Charging station for home/work

[rodmacpherson]

Lots of people talk in these and Facebook forums about how they feel they will need something really powerful to charge their truck when they get it. I am just feeling out how common the feeling is that you will NEED to have something super fast and powerful for day to day charging.

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[rodmacpherson]

You can vote for more than one option and you can change your vote if you change your mind.

To be perfectly honest I will be fine with just 120v charging on a regular plug but I am installing a 14-50 outlet and have already bought the adapter for a current Tesla UMC to fit it for the days I want a faster top up for whatever reason.

 

[ajdelange]

I'll point out that under the assumption, and I think it's a good one, that the CT will have a single 11.52 kW charger EVSE on a 100A circuit will give you no more power than the Gen 3 on a 60 A circuit i.e. 11.52 kW. I'll also point out that the UMC with a 14-50R adapter allows the car to take only 32A.

 

[ajdelange]

To be perfectly honest I will be fine with just 120v charging on a regular plug but I am installing a 14-50 outlet and have already bought the adapter for a current Tesla UMC to fit it for the days I want a faster top up for whatever reason.

Well try it for a while and see if you can live with it. If you can't at least you have te 14-50. Consider that the CT is a big heavy truck that is probably going to require half a kWh to go a mile. On a 15 amp 120V circuit you are probably only going to get 2 mile/hr (.75*12*120/450 = 2.4 mph) where, note, that the charger efficiency is more like 75% at 120V than the 91% it usually runs at 240V. Also be aware that you must pay the phantom drain tax of 5 - 10 mi/da out of this.

 

[rodmacpherson]

I'll also point out that the UMC with a 14-50R adapter allows the car to take only 32A.

You are correct, a current gen 2 UMC only gets up to 32A. You need a gen 1 UMC (still sold on the Tesla shop) to get 40A from that circuit.

 

[rodmacpherson]

Well try it for a while and see if you can live with it. If you can't at least you have te 14-50. Consider that the CT is a big heavy truck that is probably going to require half a kWh to go a mile. On a 15 amp 120V circuit you are probably only going to get 2 mile/hr (.75*12*120/450 = 2.4 mph) where, note, that the charger efficiency is more like 75% at 120V than the 91% it usually runs at 240V. Also be aware that you must pay the phantom drain tax of 5 - 10 mi/da out of this.

Oh, I have a good feeling for what I need day to day as I have been driving electric for 7 years. My day to day drive in the LEAF is easily done on 120v. But at the same time, it is only about $700 Canadian in parts and permits to do the installation myself so I am in the process right now. It doesn't hurt to have the equipment to charge faster. But, as for actual needs most weeks it will easily charge what I need on 120v we have a 30A L2 in the garage that my wife uses for the Volt. I think I have plugged the LEAF into it a total of 3 times for a quicker top up in the past 4 years.

 

[ajdelange]

All I see is Gen 2's and they are out of stock along with most of the other stuff on the Charging page.

 

[rodmacpherson]

All I see is Gen 2's and they are out of stock along with most of the other stuff on the Charging page.

Hmmm, it is currently out of stock, but the Corded mobile connector is a 40A Gen 1 connector. They keep it around because it is still a popular add-on for people who want a (very slightly) longer cord or 40A charging.

https://shop.tesla.com/en_ca/product/corded-mobile-connector

 

[tmeyer3]

The underlying problem is that everyone's needs are very different.

Are you a daily long distance driver? Do you live in a high risk fire/tornado/tsunami area (

I think, at home, what you NEED is so subjective lol. But there's nothing wrong with a drip charge if that matches your lifestyle.

 

[rodmacpherson]

The underlying problem is that everyone's needs are very different.

Are you a daily long distance driver? Do you live in a high risk fire/tornado/tsunami area

I think, at home, what you NEED is so subjective lol. But there's nothing wrong with a drip charge if that matches your lifestyle.

This is why I am asking that very question. I am not looking for advice on what I should have. I know what I need and what I want. I am putting this question out there to see what the general population of CT reservation holders feel THEIR needs will be.


As you say, everyone's needs are different, and I am curious where on the scale people feel their needs fit. I expect I am in the extreme minority feeling that I can get away with a 120v trickle charge. I'm not trying to convince anyone to side with me. Just looking to get a better understanding of whether the MORE POWER! folk are just a vocal minority or if a lot of people do expect to need a fairly high power setup.

