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Your daily routine for plugging in at home?

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by stevepea, Dec 16, 2017.

  1. stevepea

    stevepea Senior Member

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    I'll soon be doing a daily commute where I need to leave home around 4pm and will return home around 1am, and I'm wondering what my daily charging routine should be. Should I just plug it in again every night at 1am when I get home with the timer, and leave it plugged in for all those hours? Should I instead not waste the small amount of energy of keeping it plugged in each night and just plug it the next morning (either timer or immediate) if I don't leave until 4pm?

    I know most people leave for work in the mornings not the afternoons, but was just curious, for those who charge on a somewhat daily basis at home, what kind of charging schedule you do. Do you folks plug it in the wall immediately after you get home, or wait until you go to sleep or later on to plug it in?
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    don't plug it in when you get home, it is not good to leave the battery full on a constant basis.
    set your end timer for the morning hour you are most like to use the car again.
    after awhile, you'll develop some sort of routine and refine it.

    when i'm home, i charge it about 50%, then if i need to go out on short notice, it doesn't take long to get to 80%+.
     
  3. stevepea

    stevepea Senior Member

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    No, if I plugged it in when I get home at 1am, I would plug it in on standby (and the timer would actually then start the charge more like 10:30 the next morning). Or I could just wait until the next morning to plug it in so it's not on "standby" all night long every night.

    RE: 50% charge... Interesting..
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i don't think standby hurts anything, and you won't forget.
     
  5. PT Guy

    PT Guy Senior Member

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    Why?
    Where is this documented?
     
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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    a full lion battery degrades faster. it should be in your o/m, have you read all 700 pages?:p

    that is why you have a charge timer, instead of just plugging in every time you get home.
     
  7. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    +1 to what @bisco said.

    I use the timer. Set it when I get home and plug in. Unless I need a charge right away.
     
  8. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

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    I plug mine in when I get home at 10:30 at night, and only if the SOC is empty enough to warrant it and at moderate outside temperatures. I don't have a decent garage, so this is done outside. My commute is 1.5 miles, so I don't worry that the batteries are too hot or too cold from the drive, as that short short a drive wouldn't heat, cool or stress them enough to do any harm.

    The full charge can get me several days if I don't have other errands. I use the Charge Now function that is selectable. It stays in that mode if no scheduling overrides it. Actually, I don't use scheduling. A little less than a couple hours does it (L2). At about 2 hours when I know it finishes, I just go outside and unplug it, then lock the car back up. My L2 charger is under my back porch and 3 feet from the charge door on the car.

    In the summer, if it is super hot outside, I'll not charge it in the heat of the day, as hot batteries don't take to chargings very well - I'll do that later in the day or evening when it cools off. Conversely, if the weather is very cold out, like it is now, I might charge it a few hours before I leave for work early afternoon, as it is probably 20 degrees warmer by then. I have odd work hours, so scheduled charges at any time wouldn't work for me.
     
  9. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    I use the charge schedule set for departure time. It will have it charged up approx 20-30 minutes before that time. When I get home, I plug it in. Since a schedule exists, it will not start charging until it calculates it needs to to meet the schedule.

    If I'm not going anywhere the next day, I don't plug it in.
     
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  10. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    I feel you are obsessing over nothing. I come home, plug it in, and go about my business in my house. I may disconnect it when it has charged, or I may disconnect it tomorrow morning. Not a big thing as it will charge the battery and turn itself off. I have found that if I fully charge it and come back 40 days later, it is still fully charged. So why should I worry about a few hours? I think you are starting some urban myth that if you don't charge the car just before you are going to drive it that somehow you are shortening the life of the battery. BTW, I have read the manual, but I didn't see anything there telling me to be sure to charge the car just before you are going to drive it.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you didn't see anything about not leaving the battery fully charged for long periods of time?
     
  12. jaqueh

    jaqueh Active Member

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    I think charge scheduling was intended to take advantage of off peak rates. If Toyota designed the car so poorly that you shouldn’t charge the car unless you’re certain of using the battery within x minutes of it being fully charged then why are we still supporting them?
     
  13. jaqueh

    jaqueh Active Member

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    I think long periods of time imply longer than a few weeks. But that bit of the manual is very vaguely worded. Pretty useless advice.
     
  14. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    I tried it for 40 days and was the same as if I had done the same for 4 hours. So no, I don't see anything about it.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    we're talking about leaving it fully charged overnight, almost everyday for the duration of ownership. not a few hours here and there, or 40 days.
    just some helpful advice, everyone is free to do as they wish, and believe what they want.
     
  16. Bob Comer

    Bob Comer Active Member

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    I plug it in when i get home and have a charging schedule. (so it charging at the least usage time)

    The only time I vary from that is when i know I'll be going out again in the same day, then I "charge now". I don't think the LION battery is ever "fully" charged, as the software wont let it, and it's to keep it from degrading, so I don't worry about it at all. I do have it charging on Friday night, even though i don't know if I'll be going out on the weekend, so it may be charged up until Monday...
     
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  17. idleuser

    idleuser Member

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    The battery pack on the Prius is a 8.8KwH battery pack. Only 6.6kwh of the battery is chargeable while 2.2kwh is reserved for system use. No one really knows if the battery is limited at the top or bottom but I"m pretty sure the SoC (state of charge) is limited at the bottom end. Since we're able to use Charge mode to fill the battery while driving this leads me to believe the 2.2kwh is reserved at the bottom end of the battery pack. The battery has also been recently dissected by insideevs and the battery pack is setup in series located here.

    Disassembly And Breakdown Of The 2017 Toyota Prius Li-Ion Battery Video

    Just plug it and charge it and drive it like a normal car. You bought the car for a reason and that's to drive it.
     
  18. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    actually, i think we do know. i believe a scan gauge will show the top and bottom, and there is room at both ends. toyota has always done it that way, even on the nimh.
     
  19. ct89

    ct89 Active Member

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    The only important thing to me is that it is fully charged the next time I head out. Unfortunately, I rarely know when that will be.
    I really want to rely on Toyota and the industry to figure out how to maintain the battery whether I charge it a few hours before use or wait a few hours and then charge.
     
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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you'll have to wait for new battery technology i guess.