Is there any point in installing a home charger?

[Jeeves]

You mean you don't miss being in a queue with half a dozen other people whilst they choose their sandwiches or sweets or asking how to use the self serve coffee machine .. and try to get out whilst pushing the door when you need to pull it ... and then realising you just got into your car with diesel on your shoes and then look across at the forecourt where someone is angrily blaring their horn because the car in front is being too slow pulling away from the pump ... why would you miss all that I wonder ... Yes, not visiting petrol stations is a big bonus!

Maybe I was a tad oblique in my description, but you express many undesirable facets of a service station most vividly.

 

[Feathermerchan]

It is strange to go to a gas station to buy a pretzel or hot dog.

 

[Neilman]

It is strange to go to a gas station to buy a pretzel or hot dog.

I wonder if you'd get into terrible trouble if you parked your Tesla at a petrol pump when going into petrol station to buy something from the shop?

 

[Feathermerchan]

No need. There is parking beside the store.

 

[ACarneiro]

This is poor thinking. Almost nothing in life is 100% safe, and few things are so dangerous you can't do them at all. So it's a matter of risk and how much risk you are prepared to take.

The granny charger is higher risk than a properly installed permanent chargepoint, but both are very low risk in the first place and so it may be that the slightly higher risk of the granny charger is still below your personal acceptance of risk.

There is also the question of how often you use it - if you use the granny charger a handful of times a year, but the permanent charger every day, then the added risk is minimal.

One analogy is with a spare tin of petrol for an ICE car. Filling up at a petrol station is lower risk than keeping a stash of petrol cans at home and filling up there - you'd think I was crazy to suggest that - but most of us are happy to use a spare tin once in a blue moon if we run out.

Some of the risks associated with the granny lead are higher in the general case - plugging it into the "average" socket around the UK - and can be lower (or higher) for the particular socket you happen to have chosen for your daily use.

Technical issues giving rise to the difference in risk include: earthing (most random 13A sockets will use a PME earth, forbidden for outdoor charging), type of RCD (most random sockets will have at best type AC and might not have RCD at all), contact quality of the 13A socket itself (most have limited life if used at full power every day, especially after they become worn from repeated plugging/unplugging), and the fact that the 13A plug/cable is live at the point of plugging/unplugging. So you could install a 13A socket specially for charging, make suitable earthing arrangements, fit a good RCD, choose a metal-clad socket of high quality to reduce overheating risk, and never unplug it to avoid wear - you'd now have a setup almost as safe as a dedicated chargepoint. But it would have cost you almost as much!


However, for me the decisive argument is not the safety issue but this: only one UMC came "free" with the car. Unless you buy another one, you either leave it permamently plugged in at home (in which case you will probably find you've forgotten to take it with you on a trip and cause yourself inconvenience worth well over £500), or else you unplug it, roll it up and stash in the boot every morning before setting off in the car, getting your hands dirty and wasting time (again, to me this is well worth £500 to avoid the trouble). Furthermore, this way you are relying on your UMC as your one and only means of charging: if it breaks (or perhaps "when", given you are using it every day) you are in big trouble. Conversely, with the permanently installed chargepoint you have your UMC always there in the boot for any emergency, including the case of your home chargepoint having broken down.

Subsidiary arguments include the fact that slow charging makes it hard to use off-peak electricity (both a cost driver and a green issue), winter time defrosting (where the 13A socket won't supply enough power to run the heater, so you will run down your main battery and lose range).

Welcome back, @arg

I’ve missed your posts!

 

[Adopado]

It is strange to go to a gas station to buy a pretzel or hot dog.

There's one I know where amongst all the other stuff they even sell soup! Waiting to pay for fuel whilst people buy soup for goodness sake! One to avoid around lunchtime. .. but ... ah, I don't need to do that anymore!

 

[LongRanger]

we have 3 or 4 locally that do fish and chips.

didn't get enticed up until now, that's not likely to change hen the car arrives

 

[dan223]

If your only charging 2/3 times a month with the UMC, then I don't think it is really an issue, it is more an issue for people that are charging daily or at least quite a few times a week. Tesla describe the UMC as a "backup" charger, it isn't designed to be used every day. In one of the owners facebook groups, I've seen quite a few people complain there UMC stopped working, this mean they have no means of charging other than finding a public point. Right now Tesla seem to be replacing them no questions ask, but possible that may not always be the case if they notice people are using them all the time, and I'm sure they could tell from the cars logs if that was the case, but it also becomes an issue when your out of warranty and end up spending out on replacing them.

You should look at a proper charge point as an investment, assuming your potentially going to live at your property for a while it will be worth it in the long run, the government grants are likely to disappear over time which will mean you will fork out more if you change your mind at a later date. Even if you don't see yourself staying at the property for a while it can maybe help sell your property/add value.

 

[ACarneiro]

It’s an integral part of the EV ownership, IMHO
I have two, one for my M3 and one for the housemate’s i3
We both commute over 100 miles so it’s a no brainer but even if we didn’t, I still would have installed them.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Two reasons:
1) Nerd level.

Clearly you don't _need_ a more powerful charger, but if you do get one, your low use means that you could be _very_ flexible with charging, have a smart charger and have nerdy fun with Octopus Agile.

If you like the idea of analysing your electricity usage to see what loads could be shifted, or you just like the idea of supporting renewable electricity you should investigate.

2) If you can charge faster you don't need to charge for as long. That means it would be easier for you normally to keep your battery at a lower state of charge like 50-60%, rather than charging to 90%.

 

[Mccreaj]

See I have an issue. I am due to receive my M3 on the 20th of August. My drive is actually behind my garden in a private car park. I have a garage but it is directly underneath a coach house which feeds the electrics of the garage and is lease hold (separate to my house). So my 2 options are have one installed front of house where electric box is located and charge across public footpath (I won’t be eligible for grant and safety issues) or contact lease company and discuss charging installation and then speaking to owners of coach house to get green light to feed wired across the car park. All both non starters for me. I have 4/5 rapids chargers within a mile of my home and a supercharger less than 5 miles. I’ve decided to sue these exclusively and see how I get on. Average probably 600 miles a month so lot much I guess. Having the LR should help reduction in charging needed.

 

[deftelf]

I've seen quite a few people complain there UMC stopped working, this mean they have no means of charging other than finding a public point. Right now Tesla seem to be replacing them no questions ask,

Quite right. There's no reason for them not to do this.

I don't know how you see companies that you've bought things from, but for me if something i bought stops working when it shouldn't have then I'm on their ass to fix the problem. In the first year for certain, but even after that for a reasonable time, and these things are hundreds of pounds, they should have a decent lifetime. If they were to act as you say they might, that would be horrendous customer service and highly likely to be breaching the Sale of Good Act.