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Charging help in Suffolk..

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hello all...

Sorry.. this is a bit of a lame request. But thought it was worth a go...

I just took delivery of my model X (60D) and it's utterly amazing... (in every way!)

But while it's way more than enough range and power for my daily commutes across London. I was just wondering if there were any Tesla owners in Suffolk that can either recommend a good place to charge or possibly would be open to letting me charge it on their drive... (of course I will happily pay what ever you'd like to charge.)

I take my kids up to see my mum there (a place called Saxmundam, IP17) every so often and plugging it in to the mains is likely to be adding a rather slow 4 miles per hour..

It's a rented property so I can't easily install another charger there, at least not for a month or so..

Any ideas people?

Thanks again.

Giles
 
Hi

looking at zap-map.com there is a Type 2 charger (22KW) at Co-op Wickham Market, proably the closest half decent charger to you, or a Type 2 7KW at Rookery Park, Moo Cottage if you go a bit further up the A12

There's a supercharger at Thetford now, but unless you are taking a trip out that way, probably too much of a detour.
 
If you are coming up the A12 from London, there's Ecotricity just before you get to Ipswich (do you have the CHAdeMO adapter)?

There's then the several points operated by EVdriver at CoOp sites - Wickham market as mentioned, also Aldeburgh, Woodbridge (handy for visiting the tide mill!) and a couple of others.

Don't discount charging from 13A socket if you have access to one at your mum's place. You should be getting more like 7 miles of range per charging hour, and if you are visiting overnight that soon adds up to a useful amount of charge - maybe enough to get you home again (depending exactly where you are starting from - maybe a 200 mile round trip, and you get maybe 160 miles 'comfortable' range on you X60D if you set out with a full charge? so only need to add 40 miles plus whatever local running around you do. So 10 hours overnight will more than cover it).
 
Congratulations on your Model X. There are two ecotricity charging stops on the A12, one at Witham which I think might be just West bound, and another at Capel St Mary which has two chargers for both East and West bound. As the others have said you'll want a CHAdeMO adapter, there are some endpoint adapters around, and don't underestimate the value of charging using the mobile adapter. I've got a weatherproof 10m extension cable that has let me hook up a charge from most of the places that I have stayed.
 
Might be daft? but you could go and/or return via the Supercharger at Thetford.

On Google Maps "London" (but depends if you are East, which is easier for A12, or, say, North which might favour A1 / M11) to Saxmundham up the A12 is 105 Miles, 2h24m - but I think the A12 is a horrid road, and once you get past Woodbridge-ish you are stuck in single carriageway usually heavy traffic.

Via Elevden supercharger the journey is 136 miles and 2h58m you are dual carriageway all the way to Supercharger and then A14 dual carriageway a good part of the way towards Saxmundham.

You are 45 miles from Elevden to Saxmundham (so 90 miles round trip charger-to-charger), so allowing for some running around Saxmundham you might not need to charge for more than 15 minutes?

Depends whether you were going to sit-and-wait at a slow-charger via other routes I suppose ... if you can use that time for shopping or whatever then A12 is probably the better bet.

I agree about 13 AMP charging, I've done that over a weekend staying with friends, and even including "going out and about" still managed to leave on Sunday PM with a full tank :) Surprised @arg thinks it would give you 7 MPG, don't think I've had more than 4MPH, but maybe I'm doing something wrong!

I would recommend you get a decent extension cable though, so you are not at risk of overheating anything - make sure you feel cables etc. for temperature after an hour or so's charging and, in particular, make sure your heat-test is done in good time before going to bed :cool: @arg gave me some good advice in this thread: UK domestic 3 pin extension lead
 
Surprised @arg thinks it would give you 7 MPG, don't think I've had more than 4MPH, but maybe I'm doing something wrong!

230V * 10A = 2300W = 2.3kWh per hour of charging. Rule of thumb 1kWh = 3 miles driving => 6.9 MPH.

Maybe a shade optimistic as charging is slightly less efficient at these low speeds (effectively 1A is going to run the car's internal systems, making a bigger difference when you have only 10A to start with rather than 32).

Admittedly, I often charge at 11A rather than 10A (since the EVSE I have happens to allow this, and the place I most often charge from a 13A socket has a metalclad one in good condition that doesn't get noticeably warm).

Still, you ought to be getting at least 6 MPH at 10A.

Were you misled with your 4 MPH by the fact that the displayed MPH is averaged over the session, and so will usually under-read if you look at immediately after plugging in? Or charging in dead of winter with battery heating required?
 
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Surprised @arg thinks it would give you 7 MPG, don't think I've had more than 4MPH, but maybe I'm doing something wrong!

