Charging on 110 line in cold weather?

[jcanoe]

120V charging does not stop charging at low temperatures but the time needed to charge may be significantly extended due to battery warming.

Plug in and start charging immediately upon returning home since the battery will already be warm from the drive. Leave the Tesla Model Y plugged in at home.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

Sorry, he's not making weekly trips to the supercharger. I mean the car has a range of over 300 miles. Most people average less than 300/week, and so a weekly trip to the supercharger would suffice with no charging at home at all -- other than, again, the losses of the cold climate.

His level 1 circuit can probably put over 250 miles/week into his car. A properly installed 120v (not 110, that's ancient) circuit can run at 12a continuous.

If you can get 250 miles/week into your car from level 1, your supercharger visits would be rare for your regular driving. (The national average is 230 miles/week driving.) That includes road trips -- and of course you supercharge on road trips. For your weeks when you are not leaving town, you will be below average.

The big unanswered question is what his real charge rate is in the cold. That's easy for him to answer. Do some experiments:

1. Plug a cold car in and charge overnight, note miles/hour
2. Plug a warm car in and charge overnight, note miles/hour

A model Y gets 4-5 m/h when warm from 120v 12a. Closer to 4 probably. See what you get in the cold. Then figure how many hours you will typically plug in during the week when the electricity is not crazy expensive. That's probably 70 to 100 hours. Work out the math.

PFF, 110v or 120v it doesn't matter. I guarantee you OP doesn't have a dedicated circuit at 110/120 to charge the car. It's going to be shared with numerous other items on the circuit. I bet OP can get ~ 120 miles / week real world usage from that outlet.

I see you live in Sunnyvale and probably (?) have little real world experience with very cold temperatures and the dramatic hit to range involved.

 

[debaser19]

thanks all for the advice. as it turns out, the sellers are actually going to be out of the house this coming sunday, so if i can get the movers scheduled i should be in the new house someitme next week. so i’ll start looking for an electician to install the new line.

also, looks like there’s a level 2 charger in the parking garage i park at next to my work, so i should be able to take advantage of that as well.

appreciate the info and advice all

 

[jcanoe]

thanks all for the advice. as it turns out, the sellers are actually going to be out of the house this coming sunday, so if i can get the movers scheduled i should be in the new house someitme next week. so i’ll start looking for an electician to install the new line.

also, looks like there’s a level 2 charger in the parking garage i park at next to my work, so i should be able to take advantage of that as well.

appreciate the info and advice all

You may find that the Level 2 charging in the parking garage may be all that you need for charging Monday through Friday. You can then take whatever time you need to install a home Level 2 charging circuit.

 

[gsmith123]

PFF, 110v or 120v it doesn't matter. I guarantee you OP doesn't have a dedicated circuit at 110/120 to charge the car. It's going to be shared with numerous other items on the circuit. I bet OP can get ~ 120 miles / week real world usage from that outlet.

I charge a Model 3 on a 120v outlet at 12A continuously whenever it's parked. It works fine. It's actually a Nemi 5-20 Plug. I'm not sure if it's a dedicated circuit or not, but no breakers have tripped and it works fine.

It's totally possible to get significantly more than 120 miles / week on 120v.

 

[bradtem]

PFF, 110v or 120v it doesn't matter. I guarantee you OP doesn't have a dedicated circuit at 110/120 to charge the car. It's going to be shared with numerous other items on the circuit. I bet OP can get ~ 120 miles / week real world usage from that outlet.

I see you live in Sunnyvale and probably (?) have little real world experience with very cold temperatures and the dramatic hit to range involved.

I don't know how you guarantee it. Of course he has to be sure the plug is dedicated.

As for whether I have seen cold weather, had you bothered to check rather than assume you would have learned both that I am Canadian, though you would not have learned we have a place at Lake Tahoe where I have taken my Tesla and shoveled the driveway to get it in. But better just not to assure or talk about other posters at all, stick to the facts and what you actually know. Like I did when I repeatedly pointed out you would want to test to see what degradation you get in cold weather. Like 3 times, I think. Sheesh.

 

[Midnightsun]

100% agree that 120v is the new standard however what one actually gets can vary quite a bit depending on local electrical use or how far you are from a transformer. The saying 110v (old terminology) will never go away, it's like Kleenex, how many people actually ask for a facial tissue? It gets even weirder when you buy a plug today as they are 125v/250. Regardless if someone calls it 110, 115 or 120, point is we all know exactly what that person is referring to.

