Charging options?

[EDDOC]

Waiting for my truck to arrive, debating on charging options.
one of my work sites has free chargers available where i’ll be able to charge for about half of the month.

have you found the 120v sufficient for in town driving?
debating on adding a 220v plug vs the universal charger but Floridas FPL ev home charger.

i’ll try the 120 for a while and evaluate my use. just concern on how long it would take to have other options installed and if the 120 is sufficient

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[Gritted Cybe]

Waiting for my truck to arrive, debating on charging options.
one of my work sites has free chargers available where i’ll be able to charge for about half of the month.

have you found the 120v sufficient for in town driving?
debating on adding a 220v plug vs the universal charger but Floridas FPL ev home charger.

i’ll try the 120 for a while and evaluate my use. just concern on how long it would take to have other options installed and if the 120 is sufficient

It really depends on how much you drive every day and how long your truck sits at night. Overall you'll just get a trickle with 120 (maybe about 3 miles per hour). With a 240v connector with a standard tesla charge connector, I get from 10% - 80% in about 9.5 hours. Again, it overall depends on your use case. One thing to note, once you get the truck, you're going to absolutely love driving it and look for reasons to do so (more charging)..

I'd suggest you get at the least a 14-50 installed for overnight charging. Home charging is one of the biggest pros about owning an EV..

 

[pkauf01]

I totally recommend the V3 Wall Charger. Totally worth it in the long run, and really makes having an EV seamless. If you are comfortable with electricity, you can do it yourself. I installed my first, and am installing an outside station so I can easily charge the CT without moving the model Y out of the garage.

 

[Gigahorse]

120v might cover you in a M3 or MY if you do only around town short trips occasionally.
The CT needs 240v the vampire drain on it alone is significant and the 120v is not going to let you drive the truck much. I lived with a M3 with 120v for a while and it was doable with very little driving, but no way with CT higher consumption, vampire, and bigger battery.

 

[aeroguy]

120V/15V alone would be tough for a daily driver. You’d probably lose more than you could charge every day not making more than 30-ish miles over night.

220V/30A dryer type outlet would get you closer to a full charge overnight, but a 50A outlet (allows 40A to the truck) would be my recommendation as well.

Going from that to a tesla wall charger used to double the available charging amps back in the day (80A), but since on board chargers are now capped at 48A it’s not a huge benefit unless you need the bidirectional capability.

 

[Crissa]

10 hours a day at 3mph is over 10,000 miles. It would do for my in-town use; because 1/3 or so of my driving is more than 100 miles from my home, and my off-peak rates are for over 13 hours a day.

Your local weather, driving patterns, electric rates, may vary how useful it is to you.

If it's colder, you'll get less miles per hour; if you have little time at home to charge or quick back to back trips from home, you'll want to charge faster; if your offpeak rates are in a shorter period, you'll want to take advantage. Etc.

As it is, I ran a 240v cord from my dryer outlet because my charger runs more efficiently and cooler with that power - even though I can't pull the full 30a the outlet is rated.

-Crissa

 

[JCERRN]

As others have said, really depends on your use case. A NEMA 15-50 outlet will charge the vehicle at around 6-7kw which will net ~30 miles per hour, great for overnight “refill” of your battery.

a regular nema 5-15 will take significantly longer and will only charge around 3 mph

Be aware, most “battery experts” recommend only using ~50% battery capacity, between 30%-80% state of charge for daily driving to limit battery degradation.

 

[smcnaughton829]

I have tried the 110 mobile charger. At one point I was seeing 24+ hours to charge. That was with a battery at 65% charging to 80%. Car was showing charging at 9amps. Less than 1 mph. Add the vampire leech and I was doing enough to keep the battery where it was without gaining a charge.
Get the Tesla wall charger it’s worth it. And if you are worried about your battery and you truly just drove around town then set your limit to 50% charge and enjoy.

 

[REM]

You absolutely will want Level 2 charging at your home. Are you handy with basic electrical work? If so you can do it yourself, no problem. Plenty of YouTube videos out there to teach you.

 

[Crissa]

I have tried the 110 mobile charger. At one point I was seeing 24+ hours to charge.

Of course. The battery is 123 kWh. That means at the best case of 1.2kWh charging is 102.5 hours... but any computer power and heating have to also come out of that amount.

But it's also just irrelevant if you're not going to need to drive more than a few dozen miles a day (which is typical commuting use).

Car was showing charging at 9amps. Less than 1 mph. Add the vampire leech and I was doing enough to keep the battery where it was without gaining a charge.

...That can be changed by settings, and the weather.

-Crissa

 

[JCERRN]

You absolutely will want Level 2 charging at your home. Are you handy with basic electrical work? If so you can do it yourself, no problem. Plenty of YouTube videos out there to teach you.

Check local regs. Homeowners in some states (like mine) are legally not allowed to do their own electrical work.

 

[cybercricket]

One cheap trick is to find two 5-15 (120v) outlets in the house that sit on two different breakers / hot legs. Make a custom cable that combines them into one 5-15 (basically 6-15 equivalent, but for use with 5-15 plug) with two hots instead of a hot and a neutral. That will charge the truck at 6-8 miles per hour.

 

[Bobo_LaDouche]

Let's be realistic here. The new CT is going to be so fun to drive, you will drive way more than you are calculating. Get a 220 v 60 amp charger at your house. Use work as much as you can. Buy the wall charger thing. Get an electrician to put 60 amps into a circuit. Do it now. You will not regret this.

 

[REM]

Check local regs. Homeowners in some states (like mine) are legally not allowed to do their own electrical work.

Which state do you live in? I'm not aware of any legislation that outright prevents homeowners from making small project upgrades. Can you point us to the law/statues?

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