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Hey gang, an update. Talked to the electrician that wired my house and a 20A breaker is a no-go; the wiring is 14 gauge, not 12. BUT, he charges me $80 to install a 220V 40A outlet back-to-back to the breaker box outside the garage, which is the way I want it (not drilling the outside of the house). The outlet would be lower than typical, but not an issue, since the cable would only get unplugged for trips on the car, which are not that often. I asked the guy for a Bryant outlet, but he said his shouldn't be an issue, since it uses bolts to secure wires. So that's exactly how I'd do it . Oh, and he'd use 6 gauge, to install a Tesla charger in the future, if desired... but he said for safety reasons he'd use 40A breakers. Makes sense, no? If installing a Tesla charger, it'd be a matter of just replacing the breakers for 60A. Anyway, have a few more questions, based on that development:
1. No long-term additional degradation of the battery pack from charging at 32A at 220V rather than 12A at 115? Or is the ideal rate somewhere in-between, and which would it be? If we ever need 32A, we could raise it easily on the screen, right? And no issues leaving car connected all the time if it's 32A, correct? Since we don't need 32A most of the time, might as well try to maximize the life of the battery if it causes no issues for us.
2. To charge the car on its intended spot, I'd need at least 20' cable, and the new ones are only 18'. No big deal, as we can swap places, but my wife could inadvertently hit my car when carrying crap from the trunk of her car to the door, since she'd have to pass next to my car. If I can find an older cable, which I think were 24', any issues with that? I could charge up to 40A, but wouldn't use that. And does the car know at which amps to charge, or you have to tell the screen that? Thanks guys; you've been super helpful. Greatly appreciated .
3. If yes, does it have to be permanently installed if you're going to use 120V? If not, meaning you can take it with you when you travel, how many hours would it take to charge an LR M3 from 30 to 90%?
NO ONE should use 120v. Ever. Unless you hve days to charge it - the current losses are just too darn high.
My wife will be buying a Tesla M3 also in a few months. One 120 volt socket in the garage will handle both cars. She will drive less than I do.
Do you intend to charge them simultaneously? If so, you'll need to turn down the charging rate of each car to 6amps... which is really really slow. But hey, if it works for your needs, right on! Either way, congrats on a multi-EV garage!
Great to know the first part; thanks. And no, I wasn't overthinking anything; just trying to understand something new... and I do now. I don't care about battery degradation other than trying to maximize its life, IF it doesn't inconvenience us. It'd be the same to charge at 32 than at 25A, for instance, hence my asking. But since 32A is perfectly fine, I'd leave it alone at that. And decided to do the NEMA 14-50 with 50A breakers, so will never need more than 32A (30 miles/hr) with the mobile cable. Just ordered the 14-50 adapter, plus the cable organizer, so I'm almost ready for the car . I'm done with this crap. See? Didn't overthink anything. Ha ha. Thanks guys.No there are no degradation issues charging at 32amp vs 12. I am not trying to be mean, and believe me, I get the excitement, but you are overthinking this.
I asked the guy for a Bryant outlet, but he said his shouldn't be an issue, since it uses bolts to secure wires. So that's exactly how I'd do it . Oh, and he'd use 6 gauge, to install a Tesla charger in the future, if desired... but he said for safety reasons he'd use 40A breakers.
Hey gang, an update. Talked to the electrician that wired my house and a 20A breaker is a no-go; the wiring is 14 gauge, not 12. BUT, he charges me $80 to install a 220V 40A outlet back-to-back to the breaker box outside the garage, which is the way I want it (not drilling the outside of the house). The outlet would be lower than typical, but not an issue, since the cable would only get unplugged for trips on the car, which are not that often. I asked the guy for a Bryant outlet, but he said his shouldn't be an issue, since it uses bolts to secure wires. So that's exactly how I'd do it . Oh, and he'd use 6 gauge, to install a Tesla charger in the future, if desired... but he said for safety reasons he'd use 40A breakers. Makes sense, no? If installing a Tesla charger, it'd be a matter of just replacing the breakers for 60A. Anyway, have a few more questions, based on that development:
1. No long-term additional degradation of the battery pack from charging at 32A at 220V rather than 12A at 115? Or is the ideal rate somewhere in-between, and which would it be? If we ever need 32A, we could raise it easily on the screen, right? And no issues leaving car connected all the time if it's 32A, correct? Since we don't need 32A most of the time, might as well try to maximize the life of the battery if it causes no issues for us.
