beenandgoneandgotone

[hedge]

Thanks for advice and invaluable tips on here, both in my first post and just from browsing. New fully electric white i3 arrived this morning and I love it. Big test is tomorrow when I drive to work and, hopefully, back.

Couple of questions please:

- Preconditioning: I cannot find information on how to set the temperature/seats. Have assumed it will condition to how it was left, is this right?
- Charging (home): I have a 30A tethered unit installed at home and from what I have read this means I can set the charging from the 'low' defaults to max/high. Sound right?
- Charging (home): I just got flashing red lights around the plug with a charging error message on the app and screen in-car. Removing and replacing the charger seems to have resolved and the app tells me charging is paused ( I have told it a start time of 07:15 tomorrow with 1am-7am off-peak charging). Is the error something to be concerned about, and does my setup on timing sound OK?
- Apps: I have installed the i3 (iPhone) app which is working fine. Also installed the BMW Connected app and cannot see where to log in. Do I need that app?
- Charging (out): Have read lots on here about who to sign up with. I mainly would need London based charging. Looking at http://chargenow.chargemasterplc.com/ and possibly https://www.sourcelondon.net/ although most of their stations in the area I need (EC2A 4HJ and W1A 4RX) appear red (unavailable) which seems odd?

Few pics here (can't see how to upload directly to the forum?) https://www.flickr.com/gp/marchartog/S789H7/

 

[jadnashuanh]

Some people have had issues with off-peak charging. If you aren't being billed that way, don't use it!

WHen you set a departure time, keep in mind that if it is outside of your low-cost time window, and how cold it is outside, it WILL use a moderate amount of power. To fully warm up the batteries (conditioning the cabin is optional), it can take up to 3.5hours.

Assuming a dedicated circuit, there's no good reason (except maybe if you have PV array) to choose less than max charge rate. THe car will never try to use more than what the EVSE says it can provide, but there are a few situations where you may not be able to use it (say a shared circuit is another one).

There are several BMW apps...make sure that you have the BMW iRemote app. Your dealer should have signed you up, but if not, then press the SOS button and you can do it yourself with them on line. You'll use your e-mail address and the password you choose.

Check the owner's manual on the EVSE you have to understand what the flashing lights mean. You should not ever see error flashing lights.

 

[Tycho]

Hedge:

1. I think the cabin preconditions to 72, regardless of the car settings. The seat heaters don't precondition. You want to make sure that you leave the vents open if you're going to precondition. The battery is also preconditioned if you set a departure time more than three hours away.

2. The BMW Connected App has some uses. If you plug your phone in via Blutooth, you can access certain apps on your phone. One apps is the Audible audio books app. The i3 comes with 2 free audio books.

3. Once you get your BMW Assist account set up, remember to use all caps when entering the username and password into the i Remote app.

Best, Eric

 

[psquare]

Some people have had issues with off-peak charging. If you aren't being billed that way, don't use it!

We've got an Economy-7 meter with Ecotricity now and off-peak charging works perfectly fine for us. Points/Steps I go through are below (via iRemote):

• 
  Ensure a departure time is set (ours is set without precon)
  Enable Off-peak charging (ours is daily 4am - 8:15am)
  Send to car

in afternoons/evenings, we switch the charging point on (32 Amps Chargemaster home unit)

• 
  open car
  plug car in
  lock car
  I then always check the small screen to ensure that no immediate charging is happening

That's it. Mistake I made one evening was keeping the car open and checking something in ConnectedDrive whilst in the car, which started the immediate charging. I only noticed an hour later, during which the car was charging during the peak-tariff.

Hope this helps.
P

 

[alohart]

3. Once you get your BMW Assist account set up, remember to use all caps when entering the username and password into the i Remote app.

I think you need to enter your username and password exactly as they were set up. In my case, my username is not all caps and it works fine. We incompetent U.S. owners are not allowed to set up our own accounts on the BMW ConnectedDrive Website, so we can't control the case used when BMW sets up our accounts. But being in the U.K., you should be able to set up your account on the BMW ConnectedDrive Website using whatever case you prefer for your username and password.

 

[hedge]

Thanks for the comments. Off peak charging and pre-conditioning all worked fine, and Ai3 remote app all sorted - and I made it home from work with 35% charge to spare. I averaged 4 kw/h which seems about average?

Any views on the http://chargenow.chargemasterplc.com/ people?

Thanks


Marc

 

[hedge]

aah found a thread on charging, no need for comment, thanks.

 

[jadnashuanh]

I averaged 4 kw/h which seems about average?

The economy page on the iRemote app will show you both your average and the community's. As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, where most of the i3's are, the average is creeping back up.