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[Doug S]

I've got the new bug, and I'm considering upgrading my 2015 Zero SR to a brand new, shiny Energica (probably the SS9). But I live in San Diego and the residential electrical rates are outrageous here. SDG&E does offer time-of-day plans where between midnight and 6 am the rates are at their "super off-peak" rate, so I'm left wondering if Energica has a "charge only between these hours" function.

It would help quite a bit keeping costs down -- at SDG&E's regular rates, it would cost over $10 worth of electricity to charge the battery pack from 0-100%, which really isn't much cheaper than gasoline for the equivalent amount of riding.

[smithy]

I've got the new bug, and I'm considering upgrading my 2015 Zero SR to a brand new, shiny Energica (probably the SS9). But I live in San Diego and the residential electrical rates are outrageous here. SDG&E does offer time-of-day plans where between midnight and 6 am the rates are at their "super off-peak" rate, so I'm left wondering if Energica has a "charge only between these hours" function.

It would help quite a bit keeping costs down -- at SDG&E's regular rates, it would cost over $10 worth of electricity to charge the battery pack from 0-100%, which really isn't much cheaper than gasoline for the equivalent amount of riding.

We have silly electricity prices here in Australia too...so I fitted a large 13.2kw solar and 19.2kwh battery system to my house.....haven't paid for electricity since. Will take ~5-7 years for it to pay for itself though...but no more bills and we even get a feed-in tariff. I now charge my Experia at home for free. (Not withstanding the cost of the solar/battery system of course).

Smithy.

[Richard230]

Some years ago I tried to apply for PG&E's graveyard discount electric rate for EV's, but was told that electric motorcycles were not approved for that break.  However, I don't know what their rules are now for electric motorcycles, but if they still have that prohibition, I would believe it. 

[Stonewolf]

You can plug an Energica in and leave it and if the power magically comes on it'll start charging and when the power turns off it'll stop. So you can put a cheap timer on the outlet* and if you're concerned about heat Energicas let you set a max amperage.

*I'm assuming you're granny charging rather than using a wallbox here, Energicas can't do more than a 240Vx13A can supply so I never bothered with a wallbox.

[DonTom]

Some years ago I tried to apply for PG&E's graveyard discount electric rate for EV's, but was told that electric motorcycles were not approved for that break.  However, I don't know what their rules are now for electric motorcycles, but if they still have that prohibition, I would believe it. 

I had it in Auburn. Since I have one EV car registered in CA and another registered in NV, I can use the so-called discount rates at each house, even for my E-motocycles.  But I don't use either!


It ended up costing me MORE, not less, with their so-called discount rates as I didn't home charge enough to make it worthwhile.


What PG&E does not make clear is they charge you MORE for the peak hours to get the discount for the non-peak hours.


So if you used your high current stuff (such as your A/C, 240 VAC clothes driver, MW oven, etc. as well as charged your EVs ) all at 0100 to 0400 hrs or so, you would then save some money.


But if you use mostly the normal hours that most of us do, it will cost you more, unless you draw most of your current at 0300 hrs or so.


Perhaps the best way is the Tesla Powerwall--even if without solar. Charge it up from the grid during the cheap rate time and use it during the peak rate times.


You're better off NOT having the TOU (Time of Use) plan from PG&E if you only have an electric bike to charge. If you had the plan, your total bill would go up, not down, as happened to me, in Reno (NV Energy) as well as in Auburn (PG&E).


-Don-  Reno, NV

[Doug S]

Does anybody have an answer to the question I actually asked?

1) I own a condo. There will be no solar system.
2) I'm not talking about the "EV as primary vehicle" discount. I tried that with my Zero, SDG&E shut me down. I'm talking about the "time of day" rate plan.
3) I'm not talking about "granny charging", I've already run the numbers on that. It helps keep the numbers down, but the charging rate is very slow. I live in the US (standard line voltage is 115VAC and a standard outlet will give you 15A maximum), and I want to charge faster than that. 115VAC @ 15A for 6 hours will give me less than half a battery charge. There's no reason I can't charge twice that fast; I just want to keep the charging time limited to the lowest-rate time.
4) I don't have PG&E service. I have SDG&E, and I'm an EE and more than capable of running the numbers myself.

[DonTom]

Does anybody have an answer to the question I actually asked?

There was no question, but I will answer what you were "wondering"  about.


I own two Energicas. There is no way to set the charge start time on either of the bikes.


Of my seven EVs (five bikes, two cars), only my Tesla M3  has that.


-Don-  Reno, NV

[wadejesu]

Does anybody have an answer to the question I actually asked?

1) I own a condo. There will be no solar system.
2) I'm not talking about the "EV as primary vehicle" discount. I tried that with my Zero, SDG&E shut me down. I'm talking about the "time of day" rate plan.
3) I'm not talking about "granny charging", I've already run the numbers on that. It helps keep the numbers down, but the charging rate is very slow. I live in the US (standard line voltage is 115VAC and a standard outlet will give you 15A maximum), and I want to charge faster than that. 115VAC @ 15A for 6 hours will give me less than half a battery charge. There's no reason I can't charge twice that fast; I just want to keep the charging time limited to the lowest-rate time.
4) I don't have PG&E service. I have SDG&E, and I'm an EE and more than capable of running the numbers myself.

Kinda like a Harris/Trump debate

[smithy]

Does anybody have an answer to the question I actually asked?

1) I own a condo. There will be no solar system.

You never actually asked a question....and you never said you were living in a condo which has no access to solar.

As mentioned earlier, set charge times by getting a timer plug attached to your AC outlet...As Don said, Energicas don't have a timer function....all they do is charge if the power is on, stop when it's off, fairly simple.

Smithy.

[Doug S]

I apologize for getting a bit snippy before. But, though there's no question mark, "...I'm left wondering if Energica has a "charge only between these hours" function" sounds like a question to me. At least I intended it as one.

I tend to get worked up with bandwidth-wasting non-response responses, like when someone posts a question about a product on Amazon and a dozen people chime in to say, "I don't know." It's one of the main reasons I don't do sociable media very often or at all these days.

Even better is when someone asks for help to fix his print on one of the reddit 3D printing subs, basically saying "I've tried nothing and have no idea what to do next."

I'll look around and see if any of the J1772 chargers have such a function. If not, a simple split-phase 220V timer should do the trick, assuming the charger will start up and begin charging when it's powered up and a load is attached.

And Energica, if you're listening, you should consider adding that function to your firmware.

[Specter]

It's like a cancer sometimes with that one.

There is no way you can set a time to charge on the Energica Bikes, you plug them in and they charge.

One way you could make this work would be to put a timer on the wall plug and use that, set it for start and stop when you need it.

Do an E bay or a Amazon search for 240 volt wall timer, there are tons of them.  Id link one for you but I don't know the plug setup you would be using so it'd be best for you to see which one fits YOUR wall and go for it.  They seem about 30 bucks so not expensive at all.

Aaron

[Doug S]

Yeah, I could manage that easily enough. I'm just wondering if I'd need to invest another few dozen bucks into a solution.

For that matter, I'm considering avoiding the J1772 charger altogether, just plugging directly into a high-reliability 14-50 outlet, plugged into a 220VAC timer. J1772 doesn't really offer much except a "safety" handshake and the correct connector to plug into the EV. I don't see any more reason an EV charging outlet has a need for a safety handshake than, say, an electric dryer outlet. And I already have a j1772 connector I could easily scavenge.

[Specter]

J1772 is the plug basically.  It needs the 'box' on it for safety, they need to talk to make sure everything is plugged in, everything is working ok and to agree on a charging rate.  Without that safety handshake the bike will not charge, it will never turn on the relay to the batteries.  You can't just cut the plug off something else and hotwire it to a nema plug and it'll magically work.  it needs the box of goobers attached to it.

aaron

[Doug S]

Depends on the vehicle, but most will charge whenever 220VAC is presented. The handshake is for the box, so it'll turn on the power to the connector. The J1772 ports on most EVs themselves generally don't require the handshake.