Looking at the used market for a Tesla Model S

[vitesse]

Pretty much old hat now the CCS adapter is about to become available.

I'm not sure I can justify £600-odd for the car mod plus the adapter, sadly. Even a Chademo is around £250, if you are lucky, second hand on eBay.

I had optimistically noted in the Tesla account documents there were instructions for a Chademo adapter, but others also report this so it's not an indicator that a Chademo has been fortuitously bundled with your car

 

[DJP31]

I'm not sure I can justify £600-odd for the car mod plus the adapter, sadly. Even a Chademo is around £250, if you are lucky, second hand on eBay.

I think I read it was £450 including the adapter, but still a chunk of change I agree. Depends on your driving pattern too, if longer distances are a rarity and known routes where you can plan SuC stops then don’t worry about it.

I took a ‘belt & braces’ approach and in 2 years / 30k miles have used my CHAdeMO 3 or 4 times. Each time worth it’s weight in gold though.

 

[vitesse]

Good morning - it appears the charging stopped half an hour after I went to bed as about 50 miles range was added in total and it was about 40 when I last looked. So off to South Mimms Supercharging later today!

@arg It says 16A again, though of course it's not actually charging. I'll try the UMC as well just to see how it compares with my friend's supply from yesterday when using the UMC.

 

[gangzoom]

I'm not sure I can justify £600-odd for the car mod plus the adapter, sadly. Even a Chademo is around £250, if you are lucky, second hand on eBay.

CCS is going to become the mainstream DC charging setup in the EU. Think BlueRay versus HD-DVD.

Though like both it may all be irrelevant as long as Tesla keeps on expanding the Supercharger network.

I looked up the Instavolt DC charging costs yesterday, 35p per kWh, Shell wants 39p per kWh.

Fastned who supplying 350KW+ chargers want €0.59 per kWh, so to add 60kWh to our 75D X thats €35 Euros!!

I know thats still 'cheaper' than petrol but when I can access Tesla Superchargers for free forever on our X why would I pay that amount??

In 34k of use across UK, travel in France, I've never come across a situation where I didn't have the range to access a Tesla Supercharger, nor have needed to use any public DC charging service apart from Tesla.

So am now rethinking the CCS retrofit, am just too cheap to pay for public rapid charging when I can get free from Tesla.

 

[gangzoom]

Good morning - it appears the charging stopped half an hour after I went to bed as about 50 miles range was added in total and it was about 40 when I last looked. So off to South Mimms

Why not just use the UCM with 3 pin plug?

Thats how our X is charging now whilst am visiting in the laws in London. Its slow but since arriving yesterday its added 40% SOC, by the time we are ready to leave later today the car will be over 90% SOC, all via 3 pin plug .

 

[vitesse]

Why not just use the UCM with 3 pin plug?

Thats how our X is charging now whilst am visiting in the laws in London. Its slow but since arriving yesterday its added 40% SOC, by the time we are ready to leave later today the car will be over 90% SOC, all via 3 pin plug .

Yes, will be using the UMC today for research reasons, and used it for a couple of hours yesterday at our friends' place because they wanted to see it working, but UMC-only won't be enough in the time we have today. It's all fascinating, though - despite things not working 100%.

I'm also trying to get to grips with speed limit sign recognition

 

[vitesse]

I physically reconnected and its been charging OK far about an hour now. Isd droppingdown to 222V @32A a sign of a problem? It fluctuates between 222V and 230V.

Update, still going but voltage now dipping as low as 218V

 

[arg]

UK voltage is 230V +10%/-6% so 253V to 216V at the meter, and you are allowed a further 5% for voltage drop within your installation, so anything above 205V is within limits. So the numbers you are seeing are not a problem in themselves: all the equipment should be working normally at these voltages.

Model S in fact has wide voltage tolerance (especially the pre-facelift versions which share the charger module design with Superchargers) since charging in the USA uses a mixture of 240V, 208V and 120V nominal voltages.

However, low voltage can be a symptom of actual problems. If it starts high and falls significantly as you start charging, that suggests there's significant voltage drop in the circuit feeding the charger - maybe legitimate if it's a very long cable (you see this often at public chargepoints in a carpark a long way away from the source of supply), maybe indicating a serious problem with a high-resistance connection if the cable run is short.

In your case, it seems the voltage is always fairly low; the fluctuations might indicate an impending problem somewhere in the supply network, but not as yet sufficient to cause any actual problems.

 

[vitesse]

@arg As usual, thank you for the very informative post The friend we visited yesterday used to be an electrician and, incidentally, did much of the work to install his PV panels at his home 8 years ago and is seriously looking at an EV. He speculated that the low voltage relative to his supply was a possible clue to the problems I'm having with the ROLEC.

It did manage to charge the car without a break this morning (from about 60-90%) but last night it stopped for no apparent reason several times and as previously mentioned the ROLEC box made a very loud buzzing noise while charging at one point and has been giving up after a few minutes of charging. The box also goes 'clack' when charging starts. Not sure if that is normal. It's clearly not right and I've already emailed the company that supplied and fitted the box.

On the other hand, we're visiting our daughter in central London today and the journey in was 54 miles and consumption averaged just 257W/mile. Very pleased with that.

I've not charged it to 100% yet but at 90% it reckons the range is 200 miles. For a 70D that's not great from what I have read. The norm seems to be 215-218. But I don't really know if my figure is directly comparable. Still learning!

 

[jaitch]

My P90D has a 90% typical range of 216 to 221. I am sure it has dropped in the few weeks I have had it. Rated range (not typical) though on 100% is 300 versus 315 originally (from what I can work out). So 5% drop - which is normal from what I can tell too for a 3 year old 35 k miles. I just remind myself of this when I am convinced my battery is duff and on the way out! It seems there are various confusing ways to work out battery capacity (some of which are incorrect depending on who is talking about which range).

