-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
If you park your car in your driveway where is your home charger?
- Thread starter golfwolf
- Start date
HerdJC
Member
I have mine mounted inside my garage, but I bought a Spigen brand device that protects the cable from the door shutting directly on it. Has worked like a charm.
ElectricAnt54
Active Member
My 48amp openEVSE unit is attached to side of house exterior along the driveway. It has 25 foot cable too. I use a j1772 to tesla adapter but will replace chord with native NACs when available. as is case with all outside rated units, if they are in direct sun and it is a hot summer day it is likely the unit will drop to lower amps due to heat building up. I am going to experiment with making a small blocker in front of the evse so it doesn’t get pounded by sun in the rare event I need high amp charging during the few hours where sun hits the unit.
tradosaurus
Member
Never understood those who fill their garage with junk and then leave their $40K+ vehicle outside.
Mateo83
Active Member
In my little gated neighborhood, there are at least 5 Teslas now, and they may all be less than a year old. One of them, a grey MYP, always sits outside next to two ICE vehicles. (The garage must be full.) There is a wire coming out of the garage, just under that door next to the MYP, going to the charge port. I suspect a Mobile charger, but not sure how to tell by looking at it. It's been charging like that since at least last spring. My neighbor and I both had Tesla wall chargers installed inside our garages. Not sure about the house with a Model X and a Model 3.
Not all of us live in big houses with multiple spacious garages. I live in a townhouse and yes, use some of the garage as storage space. The garage itself isn't all that wide to begin with so squeezing a Y would risk scratching my door when I get out. Better to be safe and park it outside. I picked up some of those wire protectors so hopefully they'll work when I charge outside.
gtae07
Member
Garages are far too versatile to be used for just storing a vehicle. I go around my neighborhood and see workshops, weight rooms, an "outdoor" kitchen, bar with pool table, hair studio, and more.
Seriously, if people were really supposed to park in them every house would have a four or five car garage with each bay being 12x24 or so, so you can actually get in and out of the vehicles. Figure two cars, plus bikes and sporting goods, plus some workshop space and the second fridge.
But, we don't have basements down here in the south (and especially not near the coast) so garages fill the role(s) that basements probably do in other places.
tradosaurus
Member
I think its people who can't rid of junk. I have a two car carport with a small storage room attached that has my water well in it.
I organize my tools in the storage room with shelves to organize items. If it doesn't fit I don't need it.
fholbert
Active Member
Several years ago my wife started crowding me out of our 2 car garage, I drove a full sized SUV. For some reason her “treasures“ were being placed on my side of the garage.
She got a Tuff Shed for Valentines Day.
Seems like an odd way to decide what you need........Regardless, I do agree that a lot of people seem to never park their car in the garage, even here with nasty winter weather. But, I understand that if you've got a full size vehicle, a lawn mower, a weed whacker, a snow blower, an assortment of rakes and shovels, and an extra set of (seasonal) tires, it can get pretty cramped. My garage was, until I got it enlarged. Now it's a tight 2 car garage that I use just for my MY, my outdoor tools, and my little wood lathe in the corner. (I never use the lathe when the car's in the garage.)
fholbert
Active Member
Minimization of stuff is a particularly difficult lesson for most people. We downsized by selling our house and everything in it, and then lived in our Airstream trailer for almost a year. Not much storage there. Now that we're back in sticks and bricks with a 3-car garage, we're dedicated to keeping it as empty of junk as possible, resisting the urge to accumulate as fiercely as we can. We park our car in one bay, leave the second bay empty for drying laundry or for whatever (very) short-term project we need it for at the moment, and put our weakness - two bicycles each - in the third.
As for our charging situation, we have a Wall Connector mounted close to the garage door. We charge inside the garage, but have verified that on an as-needed temporary basis we could indeed charge a Tesla (or other EV) in the driveway by running a cable under the garage door and defending it with a 1x3 board placed on the ground under the garage door as it closes. If we were doing this on a continuous basis, we'd do as has been suggested here - run the charging cable through the wall via a length of PVC pipe with a simple door on the outside and a section of pool noodle in the PVC to keep the weather (hot or cold) out of the garage. We would not be willing to put the Wall Connector outside. Yeah, it would probably be fine and could be programmed to only charge cars I want to charge, but I don't want that thing exposed long-term to the weather and to knuckleheads who might drive past our house and get interested. OTOH, it would be acceptable to put a weatherproof NEMA 14-50 outlet outside and use a weather-resistant mobile charger as needed. When the outlet isn't in use, simply turn off the breaker so nobody can "borrow" current from your 50-amp outlet when you're not around.
TL:DR
Member
I'll move my junk to the driveway. Good idea, thanks.
The cold and snow of the great white north can indeed be rough on gear, though peak summer in the desert southwest and Florida can be pretty ferocious as well. We're probably over-cautious, but we have the opportunity to mount the gear inside, so we do. Glad to hear your solution is working well for you!