Another note on cold weather driving/charging, calculate about 30-35% less than what you normally get in warm summer weather when it comes to range. Bottom line is you would need to figure about a 200 mile range for the model Y and depending on how cold it is that may be pushing it.

 

[FastEddieB]

Unless old, worn or damaged the 120V receptacle should be able to handle continuous charging at the 80% load limit. If the circuit is shared with other appliances that are drawing power from the circuit then you should reduce the maximum charging rate below the 80% maximum.

As others have pointed out, some 120v receptacles are rated at 20A rather than 15A. Can be identified by the neutral slot having a horizontal component:

If your home has one of these, Tesla sells a 5-20 adapter. We bought one since our GA home has a 20A outlet conveniently located outside where we park.* We see about 7 mph on 20A as opposed to 4 mph on 15A. Still far from fast charging, but makes a big difference when charging overnight, let’s say.


*We also have 240v/50A at an RV pedestal, but it’s a couple hundred feet from the main house. Nice to have, and we carry the proper adapter, but extremely rare that the charging rate at the house is insufficient.

 

[bradtem]

As others have pointed out, some 120v receptacles are rated at 20A rather than 15A. Can be identified by the neutral slot having a horizontal component:

If your home has one of these, Tesla sells a 5-20 adapter. We bought one since our GA home has a 20A outlet conveniently located outside where we park.* We see about 7 mph on 20A as opposed to 4 mph on 15A. Still far from fast charging, but makes a big difference when charging overnight, let’s say.


*We also have 240v/50A at an RV pedestal, but it’s a couple hundred feet from the main house. Nice to have, and we carry the proper adapter, but extremely rare that the charging rate at the house is insufficient.

Yup, I have a 20a circuit and I charged my car for 2 years on it, needing an SC only once. It's only 33% more power than 15a, but that's actually quite a jump. 15a is just on the line for a lot of people in terms of keeping charged. 20a goes over the line. Of course there are people for whom 20a is not enough. For almost everybody, 240v at 15a is enough, and the nice thing is you an put that by replacing a dedicated circuit at the higher voltage without putting in any new wiring, which is something you can often do for cheap. Very, very few people would not get by at 240v@20a if they can rewire a 20a.

 

[Silicon Desert]

PFF, 110v or 120v it doesn't matter.

While it doesn't matter as you say, I think the point he was making is that in USA the nominal voltage hasn't been 110 in more than 5 decades at least. He's just trying to bring the Fred Flintstone people like me into the modern era and use the correct term 120/240

 

[debaser19]

Since this thread got a lot of traction, I figured I’d post a link to a separate question I had that is a somewhat related issue about the cameras in cold climates. Would appreciate any experiences to share regarding that here

How do the cameras hold up in snow and ice?

Hey all, I should be taking delivery late this week or next week, and since I have no experience driving a Tesla yet, figured I’d ask here about some questions. I live near Buffalo NY where it snows a lot and gets quite cold. Throughout the winter, any vehicle I’ve ever owned with a backup...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Since this thread got a lot of traction, I figured I’d post a link to a separate question I had that is a somewhat related issue about the cameras in cold climates. Would appreciate any experiences to share regarding that here

How do the cameras hold up in snow and ice?

Hey all, I should be taking delivery late this week or next week, and since I have no experience driving a Tesla yet, figured I’d ask here about some questions. I live near Buffalo NY where it snows a lot and gets quite cold. Throughout the winter, any vehicle I’ve ever owned with a backup...

teslamotorsclub.com

They'll hold up fine, but the ones in front of each front door do get easily covered with cruft.

 

[gsmith123]

They'll hold up fine, but the ones in front of each front door do get easily covered with cruft.

Here in CO I've been finding it's really the backup camera that gets trashed. Repeaters have stayed surprisingly clean (cleaner than I've seen Youtubers report... am I lucky?).

Cleaning them isn't a big deal.

 

[Eto Demerzel]

Just for clarity, on a 120 outlet with the mobile charger, should I go into the app (or car) and set the charging to 15a (or 10a, etc) or does the car do this automatically for current draw?

 

[jcanoe]

Just for clarity, on a 120 outlet with the mobile charger, should I go into the app (or car) and set the charging to 15a (or 10a, etc) or does the car do this automatically for current draw?

