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Good Practice for Battery Life and Home Charging

greeiig

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Hi all,
I just got my home charger installed - a PodPoint.
I'm typically going to do very few miles -just short trips round town - with the off longish trip thrown in.
My limited research would suggest that good practice would be:
1. not to continually recharge the battery - I'm thinking I'll just drive until the battery drops to around 20%, then charge it. This is likely to be less than once a week or until I know a long trip is coming up
2. When charging - best not to fully charge to 100%. I'm thinking I'll try to charge to 80% each time - unless I'm about to go on a long trip where I need the range.

Any views on the above would be appreciated. And also....

Assuming I'm not totally off the mark with the above: one thing I would like to be able to do - but don't think there is a way way with either the MG5 or my PodPoint charger - is to get the charging to automatically stop once I get to the charge level I want to. It would be great if that could be programmed either in the car or the charger. I think this functionality exists with some EV car makes?
Anyway, it looks like if I want an 80% charge, I need to either
1. stop charging manually at the right time - based on the estimated charge time shown. or
2. Set the Podpoint schedule to stop at the right time after I plug it in - but that means updating the time schedule manually once I've worked out how much I need. It seems a bit clumsy. Actually the more I think of it, if I know that it takes - say - 7 hours to charge from 20% to 80%, I just set the podpoint schedule for 7 hours by default. I'd just need to remember to take the schedule off if I want it to go to 100%.

I'm sure some of you clever lot have dealt with all this - I'd appreciate any wise words / suggestions
 
Hi and welcome,
I do a 70 mile commute and charge from about 50-80% daily.
I could do two trips well within range but I only have a four hour cheap night time tariff.
I think I would still charge upto 80-90% daily incase I need to go somewhere extra at short notice. I do a 100% charge and balance once a month.
 
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Nothing wrong with what you're proposing and unfortunately there is no easier way to do it other than to calculate what you need (easy once you get used to it) and time the charge via your PodPoint.

Only thing I'd suggest is maybe going down to 40% before recharging. This means you'll always have a little bit extra in case of emergencies. 20% isn't a lot in terms of real world mileage before the vehicle starts to slow down to protect the battery.

Just remember to do a balance charge once a month, i.e. don't set an end time and allow it to go to 100% and complete a balance cycle.
 
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I have found that using my podpoint charger in the 20% to 80% range the charge rate is 12% an hour. With podpoint you can charge in 15 minute increments and that equates to 3%. Above 80% this simple rule of thumb doesnot fit quite so well as the car reduces the rate as you approach 100%.
 
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Nothing wrong with what you're proposing and unfortunately there is no easier way to do it other than to calculate what you need (easy once you get used to it) and time the charge via your PodPoint.

Only thing I'd suggest is maybe going down to 40% before recharging. This means you'll always have a little bit extra in case of emergencies. 20% isn't a lot in terms of real world mileage before the vehicle starts to slow down to protect the battery.

Just remember to do a balance charge once a month, i.e. don't set an end time and allow it to go to 100% and complete a balance cycle.
Good call - thanks.
I guess it won't take long to know how fast the home charger will take it from 20%-80%, 40%-80% etc.
Regarding the balance cycle, I understand the car prompts me to do that. If I just wait for the prompt and then do a long charge to allow the balance to be done that should be ok I should think?
 
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Good call - thanks.
I guess it won't take long to know how fast the home charger will take it from 20%-80%, 40%-80% etc.
Regarding the balance cycle, I understand the car prompts me to do that. If I just wait for the prompt and then do a long charge to allow the balance to be done that should be ok I should think?
If you wait for the car to tell you it's too late. The car will be so out of balance and the range will have reduced. It will take several, at least, balance charges at that point to get back to normal.
Once a month is recommended or maybe 2 months if you are low mileage.
 
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The car has a Battery management system so leaving the charger connected won't actually do any harm, the main thing to avoid is small top ups regularly. Nissan would void the warranty on the original Leaf battery if it wasn't allowed to drop to 80% before routine top up charging. As has been suggested 20% is a bit low before recharging so the mid point between 20% and 80% gives you around 50%
 
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Hi all,
I just got my home charger installed - a PodPoint.
I'm typically going to do very few miles -just short trips round town - with the off longish trip thrown in.
My limited research would suggest that good practice would be:
1. not to continually recharge the battery - I'm thinking I'll just drive until the battery drops to around 20%, then charge it. This is likely to be less than once a week or until I know a long trip is coming up
2. When charging - best not to fully charge to 100%. I'm thinking I'll try to charge to 80% each time - unless I'm about to go on a long trip where I need the range.

Any views on the above would be appreciated. And also....

Assuming I'm not totally off the mark with the above: one thing I would like to be able to do - but don't think there is a way way with either the MG5 or my PodPoint charger - is to get the charging to automatically stop once I get to the charge level I want to. It would be great if that could be programmed either in the car or the charger. I think this functionality exists with some EV car makes?
Anyway, it looks like if I want an 80% charge, I need to either
1. stop charging manually at the right time - based on the estimated charge time shown. or
2. Set the Podpoint schedule to stop at the right time after I plug it in - but that means updating the time schedule manually once I've worked out how much I need. It seems a bit clumsy. Actually the more I think of it, if I know that it takes - say - 7 hours to charge from 20% to 80%, I just set the podpoint schedule for 7 hours by default. I'd just need to remember to take the schedule off if I want it to go to 100%.

I'm sure some of you clever lot have dealt with all this - I'd appreciate any wise words / suggestions
Although its best practice in EV's to limit how high you charge, it isn't very good to do due to MG's stupid "charge to 100% to balance" BMS. I'd go down to 40%, then charge the car all the way to 100% with the balance to be on the safe side.

If you do want to do the limit SOC approach, aim for 40%-80% IMO, with a balance at least once a month, Balance more often if you use a rapid charger (charger with ccs) twice in that month. DO not wait until the car instructs you to balance. If that happens, it means one or more cells are really out of spec, and it will take a long time to complete a balance, if not multiple balances.
 
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As a matter of interest, has anyone ever seen the dashboard message saying a balance is overdue?
 
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After reading the battery degradation advice I do the following: -

1 - 4 hour Octopus Go overnight charge adding 40% from 30-70% as and when needed.
2 - Balancing charging to 100% as & when needed
3 - Zappi Solar charging up to 80% on sunnier days rather than all the time
4 - Full charge only when needed, less if that will suffice.
 
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As a matter of interest, has anyone ever seen the dashboard message saying a balance is overdue?
Yes lots of people with the ZS who had the bad BMS a year ago. It charged but never balanced and range/voltage for some dropped dramatically.
 
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After reading the battery degradation advice I do the following: -

4 hour Octopus Go overnight charge adding 40% from 30-70% as and when needed.
Four hours on Go will give 50% on the SR (I charged last night and it was actually 51% added).
 
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I have found that using my podpoint charger in the 20% to 80% range the charge rate is 12% an hour. With podpoint you can charge in 15 minute increments and that equates to 3%. Above 80% this simple rule of thumb doesnot fit quite so well as the car reduces the rate as you approach 100%.
That's not a Rover 75 I see ? what year ?
 
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Interesting chat - thanks for the input guys. I didn't realise the balancing charge was such a big deal, so really good to know.
I reckon I'll be wanting to fully charge it prior to longer trips maybe every 1-2 months, so will make sure I just leave it on to do a balancing charge when I do that.
 
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What sort of impact would there be, say if only rapid charged regularly to 80% from around 30% so after how many of these chargers would a balance be due? Also shouldn't the battery balance be due to usage than time, i.e the more miles you do to let it balance more often?.
 
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According to the manual it does self monitor so if it thinks a balance is due and you haven't done one, it will flash up a warning message on the dashboard. I'm not aware of anyone yet seeing such a message.
 
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The biggest issue is that by the time the message comes up the balancing cycle may take some time, so you go out in the morning and it hasn't finished so you stop it and carry on with your day, but then have to remember to charge to 100% again to complete the balance the following night.

Probably best to do it once a month on a night before you know you're going to use it and then it shouldn't take as long plus keep the battery in a healthier position overall.
 
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It doesn't make any difference whether you do lots of partial cycles or fewer, deeper cycles. Just be aware that more (very minor) degradation occurs when sitting, charging or discharging at either end of the usable voltage range, especially when it's particularly hot or cold.

It's generally better to have the battery sitting as close as possible to 50% state of charge so there's no benefit to letting it run down to 20% before charging. I tend to add some charge whenever I drop below 50%, but won't charge above 80% unless I need the range or need to do the monthly balance charge.
 
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