Ideal amps for charging long range model 3 at home

[golfpilot]

I bought a used mobile connector for $250. I use that as my home charger. Anything that charges your car overnight is ideal. If you park the car outside in the northeast you need more power to do this than someone who parks their car in 70 degree weather year around. 16-40 amps spreading to 7.1 thousand batteries is going to create very little heat. So really the best charger is the one that you have. A plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla.
I personally have my mobile connector plugged into a Nema plug with all the wiring to it setup for a wall connector. I have 3 electric cars and thought I might need to do a two wall connector setup. My particular situation I only need one car charging on the 32 amp at a time. The Prius plugs into a 110v and the Rav4 is used so little and only when the Tesla stays at home.

 

[hcdavis3]

you need the flux capacitors for that option, and flux only comes with HW4, which Elon has promised to anyone he thinks of, but only after Starman is upgraded.

Dammit Big. I went an Amazon and searched for Flux Capacitors and my search came up with nada. I’m pretty sure I have HW5.5. My firmware is 2030.5.15.

 

[eprosenx]

I bought a used mobile connector for $250. I use that as my home charger. Anything that charges your car overnight is ideal. If you park the car outside in the northeast you need more power to do this than someone who parks their car in 70 degree weather year around. 16-40 amps spreading to 7.1 thousand batteries is going to create very little heat. So really the best charger is the one that you have. A plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla.
I personally have my mobile connector plugged into a Nema plug with all the wiring to it setup for a wall connector. I have 3 electric cars and thought I might need to do a two wall connector setup. My particular situation I only need one car charging on the 32 amp at a time. The Prius plugs into a 110v and the Rav4 is used so little and only when the Tesla stays at home.

I totally agree.

The one caveat I would throw out there is that if it gets cold in the winter you really want a sufficient amperage supply to pre warm your car and battery off of “shore power “. I live I Portland Oregon where it does not get that cold but I park my car outside. In the winter when I first fire up my car to pre heat the cabin and the battery, it can max my 48a wall connector for a short period of time. I would not want to live somewhere cold without at least a 32a 208/240v connection personally. I hate burning battery to pre warm a car.

 

[kbellairs]

The point of the breaker seems to be to protect your wires, not a device attached. If your house has 14 gauge wires your breakers have to be no more than 15A. If you go up to 12 gauge you can use 20A breakers. You might have a single 4W LED lamp on a 20A breaker - no problem. If the device needs protection it has its own fuse. No problem having one 100A breaker for all the outlets in your house if you want to wire the whole house with 6 gauge wire. Of course it if trips the whole house goes off.

Anyway, hire an electrician so you're covered if the garage burns down with a Tesla in it.

 

[gfunkdave]

Pretty sure that’s backwards. Violates code to put a higher rated receptacle than the circuit is protected for. Trouble if you put a 50 amp receptacle on a 40 amp breaker. But you could have a 40A socket on 60A breaker.

You can actually put a 14-50 on a 40A breaker (this is very common for electric ranges - my kitchen stove plugs into a 14-50 on a 40A breaker) because there is no such thing as a 14-40. You can use the next socket size up in that case.

But you also can't put a smaller socket on a larger breaker - as has been pointed out, you need to make sure that the breaker protects the lowest-rated device in the circuit.

 

[jcal0820]

I’ve got an electrician coming in this week (have to revamp the entire circuit breaker anyway), and will be installing a dedicated 14-50 for the car in the garage. Plan on just using the provider mobile charger for now. So, from what I’m reading, I should expect 32A max, even though it should be able to accommodate up to 50A? Just trying to confirm given what’s shown here on the 240V adapter for the mobile charger....

 

[eprosenx]

I’ve got an electrician coming in this week (have to revamp the entire circuit breaker anyway), and will be installing a dedicated 14-50 for the car in the garage. Plan on just using the provider mobile charger for now. So, from what I’m reading, I should expect 32A max, even though it should be able to accommodate up to 50A? Just trying to confirm given what’s shown here on the 240V adapter for the mobile charger....

View attachment 466144

Hahaha, yes, welcome to the fun world of EV charging, UL ratings, and the National Electrical code.

Key points:

You will install a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. Your intended load is a UMC Gen 2 which will charge the car at 32 amps. Due to the "continuous load" designation of EV charging, you must upsize the wire and the breaker by 25%, so you need a minimum of a 40 amp circuit. Technically this could be done with 8 AWG copper wire, but I am going to always recommend 6 AWG copper wire and that you put in a 50 amp circuit. In the future you (or a future owner) might want to use that receptacle for an EV charger that draws a full 40 amp (requiring a 50a circuit).

Now the fun part:

It is fascinating that Tesla labels the adapter with 30a even though it does show it is charging at 32 amps (I think it actually charges about half an amp lower pretty consistently, I suspect that is on purpose). I actually have a really old adapter that was labeled as 32 amps. Somewhere along the way early on Tesla chose to re-label them as 30 amps and they were not very forthcoming as to why when I pressed them on it. I *think* it has something to do with how they are certified. I suspect the UL test procedure requires them to test to 10% higher than their label (assuming that devices were not very precise in how much current they draw). They are also given leeway in how close to the labeled output they need to be to stay within the amount that it was certified at plus 10%. In the digital age, Tesla can very precisely control how much actual current is drawn, so I think they are playing a game here. They said "fine, we will label them and have them certified at 30 amps, test them at 33 amps, and then actually draw about 31.5 amps" which is inside the allowable window for UL.

