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[ctrlburn]

At "Drive Electric Week" I was talking to several people from the local power utility.

The crux of the conversation was getting home and plugging in, is adding to PEAK POWER.

The electrical utilities are most efficient (or effective (or profitable)) generating BASE POWER they suggested if it wasn't too much trouble if EV owners would plug in as they went to bed.

So after shutting off the TV & lights is when to start charging EV's because overall demand dips at night.

Plugging in when I arrive is mostly easy to remember.  I 'try' to "check the lights" when I lock up for the night. When I changed to "plugging in" just before bedtime I found it was stressful to remember.

So I bought a GE 26898 Indoor/Outdoor Digital Timer (15A 1875W General Purpose/Resistive 10A 1250W Tungsten 1/2HP) and programmed it to turn ON at "11:30pm" and OFF at "4:00 PM".   I plug in when I get home and when I check the lights before bed... BLINKING GREEN. In the moring when I left 7:00am SOLID GREEN.

Those on Valley Time might also find it useful.

[Skidz]

That's exactly what I do, well almost I have an energy logging remote switch with timer (dlink 625w) that switches on at around 21:00 and off at 08:00, because the electricity price is cheaper at those times... I just plug it in when I come home, and check if the light blinks when I go to bed.

[NEW2elec]

At the risk of being off topic as far as your programmable charging options go, which are great ideas, a cautionary tale of helping "conserve" for the government.

Years ago now here in GA we had a bad drought and they showed pictures of low lake levels and boats on dry land and such.  So the mayor of Atlanta at the time made water her top concern.
They asked everyone to cut their water use back by about 10% to help out, and we did, in fact we cut water usage by 22%.

Not long after that the water company said their budget was short by (you guessed it ) 22% so they would need to raise rates by oooo we don't know 22%?
Later on the rain cycled back and the lakes filled back up and the grass was green again but the water company felt it was better just to keep that extra 22% (just in case)

[Richard230]

At the risk of being off topic as far as your programmable charging options go, which are great ideas, a cautionary tale of helping "conserve" for the government.

Years ago now here in GA we had a bad drought and they showed pictures of low lake levels and boats on dry land and such.  So the mayor of Atlanta at the time made water her top concern.
They asked everyone to cut their water use back by about 10% to help out, and we did, in fact we cut water usage by 22%.

Not long after that the water company said their budget was short by (you guessed it ) 22% so they would need to raise rates by oooo we don't know 22%?
Later on the rain cycled back and the lakes filled back up and the grass was green again but the water company felt it was better just to keep that extra 22% (just in case)

That is what is happening in my town right now.  Due to the drought in California, we managed to cut our water consumption about 25% compared with previous years.  Now our local water company has notified us that they will be increasing rates 25% each year for the next 4 years due to the increased cost of purchasing water from San Francisco and to address deferred maintenance issues.     And even if you don't use any water you still get hit with a "meter rental" fee which goes for about $25 a month and will also be hit with an increase.    No wonder it was always a good idea to own a utility in the game of Monopoly. 

[KrazyEd]

It has generally been suggested to charge at night to lessen the load on "the grid". That is why most EVs have a deferred charging option.
As far as water costs go, I live in Las Vegas, but, my water comes from NORTH Las Vegas. My bill used to be under $20 a month. When
everything went haywire in 2008 / 2009 ( Vegas still not FULLY recovered ) NLV added costs to water for various city tasks. My bill DOUBLED
to $40 overnight. It recently went up again to $45. The cost for the ACTUAL water used is around $1.50.

[ctrlburn]

Zero lacks the deferred charging - I resisted putting it on the future model wishlist and shared my own way.

Over weekends - the charger still goes OFF and ON (and the Zero charges for those few minutes while it establishes battery SOC) I have a little extra kick about 2% more remaining at end of day Monday than other days.

So I'll not switch ON and OFF once riding season gets erratic. 

We got all conservey up around here - and in 2014 with use reduction and the pervasiveness of Solar Panels the power companies raised their "Per Meter" rates from $9 to $16 per month while dropping per kilowatt rate $0.0041.  (plus some added surcharge for having Solar, and dropped the credit rate to about 25% for excess generation).   So the less power you use there will be no monetary rewards... your bill will stay the same.

As for water - I'm on a well so it all comes out of electric.

[Semper Why]

I did something similar. The local utility charges more between 1PM and 6 PM, so I use a timer to exclude those hours. I suppose to be nice I should expand that to 10PM or so.

[Erasmo]

Or alternatively, get PV and charge during the day with your own clean energy

[MrDude_1]

So I bought a GE 26898 Indoor/Outdoor Digital Timer (15A 1875W General Purpose/Resistive 10A 1250W Tungsten 1/2HP) and programmed it to turn ON at "11:30pm" and OFF at "4:00 PM".   I plug in when I get home and when I check the lights before bed... BLINKING GREEN. In the moring when I left 7:00am SOLID GREEN.

be VERY CAREFUL with this.  Even when UL listed and rated for 15a.. they dont expect that load continuously.  I have turned plenty of beige plastic into tan plastic on Kill-a-watt meters, power strips and other connections. I even popped the thermal fuse on the kill-a-watt while charging my ebike.

The charger is a full 1300 watts, and can pull that for quite some time.. its very possible to slightly overheat the timer switch, until one day it fails... hopefully without fire.  If it is UL listed, its likely to have a thermal fuse and will fail safe-ish.. If it is just CE rated it may not have it... if it is unrated by any 3rd party, its probably made in china and I would not trust it for any EV charging.

[Skidz]

The Dlink thingy I use has a thermal cut-off built in, which you can set to a temperature where it cuts off. It also has an overpower protection, stopping the charge if somehting draws more then expected. Currently, I'm charging at 2.4kW from my 230v outlet, and the plug gets 63 degrees C during the charging.