Home Charging setup

[jmp470]

Hello All,
I'm currently preparing to purchase a Model X Raven LR, I finally made the decision between the Performance and LR. Anyways, I do not have a home charger installed, and have a couple questions, for base knowledge to help guide me, I

1) Since the X comes free super charging, is there a problem doing that daily?
2) how fast does a 120 V charge the X, aka, how many miles per hour?

 

[mjptech]

Hello All,
I'm currently preparing to purchase a Model X Raven LR, I finally made the decision between the Performance and LR. Anyways, I do not have a home charger installed, and have a couple questions, for base knowledge to help guide me, I

1) Since the X comes free super charging, is there a problem doing that daily?
2) how fast does a 120 V charge the X, aka, how many miles per hour?

I'm not sure you would need to charge daily at a Supercharger, unless you're driving a few hundred miles a day? Since I got my X in June, I've only been Supercharging (live less than a mile from one).

In the case of connecting up to 120V, you're looking at between 2-3 miles an hour being added.

Look at the chart here:
Gen 2 NEMA Adapters

 

[shinytop]

Using supercharging daily up to about 90% will work. Some reports, however, have come in from buyers relying only on supercharging that they receive their charge at a reduced rate after a while. Tesla says they intentionally reduce the speed to make the battery last longer.

Although I have not tried 110 charging I understand it is limited to about a 2 miles per hour at 110. This could work for just short daily trips. I installed a 240 14-50 port and charge at 20-25 mph. Since I am retired this works great for me.

 

[BLUEBOLT X]

Hello All,
I'm currently preparing to purchase a Model X Raven LR, I finally made the decision between the Performance and LR. Anyways, I do not have a home charger installed, and have a couple questions, for base knowledge to help guide me, I

1) Since the X comes free super charging, is there a problem doing that daily?
2) how fast does a 120 V charge the X, aka, how many miles per hour?

Hi- I've been charging a Model X for almost 2 years on a 120 outlet. It consistently charges at 4 miles/hour.

 

[ajdelange]

Several things to consider in making a decision about this. You certainly can't beat the savings FUSC provide. OTOH you can't beat the convenience of charging at home. It seems 80% of charging is done at home so I guess there must be a consensus on this. What you pay for electricity factors in, of course.

Most people seem to wind up using Level II at home either through a hard wired HPWC or via a 50 A 240V (14-50R) receptacle. These give 25 - 30 mi/hr of charge which means typically a few hours to top off each evening.

As a general comment: charging to high SoC at a rapid rate results in some of the lithium ions which we want to intercalate with the anode material wind up getting reduced to lithium metal. This is irreversible and so the battery capacity is reduced. There isn't a lot of hard data out there about this but Tesla advocates charging at home. This is partly, I think, to keep people away from the Super Chargers thus staving off overcrowding (which is already a problem at some stations) but the battery preservation argument seems reasonable too.

 

[chuynh]

1. Yes. After a certain amount of supercharger, Tesla will limit the speed you charge at. That's a problem if you want to minimize charge times on road trips. Likewise, it's argued that supercharging will degrade the battery quicker. Not really an issue if you don't plan to keep the car long-term anyways.
2.Roughly 3.5miles an hour. No bueno. Get a 14-50 nema plug installed and use the included UMC.

 

[Seattle Tom]

Agree with above posters. Relying supercharging every day (or even every two days) is a sure fire way to have battery degradation AND have Tesla limit the speed at which you charge eventually, in order to protect the battery.

120 outlet at home will work if you drive 20-40 miles per day. You’ll only get 2-3mph with that charging setup. My logic was that I’m buying a $100,000 vehicle, so I should spend $650 more and have a NEMA14-50 plug installed in the garage. I think you should strongly consider that. It will give you 24-ish mph so that even if you drive a lot in one specific day, you don’t have to go to a Supercharger. You just go home, park, and have a “full tank of gas” when you wake up the next morning. It’s really the most convenient setup ever.

As an aside, I charge my X to 80% by default. I bought it in June 2017 and have lost one mile of range in two years. That’s really the sweet spot, IMO, for battery longevity.

 

[jmp470]

Thanks all. At some point I plan on getting a plug installed in my house. But, I have not been able to find a consistent electrician.

 

[alphainfinity]

Have you tried this to find an electrician?

Find an Electrician


The Tesla HPWC does about 35MPH on my Raven. Totally worth the installation. Much gentler on the battery than the superchargers.

 

[K2500Z71]

You can’t beat the HPWC for convenience. I didn’t want to fuss with the mobile connector every night so I put the HPWC (with the long cable) in.

 

[Alex310]

Something to consider, supercharging can be annoying at times. You can find yourself spending 2 hours charging the car.

 

[mbp11]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I have had my Model X for a year and a half, almost (July 2018, MCU2.5). For the first 6 months I owned the car I mostly used the superchargers at night. I did have a strange NEMA 6-15 connector in the wall of my garage when I moved in, probably for some washer or drier utility, but they are on the opposite side so I got an adaptor and I can charge at 3-4 KWh per hour. I am pretty cheap and was mostly doing supercharging since it is free.