I agree with @arg I've always seemed to get 6-7mph of charging on the mobile adapter except one holiday rental where the wiring wasn't great and kept cutting out until I dialled down the draw to 7A in the car.

I've been using this MasterPlug lead Masterplug CT1513P/IPS 15 m Extension Lead with In-Line weatherproof Socket: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools . It works well although it can be a bit fiddly sometimes getting it to lock over the fat cable on the mobile adapter.
 
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you ought to be getting at least 6 MPH at 10A

Turns out I did better than I remembered, so its mostly my memory that was faulty!

TeslaFi log from a 13AMP charge over quite a lot of a weekend! shows:

13AMP_ChargeRate.jpg


using my host's Bog Standard extension cable (which was probably a bad idea, but I hadn't thought much about it at that time), so might have been some additional losses caused by that, as compared to a thicker / more appropriate extension lead

Charging sessions:

14.8 hours, 33.3 / 25.09 kWh, Miles added 79.97 = 5.4 MPH
11.7 hours, 26.8 / 20.58 kWh, Miles added 63.93 = 5.5 MPH

So, whilst not 6 MPH, certainly not 4 MPH either! I'll see how it compares next time I my shiny new extension lead :)
 
using my host's Bog Standard extension cable (which was probably a bad idea, but I hadn't thought much about it at that time), so might have been some additional losses caused by that, as compared to a thicker / more appropriate extension lead

If we make the assumption that TeslaFi's "max voltage" is the voltage when not charging, then you were seeing a voltage droop of about 8V, so about 3.5% improvement available with wiring of infinite thickness. So you could hope for an improvement from 5.5 to maybe 5.6 MPH with a feasible size cable.

Charge efficiency is not great here, with no obvious explanation for the different efficiency in the two sessions, especially as the second session appears to end at 100% and seems to have a bit of balancing in it (which is hugely inefficient), yet that session reports lower efficiency than the first one. What sort of numbers does TeslaFi report for efficiency in more normal charging?
 
What sort of numbers does TeslaFi report for efficiency in more normal charging?

I could try charging the car at home, on 13AMP with UMC [indeed: with and without the extension cable too], to see how that compares. We have an outdoor 13AMP socket right next to the Wall Charger - along with Commando Socket too if you'd like me to try that too :) ]

Home is 1-phase, work has 3-phase supply but only 1-phase to charger (duct was too blinking narrow :( )

TeslaFiChargeStatus.jpg


In case relevant we have a perceived issue with supply at home. Reasonably long underground cable run to the pole (100-ish yards). When meter was moved a few years ago they spliced a new cable into existing at a convenient point for the new trench-to-house. Turns out that old cable had 4-cores for N/L and two were shorted into meter for each of Live and Neutral. Presume this was because that was the cable they had available when the original was installed and fatter 2-core not available, but linesman said he wasn't allowed to short the wires nowadays so he only connected one-of the pair for each of Live and Neutral. Not very keen to dig up the garden to install a fatter cable, and when I broached it tentatively with Utility they said "You'll need a 3-phase supply to charge a car" which was clearly their way of saying they weren't interested in replacing the cable because [if] it is below-spec. When the meter was moved we did ask for a voltage drop test and the response was "Happy to put monitoring equipment on the line but its up to the householder to provide the "test load" ... I didn't have an easy way to provide significant load at that time, but I could now do Car Charge plus Oven, Immersion etc. - let me know if that test would be of interest, Tesla will show voltage of course, which is a facility I didn't [easily] have before.
 
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Well..!!

I made it with very little drama.

And what an amazing car the X is!!

Thank you so much for all your advice above and actually the ev driver people were cool and their equipment was great....

However. One hurdle was that after arriving with much more charge left than I had previously feared, getting out the cable that came with the car.. it transpired that the tesla cable isn't compatible with the type 2 chargers. Which was pretty odd.

The car-side connector is a type 2 as I understand it, and the charge point was the same.

But the car came with:

1. The cable to plug in to the car which has a rectangular (7 pin I think) plug on the other end.

2. A rectangular adaptor to the blue commando.

3. A rectangular adaptor to the normal house plug

But no rectangular adapter to the type 2.

However. I was saved by a very kind tesla owner who the ev driver people knew and out of the kindness of his heart / love of tesla ... he drove his own type 2 to type 2 cable over and lent it to me for the weekend.

What a dude!

Having said that... I was lately ok as plugged the X in at my mums and it charged quicker that I thought.. as suggested above.. it was a very consistent 6 mph. Which over night was enough to add a load and topped up the next night. Despite using the car a lot on Saturday.

I think when i experienced the 4mph charge time it was over the insanely Icy period at Christmas and the model S I had borrowed was having to use some of the mains power to warm the packs as suggested above.