Have your electrician follow this guide:

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default.../NEMA_14-50_installation_guide_NA_US_2017.pdf

Clear as mud?

Good luck!

 

[Scrannel]

Yes, just installed dedicated 14/50 NEMA myself (using 6 AWG) and the charge rate is actually very good. I think OP you will find it, based on your needs, a perfect solution.

 

[gilscales]

Not sure if I'm allowed to link this, but it suggests 32A is the best efficiency...

Is charging on a 110v outlet cheaper than a Nema 14-50? : teslamotors

I haven't verified their data, either.

I can tell you that my HPWC I have is installed on a 50A circuit set for a 40A charge rate but rarely do I leave it that high, normally 30A is where I set it, I have set it to many levels from 12 to 40 in 126 charges and I found no correlation in efficiency as I average around 93% no matter the amperage, yes there are several charges that registered much lower and a bit higher but they are spread evenly between lower and higher amp charges.

 

[jcal0820]

Thanks for all the detailed advice, great info to to over when the work gets started. And what does AWC stand for?

 

[jcal0820]

..actually, got all the info. Going to set up for 50A max circuit on 6 AWG wiring, opening for option to install a dedicated wall charger later on. For now, just planning on using the mobile charger that came w the car, has the NEMA 14-50 adapter.

 

[derotam]

..actually, got all the info. Going to set up for 50A max circuit on 6 AWG wiring, opening for option to install a dedicated wall charger later on. For now, just planning on using the mobile charger that came w the car, has the NEMA 14-50 adapter.

Make sure the electrician installs the 14-50 outlet in the correct orientation for the cord(ground at the top), so that the cord hangs down as intended.

 

[Rocky_H]

And what does AWC stand for?

I haven't seen AWC. Perhaps you meant AWG? Here are some of these acronyms that are similar:
AWG = American Wire Gauge, it is a number scale for wire thickness.
UMC = Universal Mobile Connector, it is the Tesla mobile charging cable.
HPWC = High Power Wall Connector, they did later change the name to just TWC for Tesla Wall Connector.

 

[yourrealdad]

Hello,
First post and am picking up our first Tesla tomorrow. Model 3.
Instead of starting a new thread it seems like I could slightly highjack this one.

My house has a 6-50 240v outlet in the garage. I have bought the 6-50 NEMA adapter.

Can I just use the mobile adapter that comes with the car as my home charger? Sounds like I will pull 30-32 amps and 30mph

Am I missing something or is the only need for the mobile charger being in the car for charging at an RV park or another house? If I can just find Superchargers and EV charge stations I just need to have the J1772 adapter in the car.

If I am going on a road trip then I can just put the mobile charger in the car.

Any issues with this plan

 

[gilscales]

None

 

[mreynolds767]

Hello,
First post and am picking up our first Tesla tomorrow. Model 3.
Instead of starting a new thread it seems like I could slightly highjack this one.

My house has a 6-50 240v outlet in the garage. I have bought the 6-50 NEMA adapter.

Can I just use the mobile adapter that comes with the car as my home charger? Sounds like I will pull 30-32 amps and 30mph

Am I missing something or is the only need for the mobile charger being in the car for charging at an RV park or another house? If I can just find Superchargers and EV charge stations I just need to have the J1772 adapter in the car.

If I am going on a road trip then I can just put the mobile charger in the car.

Any issues with this plan

Yeah, your plan is perfectly fine.
Some like the added security of another mobile adapter to always be on the car, no different than a spare tire I guess.

I think most enter the home charging question not as fortunate to already have a proper outlet in their garage.

 

[yourrealdad]

Awesome,

Thank you for the quick replies. Can't wait to dig in on all the settings with the car.

 

[Rocky_H]

My house has a 6-50 240v outlet in the garage. I have bought the 6-50 NEMA adapter.

Can I just use the mobile adapter that comes with the car as my home charger? Sounds like I will pull 30-32 amps and 30mph

Am I missing something or is the only need for the mobile charger being in the car for charging at an RV park or another house? If I can just find Superchargers and EV charge stations I just need to have the J1772 adapter in the car.

If I am going on a road trip then I can just put the mobile charger in the car.

I think you understand those issues really well. For normal driving around town, it would be really unusual to use up more than 200 miles in a day, so you don't need to have the charging cable in the car every day. And as you noticed, it is only for plugging into outlets. Superchargers and public charging stations wouldn't even use it, so even if you did need charging away from home, that's already covered. So yes, just a few times a year for out of town trips would be when you might need it. I've been going 5+ years that way, with the mobile cable hanging on my garage wall.

 

[toolman335]

I don't speak the language of electricity that you all do. I installed the 14-50 with a Juicebox at home. On 240/32 amps it charges right on the nose at 36 mph. That is PLENTY of power.

 

[mreynolds767]

I don't speak the language of electricity that you all do. I installed the 14-50 with a Juicebox at home. On 240/32 amps it charges right on the nose at 36 mph. That is PLENTY of power.

Yeah, I don't think anyone needs more than 32 AMPS going to the car. I have the Wall Connector with a 60 AMP breaker so sending 48 AMPS but is not a necessity and given I charge overnight my charging habits would not change in the slightest using 32.

I installed the wall connector with 60 AMPS as my electrician was going to charge the same labor either way and if I ever add a 2nd Telsa it will be easy to install a 2nd Wall Connector and share the circuit/power.