Leaving at train station 3-4 nights every week, bad idea?

[EVTrain]

We're considering getting a used Long Range Model 3. Not sure if my use-case is a good fit for a Tesla or not.

I'll be using it to regularly take me 60 miles to the train station, where I'll leave it for 3-4 nights, before coming back to drive it 60 miles home.

The train station has 2 ChargePoint chargers and a garage. No idea if the garage has 110 outlets or not. I gather I should not leave it plugged into the ChargePoints while I'm gone. Looks like there is a SuperCharger on the way home (~10 miles from the train station), not sure if it's a good idea to plan to supercharge every week.

Located in upstate NY so it will get cold at times.

Looking into getting a Level 2 charger of some sort at home. 30amps is reasonable, not sure about 50.

I won't typically need the car right away after getting home.

How do folks think this will work out for me? Will it be really annoying or work out just fine?

 

[365gtb4]

You should be fine. Just leave home with 90% charge. I've left my S a month unplugged. Expect to lose a few miles of range each day. Get the 50amp circuit, the cost increase is negligible over the 30amp.

 

[EVTrain]

You should be fine. Just leave home with 90% charge. I've left my S a month unplugged. Expect to lose a few miles of range each day. Get the 50amp circuit, the cost increase is negligible over the 30amp.

Well, I may be able to use the DryerBuddy to get the 30amp hooked up. 50amp might require service and box upgrades. (Haven't talked to an electrician yet)

 

[jjrandorin]

We're considering getting a used Long Range Model 3. Not sure if my use-case is a good fit for a Tesla or not.

I'll be using it to regularly take me 60 miles to the train station, where I'll leave it for 3-4 nights, before coming back to drive it 60 miles home.

The train station has 2 ChargePoint chargers and a garage. No idea if the garage has 110 outlets or not. I gather I should not leave it plugged into the ChargePoints while I'm gone. Looks like there is a SuperCharger on the way home (~10 miles from the train station), not sure if it's a good idea to plan to supercharge every week.

Located in upstate NY so it will get cold at times.

Looking into getting a Level 2 charger of some sort at home. 30amps is reasonable, not sure about 50.

I won't typically need the car right away after getting home.

How do folks think this will work out for me? Will it be really annoying or work out just fine?

Long as you get home charging of some sort (30amps would be perfectly fine), and leave home with a car charged to 80-90%, I dont think you would have much of an issue at all. The only issue might be if you also wanted to leave sentry mode on 24/7 while you were gone, and were in the middle of winter.

 

[Frank99]

30 amps will been fine; just like a 50amp circuit, you’ll plug in in the evening and it’ll be fully charged by morning.
I don’t know what kind of vampire losses you can expect when parked outside during a New York January cold spell; one of our resident experts will have to chime in. That said, you certainly shouldn’t have any issue 90% of the time, and for those those times when the forecast says “cold…real cold”, you might consider hitting the supercharger on the way to the train station, so you can park with the battery full.

 

[ATPMSD]

When parked, you will lose about 5 kWh / day with Sentry mode on, and about 1 kWh / day when it is off.

 

[RayK]

My only concern would be the security coverage inside the parking garage. Is there a regular patrol that checks up on the vehicles? And a way for them to contact you in case they find any problem?

You should be fine Supercharging the car once a week, if you really need to do so in order to make it home. Just don't fully charge it to 100% unless you are planning to leave right away and it's the only way for you to complete your trip non-stop. Check to see if there are any more Superchargers between your home and the train station; you may have other options besides the one 10 miles out.

 

[Aphelion]

wouldn't KW's make more sense than amps when discussion charger specs?

 

[LoL-Gas]

I would turn sentry off and lay the back seats down so people can see into the trunk from the back window. Some criminals were breaking the back corner glass to lay the back seats down to look into the trunk. Leaving the seats down allows them to peek in and see that it's empty.

 

[Chuq]

I notice no-one has mentioned the concern of leaving it plugged in to a public charger for days on end. Could be seen as hogging/blocking the charger from others?

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I would think an LR doing 120 miles round trip, and sitting for 3-4 days, even in cold weather, would have plenty of buffer[?]

I just recently did 260 miles, with just a full day parked, and only needed 15 minutes at an L3 (same place we parked a few weeks ago, we only lost a couple of % over 4 days). Of course, that's in Florida 85-90° weather

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I notice no-one has mentioned the concern of leaving it plugged in to a public charger for days on end. Could be seen as hogging/blocking the charger from others?

Yeah, I'd review the rules work for long term public parking in that garage, honestly, I would've even worry about charging. They said they're going to do at least a 30a, maybe a 50a at home.

 

[bo3bdar]

For a LR model, I don't think you'd ever run into any problems in that scenario. And I've even leave Sentry Mode enabled while it's parked at the train station. For 4 days you won't lose enough charge to matter at all.

Not worth plugging in at the train station, and also unnecessary. Unless they have something specific like a 120V outlet specifically for the purpose of longer parking, I'd just skip that at the station.

If you ever get a scenario where it's too cold, the car will shut off Sentry Mode automatically at 20% charge, which would still leave you plenty to get to the SuperCharger. I don't foresee you having any problems.

 

[PianoAl]

I notice no-one has mentioned the concern of leaving it plugged in to a public charger for days on end. Could be seen as hogging/blocking the charger from others?

Yeah, that should not be done.

 

[Big Earl]

I notice no-one has mentioned the concern of leaving it plugged in to a public charger for days on end. Could be seen as hogging/blocking the charger from others?

OP mentioned it.

I gather I should not leave it plugged into the ChargePoints while I'm gone.

 

[JPWhite]

I notice no-one has mentioned the concern of leaving it plugged in to a public charger for days on end. Could be seen as hogging/blocking the charger from others?

The OP already mentioned he had learned that was not cool to do. So why repeat what he already knows?

 

[rpiotro]

wouldn't KW's make more sense than amps when discussion charger specs?

Just a different way of expressing the same thing. 32 Amps @ 240V = 7.68 kW. Always. Amps is used as that is the determining factor for a home charger. Total load, wiring size etc.

 

[Aphelion]

Just a different way of expressing the same thing. 32 Amps @ 240V = 7.68 kW. Always. Amps is used as that is the determining factor for a home charger. Total load, wiring size etc.

Maybe it's just a US thing but we work with KWs here, calculating amps if needed.

My home is three phase 240v power so I can get good juice out of that. My aircon is like 400v / 10KW (input).

Can't wait to get my 11KW Zappi charger.

 

[EVTrain]

[Update]
I got a 30 amp charger installed at home. In normal weather I'm able to just charge to 80%, park at the station for a week, and come home with ~20% left. No need to stop along the way. Lately we've been getting some very cold weather ( < 0F). For this weather I've been charging to 100% the night before, and I'm able to get to the station, leave it for a week and get home with ~ 20% left (maybe more?). Again, no need to charge along the way. It's all working quite well. Thanks for the advice everyone!