Anyway... The car was utterly fantastic. On the motorways at about 70 ish it used about 350w p/m.

On the way back I was feeling a bit more confident about the range so it was more 75-80 and it was more like 395-400 wpm.

I'd say the realistic motorway range of the 60 is indeed 150-160.

In London if I'm being semi-careful on my commute it 450-500 and if I'm not caring and moving swiftly it's closer to 600(+)...

Anyway. I just wanted to say thanks for kindly taking the time to post.

And what a car!! It's more than a car. It's the future and I've got the keys. ;)

G
 
I made it with very little drama.

My first date went better than expected too! Glad your first road trip went well. I love driving the car, its just so smooth, and quiet.

it transpired that the tesla cable isn't compatible with the type 2 chargers.

You need a separate cable for Type 2 ... annoying in the sense that I didn't know that either and in answer to my "Anything else I might possibly need" was never told that, even though I had bought a CHAdeMO ...

As I understand it the UMC is just plain not capable for what would be needed for a Type 2, hence separate cable needed. Tesla's is good quality and price is reasonable, although cheaper alternatives available of course ...

when i experienced the 4mph charge time it was over the insanely Icy period at Christmas

In case you are not aware of this it's better to charge on arrival than before departure - i.e. when the battery pack is warm from driving, not the morning after a freezing cold night :) Not sure how much that applies to 13AMP charging, but worth knowing if you are staying near a Supercharger [in Winter]

On the way back I was feeling a bit more confident about the range so it was more 75-80

I use the TRIP tab on Consumption APP and drive based on arrival estimate. As I get nearer destination I have more confidence of course, but also in UK I can pretty much guarantee a slow stretch for roadworks / traffic which replenishes range, so I drive in anticipation of that ;) Worst case I can always crawl for a bit.
 
Glad to hear it went well @GilesX. Although no longer local, I just looked at this via @blincoln 's great web app ("a better route planner") and got the below. I presumed Reading as you mentioned across London and got the below. How did this compare? The route time can be a little optimistic, though wondering more on charge %.

Cheers, Mike

IMG_0264.jpg
 
South Mimms Services (junction of A1(M) /M25) has lots of stalls, and Costa, Waitrose and other facilities.

Birchanger Services on M11 (Bishops Stortford / Stanstead) is also good - 6 stalls I think and the services there has Costa, can't remember if there is a Waitrose or not, but certainly some other facilities

They are on my routes home, and I choose a route according to the furthest I can easily get ... I have often planned on Birchanger for a "splash and dash" and actually found that traffic etc. has slowed me down enough that I haven't had to stop at all - whereas if I had stopped sooner I could not have made that call reliably.
 
Well..!!

I made it with very little drama.

And what an amazing car the X is!!

Thank you so much for all your advice above and actually the ev driver people were cool and their equipment was great....

However. One hurdle was that after arriving with much more charge left than I had previously feared, getting out the cable that came with the car.. it transpired that the tesla cable isn't compatible with the type 2 chargers. Which was pretty odd.

The car-side connector is a type 2 as I understand it, and the charge point was the same.

But the car came with:

1. The cable to plug in to the car which has a rectangular (7 pin I think) plug on the other end.

2. A rectangular adaptor to the blue commando.

3. A rectangular adaptor to the normal house plug

But no rectangular adapter to the type 2.

However. I was saved by a very kind tesla owner who the ev driver people knew and out of the kindness of his heart / love of tesla ... he drove his own type 2 to type 2 cable over and lent it to me for the weekend.

What a dude!

Having said that... I was lately ok as plugged the X in at my mums and it charged quicker that I thought.. as suggested above.. it was a very consistent 6 mph. Which over night was enough to add a load and topped up the next night. Despite using the car a lot on Saturday.

I think when i experienced the 4mph charge time it was over the insanely Icy period at Christmas and the model S I had borrowed was having to use some of the mains power to warm the packs as suggested above.

Anyway... The car was utterly fantastic. On the motorways at about 70 ish it used about 350w p/m.

On the way back I was feeling a bit more confident about the range so it was more 75-80 and it was more like 395-400 wpm.

I'd say the realistic motorway range of the 60 is indeed 150-160.

In London if I'm being semi-careful on my commute it 450-500 and if I'm not caring and moving swiftly it's closer to 600(+)...

Anyway. I just wanted to say thanks for kindly taking the time to post.

And what a car!! It's more than a car. It's the future and I've got the keys. ;)

G

Presume you have got yourself a blue type 2 lead now. For £150 or thereabouts it is a no-brainer. Bet it was Brian who helped you out - great guy. Linda helped me out when I charged at their HO at Rendlesham former airbase.