Home Charging Speed/Power

[Struja]

Hey all. I’m on my second Model S and I should probably already know the answer to this but sadly I do not.

My home wall connector can charge 48a if I want or need it to which is about 62km/hr (I believe). I don’t even charge at home all that much because we have a free ChargePoint charger at the office. However, when I do charge at home I benefit from TOU pricing from 7pm to 7am so I am never really in a rush to charge quickly. So, my question is whether or not there is any benefit to charging at 48a, 36a, 24a or any other number? Is there any data to support doing so (for long term battery health).

With my last S, I had a host of problems with the car but the battery wasn’t one of them. After 7 years I had lost about 10% of my original battery capacity. I rarely supercharged, charged to 100% less than 5 times and only ever brought the battery below 10% once. So, will I get any truly tangible benefit by charging slower?

 

[brkaus]

No significant difference on the battery. Those are all slow relative to discharge rates, regen rates, or supercharging.

Lower amps will generate less heat in the wires. And maybe a little safer if your setup is marginal. But charging slower has the pumps and such running longer.

Pick your trade off

 

[Struja]

No significant difference on the battery. Those are all slow relative to discharge rates, regen rates, or supercharging.

Lower amps will generate less heat in the wires. And maybe a little safer if your setup is marginal. But charging slower has the pumps and such running longer.

Pick your trade off

I never really charged my 90D with lower Amps and the battery seemed to do well, which is exactly to your point. I guess I just needed to be sure I was doing the best I could do, since time was not an issue. Thx.

 

[E90alex]

No reason to slow down charging in terms of protecting the car or battery.

Might be easier on your home wiring/charging setup from not running as hot if that is a concern. Although if all your wiring etc is up to par then it shouldn’t be an issue at full power.

 

[Struja]

No reason to slow down charging in terms of protecting the car or battery.

Might be easier on your home wiring/charging setup from not running as hot if that is a concern. Although if all your wiring etc is up to par then it shouldn’t be an issue at full power.

No, that's not a concern at all. Equipment was all installed by a pro, on a 60amp breaker so I think it's all good. My concern was only for the health of the battery.

 

[Rocky_H]

No, that's not a concern at all. Equipment was all installed by a pro, on a 60amp breaker so I think it's all good. My concern was only for the health of the battery.

Well, this part is still valid though:

Might be easier on your home wiring/charging setup from not running as hot if that is a concern. Although if all your wiring etc is up to par then it shouldn’t be an issue at full power.

My concern wouldn't be as much with the wiring in the circuit as with the charging equipment. Tesla has a long history of some of their charging products having frustratingly short operating life when run at their maximum rated current every day, and it seems that's from building them to just barely support it. Running them at max level heats them up the most, and then after use, it cools back down, and then next time it heats back up and cools down, etc. that is some expansion and contraction of metals, solder joints, etc. Things can fail and stop working from a lot of those heat cycles.

If it's run at a lower level than max current, it will not get quite as warm, and that temperature swing every day will be a bit smaller and less cumulative stress on the materials, so it likely extends the life of it.

 

[ATPMSD]

With respect to

TOU pricing from 7pm to 7am

Check out this new wall connector feature

https://www.tesla.com/support/charging/wall-connector/tesla-app