If you use the included NEMA 5-15 power plug adapter the Tesla Mobile Connector will default to 12 amps. 12 amps is the maximum allowed charging amperage on a 15 amp rated circuit. (If the circuit is shared with other appliances/equipment that are plugged in and operating you should manually lower the charging amperage, i.e. to 8 amps.) You can manually adjust (lower) the charging amperage for other than the default maximum for the circuit using the Charging screen or the Tesla app charging settings. The maximum charging amperage you set should remain set for the location, i.e. Home, Work, Other but sometimes the Tesla vehicle charging settings revert to the default (48 amps). The Mobile Connector will override the vehicle default charging amperage and only allow charging amperage up to the maximum for the plug type that is inserted into the Mobile Connector. In no case will the Mobile Connector enable charging at more than 32 amps (requires the NEMA 14-50 power plug adapter or NEMA 6-50 power plug adapter.)

If you use the optional NEMA 5-20 power plug adapter (available from Tesla separately from the Tesla Mobile Connector kit) you can charge at 120V and 16 amps on a 120 volt circuit rated for 20 amps. (For reference the maximum charging amperage is always limited to 80% of the rating for the circuit.)

 

[Eto Demerzel]

sounds good, thank you

 

[md10253]

Can I ask how long it took from when your delivery occurred to Mt Kisco to when they dropped it off at your house? Our EDD was Dec 1. They said they're waiting for the carrier to pick it up and contact us but have given ZERO guidance as to when that will be. We're in Buffalo too so I'm wondering if you could shed a light - was it a few days? a few weeks? Thanks!!!

 

[debaser19]

Can I ask how long it took from when your delivery occurred to Mt Kisco to when they dropped it off at your house? Our EDD was Dec 1. They said they're waiting for the carrier to pick it up and contact us but have given ZERO guidance as to when that will be. We're in Buffalo too so I'm wondering if you could shed a light - was it a few days? a few weeks? Thanks!!!

Hey congrats ! Yeah unfortunately Tesla isn’t great at communicating. I guess it makes sense cause they’re using a 3rd party transport service. They never specifically told me when my car arrived at Mt Kisco but my delivery date window I could have chosen from for pickup was Nov 21-23. So I’m assuming it was there around that time. Then it took a bit of time for them to send me the paperwork that I had to send back, make the final payment, accept agreements, etc, before they would schedule the transporter.

They also mentioned thee transporters typically come later in the week, not sure how much truth their is to that. I just had the car dropped off this morning and the guy said he typically makes 3-4 trips per week. I actually have not received any word from Tesla that my car has been assigned a transporter to be picked up yet, but the 3rd party transporter called me yesterday to let me know he was going to pick up that night and deliver the next morning around 9am.

Fwiw after the carrier direct option was in motion, my delivery date in the app changed to Nov 30. I just received the car today on Dec 2

Hope that helps

 

[md10253]

Hey congrats ! Yeah unfortunately Tesla isn’t great at communicating. I guess it makes sense cause they’re using a 3rd party transport service. They never specifically told me when my car arrived at Mt Kisco but my delivery date window I could have chosen from for pickup was Nov 21-23. So I’m assuming it was there around that time. Then it took a bit of time for them to send me the paperwork that I had to send back, make the final payment, accept agreements, etc, before they would schedule the transporter.

They also mentioned thee transporters typically come later in the week, not sure how much truth their is to that. I just had the car dropped off this morning and the guy said he typically makes 3-4 trips per week. I actually have not received any word from Tesla that my car has been assigned a transporter to be picked up yet, but the 3rd party transporter called me yesterday to let me know he was going to pick up that night and deliver the next morning around 9am.

Fwiw after the carrier direct option was in motion, my delivery date in the app changed to Nov 30. I just received the car today on Dec 2

Hope that helps

That is very helpful, thanks! It makes me wonder why my car wasn't on the truck with yours though??? We finished all the paperwork before thanksgiving and our delivery date on the app was/is 12/1. Frustrating!

 

[debaser19]

We’ll just to update, the charging rate isn’t great but it’s been manageable. Lucky to have a level 2 charger at the parking garage at work, haven’t needed to use it yet though. Had a bit of driving the last two days and haven’t been able to get back to 80% for a few days but still been manageable. Currently around 46% and it estimates 3 days to get to 80% lol