Life without a home 240V charger

[DirtyT3sla]

I'm surprised you bought a Model X and don't want to spend a few hundred on a home charger. If you have time to kill and want to save the money supercharging, I kind of get it. But I feel your time is more valuable than the amount you'll save having to stop at the supercharger.

One of the best features of my Tesla is the fact that it's full every morning. I used to have to go to the gas station twice a week. That takes less than 5 minutes and I still hated it.

Depending on electricity costs, I'd seriously look into special rate plans with your electric company, and consider conveniencing yourself with home 240v charging. Also, 240v is more efficient, so you waste less (spend less) electricity with 240v charging.

 

[Happscrap]

In my humble opinion, it's a PITA to stop at a Supercharger daily. By charging at home, your life becomes much easier. My time is worth so much more than the "free Supercharging"

I haven't taken delivery of my 2020 Model X yet, and am still learning so don't bash me... lol ... But IMO
Supercharging for free might not work for some on a daily basis as it might be a waste of time. For me, I can either work from my office at home to finish the day or work from my car while getting a free charge 2 miles from my house. The MACBooK travels with me daily anyways, and I always have estimates to email.
I wont be SC daily as from what I'm reading its not good for the longevity of the battery. (could be older models, not really sure) but when I do I will be charging to maybe 80%

 

[jboy210]

I haven't taken delivery of my 2020 Model X yet, and am still learning so don't bash me... lol ... But IMO
Supercharging for free might not work for some on a daily basis as it might be a waste of time. For me, I can either work from my office at home to finish the day or work from my car while getting a free charge 2 miles from my house. The MACBooK travels with me daily anyways, and I always have estimates to email.
I wont be SC daily as from what I'm reading its not good for the longevity of the battery. (could be older models, not really sure) but when I do I will be charging to maybe 80%

I will be interested to see how you operate after a few months of this.

When I first got my X I thought Supercharging was pretty cool. But shortly thereafter I discovered that it was more of a hassle. A hassle worthwhile while on a trip, but no where near as convenient as charging at home. After a while I realized it was like charging your phone while traveling at an airport kiosk while waiting for a flight versus charging at home while you slept.

 

[mjptech]

In my humble opinion, it's a PITA to stop at a Supercharger daily. By charging at home, your life becomes much easier. My time is worth so much more than the "free Supercharging"

I will be interested to see how you operate after a few months of this.

When I first got my X I thought Supercharging was pretty cool. But shortly thereafter I discovered that it was more of a hassle. A hassle worthwhile while on a trip, but no where near as convenient as charging at home. After a while I realized it was like charging your phone while traveling at an airport kiosk while waiting for a flight versus charging at home while you slept.

If your home is next to a Supercharger, it's a no-brainer to take advantage of the Free Supercharging... I signed up for TeslaFi a few weeks after getting the X, so, not everything is in there (maybe a few hundred extra kWh missing)...

Even if I had to go a few miles out of the way, I would definitely be charging for free. Why pay when I don't have to?

Supercharging savings is based on my average electricity cost of around $0.24/kWh (woohoo for SCE)... No way will I ever charge at home.

 

[ewoodrick]

I haven't taken delivery of my 2020 Model X yet, and am still learning so don't bash me... lol ... But IMO
Supercharging for free might not work for some on a daily basis as it might be a waste of time. For me, I can either work from my office at home to finish the day or work from my car while getting a free charge 2 miles from my house. The MACBooK travels with me daily anyways, and I always have estimates to email.
I wont be SC daily as from what I'm reading its not good for the longevity of the battery. (could be older models, not really sure) but when I do I will be charging to maybe 80%

If it works for you, it works. But for those who charge at home, you realize how much of a pain it is.
Money doesn't play into it.
Going to a Supercharger requires you to go to a Supercharger. I know that statement sounds dumb, what I mean is that there is some part of your time that you have to spend on going to a Supercharger. It it is only 2 miles away from home, at a minimum, if you have to go out to charge, that's a few minutes to get there, you have to get out and plug in, then you have to get out and unplug and then go home. Let alone getting out the laptop and setting up and then watching the meter to see when you fill up and make sure that you don't get idle charges.

I pull into the garage as I get home, close the door, get out, plug in, and take 15 to 30 seconds.

It's as I often say, the advantage of an EV is not having to go to a gas station. I don't mean I don't use gas, I just never have to go to anything to fill the car. When you go to a Supercharger, you are effectively going to a filling station.

 

[jboy210]

If it works for you, it works. But for those who charge at home, you realize how much of a pain it is.
Money doesn't play into it.
Going to a Supercharger requires you to go to a Supercharger. I know that statement sounds dumb, what I mean is that there is some part of your time that you have to spend on going to a Supercharger. It it is only 2 miles away from home, at a minimum, if you have to go out to charge, that's a few minutes to get there, you have to get out and plug in, then you have to get out and unplug and then go home. Let alone getting out the laptop and setting up and then watching the meter to see when you fill up and make sure that you don't get idle charges.

