Just ordered my first Tesla - questions on charger

[sparkypete]

I've just ordered my Model S 75 - very excited!

With the old design studio there used to be an option for the high power charge option but that's now gone.

I will be getting the Tesla wall charger installed at home. Can the Model S now charge at a higher rate than before and if so is there a specific charger I should get?

 

[timk225]

Some variants of the Model S and X now come with the 72 amp charger as standard.

 

[wdolson]

The higher power AC charger option is now standard on the 100s and not available on the other versions.

The refresh standard charger is 48A, it was 40A on the original. Some people install just a 240V socket, but if you have the money, an HPWC is nice to have. You don't need to unpack the charging cables form the car, just plug in when you get home. The HPWC has a number of settings depending on the circuit you have. For the 48A charger, you will need a 60A circuit, code requires some overhead over the expected load.

 

[sparkypete]

The higher power AC charger option is now standard on the 100s and not available on the other versions.

The refresh standard charger is 48A, it was 40A on the original. Some people install just a 240V socket, but if you have the money, an HPWC is nice to have. You don't need to unpack the charging cables form the car, just plug in when you get home. The HPWC has a number of settings depending on the circuit you have. For the 48A charger, you will need a 60A circuit, code requires some overhead over the expected load.

Thanks - that's what I needed to know.

 

[Xenius]

@sparkypete if the money isn't an issue here, I'd suggest springing for the extra 50 bucks to get the longer cord on the HPWC (high power wall charger). It's 550 versus 500 if I recall. I'm in a tiny house, with a garage that we currently have full of crap so I can't park the tesla inside. It's nice to have the longer cord for an easy reach to the driveway.

 

[Shock-On-T]

+1 for the long cord. Definitely worth it unless you've got your parking/charging setup planned perfectly.

 

[wdolson]

I went with the longer cord too. The HPWC has to be on the right side of the car and the shorter cord was right on the edge of usability, if I pulled in a little far, or parked a few inches to the left, it might not reach comfortably. With the longer cord, I can also offer a charge to someone who wants to park in the driveway, though that situation hasn't come up.

 

[Peter Greis]

Question for the OP: Do the English Teslas take 240v 3-phase power as in Europe?

 

[sparkypete]

Question for the OP: Do the English Teslas take 240v 3-phase power as in Europe?

Yes they do, Peter

 

[sparkypete]

3-phase is not available at home though - only single. But 60A should be possible.

 

[Festerfeet]

Have you checked to see whether it is possible to get 3 phase depending on you distance to the three phase line cost could range from a few hundred quid to tens of thousands in the U.K?

 

[Zero CO2]

As others suggest If you get HPWC or other brand get the 24' cable ... I have 2 cars in narrow single lane driveway and I can park in 3/4 possible positions and still plug in the charger... the 8" cable would only allow 1 position

 

[KidDoc]

I have a question for those discussing faster home charging... why?

In 58,000 miles I have had one situation where I could have used a bit faster charging. How often do you drive 200+ miles and have to charge and drive 200+ more in less than 8 hours.. apart from road trip/supercharger situations. I have the 40 amp basic plug at home charges about 28 mph.

 

[LoL Rick]

It is not always about high power charging to full capacity. Sometimes you only have an hour and, for me, the difference is 28 miles vs. 56 miles in that hour. It doesn't happen very often, but I have had a few times where that made the difference between making the trip vs. calling and saying "I cannot be there because the car is charging."

 

[whitex]

I have a question for those discussing faster home charging... why?

In 58,000 miles I have had one situation where I could have used a bit faster charging. How often do you drive 200+ miles and have to charge and drive 200+ more in less than 8 hours.. apart from road trip/supercharger situations. I have the 40 amp basic plug at home charges about 28 mph.

It really depends on your driving pattern. For my wife, once a week or so she does a bunch of driving before noon(~120 miles), then back home for a bit, then bunch of driving in the afternoon. She actually noticed the difference between 40A and 48A on those days, especially when the car was a 60 and it was winter. Not a complete deal breaker, but it provides some extra buffer miles for the afternoon driving - piece of mind. I have a P85D with actually lower rated range than the 75D but faster charging at home (80A vs. the usual 40A) is only useful to me but once a year, if that.

 

[timk225]

If an HPWC is set to charge at 72 amps, and a Tesla with the 48 amp charger plugs into it, what happens? It just charges at 48 amps and nothing is damaged?

 

[Shock-On-T]

If an HPWC is set to charge at 72 amps, and a Tesla with the 48 amp charger plugs into it, what happens? It just charges at 48 amps and nothing is damaged?

Yes, exactly that.

 

[oktane]

Is there any efficiency lost with the longer charging cable?

 

[Mirlen]

Is there any efficiency lost with the longer charging cable?

Of course. Is it enough to worry about? No. The flexibility of the longer cable is nice, if I'm in a rush and don't want to pull in the garage I can back up to it and charge, or if I want the car outside the garage I can charge while I do something to the care while it's out in brighter light. I'm happy I got the longer cable. Shorter would be a little less hassle, but it's not that big of a deal since it just wraps around the top and hangs down a bit.

 

[wdolson]

Is there any efficiency lost with the longer charging cable?

Not really. A large gauge copper cable (around 2 cm in diameter) like this has a power loss of about 10 W for a 24 foot cable. An 8 foot cable is about 3 W. When the car is charging at 10+ KW, that's down in the noise. I have never felt the cable even get warm, it usually feels a little cool to the touch unless the ambient temperature (hot summer day) is high. If outside in the sun the cable would probably absorb more heat from the sun than losses from the current flowing through it.