Employer offered to let me charge....

[DeadHead616]

Hey all,

My employer offered to let me charge off the ONLY outlet on the front of the building. I’m told by HR he’s willing to upgrade the plug for me, BUT he is super picky about the building’s appearances and I highly doubt a Nema 14-50 is going in for me.

Having said that, what are the next best options? There is a regular outlet there now, is there something between the two? Or should I just inquire about getting as many amps out of the existing wiring/and plug setup that’s there?
I’m only a 30 mile commute from home, but I’ll take free charging where I can get it as the ground is too hard to install my home charger yet.
Is there something faster than the 15A socket that’s there, but not fast or as as “ugly” as a 14-50 and box on the outside of his building?

Thanks in advance....

 

[Derek Kessler]

Very cool of your boss to embrace and encourage that!

You could always have an outlet installed with a cover on it. Then it's just a plate/box on the building instead of an exposed outlet.

 

[APotatoGod]

On the side of relatively minor changes for relatively minor benefit, you could consider upgrading the outlets from NEMA 5-15 to NEMA 5-20, get a few more miles of range per hour with an outlet that looks near-identical to the existing one. For what it's worth I almost exclusively use a regular NEMA 5-15 outlet at home, it's totally useable for overnight charging of up to 50 miles or so (though of course you don't spend that much time at work presumably).

Another potential (more expensive but faster charging) option is installing an EVSE, perhaps Tesla's HPWC, which can provide tons of power, and presumably isn't quite as ugly as a NEMA 14-50 outlet.

 

[Galve2000]

The Tesla HPWC looks pretty cool and i doubt your will be upset about appearances if you go that route. You may consider purchasing the EVSE yourself and having him cover the cost of the installation.

 

[Saghost]

Hey all,

My employer offered to let me charge off the ONLY outlet on the front of the building. I’m told by HR he’s willing to upgrade the plug for me, BUT he is super picky about the building’s appearances and I highly doubt a Nema 14-50 is going in for me.

Having said that, what are the next best options? There is a regular outlet there now, is there something between the two? Or should I just inquire about getting as many amps out of the existing wiring/and plug setup that’s there?
I’m only a 30 mile commute from home, but I’ll take free charging where I can get it as the ground is too hard to install my home charger yet.
Is there something faster than the 15A socket that’s there, but not fast or as as “ugly” as a 14-50 and box on the outside of his building?

Thanks in advance....

There are lots of plugs in between, and with the right adapter a Tesla can charge from most of them. Figuring out what's "not as ugly" may be hard.

The most visually attractive solution might be an HPWC - if you offer to donate that, maybe they'll upgrade the wiring and install it?

That also does away with any adapter questions, and on installation it can be set to anything from 6 amps to 80A amps to match the wiring and breaker.

 

[jlv1]

FWIW, most of the outlets around my office building are actually NEMA 5-20, which means you can pull 16A, rather than the 12A you can pull from a 5-15( "regular outlet"). The next most obvious thing is to upgrade the outlet to a 6-15 or 6-20 (going from 120V to 240V, and doubling the speed of charging).

The good news is that these all look like "regular outlets".

See the range table at: Gen 2 NEMA Adapters

 

[SageBrush]

9 hours of charging on the slowest outlet around will cover your commute.

 

[srs5694]

If your employer is willing to install an EVSE, another option would be one with a J1772 plug. This would have the advantage that it could be used by any EV, whereas Tesla's unit limits who can charge there. Of course, you'd need to use the J1772 adapter that comes with the car. J1772 EVSEs range in appearance from ghastly industrial things to fairly good. Toward the better end of the scale is probably the ChargePoint home unit, but of course that's subjective. OTOH, Tesla offers free or low-cost EVSEs as "destination" chargers. I believe that most of these go to restaurants and hotels, but I seem to recall reading that businesses can qualify for these for use by their employees, so it might be worth looking into that angle.

 

[ewoodrick]

Hey all,

My employer offered to let me charge off the ONLY outlet on the front of the building. I’m told by HR he’s willing to upgrade the plug for me, BUT he is super picky about the building’s appearances and I highly doubt a Nema 14-50 is going in for me.

Having said that, what are the next best options? There is a regular outlet there now, is there something between the two? Or should I just inquire about getting as many amps out of the existing wiring/and plug setup that’s there?
I’m only a 30 mile commute from home, but I’ll take free charging where I can get it as the ground is too hard to install my home charger yet.
Is there something faster than the 15A socket that’s there, but not fast or as as “ugly” as a 14-50 and box on the outside of his building?

Thanks in advance....

I'll have to question the "upgrade the plug". I have a suspicion that wouldn't include pulling new wires to provide high-current charging. I suspect that you may get away with a 120V 15A to 120V 20A plug.

Since the plug is already there, I'm not sure why you would think that a 14-50 is ugly. In an outside weatherproof configuration, they tend to look similar.

I'd recommend maybe just upgrading to a 20A plug, if it isn't one anyway (a commercial install could be that way already). And use that. Use the UMC and just make sure that you lay it out nicely and coil any extra cord either behind a bush or under your car.

There is probably a bigger subtext here. It could be that the employer wants one himself and he needs an excuse. The concept may be to start out simple and then look at adding a number of J-1772 plugs. Why J-1772 and not Tesla? That's so that other employees with othe EVs can use it as well, not just the "rich managers"

Present both options and indicate how happy you would be with just the simple plug. If HR thinks that the owner wants one, then they may want to go full in.

