Powerlake enables you to access extremely high mileage per dollar with base model chargers, custom to the amount of driving you do. We provide two examples below to help you configure Powerlake for your needs.
Daily Driver
If you’re away from home for 10 hours most days and plug in when you get home, we can schedule your charger to avoid evening price peaks. This allows you to plug in and walk away, letting Powerlake do the work for you. The below example assumes you’re away from home for 10 hours per day and it takes 6 hours for your charger to recover the day’s use.
Recommended Powerlake Settings:
- Daily Run Time: 10 + 6 = 16h
- Add the time that you’re away from home to the time it takes to recover the charge used during the day. That is your Daily Run Time.
- Renewable Bias: 0 or 1
- If you’re a typical working class hero and plug in when you get home in the late afternoon, you’re generally going to miss the opportunity to charge with solar directly. Set this to 0 or 1 to get the best prices outside of when the sun is shining.
- Max Price: 40 to 1000c/kWh
- This setting is a reflection of how much you value having a full battery regardless of cost.
- If you’re willing to catch a ride with someone else when your car doesn’t charge in response to a grid emergency, you will be able to save a significant amount of money on the odd occasion by setting this to a lower value.
- If your vehicle has to be ready with a full battery every morning no matter the cost, set this value high and expect to pay a premium during grid emergencies. This is recommended for emergency services vehicles.
Weekend Driver
If your vehicle spends most of its life in the garage, you have the luxury of being more picky about when to top up. The cheapest hour each day is cheaper than the cheapest four hours each day. If you have a week to charge, splitting your charge across multiple days is a good way to hedge your bets, depending on the weather. If it’s predicted to rain for a week, get in fast before solar drops off and the price goes up.
Recommended Powerlake Settings:
- Daily Run Time: 1-4h
- Lower values give you better prices
- Renewable Bias: 0-4
- Set to zero to get the absolute lowest prices.
- Has little affect during sunny or windy weather depending on what renewable infrastructure is near you. This is because a high percentage of renewables on the grid usually coincides with the lowest prices.
- Max Price: >30c/kWh
- When you’re picking the best few price periods each day, they are usually significantly lower (sometimes negative) than the maximum price you’d be willing to pay to get from A to B.
- Generally has little to no effect for this use case. Do not recommend setting below 30c/kWh.
Check out the Savings Calculator to see how these settings could impact the price you pay to get around using current prices.
We use price data from Amber Electric and support TP-Link KP105 & KP115 Smart Plugs. Plug your EV charger into a smart plug and sign up to Amber to take advantage of real-time prices. We control the smart plug for you.