I pull into the garage as I get home, close the door, get out, plug in, and take 15 to 30 seconds.

It's as I often say, the advantage of an EV is not having to go to a gas station. I don't mean I don't use gas, I just never have to go to anything to fill the car. When you go to a Supercharger, you are effectively going to a filling station.

Pretty much sums it up for me. The closest supercharger is about 4 miles for me. And in the parking lot of Home Depot and right across the street from InNOut and Chik-fil-a. So I sometimes use the charger when I go for hardware or food, or am heading out on a trip. But other than that a few secs to connect, followed by charging sometime in the middle of the night, and a few secs to disconnect wins out.

And maybe in a month when I get the solarglass roof and 2 powerwalls installed perhaps I won't even stop there when I am in the parking lot. After all my house will be adding those KWs to the Powerwalls, might as well use them to charge our cars rather than selling them at a low NEM2 rate to PG&E.

 

[redgt]

If your home is next to a Supercharger, it's a no-brainer to take advantage of the Free Supercharging... I signed up for TeslaFi a few weeks after getting the X, so, not everything is in there (maybe a few hundred extra kWh missing)...

Even if I had to go a few miles out of the way, I would definitely be charging for free. Why pay when I don't have to?

Supercharging savings is based on my average electricity cost of around $0.24/kWh (woohoo for SCE)... No way will I ever charge at home.

You sat in your car or did whatever for 37 hours to save $622?

and that is assuming you didn't go into a restaurant / store and spend any $$$

I don't think you guys understand what you are missing not having 240v home charging. Its a game changer as many have described above

 

[Happscrap]

If your home is next to a Supercharger, it's a no-brainer to take advantage of the Free Supercharging... I signed up for TeslaFi a few weeks after getting the X, so, not everything is in there (maybe a few hundred extra kWh missing)...

Even if I had to go a few miles out of the way, I would definitely be charging for free. Why pay when I don't have to?

Supercharging savings is based on my average electricity cost of around $0.24/kWh (woohoo for SCE)... No way will I ever charge at home.

I agree! The SC is on my way home and I can just make some business phone calls and email some estimates...
Its not out of my way at all and I do a lot of driving and that means a lot of charging.

 

[jboy210]

I agree! The SC is on my way home and I can just make some business phone calls and email some estimates...
Its not out of my way at all and I do a lot of driving and that means a lot of charging.

Sounds like Supercharging all the time will work for you. One word of caution, be sure to read up on people getting their Supercharge max rate capped with lot of Supercharging. Sounds like it is real.

 

[redgt]

model x owners with more time than money - who would have thought?

 

[mjptech]

You sat in your car or did whatever for 37 hours to save $622?

and that is assuming you didn't go into a restaurant / store and spend any $$$

I don't think you guys understand what you are missing not having 240v home charging. Its a game changer as many have described above

I can plug in and walk home if I wanted to... And return before it's done depending on how much I need to charge. Or, I can catch up on TV shows/Movies which I would have done eventually at home. Or do work. Many things that people do at home (or work) can be done sitting in the car these days. I can also bring the dog along and take him for a walk while the car charges.

Other times, if the wife or I need something from Whole Foods/Starbucks/Target/etc... I plug in, walk over, do my shopping and walk back.

model x owners with more time than money - who would have thought?

Bills aren't free. Supercharging is. Time = can do whatever I was going to do anyway since charging is not an inconvenience.

 

[rdskill]

Batteries don't like heavy charging or heavy discharging. Charging at home at a much lower rate than a supercharger will probably prolong the life and range of your battery.

EV's are probably in the near future be a combination of a super/ultra capacitor (1 Kw) and a large capacity battery. The super/ultra capacitor will handle accelerating and will recharge very quickly just from regen. Batteries will be much happier handling a constant moderate discharge.

Maxwell Technologies, that Tesla purchased last year, did 2 things very well.... Dry Li-Ion batteries (that hold up to 2 1/2 times the energy of wet Li-Ion batteries the same size) and Ultra Capacitors.

Oh.. and these super capacitors may end up in phones letting you fully charge your phone in seconds.

 

[eevee-fan]

Federal credit in the US should be 26% for installs completed in 2020.

Analysis: Trump solar tariffs cost 62K US jobs

US tariff ends 2021... looks like to counter the renewable tax credit... maybe see price in 2022 then decide?

 

[eevee-fan]

If your home is next to a Supercharger, it's a no-brainer to take advantage of the Free Supercharging... I signed up for TeslaFi a few weeks after getting the X, so, not everything is in there (maybe a few hundred extra kWh missing)...

