"charging at low power"?

[engineear]

I have a EVSE with a delayed start option. My "cheap" electric rate is from 11pm to 5am. I set the delay to come on after 11pm. I think it charges for 2-3 hours depending on SOC.
I have the car set for "charge immediately". I also have Level 1 and Level 2 set at maximum.

Around 4:30 this morning the dog barked and woke me up. After looking around all was safe. I figured since I was up I'll unplug the EVSE. To my surprise it was still charging!
Now, I'm fairly certain I set it to come on 2 hours after 9 o'clock. Irregardless, when I opened the door to see how far it had to go to full, a message said, "charging at lower power"..or something along that line. The Siemens unit has an internal amperage setting from minimum (25% = 7.5amp/ 1.8kW to) to maximum (100% = 30amp/ 7.2kW) and I have set it to maximum.

I have a few conclusions but, please, any input is welcome. I may have set the timer to come on 4 hours after 9pm putting the start time at 1am, which might allow it to run that long. Also, when I got home I had 11 miles left so it was going to charge for at least 3 hours at max level 2. Also, at 4:30am it said it would take until 5:25am to reach maximum charge. It was at 72 miles and usually charges to around 88 in Comfort mode. That means it would charge for more than 4 hours...not likely.

1...The message could just mean it knows from 11pm-5am is the cheap time. I did put those times in the car if I ever used the car setting instead of at the EVSE.

2...Somehow it's been charging at low power the 2 months I've owned it but I KNOW I set the unit at maximum.

Any opinions are welcome.

Thanks

 

[jadnashuanh]

How hot was it? If the ambient temperature is quite high, it might need to run the cooling, and might also need to slow the charge rate to minimize the heat rise. Other than that, you'd need some diagnostic equipment to view the pilot signal to see what the EVSE said it had available...the vehicle won't try to draw more than the EVSE's pilot signal says it has. If the EVSE's current adjustment logic isn't working right, that could happen. Some of them are a set of DIP switches, some use a variable resister, and if they aren't the greatest quality, the input to the logic board might not be representative of what you've set, and the pilot signal is just following suit. Second thought, the charge rate does taper off near the end. Third, did you receive any alerts from the car about charging being interrupted?

 

[engineear]

I'm in the Phoenix area...it's hot. When charging it's also cooling. There weren't any alerts.
I noticed that it won't charge at Level 1 if a predetermined time isn't selected, and besides, I'm using a Level 2 EVSE.
I went out for a bit today and plugged in upon my return. It charged normally without noting anything on the screen.

 

[Leasi3]

I've gotten this warning on hot (95 degree) days in Connecticut when I started charging right after a 30 mile high speed drive between the two factories where I work. My employer offers free level 2 (208V, 30 A) charging at both locations. I left one factory with full charge, preconditioned to a preset departure time, and ran the AC on MAX the whole way.

I set another departure time, for when I would leave for home, during the drive.

When I hooked up the i3 at the second factory's charger I was given a message that (paraphrased) said Charging Will Be At Low Level Due To Environmental Conditions.