Off-peak charging hours are the hours when your electricity plan charges its lowest price per kilowatt-hour, and for most homes they fall overnight. There is no national timetable: your utility sets the periods for your plan, publishes them in its tariff, and may use different hours in summer and winter. Here is how the periods are usually shaped, and where to find yours.
Key Takeaways
- Off-peak hours are your plan’s cheapest priced periods — usually overnight, but set by your utility, not nationally.
- Most plans use peak, off-peak and sometimes a super off-peak band; weekends and seasons often change the timetable.
- Your exact hours are in the tariff sheet; the bill and the utility app confirm them.
- Once known, set one schedule — in the car or the charger — and let it run.
Who Sets the Hours
Your utility or electricity retailer sets them, plan by plan. The logic is demand: when homes and businesses draw power at once — typically late afternoon and evening — electricity costs more to supply; overnight, demand and price fall together. A time-of-use plan passes that pattern on as two or three priced periods. For scale, the U.S. EIA puts the average residential price at 18.31 cents per kWh; most plans price peak above such an average and off-peak below it.
The Periods Most Plans Use
Names vary — off-peak is also called night, economy or valley hours — but the shape repeats. Treat the positions below as the typical pattern, not your plan’s promise.
| Period | Typical place in the day | What it means for charging |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | Late afternoon into the evening, when household demand is highest | The expensive hours; a long session here costs the most |
| Off-peak | Overnight, from late evening to early morning | The standard window for home charging; most nightly charges fit inside it |
| Super off-peak (some plans) | A shorter, cheapest band — sometimes deep night, sometimes midday where solar output is high | If your plan has one, aim the schedule at this band first |
Three variations catch people out: some plans run only two periods; many treat weekends and public holidays as off-peak for part or all of the day; and many publish separate summer and winter timetables, so January’s hours may shift by July. EV-specific plans add another shape — a discounted rate or credit tied to charging, sometimes with the car or charger enrolled.
Where Your Exact Hours Are Published
- The tariff or rate sheet. The document your bill is calculated from. It lists each period’s hours, usually in a table split by season, on your utility’s website under your plan’s name.
- Your bill. It shows the rate code and period names you were billed under — confirming which plan you are actually on, if not the hours themselves.
- Your utility account or app. Many utilities show today’s periods and prices in the account dashboard — the quickest place to check the hours that apply tonight.
- The plan sign-up page. Marketing pages round the windows (“cheap overnight”); use them for orientation, then confirm against the tariff sheet.
- Program databases. The DSIRE database lists utility EV programs and special rates by state, a good way to find EV plans you were never offered.
Once You Know Them, Set One Schedule
With the hours in hand, set your car or charger to start inside the window. Use one timer only — the car’s or the charger’s, not both — because two conflicting timers are a common reason a car wakes up uncharged. Our guide to smart charging and time-of-use tariffs works through scheduling, and how smart chargers work explains the hardware.
Chargers That Run on a Schedule
Schedule control lives in the car or the charger; app-connected wallboxes make it easiest to set once. The EV-ACT3204PE 22 kW wallbox offers RFID and app control on a three-phase supply with a tethered Type 2 cable, so the window can be set, adjusted for the seasons, and checked from the phone. More home setups are on our residential EV charging page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are off-peak hours the same for every home?
No. Each utility sets them per plan, and two neighbours on different plans can have different cheap hours. There is no national timetable to learn — only your own plan’s.
Are weekends off-peak?
On many plans, yes — partly or all day, because demand is lower. Others keep one timetable all week. Check the tariff table before assuming a Saturday daytime charge is cheap.
What if my charge cannot finish inside the window?
Start when the window opens to use every cheap hour, and charge to the level tomorrow needs rather than to full. A large battery after a long trip may need two nights; that is normal, not a scheduling failure.
Related Reading
- Smart Charging and Time-of-Use Tariffs: How Scheduling Cuts EV Charging Costs
- How Do Smart EV Chargers Work?
- How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car at Home?
- How Do Home EV Chargers Work?