My actual range is way less than typical cause I keep booting it!

James

 

[vitesse]

I recently joined a UK Tesla owners group on Facebook and posted a photo and the previous owner of our 70D recognised his old car

 

[tpnicho]

I recently joined a UK Tesla owners group on Facebook and posted a photo and the previous owner of our 70D recognised his old car

I didn't know about this so have just sent my request to join, i am 8 weeks in to my Tesla ownership!

 

[WannabeOwner]

My Sparky says that there is a newer RCD available for my (old style) Rolec that he recommends fitting to stop it tripping. It doesn't trip often, but of course when its does its a) in the middle of the night and b) a PITA.

I have TeslaFi schedule set, when charging at Work, to notify me if below expected %age. Based on charge rate per hour I have set alerts 1 hours before departure, 2 hours before ... etc. back to about lunch time if the charge is below the minimum where I could get up to 90% by departure time. On days when i arrive at the normal time it has normally finished charging by lunch time, so the False-Alerts I get are pretty much non-existent (i..e arrive too late to fully charge anyway), but I have had a couple when the Rolec has tripped

Dunno if it is worth dialling-down the AMPs to reduce the strain ... but sounds like it was on 16AMP for a while and still tripped ...

Since read on another thread that you have 60AMP master fuse, and are looking into getting that uprated to 100AMP

 

[vitesse]

My Sparky says that there is a newer RCD available for my (old style) Rolec that he recommends fitting to stop it tripping. It doesn't trip often, but of course when its does its a) in the middle of the night and b) a PITA.

I have TeslaFi schedule set, when charging at Work, to notify me if below expected %age. Based on charge rate per hour I have set alerts 1 hours before departure, 2 hours before ... etc. back to about lunch time if the charge is below the minimum where I could get up to 90% by departure time. On days when i arrive at the normal time it has normally finished charging by lunch time, so the False-Alerts I get are pretty much non-existent (i..e arrive too late to fully charge anyway), but I have had a couple when the Rolec has tripped

Dunno if it is worth dialling-down the AMPs to reduce the strain ... but sounds like it was on 16AMP for a while and still tripped ...

Since read on another thread that you have 60AMP master fuse, and are looking into getting that uprated to 100AMP

The finger of suspicion is now pointing at the house's main fuse, which is apparently 60A and should be 100A. I'm not sure how this would cause instability in the charging but I'm not an electrician. The fuse has not blown (that would black out the entire house!). UK Power Networks will upgrade the main fuse FOC but only after they have been reassured that the 'tails' on the consumer unit and the meter are at the required 25mm spec. I'm hoping to have that info ASAP so I can book an appointment with UKPN to upgrade the main fuse. In the mean time I will use the UMC on 10A at home. I do have the latest ROLEC. I don't want to abuse the amazing fountain of knowledge electrical that is @arg but would welcome some comment

 

[arg]

The finger of suspicion is now pointing at the house's main fuse, which is apparently 60A and should be 100A. I'm not sure how this would cause instability in the charging but I'm not an electrician.

Your gut feeling is correct. This is nonsense. The value of that fuse will have no effect on anything unless it blows.

If your installation is anything other than fairly new, the tails are unlikely to be adequate for a 100A fuse, and changing them is a royal pain, unless you already had an isolator switch fitted to simplify the original chargepoint installation: the tails from meter to consumer unit are yours, and your responsibility to upgrade, but you aren't allowed to touch the seals on the meter; the tails from meter to service head belong to the electricity supplier (or their meter operator). So you need to get the meter operator and your own electrician on site at the same time to effect the swap - or get the isolator switch such that the two sides can be done separately. Actual parts are a couple of quid, it's the logistics that's the issue.

Whether or not you actually need that fuse upgrading depends what other electrical loads you have in the house. Any significant electric heating would do so; arguably an electric shower might push it over.

Re the point from @WannabeOwner about better RCBOs, you confirmed in another thread that you already have the green Rolec one, and to date those seem to be OK (it's the old blue ones that are dodgy. Also, the mode of failure was usually that the RCBO tripped and needed resetting (and eventually burned out altogether), which doesn't sound like your current symptoms (you haven't mentioned resetting any breakers anywhere?)

It is extremely likely that the Rolec unit is faulty; the installer should come and swap it for another one.

 

[WannabeOwner]

you haven't mentioned resetting any breakers anywhere?

Good point

 

[vitesse]

The only resetting I have done is to remove the charge plug from the car's charging port and put it back in again. This does get things going again but usually only temporarily. I haven't had to touch any switches or breakers.

The ROLEC does go clack when charging starts and once it made a very loud buzzing noise.

We don't have an electric shower, the central heating is gas-fired and apart from an electric double oven in the kitchen, the other main load electrical appliances are a washer dryer and a dishwasher.

It could be that the fuse upgrade is a red herring and they only told me this independently of my request for assistance regarding the charging unreliability, but I haven't had any clarification yet.

 

[arg]

We don't have an electric shower, the central heating is gas-fired and apart from an electric double oven in the kitchen, the other main load electrical appliances are a washer dryer and a dishwasher.

In which case, there's no obviously compelling reason to upgrade the fuse at all - which is presumably why the original installer didn't demand it (or refuse to complete the install once he encountered it).

 

[vitesse]

In which case, there's no obviously compelling reason to upgrade the fuse at all - which is presumably why the original installer didn't demand it (or refuse to complete the install once he encountered it).

Thanks, I'll let you know how this develops.

 

[WannabeOwner]

no obviously compelling reason to upgrade the fuse

Could the lower fuse imply that the cable coming in, and the "tails", is a bit narrow-bore?

I know mine is ... but I don't really get any voltage drop to speak of ...