Even if I had to go a few miles out of the way, I would definitely be charging for free. Why pay when I don't have to?

Supercharging savings is based on my average electricity cost of around $0.24/kWh (woohoo for SCE)... No way will I ever charge at home.

What's the time period for this savings? This looks like maybe 6-12 months, is that right?

It would probably be better to charge at 25% to 80%. This should take long enough to give you a cat nap while super charging.

 

[mjptech]

What's the time period for this savings? This looks like maybe 6-12 months, is that right?

It would probably be better to charge at 25% to 80%. This should take long enough to give you a cat nap while super charging.

Got the X in July, so, yup, just around 6-7 months of TeslaFi data. Not including today's charging session (22%-75%). Yup, typically doing around 25 to 80, though, depending on other plans, or the wife, I might cut the upper level short and try again next time.

Tonight, I watched most of episode 2 of Picard (since the wife doesn't watch Star Trek).

 

[jboy210]

Got the X in July, so, yup, just around 6-7 months of TeslaFi data. Not including today's charging session (22%-75%). Yup, typically doing around 25 to 80, though, depending on other plans, or the wife, I might cut the upper level short and try again next time.

Tonight, I watched most of episode 2 of Picard (since the wife doesn't watch Star Trek).

So, car + Supercharger = man cave ?

 

[ewoodrick]

I can plug in and walk home if I wanted to... And return before it's done depending on how much I need to charge. Or, I can catch up on TV shows/Movies which I would have done eventually at home. Or do work. Many things that people do at home (or work) can be done sitting in the car these days. I can also bring the dog along and take him for a walk while the car charges.

Other times, if the wife or I need something from Whole Foods/Starbucks/Target/etc... I plug in, walk over, do my shopping and walk back.


Bills aren't free. Supercharging is. Time = can do whatever I was going to do anyway since charging is not an inconvenience.

Again, you keep missing the point. When you Supercharge at home, you don't have to do anything.
While you are Supercharging, you are tied to the Supercharger. You have to stop. You don't have free ability to do anything that you want, sure, you can do a lot of things.

But let's just got to extremes, you probably shouldn't have sex with the wife at the Supercharger!

'nuff said.

 

[mjptech]

Again, you keep missing the point. When you Supercharge at home, you don't have to do anything.
While you are Supercharging, you are tied to the Supercharger. You have to stop. You don't have free ability to do anything that you want, sure, you can do a lot of things.

But let's just got to extremes, you probably shouldn't have sex with the wife at the Supercharger!

'nuff said.

Different charging experiences, expectations, and outcomes for everyone. For us, it works (I told the wife this morning I can always take the dog or baby (11 weeks) or both with me to the charger to give her a break next time and she is on board with that).

A friend that has a Model S also uses the superchargers exclusively - they live in the same neighborhood and experienced a massive uptick in their electric bill the first time they charged at home, so, they have never charged at their house in 3 years. Electricity and charging the X costs more than the 17 Q7 that my Dad has, or even my former 17 XC90 T8 - had the X not had free supercharging, I would not have purchased it.

Oh, and I'm sure I've seen people doing more than having sex at a supercharger before (before I was an owner)...

 

[Zaxxon]

Different charging experiences, expectations, and outcomes for everyone. For us, it works (I told the wife this morning I can always take the dog or baby (11 weeks) or both with me to the charger to give her a break next time and she is on board with that).

A friend that has a Model S also uses the superchargers exclusively - they live in the same neighborhood and experienced a massive uptick in their electric bill the first time they charged at home, so, they have never charged at their house in 3 years. Electricity and charging the X costs more than the 17 Q7 that my Dad has, or even my former 17 XC90 T8 - had the X not had free supercharging, I would not have purchased it.

Oh, and I'm sure I've seen people doing more than having sex at a supercharger before (before I was an owner)...

Sheesh--what is your electrical rate? There is virtually no chance that 'fueling' an X can possibly cost more than premium fuel for an XC90 T8 + electricity (that's what I came from, and at my rates of 11 cents/kWh it's far cheaper for the X), much less a Q7.

 

[jboy210]

Sheesh--what is your electrical rate? There is virtually no chance that 'fueling' an X can possibly cost more than premium fuel for an XC90 T8 + electricity (that's what I came from, and at my rates of 11 cents/kWh it's far cheaper for the X), much less a Q7.

Electricity rates in some parts of California run up to $0.50/KW. But you can get EV rates, or Time of Use rates that are considerably lower ($0.20 or less). And gas here can run $4/gal for the 92 octane required/recommended for most vehicles that are even remotely close to a Tesla's performance.

Here in NorCal I pay about $0.40/hr on summer evenings M-F from 4PM to 9PM. And after 9PM and on weekends the rate drops to $0.20. In fall, winter, and spring the rates are about $0.22 and $0.26. I charge about midnight so always pay the lower rate.