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Charging every week?

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Hello everyone,

I’ll be picking up my X next week - very excited!

But, my apartment and I are still debating where and how to install an outlet close to my parking spot. There are no outlets around my car, so that makes charging at night not possible for now.

To make things even better, there is no charging spots or outlets at work too.

Would charging once a week be a problem? Should I just charge everywhere I go to compensate (Grocery stores, SCs, restaurants...)?

Thanks!
 
Congratulations on the X!

Charging once a week would not cause any problems as long as you drive below your charge (eg: drive 100 miles a week on 200 miles of charge). Same applies to a gas car, you can fill it up once a week and not worry about it as long as you don't use all the gas up.

Charging everywhere you go can and will get stressful. Especially if you're only there for a few minutes, it won't be worth plugging in your car. I would suggest finding a place you'd stay at for an hour or more and charging that way like you suggested: grocery stores, restaurants and movie theater.
 
Charging everywhere you go can and will get stressful. Especially if you're only there for a few minutes, it won't be worth plugging in your car. I would suggest finding a place you'd stay at for an hour or more and charging that way like you suggested: grocery stores, restaurants and movie theater.
That will get very old very quickly (at about 18 miles/hr at typical J1772 rates). I suggest you find somewhere you can charge it fully overnight once in a while, and get a ride from/to there, if you do t have a supercharger in reasonable range.
 
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Congratulations on the X!

Charging once a week would not cause any problems as long as you drive below your charge (eg: drive 100 miles a week on 200 miles of charge). Same applies to a gas car, you can fill it up once a week and not worry about it as long as you don't use all the gas up.

Charging everywhere you go can and will get stressful. Especially if you're only there for a few minutes, it won't be worth plugging in your car. I would suggest finding a place you'd stay at for an hour or more and charging that way like you suggested: grocery stores, restaurants and movie theater.

Thanks! The car is amazing. I’m baffled and scared (secretly wishing not to have too many issues and whatnot).

Yes, very stressful. After going to Whole Foods a couple of times and going very slow, I only god 3-4 miles extra. Not enough.

That will get very old very quickly (at about 18 miles/hr at typical J1772 rates). I suggest you find somewhere you can charge it fully overnight once in a while, and get a ride from/to there, if you do t have a supercharger in reasonable range.

That makes sense. Hm. I’ll have to look around.

How far do you drive every day?

The Model X can go pretty far on a single charge.

Around 10 miles (I know, my commute is brutal). :)

Thanks!
 
How far do you drive every day?
Around 10 miles (I know, my commute is brutal). :)
In this case a standard 120 Volt 12 Amp plug (15 Amp max, giving 1,4 kWh) would be sufficient.
This is like a plug than you would use at your home to put a microwave or a vacuum cleaner .

The basic 120 V 12 Amp installation provides 1,4 kWh
Charging for 24 hours provides 33.6 kWh
A typical EV needs about 30 kWh for 100 miles (or a 100 kWh battery provides about 300 miles of range)
So basically, 1 day or 24 hours of charging gives 100 miles of range
So 1 hour of charging at Level 1 gives about 4 miles of range.

You have a 10 miles commute, or 20 miles round trip.
Basically, you will need to charge at Level 1 for about 5 hours every night.

In San Francisco, the residential PG&E cost is about $0.28 per kWh.
To get 20 miles of range, you will need 6 kWh, and will cost:

$1.68 a day for 20 miles.
$8.4 for 5 days or a week
$33.6 for 4 weeks (of 5 days each) or a month (not including weekend).

If you drive also 20 miles every Saturday and Sunday, then it would cost:

$11.76 for 7 days or a week
$50.4 for 30 days or a month.

Try to see if there is no existing 120 Volt plug in your garage, used for example by the janitor,
and ask if you can pay directly the property utilities for about $50 every month,
so you will not need to have a special meter for your installation.

I don't think it would be even difficult to provide a Level 1 plug for several tenants,
for example 3 parking spots, each one using one phase of a 3 phases 110 Volt 15 Amp max connection.

Note: For someone having a 50 miles daily round trip, using the above calculation,
there would be a 12 hours charging using a single phase Level 1.
Above 50 miles a day commute, would certainly better having a Level 2 charging.
Also PG&E in California has a nigh EV plan costing $0.12c / kWh.
But a Level 2 installation would be mores complex and costly.
 
I charged for over 2 years and more than 26,000 using just a regular outlet at 3 miles/hr at home and a local supercharging 100-320 miles/hr 1 to 2 times a week, but I drive a lot more than you. I think you will be fine charging once a week at a super charger while you drink some coffee and use the wifi for 40 minutes give or take.
 
You can definitely get away with charging once a week while you figure out how to charge at your apt. Have you looked into charging at work? Are there chargers nearby either location?

Just about everyone uses Plugshare to see where chargers are located.

Yeah, I’m checking plugshare as well. Trying to see if I can charge at work - nothing solid yet.

tesla offers two free work chargers. your company might think it cool if and install them for you.

that happened to me.

Hmm! Didn’t know that. I’ll apply right now.

How far are you from a CHAdeMO station? (use Plugshare to find out). CHAdeMO is high amperage charging (and very fast). You will need to purchase the CHAdeMO adapter but this may be a good solution for you.

Looks like there are a few around my area. Thanks! Trying to find this adapter now.

Very curious to hear more about this! Can you point me to an article please?

EDIT: Found it with a Google search...
Charging Partners | Tesla

Awesome! Thanks :)

In this case a standard 120 Volt 12 Amp plug (15 Amp max, giving 1,4 kWh) would be sufficient.
This is like a plug than you would use at your home to put a microwave or a vacuum cleaner .

The basic 120 V 12 Amp installation provides 1,4 kWh
Charging for 24 hours provides 33.6 kWh
A typical EV needs about 30 kWh for 100 miles (or a 100 kWh battery provides about 300 miles of range)
So basically, 1 day or 24 hours of charging gives 100 miles of range
So 1 hour of charging at Level 1 gives about 4 miles of range.

You have a 10 miles commute, or 20 miles round trip.
Basically, you will need to charge at Level 1 for about 5 hours every night.

In San Francisco, the residential PG&E cost is about $0.28 per kWh.
To get 20 miles of range, you will need 6 kWh, and will cost:

$1.68 a day for 20 miles.
$8.4 for 5 days or a week
$33.6 for 4 weeks (of 5 days each) or a month (not including weekend).

If you drive also 20 miles every Saturday and Sunday, then it would cost:

$11.76 for 7 days or a week
$50.4 for 30 days or a month.

Try to see if there is no existing 120 Volt plug in your garage, used for example by the janitor,
and ask if you can pay directly the property utilities for about $50 every month,
so you will not need to have a special meter for your installation.

I don't think it would be even difficult to provide a Level 1 plug for several tenants,
for example 3 parking spots, each one using one phase of a 3 phases 110 Volt 15 Amp max connection.

Note: For someone having a 50 miles daily round trip, using the above calculation,
there would be a 12 hours charging using a single phase Level 1.
Above 50 miles a day commute, would certainly better having a Level 2 charging.
Also PG&E in California has a nigh EV plan costing $0.12c / kWh.
But a Level 2 installation would be mores complex and costly.

This is amazing, thank you so much. I think a found an outlet, maybe I just need a hardcore extension cord.

I charged for over 2 years and more than 26,000 using just a regular outlet at 3 miles/hr at home and a local supercharging 100-320 miles/hr 1 to 2 times a week, but I drive a lot more than you. I think you will be fine charging once a week at a super charger while you drink some coffee and use the wifi for 40 minutes give or take.

Thanks for this. Makes complete sense. I found one outlet, but it’s kinda far from my spot. I think I just need a very good quality extension cord and plug it in there.
 
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10 or 12 gauge, as short as possible.
I want to reiterate this for @ebfio. Don't count on existing "heavy duty" extension cords to have thick enough wire. I had a couple of extension cords that looked really beefy and "outdoors" types of cords that felt really thick... Nope. I read the wire gauge stamped into them, and they were both 16 gauge--too thin. They just have really robust thick rubber insulation around them to stand up to scraping and such.
 
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I want to reiterate this for @ebfio. Don't count on existing "heavy duty" extension cords to have thick enough wire. I had a couple of extension cords that looked really beefy and "outdoors" types of cords that felt really thick... Nope. I read the wire gauge stamped into them, and they were both 16 gauge--too thin. They just have really robust thick rubber insulation around them to stand up to scraping and such.

Thank you. I’ll definitely buy a 10 gauge tomorrow.
 
tesla offers two free work chargers. your company might think it cool if and install them for you.

that happened to me.

My office is part of a medical/dental complex with about 100 parking spaces, 18000 sf of office space. I applied last week to see if they would be willing to install in that location. No response as of yet. I'm assuming they are looking for large office spaces with hundreds of parking spots.