Call your electric company before plugging in!!!

[KKlabunde]

Thanks to this thread (FAQ: Home Tesla charging infrastructure QA) I called our electric coop yesterday, then walked out to see our transformer. The transformer for our house is currently only 10 KVA. The electric company is pretty concerned and coming out soon. Charging the Model S at 40A, 240v maxes out our transformer all by itself. Add our geothermal unit (48A continuous, 240v) and we are over double the transformer's capacity. Yikes! THANK YOU for the FAQ telling me to call!

Now I guess we'll have a race between the elec co. and Tesla to see which is delivered first -- Tesla is the chicken, transformer is the egg!

 

[FlasherZ]

Thanks to this thread (FAQ: Home Tesla charging infrastructure QA) I called our electric coop yesterday, then walked out to see our transformer. The transformer for our house is currently only 10 KVA. The electric company is pretty concerned and coming out soon. Charging the Model S at 40A, 240v maxes out our transformer all by itself. Add our geothermal unit (48A continuous, 240v) and we are over double the transformer's capacity. Yikes! THANK YOU for the FAQ telling me to call!

Now I guess we'll have a race between the elec co. and Tesla to see which is delivered first -- Tesla is the chicken, transformer is the egg!

It's a double-edged sword, of course. You probably missed a good marshmallow roasting opportunity over the old transformer.

FWIW, my co-op's replacement took 2 months, but it was because they were waiting on a special service entrance cable they had to order (350 kcmil compact conductor that would fit inside my old 2" flex jacket, so they didn't have to play "dodge-bore" under my driveway). A straightforward transformer replacement should be a couple of weeks or so for a typical REA co-op.

 

[KKlabunde]

FWIW, my co-op's replacement took 2 months.

I have a solution!!! If the Tesla comes before the transformer, I will be shutting off the Geothermal and plugging in the S. Will just bundle up the kids and snuggle with my wife.

 

[dsm363]

I had my parents in Indiana call too. They added onto the house 6 years ago and went from a wire that could support 210A to a house that had 400A service but the contractor and the electrician never bothered to call the power company. Don't know what KVA that translates to though.

I'm rooting for the chicken in KKlabunde's analogy.

 

[KKlabunde]

You probably missed a good marshmallow roasting opportunity over the old transformer.

So the car is here, and the transformer is still 10 KVA (electric company never got back to me after examining the equipment). Believe it or not, the 10 KVA transformer is holding up! I've got the S pulling 40A, and last night we had the geothermal running, hot water heaters heating, the clothes dryer, and a roast in the oven (all elec). I kept sending the kids outside to check on the electric pole, but everything seemed okay.

 

[FlasherZ]

So the car is here, and the transformer is still 10 KVA (electric company never got back to me after examining the equipment). Believe it or not, the 10 KVA transformer is holding up! I've got the S pulling 40A, and last night we had the geothermal running, hot water heaters heating, the clothes dryer, and a roast in the oven (all elec). I kept sending the kids outside to check on the electric pole, but everything seemed okay.

Good to hear! Watch for steam coming off the thing on a cold night.