Home Charging

[meloccom]

Love the charger look!

Also love the Georg Jensen candle holder

Thanks, I think its a pity something so nice has to live in a garage.
The candle Holder is Rosenthal actually, bought on a whim in the Rosenthal shop in Berlin and carried all the way home!

 

[MangroveMike]

Cheers mate. I'm looking forward to getting my charger installed next week.

No probs. I just measured (stepped it) and it's about 8 - 9 metres. It may be the 7.6 m as suggested above and my steps are getting lazy these days
My electrician put in 16mm wire which apparently will allow 63 amps. I'm not sure is that is any advantage if we can't get anywhere between 40 and 80 amps but I thought bigger would be better anyway.

Good luck with the installation!

 

[Dborn]

Wow, THAT is SERIOUS cable!!

 

[MangroveMike]

Wow, THAT is SERIOUS cable!!

He offered 10 or 16, so I thought 'why not'. It's only a small run from the meter board to the charger - about 4 metres. He did also point out that the 16mm was the same cable that comes into the meter board . (Haven't got the bill yet, though).

He did ring this arvo to say that he checked the regs and will have to come back to put an isolation switch like you have to have for stove. Did anyone else have to get the same?

 

[Dborn]

My circuit has a dedicated breaker, AND an isolation switch right next to the connector ( which spoils the look). Unit is on one side of the garage and power came in on the other side where I had an isolator. Told that was a no go, and isolator had to be next to the connector. Regulations!! If it overheats or something you need to be instantly able to turn it off.

 

[MangroveMike]

My circuit has a dedicated breaker, AND an isolation switch right next to the connector ( which spoils the look). Unit is on one side of the garage and power came in on the other side where I had an isolator. Told that was a no go, and isolator had to be next to the connector. Regulations!! If it overheats or something you need to be instantly able to turn it off.

Ok thanks. Isolator installed this morning - and yes it does spoil the look.

 

[markwj]

Ok thanks. Isolator installed this morning - and yes it does spoil the look.

The way I (and others) have done it is to put the isolator just next to the wall connector, then run a short (1" - 2") PVC trunking between the two. Doesn't look too bad:

View attachment 49352

 

[MangroveMike]

The way I (and others) have done it is to put the isolator just next to the wall connector, then run a short (1" - 2") PVC trunking between the two. Doesn't look too bad:

View attachment 49352

Thanks for the pic. My guy installed it into the wall which looks good too- except for the great big switch which is right next to it. I'll get a pic up ASAP.

After he installed the isolation switch this morning the charger light changed from green (which it was without isolation) to red. I'm not too worried but does anyone know what that means ?

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the pic. My guy installed it into the wall which looks good too- except for the great big switch which is right next to it. I'll get a pic up ASAP.

After he installed the isolation switch this morning the charger light changed from green (which it was without isolation) to red. I'm not too worried but does anyone know what that means ?

RTFM Hmmm..

 

[koruki]

Hi Guys,

I've got one of the major solar installers recommending a system for me based on my annual power consumption. Currently he is recommending a 5KW system based on my usage over the last year.

Do any of you know how much more I would need if I were to get a P85. It will be grid tied and feed power back into the grid and my charging is likely to be in the evening to morning.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[mike_j]

Given you are charging at night, the car would be irrelevant to your solar choice. Weekends etc it may be relevant.

 

[JFK]

Hi Guys,

I've got one of the major solar installers recommending a system for me based on my annual power consumption. Currently he is recommending a 5KW system based on my usage over the last year.

Do any of you know how much more I would need if I were to get a P85. It will be grid tied and feed power back into the grid and my charging is likely to be in the evening to morning.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

It depends upon how many Kms you will be driving per day. I think the energy consumption works out to be approximately 4.6km/Kwh for the Model S. So if you drive 50km your energy consumption would be 10.86 Kwh. Your installer then can work out what you need for your location.

 

[MangroveMike]

Hi Guys,

I've got one of the major solar installers recommending a system for me based on my annual power consumption. Currently he is recommending a 5KW system based on my usage over the last year.

Do any of you know how much more I would need if I were to get a P85. It will be grid tied and feed power back into the grid and my charging is likely to be in the evening to morning.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

I have some graphs of my energy generation from my 3KW system over the last few years at http://www.merewether.com/power-usage . If you look at a winter month I generate between 300-400kwh's and summer, over 500kwhs. I'm not sure of the actual amount to charge 85kwh battery - so assuming some loss and my very basic understanding, lets assume that 100kwh is used. So in winter months you would get about 3 refills (say 1350 kms worth) and summer 4 refills (say 1800 kms) completely covered by your solar generation.

BUT, that's all based upon kwh generated, not dollars. I'm on gross metering and I'm luckily getting 60c / kwh as an early solar customer in NSW, so in winter I cover my costs in dollars, but in summer (we don't have aircon) I cover the usage and hence make a profit.
Sooooo, it all depends on what deal you can get and when you charge the car (hopefully dead of night when electricity is cheapest). Net metering now in NSW has change this equation dramatically and the calcs are much more complex.

So to really answer your question a 5kwh system should address your needs but much also depends on your location in Auckland (vs me in Newcastle) and the actual setup and angle degree of your solar panels. There are calculators online (most solar companies have them) that should give you some indication of how much you should expect based upon location.

Battery storage technology would change the value equation as you could use all solar power just for your Tesla. Hang on ....... the Tesla in a battery storage device - hmmmm if you could dynamically trickle charge the Tesla from the solar panels that would be cool. (Technical details of how this would work intentionally left out as I don't know how ).

