Limiting the charge current during AC charging.

[FunkyWorm]

Here’s a little trick I almost feel guilty admitting to using.
I live in Islington, no off-road parking/charging so I rely on street-chargers. The lamp post/bollard ones are great for overnight as they are limited to 3.5KW but there are also some parking bays with Source London 7KW ones which have an over-stay cost; once your car has finished taking current you have five minutes before they start billing you for hogging the charger. Fair enough.
However, sometimes I know I’m not getting back to the car by the time it hits 80% (based on the finished time estimate on the charge screen or iSmart) and so on the charge screen you can reduce the current all the way down to 6A and the screen updates the finish time. Solves the worry of being stung for over-staying.

 

[Bam Bam]

Here’s a little trick I almost feel guilty admitting to using.
I live in Islington, no off-road parking/charging so I rely on street-chargers. The lamp post/bollard ones are great for overnight as they are limited to 3.5KW but there are also some parking bays with Source London 7KW ones which have an over-stay cost; once your car has finished taking current you have five minutes before they start billing you for hogging the charger. Fair enough.
However, sometimes I know I’m not getting back to the car by the time it hits 80% (based on the finished time estimate on the charge screen or iSmart) and so on the charge screen you can reduce the current all the way down to 6A and the screen updates the finish time. Solves the worry of being stung for over-staying.

I find overstay charges on AC chargers very questionable. Five minutes is far too short. Maybe a few hours grace would be appropriate to stop people leaving their cars plugged in for days on end out of laziness.

I guess it is unlikely that someone will be hanging around in the middle of the night hoping that you will finish.

I was scandalised staying at a holiday cottage with a private charger on site that was set up with this egregious overstay charge so I had to get up at 5am to unplug the car.

You've suggested a much better alternative I wish I had thought of!

 

[Rolfe]

Clever. I approve. There should be sufficient AC chargers available in a neighbourhood so that everyone who wants to can park on one overnight. I was using some that had 4-hour time limits, which is ridiculous. I emailed the operators and although I was given the brush-off at the time, both sites have now changed the time limit to 12 hours, which is a lot more reasonable.

 

[slmorgan42]

Here’s a little trick I almost feel guilty admitting to using.
I live in Islington, no off-road parking/charging so I rely on street-chargers. The lamp post/bollard ones are great for overnight as they are limited to 3.5KW but there are also some parking bays with Source London 7KW ones which have an over-stay cost; once your car has finished taking current you have five minutes before they start billing you for hogging the charger. Fair enough.
However, sometimes I know I’m not getting back to the car by the time it hits 80% (based on the finished time estimate on the charge screen or iSmart) and so on the charge screen you can reduce the current all the way down to 6A and the screen updates the finish time. Solves the worry of being stung for over-staying.

Sounds interesting. Where on the charging screen do you set this? Is it on the app or the car itself?

I cannot see it but this maybe as the car is currently not charging.

PS live down the road in Hackney with same charging challenges. But to be honest I love my EV and have no issues with not having a home charger.