 

[Crissa]

Alot more people than you might think can get by on Level 1 charging. A Tesla can charge up to 1.8kW or ~6mi an hour on Level 1; it can also pull less if the outlet isn't a 20a.

If you're home 12 hours a day, that's 72 miles charged a day. Over a year, that's 26,000 miles!

-Crissa

 

[anionic1]

Really you want to try to get as much capacity as possible. If you have to hire an electrician to come out to your house to install something you better be installing the most capacity you can for a reasonable cost. Likely the most reasonable will be to have them install a nema 14-50. I believe that will handle the 48 amps that the Tesla wall connector can pull.
In the future we will and are seeing very high charging capabilities. Why not have the capacity to do that at home if it’s within reason. I installed 125 amps at 220v so I can accommodate faster charging if I need it. Sure most of the time I will use a lower charge rate because I have a short commute and I want to protect the battery but that day that I need to quickly recharge, I want to be able to from home if I need to.

 

[HaulingAss]

I used a 15 Amp, 120V outlet for one winter and hated it. I was always trying to get my car's charge level back up to 80% and it would take forever. Worse, when I turned on the heater to pre-condition the cabin, my battery charge would start depleting even though I hadn't left my driveway yet and I was still plugged in! 120V is not enough to even run the car's heater! And in cold weather I would come home and plug in and it might take as long as 3 hours to gain a single mile (because it had to pre-heat the battery using the same power it needed to charge the battery).

120V is far from ideal as a primary charge solution. It's also quite inefficient. While I understand some people can squeak by with 120V charging I consider it good for emergencies only. 30A 240V is where charging starts to become efficient and you have enough power to pre-heat the cabin for 3 or 4 minutes without watching your miles remaining decline.

 

[ldjessee]

I will want to upgrade my home charging before or when I get my CT.

I have used 120v with the Leaf and for the larger pack, will want a little faster capability.

 

[ajdelange]

Need, want and are comfortable with are different things and all subjective. Do I need fire insurance on the house? I certainly hope not and, touch wood, never have. All that money I've paid in premiums over the years has been wasted. Or has it?

The average American evidently drives about 33 miles per day. If he's driving a CT he's going to have to supply, therefore, about 16.5 kWh to it each day. In an earlier post I estimated 1 kW transferred to the battery per hour for the UMC from 120V. So 16.6 hours p;us a couple for the phantom drain will cover the needs of the average driver charging from a 15 A circuit. At the other end of the spectrum the maximum you can do at home is 11.5 kW from a charger wired to deliver 48A. Required time to load 16.5 kWh at that rate is 16.5/(.91* 11.5) = 1.58 hr = 94 minutes.

But not every day involves average mileage. Sometimes I arrive here with 10% battery left. I like to keep the car around 70% for around town so I'll want to add 60% by the next morning. For a TM CT that's going to be at least 120 kWh. At 48A with 91% efficiency that's going to take me 10.5 hrs to load. From a 120 V outlet it would take over 4 days.

But I don't have 48 A available. When I built this house I had no idea that I would ever buy an electric car. But i did have the foresight to put a couple of 14-50R's around the garage and so charge from a plug in HPWC (no longer made) which gives me 40A max and charge time are 1.2 times longer than they would be with 48 for 12.6 hrs to 70% after that long trip. I am comfortable with that. I wouldn't be uncomfortable were I using the UMC at 32A which would require 10.5*48/32 = 15.75 hr because if I had to leave early the next morning I wouldn't really need 70% but rather just enough to get me to the nearest SC.

There's a bit more to it than need to load a certain number of kWh in a certain period of time and that is convenience. The ability to pull into one's garage and pop the wand into the car with one hand while hitting the garage door closing button with the other is just really nice, This implies some sort of wall charger mounted close enough to the charge port that it is not necessary to unwind cable. The UMC stays in the care which is where (IMO) it belongs. You will never find it missing because you forgot to put in back in the frunk when you left in the morning. OTOH i have never needed it on the road. Based on this convenience factor I will boldly forecast that several of those who now intend to charge with the UMC will wind up buying a plug in wall mounted EVSE (won't be from Tesla but there are dozens available) and so I think that should have been an option for the poll.

What does surprise me is that 3 respondents think they are going to be able to get by comfortably on 2 mph charging. You have to wonder why someone who intends to drive the truck so little is planning to get it in the first place.

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