Smart Charging Schedule Recommendation... Ha!

[DuncIT]

Downloaded the update - what a laugh! What has Rivian added here (for charging) that is not already printed in my monthly electric bill? Nothing! If you care about the cost of charging, and are aware of what electricity costs, you've already added a charging schedule for the car. This brings zilch to the table.

What is needed is what Tesla has had in their app since 2023 - true TOU charging scheduling. Not only does the Tesla app download each of the rates in a utility's TOU plan, but it also actively manages when to let the car charge. If the car can't fully charge, by scheduled departure time, using off-peak rates then it determines when it needs to start charging in the previous, more expensive, period. That's smart charging!

There is no smart charging here, all Rivian has done is help you set a charging window that may or may not fully charge your car by the time you want to leave.

Dunc

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[Time2Roll]

Does it restrict this utility charge schedule to the home location only?

 

[pointless]

I prefer charging while the sun is up, more self-consumption, ease the grid. This doesn’t allow that, only for pricing as the sole factor as it relates to TOU.

 

[CharonPDX]

If you care about the cost of charging, and are aware of what electricity costs, you've already added a charging schedule for the car. This brings zilch to the table.

The point is to help people who *don't* know about the utility's TOU, or how to set it up. The interview with Wassym made that clear - if you already knew how to do this, this feature isn't for you.

Not every feature is for you.

 

[CharonPDX]

I prefer charging while the sun is up, more self-consumption, ease the grid. This doesn’t allow that, only for pricing as the sole factor as it relates to TOU.

Yeah, my 'preferred' electricity consumption is a bunch of obtuse rules that none of my "smart" devices allow.

I have a solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall. Tesla offers two usage modes:
1. "Time of use" - don't run the house off Powerwall except curing 'peak' price times, then export as much power as possible during "peak" times, grid-recharge the Powerwall during "off-peak".
2. "Self-powered" - use the Powerwall if solar isn't providing enough power to run the house. Do not ever recharge the Powerwall from the grid, do not take utility prices into account at all.

I'd prefer "use grid during off-peak, charge the Powerwall during off-peak; switch to self-powered for mid-peak and peak, only export power if solar is producing more than the house needs."

I'd also like "charge EVs from excess solar during mid-peak times as long as the Powerwall is full, pause all EV charging during peak to export that to the grid, resume charging EVs from grid during off-peak."

So during the middle of the day when it's mid-peak pricing, I may be charging my EVs at 1-3 kW with excess solar, or if it's a cloudy winter day, not charging them at all mid-peak. Then when peak pricing hits, pause EV charging so that I can sell power to the grid, but if solar isn't providing enough, run the house off Powerwall without exporting anything. Finally when off-peak time hits, go ahead and charge Powerwall and EVs at max kW until they're full. (Or at target % as the case may be.)

Unfortunately, no existing system supports that complex ruleset. And I'm too lazy to integrate everything into a HomeAssistant setup.

 

[emoore]

Downloaded the update - what a laugh! What has Rivian added here (for charging) that is not already printed in my monthly electric bill? Nothing! If you care about the cost of charging, and are aware of what electricity costs, you've already added a charging schedule for the car. This brings zilch to the table.

What is needed is what Tesla has had in their app since 2003 - true TOU charging scheduling. Not only does the Tesla app download each of the rates in a utility's TOU plan, but it also actively manages when to let the car charge. If the car can't fully charge, by scheduled departure time, using off-peak rates then it determines when it needs to start charging in the previous, more expensive, period. That's smart charging!

There is no smart charging here, all Rivian has done is help you set a charging window that may or may not fully charge your car by the time you want to leave.

Dunc

Well I doubt Tesla had that in 2003. They didn't even have a car to buy back then. Maybe you meant 2013 or 2023? Just relax a bit.

 

[azbill]

I decided to try this feature, even though I am all set up to avoid peak hours. I tell it I have APS and it comes back with a single plan that I do not have at my house. APS offers 4 different electricity options that can be chosen, but Rivian seems to have no knowledge of the other 3. The plan Rivian thinks I have only allows a 6 hour charging window, whereas I have a 21 hour charging window for off peak.