2. To charge the car on its intended spot, I'd need at least 20' cable, and the new ones are only 18'. No big deal, as we can swap places, but my wife could inadvertently hit my car when carrying crap from the trunk of her car to the door, since she'd have to pass next to my car. If I can find an older cable, which I think were 24', any issues with that? I could charge up to 40A, but wouldn't use that. And does the car know at which amps to charge, or you have to tell the screen that? Thanks guys; you've been super helpful. Greatly appreciated .
income limited . . .Not sure if it has been mentioned yet but if you get a charger installed before 1/1/21 you can get 30% via a federal rebate. Form 8911 if you didn't know about it.
THIS! (spell corrected electrician for ya )Your Tesla can pull large amounts of current for long periods of time when charging.
Have your electrician install a 14-50 amp socket near where you want to charge and be done with it.
Charging either off a 120V circuit or exclusively using a Supercharger is inconvenient.
No need for the $500 wall connector, unless you think it looks great and can take advantage of the slightly quicker charging.
You can plug in every night, and have a 90% filled battery every morning.
Dirt simple. There are 14 hours available every night (plug in at 6pm, unplug at 8am). This gives 84 miles a night. Even if I reduce it by 35% (for subfreezing temperatures), that would be 61 miles a night. That is ridiculous overkill for a 20 to 30 miles a day driving.
The Wall Connector isn't spec'ed to run on 120V, anyway (manual says single phase, 200-240V nominal). Since you need to run 2 wires plus ground, there's no point in 120V (hot/neutral) with double the charge time instead of 240V (hot/hot), even if you could.3. If yes, does it have to be permanently installed if you're going to use 120V? If not, meaning you can take it with you when you travel, how many hours would it take to charge an LR M3 from 30 to 90%?
4. If wall charger needs to be permanently installed, then it'd make sense to hook it up for 220V... but can you do that without having to mess up your house (drilling, etc)? I only have 1 dual outlet in the garage, which I'd still need operational.
Why are you unplugging your UMC daily? Plenty of people plug it in and leave it alone. For months or even years. Unless you know you need it to charge at your destination, you probably don't need it on a road trip (the days of 40A charging at RV parks are long gone).Those type of outlets are not really built to be plugged/unplugged daily.
You can take it with you on a trip, but you'll probably learn it's not much more than a security blanket (see above).And since we don't travel often, I'd just pack the cable and put it in the trunk, if we're going on a trip; no need for a second one.
And that's the problem with charging on an existing 120V duplex outlet - it's often shared with other loads. Worse, if you aren't using the first outlet in the circuit, you're pulling lots of power through multiple splices and junctions, which isn't really a great idea. A dedicated outlet is "home run" directly back to the breaker, likely with no splices, just a single contiguous run. The fewer connections, the better (which is one reason why a hardwired wall connector is better than an outlet).Thank you very much. I just checked my circuit, and it's for the 3 garage outlets only... but it only has a 15A breaker. The problem is that one of those outlets is for the garage opener, another for the irrigation box, and the last is open, but I always leave a charger hooked up to the Bullitt there, which can draw up to 5A, so would have to disconnect that one for sure while charging the car. The question is if the opener would trip the breaker when car is charging. If yes, then it's a no-go.
If your community is on NEC 2017, an EV charging outlet (14-50 or otherwise) is REQUIRED to have a GFCI breaker (50A = $100). The Wall Connector REQUIRES a regular, non-GFCI breaker (from the manual - "For maximum power output, install a standard double pole 60 amp circuit breaker. Wall Connector includes integrated GFCI protection - do not install a GFCI circuit breaker" - their emphasis, not mine).In fact, a 14-50 outlet will probably need a GFCI circuit breaker, which is quite pricey, whereas the wall connector doesn't require one.
Actually, that depends on the type of wire used. NM-B/Romex (the all-in-one cable) no, THHN/THWN in conduit, yes. The rules say NM-B can only use the 60C rating, which limits you to a 55A circuit. 80% of that is 44A max charge rate. There is no 44A setting for the Wall Connector, so you have to go down to 40A (though still more than 32A). Wire in conduit can use the 75C rating, which is good for a 65A circuit. 80% of that is 52A max charge rate. Again, there is no 52A setting, so that give you 48A max charge rate.Oh, and he'd use 6 gauge, to install a Tesla charger in the future, if desired... but he said for safety reasons he'd use 40A breakers. Makes sense, no? If installing a Tesla charger, it'd be a matter of just replacing the breakers for 60A.
All (properly installed) charging stations (UMC, WC, J1772) "know" the size of the circuit (wire & breaker) and communicate that to the car. The car will never go over the limit. You can dial it down, but not up.And does the car know at which amps to charge, or you have to tell the screen that? Thanks guys; you've been super helpful. Greatly appreciated .