I also have solar (and a whole house battery) and have been generating 20-25 KWH a day and exporting 8-10 KWH a day, depending. My monthly electricity charges were very low.


About a year ago my girlfriend got concerned about my late night supercharging habits… no waiting, and lots of spaces free. So I began charging at home more and more. My work hours are long and strange and I am out the door at 7 am and back home 9pm to midnight. Just plug in every night and I charge it up to 80 or 90% and I am good to go I the am. Doesn’t matter if it charges slowly at night.


Until I noticed over the past year that my Net Metering charges were going up $60 to $80 to $100 a month. WTF? The billed charges in the $%^&*@# PG&E bill were only $10 a month but the money owed at the end of the year was going up! I began paying more every month but it kept going up. So I called PG&E and had them explain the bill to me.


Basically, when I charge the car, it is like running the oven and the washing machine constantly all night- even at 3KWH an hour, it is a real drain. Over the past month I generated 261 KWH but used 614 KWH, and so I had to import 353 KWH from the grid, even though most of it was in the low non-peak rate ($0.33 per KWH).


So it looks like I am going to be doing more supercharging of the car. I occasionally charge it at work at a level 2 charger, but charging at night at my house might start to be come a luxury. I am wondering if others have looked at their charging habits.


When I owned two ICE cars by gas bills were about $200 a month, so this is certainly less, but by modifying my habits, I think I can pay less.


Here is the power consumption over the past year and one day’s power consumption graphically displayed.

 

[cantbechanged]

I get about 5mph with a 5-20 adapter on 120V. It works out to 117V*16A = 1872W. This is about 468 Watts, or 1mph, more than I would get with the standard 5-15.

 

[Seattle Tom]

You are paying 33 cents per kWh??? And that’s the OFF PEAK rate???

I can’t bold or underline that enough - that’s an astonishing price for electricity in the continental US that is borderline robbery.

 

[mjptech]

You are paying 33 cents per kWh??? And that’s the OFF PEAK rate???

I can’t bold or underline that enough - that’s an astonishing price for electricity in the continental US that is borderline robbery.

He's lucky.. I'll get bumped to 46 cents (southern California) if I move into tier 3, which is easy... I'm always in tier 2, which is 26 cents. If I charge the X once, I'll be in tier 3.

 

[mbp11]

I looked again at the bill, and I get a baseline allowance of $0.08 cents for the first 309KWH, so I guess that might reduce the rate to about $0.25 a KWH for the first 309 KWH. The non-peak rate is $0.33, and the peak rate, from 3pm to 8pm, is $0.40 a KWH.

Somebody has to pay for the Northern California fire damage caused by PG&E equipment the past two years.

Sorry to hear mjptech is in the same situation. I thought I would just share my experience so that others would look at their electricity bills more critically. I am lucky to have solar panels and to defray some of the costs of power. Those without and owning electric cars are not so lucky.

Mike P

 

[ajdelange]

Over the past month I generated 261 KWH but used 614 KWH, and so I had to import 353 KWH from the grid, even though most of it was in the low non-peak rate ($0.33 per KWH).

So with charging your solar provides about 42% of your electricity needs. In this month you used 814 kWh and paid $0.33*353 = $116.49 for it so your cost for electricity, with solar, is 116.49/614 = $0.19 per kWh. That's still very high. Free supercharging is cheaper than that but if you have to pay for supercharging I think it's generally about $0.21 per kWh and charging at home may be cheaper. You apparently have a small (about 2 kW based on an estimated 4 kWh/m2/day insolation in your area) solar system. Obvious answer is to get more panels up there if, of course, you have the space for them.

 

[ajdelange]

Somebody has to pay for the Northern California fire damage caused by PG&E equipment the past two years.

You told your politicians that you wanted "clean" energy. You got it (50% of California's in state generation is from clean sources) and now you don't like paying for it. It's amazing how often this happens.

 

[Feathermerchan]

I installed two NEMA 6-50 240V 5A plugs in my garage. Then I bought two second hand Tesla Gen 1 UMC's so I can charge at up to 240V 40A and leave the UMC that came with the car in the car. Cheaper than buying the Tesla wall connector but not quite as fast charging. I have found that even 30A is enough for my Model 3.
In Texas we can choose our retail electric provider. We're about 20% wind and I pay a flat 9¢ per kWh.
I'm thinking about buying an X to replace the wife's Kia Sorento or waiting for the Y.
What do y'all think?

 

[alphainfinity]

You told your politicians that you wanted "clean" energy. You got it (50% of California's in state generation is from clean sources) and now you don't like paying for it. It's amazing how often this happens.

That is just one of many reasons the middle class is fleeing California. Those electrical rates are outrageous! Maui charges about 36 cents per kilowatt hour and they have to import 50% of their electricity in the form of fuel oil. WTF is going on in California!