 

[CANCERDOC]

The point is to help people who *don't* know about the utility's TOU, or how to set it up. The interview with Wassym made that clear - if you already knew how to do this, this feature isn't for you.

Not every feature is for you.

This. Yes those who post here will likely be EV pros and already charge off peak. But think of how EV naive folks don’t know the difference between the plugs, never have heard of the soft and hard resets, ask questions like “but I drove ten miles and used up 15 miles of range… the car must be broken!” The off peak tool is for those folks. And we should be happy we are helping the Rivian owners in the process.

 

[Honey]

I was hoping they would bring more functionality to the rivian wall charger. I sucks when i got company over and they want to charge, but i can't even start, stop, adjust amperage, or set a schedule on the wall charger itself. I wish i never bought the thing, even though it was only $500 at the time.

 

[jagged]

It looks like this update introduced a bug w/ the custom weekday scheduling where you can't set a start time that is "later" than the end time. For example, my original schedule was weekdays, 9pm to 1pm (my energy provider off-peak hours are Mon-Fri 9pm to 1pm). It now resets the start time to 12am. If I switch to a custom daily schedule I can set the schedule from 9pm to 1pm.

 

[COdogman]

Downloaded the update - what a laugh! What has Rivian added here (for charging) that is not already printed in my monthly electric bill? Nothing! If you care about the cost of charging, and are aware of what electricity costs, you've already added a charging schedule for the car. This brings zilch to the table.

What is needed is what Tesla has had in their app since 2003 - true TOU charging scheduling. Not only does the Tesla app download each of the rates in a utility's TOU plan, but it also actively manages when to let the car charge. If the car can't fully charge, by scheduled departure time, using off-peak rates then it determines when it needs to start charging in the previous, more expensive, period. That's smart charging!

There is no smart charging here, all Rivian has done is help you set a charging window that may or may not fully charge your car by the time you want to leave.

Dunc

Tesla’s 2003 app was one of the best ever.

 

[slillie]

Yeah, my 'preferred' electricity consumption is a bunch of obtuse rules that none of my "smart" devices allow.

I have a solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall. Tesla offers two usage modes:
1. "Time of use" - don't run the house off Powerwall except curing 'peak' price times, then export as much power as possible during "peak" times, grid-recharge the Powerwall during "off-peak".
2. "Self-powered" - use the Powerwall if solar isn't providing enough power to run the house. Do not ever recharge the Powerwall from the grid, do not take utility prices into account at all.

I'd prefer "use grid during off-peak, charge the Powerwall during off-peak; switch to self-powered for mid-peak and peak, only export power if solar is producing more than the house needs."

I'd also like "charge EVs from excess solar during mid-peak times as long as the Powerwall is full, pause all EV charging during peak to export that to the grid, resume charging EVs from grid during off-peak."

So during the middle of the day when it's mid-peak pricing, I may be charging my EVs at 1-3 kW with excess solar, or if it's a cloudy winter day, not charging them at all mid-peak. Then when peak pricing hits, pause EV charging so that I can sell power to the grid, but if solar isn't providing enough, run the house off Powerwall without exporting anything. Finally when off-peak time hits, go ahead and charge Powerwall and EVs at max kW until they're full. (Or at target % as the case may be.)

Unfortunately, no existing system supports that complex ruleset. And I'm too lazy to integrate everything into a HomeAssistant setup.

 

[ahoover]

I feel good in that the new charger schedule exactly confirmed what I was manually using for charger scheduling for the cheapest rates.

 

[efelkel]

It looks like this update introduced a bug w/ the custom weekday scheduling where you can't set a start time that is "later" than the end time. For example, my original schedule was weekdays, 9pm to 1pm (my energy provider off-peak hours are Mon-Fri 9pm to 1pm). It now resets the start time to 12am. If I switch to a custom daily schedule I can set the schedule from 9pm to 1pm.

This is what I came here to check! I found the exact same issue (different state - same time setup, and same annoying reset to midnight). While I'm not happy that it is replicated, and you have the same schedule problems I do.... I'm happy it's replicated since that should make it an easier fix for the devs.

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