Power outages and charging

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Natalia
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Joined: Fri, 07 May 2021, 15:14
Real Name: Natalia

Power outages and charging

Post by Natalia »

Does anyone know if there is a power outage will my mg ev automatically start charging again?
It wasn't possible in the past so we have held off from buying one. Has there been a software update that addressed this?
Thanks for any help
Natalia :D
antiscab
Senior Member
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Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by antiscab »

Do you often get power outages?
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
Nagaman
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Joined: Wed, 20 Nov 2019, 05:17
Real Name: David
Location: Victoria

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by Nagaman »

antiscab wrote: Fri, 07 May 2021, 19:30 Do you often get power outages?
Well for us the privatised supply in central Victoria seems to have improved recently (due to begrudging expenditures I suspect) but leading up to last summer it wasn’t at all uncommon - one went 23 hrs……. and brownouts were too frequent for me also.
I don’t know what happens but if it’s not good then I remain worried.
I should imagine this question has been asked by the supply company’s insurance underwriters also.
antiscab
Senior Member
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Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by antiscab »

Natalia wrote: Fri, 07 May 2021, 15:29 Does anyone know if there is a power outage will my mg ev automatically start charging again?
best way would be to go to a dealership, get them to charge from a normal power point, and simulate a power outage by turning the power point off, give it 5 mins, then turn it back on to see what the mg goes

some cars wake up when power is returned (my imiev would wake up on application of the pilot signal)
our Zoe has to be told to wake up by remote before we plug the charge cable in

if the mg is more like the later, and outages happen often enough to warrant it, a remote powered from the mains can likely be rigged together to boot up the car
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
FyKnight
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Joined: Mon, 01 Feb 2021, 17:09

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by FyKnight »

Natalia wrote: Fri, 07 May 2021, 15:29 Does anyone know if there is a power outage will my mg ev automatically start charging again?
I am doing an experiment right now just for you Natalia. My MG ZS EV was charging for over 10 minutes and I have now turned off the charger (granny EVSE) at the wall to simulate a power outage. In one hour I will go down and flip the wall switch back on to see if it starts charging again. The wait is to be really sure that the car has properly gone to sleep. I'll leave the key fob behind in case it can detect that and wake up somehow. Stay tuned!

I'm pretty sure I tried this before and it restarted charging fine, but this is a more rigorous test.
FyKnight
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Posts: 91
Joined: Mon, 01 Feb 2021, 17:09

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by FyKnight »

Flipped the switch back on just now, after leaving it off at the wall for over an hour. It took 10 seconds for the EVSE to boot back up, then another 10 seconds for the car to realise that power was available, and then I heard it close the contacts and the front charging LED lit up as it started charging again. The instrument display also turned on again and it recalculated the charging time remaining.

So I'm very confident to say that blackouts would not interrupt charging when the power comes on. As long as the EVSE doesn't have an issue with it of course. I'm using the 2 kW / 8 Amp granny charger portable EVSE supplied with the car.
antiscab
Senior Member
Posts: 3183
Joined: Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 05:39
Real Name: Matthew Lacey
Location: Perth, WA

Re: Power outages and charging

Post by antiscab »

Excellent work

That means scheduled charging will be much easier to implement too, as it can be done by the evse
Matt
2023 BYD Atto 3 - 21k km
2017 Renault zoe - 147'000km
2012 Leaf - 101'000km - soon to be trialing a booster battery
2007 Vectrix - 197'000km (retired)
2007 Vectrix - 50k km
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