Home charging options

[Dangerous Fish]

I've started to look around for home charging options in preparation for when I get my M3...

So, there's Tesla, Andersen, Rolec, Pod-Point and probably others I haven't found yet.

I'm interested to hear about the pros/cons of each (other than cost and what they look like).

 

[gavine]

How about the free Tesla mobile connector that comes with the car? Why not use that?

 

[Subevo]

Just bought an Andersen A2 charger. but still to be fitted.
Reasons are it looks better and cable is stored neatly away plus it's smart enabled.plus olev £500 grant.
Total Cost £775 which includes £400 installation cost.
Still to get £300 grant from Scotlands energy savings trust.
Final bill £475.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Anderson is probably my preferred option from the ones I've looked at so far. How does being smart enabled differ from using the Tesla app to monitor charging?

 

[Subevo]

You can start and stop via your mobile phone plus check energy used and the cost of electricity used.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Energy used and cost is available on the Tesla display AFAIK, but only in the car and not via an app?

 

[DJP31]

I have the Tesla unit and apart from the good looks I like the ability to press the button on the connector and it opens the charge flap on the Model S. No faffing around with apps or fobs etc. Grabbing the connector, unlooping and plugging in literally takes 5 seconds.

Second plus point, any failure with the charge point and I only have one organisation to deal with. When the charger developed an intermittent fault I rang Tesla roadside support whilst plugged in. The dialled into the car, saw the wall unit had a comms issue and immediately dispatched a replacement unit. They also reimbursed me for the electricians cost to change the unit.

 

[Fellsteruk]

TWC all the way I looked at lots of options but I ended up with a TWC and it’s been great.

 

[12Pack]

Several apps (at least on ios) that can give you charge costs (in addition to all kinds of metrics). E.g., Stats for Tesla

 

[Asterix187]

I have a Rolec and it’s been faultless.

 

[gilscales]

If I had to do it all over again I would not even bother with the TWC as I only charge at 32A so the included mobile connector and this outlet G4438388 would be what I would use today.

It's the same as the $100 Hubbell outlet as Bryant is owned by Hubbell and this is the newly redesigned outlet, it's built like a tank and the lugs have V shaped heavy boxes with super thick copper straps that tighten with Allen screws at triple the force of the other outlets.

 

[Mark_T]

If I had to do it all over again I would not even bother with the TWC as I only charge at 32A so the included mobile connector and this outlet G4438388 would be what I would use today.

It's the same as the $100 Hubbell outlet as Bryant is owned by Hubbell and this is the newly redesigned outlet, it's built like a tank and the lugs have V shaped heavy boxes with super thick copper straps that tighten with Allen screws at triple the force of the other outlets.

You are posting in the UK section so that isn't as helpful to the OP as you might have hoped...

 

[gilscales]

You are posting in the UK section so that isn't as helpful to the OP as you might have hoped...

AHH so I have, my mistake, well I stand by everything I said minus the outlet, not sure what comes with the mobile connector there?

ta ta, pip pip, cheerio, carry on

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Actually, that's still a useful post as it does raise the question whether I need to charge at a high rate when at home.
Could I just have an industrial waterproof socket outside and charge from that at 11 mph?

The cable Tesla provides with a blue industrial socket fitted - is that a 16A or 32A socket?

 

[Mark_T]

Actually, that's still a useful post as it does raise the question whether I need to charge at a high rate when at home.
Could I just have an industrial waterproof socket outside and charge from that at 11 mph?

The cable Tesla provides with a blue industrial socket fitted - is that a 16A or 32A socket?

This should help: Home Charging Installation

11mph = 3.7kW = 16A

The other consideration is where you will park while charging, if it is inside your garage then the Mobile Connector isn't a bad idea if 11mph is enough for you.

If you will charge outside then you'll have to get used to getting out the cable each time and dealing with a wet cable quite often.

For me at least the TWC was worth the expense for the convenience.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

This should help: Home Charging Installation

11mph = 3.7kW = 16A

The other consideration is where you will park while charging, if it is inside your garage then the Mobile Connector isn't a bad idea if 11mph is enough for you.

If you will charge outside then you'll have to get used to getting out the cable each time and dealing with a wet cable quite often.

For me at least the TWC was worth the expense for the convenience.

Yes, understood. The area immediately outside my garage is semi-sheltered, so if I plug in there overnight it's not too much of a faff.

Why is there no option for 32A charging from a socket? Is it just that the Tesla mobile connector isn't rated past 16A?
(talking 220V for any of our American cousins who might be watching).

I'm not that bothered about monitoring my electricity usage and cost on an app. so if that's the main attraction of these wall chargers and I don't need fast charging, I may as well save myself some money and put it towards the performance package on the car!

 

[Mark_T]

Why is there no option for 32A charging from a socket? Is it just that the Tesla mobile connector isn't rated past 16A?
(talking 220V for any of our American cousins who might be watching).

A perfectly good question, Tesla have changed the chargers fitted to the cars over the years so they may be only mentioning 16A UMC in the UK for compliance with the lowest configuration, but the UK version of the UMC is clearly rated for 200-250V 32A...

 

[.jg.]

The cable Tesla provides with a blue industrial socket fitted - is that a 16A or 32A socket?

The blue adaptor supplied with the Tesla UMC is for a 32A single phase Commando socket => charging at 7.5kW => 22 mph. If you wanted to use such a setup outside, you might want to shield the socket and the UMC from the weather.

 

[gilscales]

I get 30 range miles per hour added with the LR RWD model 3 at 32A charge rate

 

[arg]

Considerations re using UMC for home charging:

• If you use your UMC to charge at home, either you have to unplug it every day, wind up the (dirty) cable and put it in the car, or you leave it at home and then need to remember to take it with you on trips away when you need it; the latter is a recipe for forgetting and causing yourself big nuisance.
• If you use the UMC as your one and only means of charging, you are in deep trouble if it ever breaks (which it will do eventually if used every day). If you have a wall charger for daily charging and a UMC in the car for trips/emergencies, you can pull out the UMC in the event that the wall charger fails.
• UMC is only "free" as you got one with the car; if you think the solution to the above problems is to buy a 2nd UMC, that's actually more expensive than a wall charger.
• If considering charging from a 13A socket, note that many 13A sockets are not up to the job of continuous high power charging for many hours (they should be, but they aren't: the pressure for ever cheaper parts and the fact that nobody uses 3-bar electric fires any more means 13A socket quality has decreased over the years). Experience indicates that 13A sockets used every day for car charging often end up overheated and 'burned out'. Also, an existing 13A socket may not be as safe with regards to earthing, RCDs etc. as one installed specifically for EV charging.

So, I would strongly recommend getting a permanent chargepoint installed.