 

[Rocky_H]

I scrolled down with my answer, and I see @jlv1 already said what I had. You might be very likely to be able to at least get outlets changed from 120V type to 240V type without needing to run any new wiring at all. But that would depend on whether there are a few other outlets on that circuit.

 

[Fiver]

It's been awhile since I looked into it, but perhaps the Tesla Workplace charging program might be of use. They will pay to install nice looking Tesla HPWC, and your employer will only be on the hook for the power.

Better than a basic outlet, the HPWC will be professionally installed for a nice clean look, and they are free!

 

[DeadHead616]

All good info. Thanks for the input guys. Electrician comes this week yet and I’ll run several of these by him.
As awesome as it would be to put in a Tesla specific charger (especially if we qualified for the free program), I do see the long term advantage for everyone by installing J1772. I’ve only had the car 3 days and co-workers are asking genuine questions and asking for rides.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thank you again.

 

[Fiver]

All good info. Thanks for the input guys. Electrician comes this week yet and I’ll run several of these by him.
As awesome as it would be to put in a Tesla specific charger (especially if we qualified for the free program), I do see the long term advantage for everyone by installing J1772. I’ve only had the car 3 days and co-workers are asking genuine questions and asking for rides.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thank you again.

If you are willing to install several Tesla chargers as part of the workplace charging program, often Tesla will kick in a few J1772 chargers as well. It's not 1 to 1, but at least for the destination charging program, if you install at least 3 HPWC they will kick in 1 J1772 charger as well. Workplace charging program might be different though. Either way, can't hurt to ask and apply, worst they say is no, or offer a deal you guys don't agree with.

 

[Rocky_H]

A lot of times the outlet already has 240 volt on it, just not on either one plug. I worked in a small electronics company

I do get what you are describing, but that is an extremely rare way to wire outlets that people probably won't find. I wouldn't really describe it as "a lot of times".

 

[DeadHead616]

A lot of times the outlet already has 240 volt on it, just not on either one plug. I worked in a small electronics company which was in an area off an apartment building garage. The outlets were wired this way, a 240 volt circuit ran around the lab room with 120 of opposite phase on each of the two sockets in the outlet so 240 between them. If that is how yours is wired, a simple socket replacement to 6-20 will give you about 20 kWh per work day. That should get you back home, no?

Otherwise, I agree with Derek that any outside outlet will have a cover anyway, so who's going to see the outlet anyway? This is the sort of stuff people walk past without noticing all the time.

My concern would be the cord hanging across a sidewalk. I assume that's not an issue here, eh?

20 kWh would definitely get me home. I’m roughly 25-30 miles one way depending on the route. I’m currently charging via a 15A outlet cause the ground is still pretty hard here. So, between work and errands, I’m having to travel another 20 miles out of my way to supercharge, before heading home 50-60 miles. Once my wall charger is in, it won’t matter what the employer puts in. But it’s nice of him to do, and who wouldn’t take free juice 5 days a week?! If he gets his put in before mine, maybe I’ll reconsider putting mine in at all!
There really isn’t much of a cord/sidewalk issue. We’re a small company and everyone already knows I place a cord across the walkway for my ‘battery car’. No one uses the sidewalk where it’s located to my car anyway.
I might lean towards the 6-20 route. That way the plug looks like a regular wall outlet or box to an untrained eye. I keep saying that the bigger plugs/outlets would be ‘ugly’ because I’d want them inside a weatherproof cover or box. Wouldn’t I? Anyone else charge their Tesla with the supplies charging cable and leave the plug at the outlet exposed to the elements? I’m just thinking of a box that’ll have to go over the outlet and a cover. And I don’t think the top brass is going to go for that.

Thank you again for all the info/suggestions. Appreciate the input and ideas.

The electrician didn’t show up today (shocker), but promised to be in Monday. I’ll update then.

 

[Rocky_H]

The big reason to use a 14-50 outlet is that it is a defacto standard and other EVs will be able to charge from it without a "special" adapter.

That is not true. There is no other electric car other than Tesla that comes with a charge cable that can plug directly into a 14-50 outlet. I've seen a couple of other people mention this, but it has never been true. Where do people get this idea? It has always been possible to buy some other third party J1772 EVSE that has a 14-50 plug, but there has never been any other EV that comes with one of those.

 

[jlv1]

That is not true. There is no other electric car other than Tesla that comes with a charge cable that can plug directly into a 14-50 outlet.

I thought the charging cable that comes with the 2018 and later LEAF uses a 14-50 plug.

 

[Saghost]

That is not true. There is no other electric car other than Tesla that comes with a charge cable that can plug directly into a 14-50 outlet. I've seen a couple of other people mention this, but it has never been true. Where do people get this idea? It has always been possible to buy some other third party J1772 EVSE that has a 14-50 plug, but there has never been any other EV that comes with one of those.

Umm...


Nissan finally gets it with new 240V portable EVSE

 

[SageBrush]

Umm...


Nissan finally gets it with new 240V portable EVSE

Yep. It is also cheap and simple to buy an adapter

 

[Rocky_H]

I thought the charging cable that comes with the 2018 and later LEAF uses a 14-50 plug.

Umm...


Nissan finally gets it with new 240V portable EVSE

WOW!!!! OK, I stand corrected. I hadn't heard of that. That is huge news. How come that wasn't all over Electrek or some of the other EV sites? It only took Nissan, what, 7 years or so to finally get that? I guess I'll have to modify my statement then, that there is one other EV besides Tesla that comes with a 14-50 plug charge cord, and only for 2018 and later years.