if I set 30A then my B will charge at 30A instead of its normal 40A.

 

[TonyWilliams]

You don't need to set anything in the car to use a 30/32 amp Clipper Creek unit.

Just plug it in. The car will pull either 30 or 32 amps (whatever the maximum is from the Clipper Creek).

You're wasting your time with menus.

 

[TheStig]

Correct, you don't have to do anything if you want max charge available.

But his question was can he reduce the current draw down from the MAX of the Clipper Creek to drop the current drawn given his use of solar panels.

The answer to that is yes, you can using the cars menu drop the current down lower to prevent drawing more than the solar panels are producing on a cloudy day.

 

[TheStig]

Confirmed, it works.

Connected to my JESLA (40A) with the dash menu set at 13A and it indeed dropped down. Other options were 10 and 8.

 

[oilerlord]

That's great! It's also what I was hoping for...being able to lower the charge current when my solar arrays are generating under 3kW so I can minimize the power I buy from the grid. Thanks for testing this for me.