 

[president_ltd]

Hi Guys,

I've got one of the major solar installers recommending a system for me based on my annual power consumption. Currently he is recommending a 5KW system based on my usage over the last year.

Do any of you know how much more I would need if I were to get a P85. It will be grid tied and feed power back into the grid and my charging is likely to be in the evening to morning.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

You're in NZ which is slightly further south of the equator, so its a little hard to give general advice, but assuming Auckland is a similar KW/m^2 irradiation as Melbourne Australia, you can look at my 5KW (4.86KW actual) system on pvoutput.org, which i've been uploading data to every 2 minutes for the last 3 years.
See <http://pvoutput.org/aggregate.jsp?id=1214&sid=940&v=0&t=m>

In short, a 5KW system in Melbourne generates on average 17-18kWh/day over the course of a year.
In summer it generates a lot more. In winter a lot less.

In Victoria Australia, there is a "Net PFIT" (Premium Feed in Tariff) system whereby generators are paid for excess energy they feed into the grid and get a premium for it. This is 'net' in that its only the excess that is sent back towards the grid, not the total generated, so the incentive is to "use less" energy to get a higher payback. The 'premium' part is that while typical peak-hour tariffs here are between 30-40c/kWh, they pay a rate of 60c/kWh for the net energy generated.
As a result of being on Net PFIT her, we are also on TOU (time of use) tariffing, which means we have either 2 or 3 'rates' on any given day: either peak/offpeak or peak/shoulder/offpeak. The energy retailing market here is deregulated so different retailers offer different things.
For us, "off peak" is midnight-7am Mon-Fri and all day Sat/Sun. Off-peak is ~11c/kWh compared to ~32c/kWh peak, so there is a lot of incentive to shift loads from peak to offpeak.
You can set the Tesla Model S to charge at certain times - e.g. line up overnight with the off-peak.

The neat thing here is that we could e.g. generate on average 17kWh/day and in our case, feed about 2/3rds of that back to the grid (17 x 67% x 60c/kWh = $6.73 credit/day) then at night consume (say) 60kWh charging a Tesla @ ~11c/kWh but with the benefit of that 17kWh generated turning into 60kWh of consumed energy back.

You'd need to see what the deal is in NZ with regard to PFIT etc and what makes sense.

 

[meloccom]

So my electrician came this morning to install my Tesla Wall Connector.
In the box is the Wall Connector, the steel mounting plate and a small box with two large self tapping bolts to hold the plate to the wall, an earth wire and the 2 smaller screws that attach the wall connector to its mounting plate.
Here we are at the head scratching phase:

First issue was how to drill the side hole from the inside as described in the manual using the indent as a guide. I'm not aware of any electric drill that can fit in that confined area and drill from the inside so we ended up removing the outer rubber cut-out piece first and drilling from the outside where there is no indent to guide you exactly where to use your hole saw. Geoff my electrician is a careful guy and after a number of measurements we drilled out the hole without damaging anything and he got the position spot-on.

Second issue, was with the largish self tapping screws supplied to attach the mounting plate to the wall. I think they may be designed for Gyprock\Dry Wall, not the masonry we were attaching this one to. He drilled 8mm holes and the bottm screw went in fine but the top screw snapped off one third of the way in! :cursing:

We replaced these with expanding masonry anchors that Geoff had in his truck and these worked a treat, you just have to cut the heads off after you tighten them.

The next bit went a bit over my head as Geoff was asking if the device was single phase or split phase so we rang Mitchell who confirmed it was single phase.
Here it is being wired up.

Once it's wired up, but before turning on the power you set the dip switches to your selected amp rating, 16 Amps in my case according to Mitchell as I have a 32 Amp Circuit Breaker. :-(
Next you attach the ribbon cable from the front fascia plate to its socket on the circuit board and clip the fascia in place, then secure it with the 2 Torx screws at the bottom.

Power on then press and hold the reset button for 5 seconds and the light on the front should come up with a solid green light. Mitchell tells me you shouldn't need to reset the connector every time you switch off the power it should only be an initial system check.

Like others I have an isolation switch adjacent to the connector so I can turn it off for emergencies or when not in use. My garage space is in a common garage area and I am not comfortable with a permanently glowing green light attracting curious visitors so I intend to turn it off when not in use. If you reading this Mitchell I would prefer if I could disable the green light except when actually charging allowing me to leave it powered on.
Here is the finished install that Tesla will be testing tonight if all our chakras align.

 

[timpoo]

Congrats man. Did your sparky tell you the isolator switch was required or was it just as you said, you preferred it?

 

[meloccom]

I actually wanted one but I think they are required by code as well.

 

[MangroveMike]

Congrats man. Did your sparky tell you the isolator switch was required or was it just as you said, you preferred it?

Mine also said it was required by our standards.

 

[JFK]

How much did the sparky charge?

 

[Dborn]

I installed a garden hose holder below the connector to give the cable something to coil around. Yes, the coach screws supplied in the box are meant to go into a stud wall.that is why the holes are to the right side and directly above each other. You are meant to use masonry bolts otherwise.

 

[meloccom]

How much did the sparky charge?

Don't know yet but it will be call out plus 3 hours, oh and 2 dynabolts.
The initial installation of the service was done about 3 years ago and cost about $3,500 as it involved a separate meter, cabling, cable trays etc. See my story here

- - - Updated - - -

Ok so Mitchell said he would bring back a "box" to plug my wall tester into and leave it overnight as part of the compliance testing of the Wall Connector. Here is a picture of the box a few minutes ago.

Pretty "box"! And no they did not leave me with the key. :crying: