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New S Owner - What is this socket type and can I charge my S with it? And if so, at what mph?
- Thread starter TonikQL
- Start date
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
That’s a NEMA 6-20, and yes you can.
That will give you ~3.8kw, about 10 miles per hour on a Model S.
That will give you ~3.8kw, about 10 miles per hour on a Model S.
Pluturi
Member
One never knows. As quick as next day. Sometimes weeks.
Range added per hour should be roughly the same. If you have the older connector, you might need one of these adapters instead -
Gen 1 NEMA Adapters
Gen 1 NEMA Adapters
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
beatle
Active Member
The only real variable is the "miles per hour" charge rate that may differ slightly between vehicles as they consume battery at different rates. A Model 3, for example, will get more "miles per hour" than a Model S or X as the 3 uses less energy per mile than the bigger cars. The amount of energy going into the battery is determined by the charger and the outlet providing it. The charge rate (3.8kw) for your 6-20 receptacle is based on what the outlet is able to deliver (240v x 16A = 3840w).
Receptacles have a specific amount of current they can deliver (in this case 20A) but they are derated to 80% of that value for constant load like charging an EV.
You've got a NEMA 6-20 as others have said. I use one to charge my pre-facelift 2016 S 90D. I get a pretty consistent 11 miles/hour added to the battery. It's been fine but not ideal in that the car's cabin heater seems to be able to draw more power than just that circuit can provide (IE I turn the cabin heat on to max and leave it for 20 minutes and the battery will go down by a several miles). If you've got a garage or live where winters don't get super cold this won't be a concern. It isn't a concern for me because I live within 5 miles of 2 different superchargers; if I need need need range and it's cold out I can just go to one of these, and it is sufficient to warm the battery up enough to add range even if the battery is super cold.
A couple thoughts:
1) inspect the plug and the wires; charging an EV is basically a worst-case scenario for an electrical circuit. You'll be running it at 80% of the rated capacity for hours; no other appliance puts that kind of load on the circuit. The recommendation for the larger plugs is to use an "industrial" plug that's designed to be unplugged / plugged more than 10 times (believe it or not a standard drier / oven plug isn't rated to be unplugged very many times before it starts to fail).
2) To my knowledge, tesla does not sell an adapter to connect a gen 1 mobile charger to a nema 6-20; I bought one of these and have been using it for about a year. I like it more than the tesla adapters -- it sticks out less from the plug and puts less torque into the plug.
A couple thoughts:
1) inspect the plug and the wires; charging an EV is basically a worst-case scenario for an electrical circuit. You'll be running it at 80% of the rated capacity for hours; no other appliance puts that kind of load on the circuit. The recommendation for the larger plugs is to use an "industrial" plug that's designed to be unplugged / plugged more than 10 times (believe it or not a standard drier / oven plug isn't rated to be unplugged very many times before it starts to fail).
2) To my knowledge, tesla does not sell an adapter to connect a gen 1 mobile charger to a nema 6-20; I bought one of these and have been using it for about a year. I like it more than the tesla adapters -- it sticks out less from the plug and puts less torque into the plug.
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
Assuming the OP has a Gen 2 UMC. That's an important detail that I don't believe has yet been addressed.
As @cduzz mentions, for Gen 1 UMC, you can use this non-Tesla adapter for 6-20 charging: NEMA 6-20 Adapter for Tesla Model S and Model X Gen 1 – EVSE Adapters
BigNick
Infamous Fat Sweaty Guy
Also keep in mind that even without turning on the car's heater, in cold enough weather the car will automatically attempt to warm the battery while charging.
This will reduce the 3.84 kW rate you are getting if the BMS determines the battery needs heat before it can charge.
Your outlet appears to be indoors. If your garage is insulated it may prevent the battery from dropping below about 40F, if it's heated you probably don't have to worry.
I'm in PA (southern PA flatland, not the colder mountainous parts) and the garage never gets cold enough for my battery to drop below 40F. Temperatures rarely drop below 0 here, usually the coldest winter nights are about 10F (excluding wind chill.)
This will reduce the 3.84 kW rate you are getting if the BMS determines the battery needs heat before it can charge.
Your outlet appears to be indoors. If your garage is insulated it may prevent the battery from dropping below about 40F, if it's heated you probably don't have to worry.
I'm in PA (southern PA flatland, not the colder mountainous parts) and the garage never gets cold enough for my battery to drop below 40F. Temperatures rarely drop below 0 here, usually the coldest winter nights are about 10F (excluding wind chill.)
Well, sure, but not the whole time. It would only need to warm some for the first 20-30 minutes or so to get it warm enough for charging, and from that point, the charging itself generates enough heat that it won't need to keep running the battery heater.
And secondarily, that's a curve of how warm the battery needs to be for how much charging power it's getting. So 240V 16A doesn't really need the battery to be really warm to take that low of a current level, so not much heating needed.
Yeah, it really depends on how cold your car's going to be getting. My car was outside in a pretty mild winter in boston last year and I didn't have any trouble charging. I also try to plug in / charge when I get home from driving so I'm putting electrons into an already warm battery. I'll turn on the cabin heater in the morning for 15 minutes to thaw the windows / doors to avoid ice issues.
If I had the car parked outside in McMurdo the 16a/240 may not be enough to warm up a battery to the point where it'll charge, but I haven't had problems thus far.
Others will advocate for a bigger plug; in my situation I have a totally full panel and a 100a house feed and other impediments to trivially installing a 30/40/50a circuit just for feeding the car. Also, in non-pandemic times, I mostly charge at work where there's a free 208/30a spigot.
A 16a/240 feed is, in my opinion, a totally reasonable choice for any use where you're putting less than 100 miles a day on the car and the car has a 250+ mile battery and you've got superchargers less than 30 miles away. With the big battery you're able to shrug off if you need to do an emergency 100 mile drive when you weren't planning on it so long as you remember to plug your car in most nights and keep it at 80% or above overnight. Having the supercharger network to fall back on is also essential. If you had an e-tron, for instance, you'd certainly want a much bigger home charger just to cover the "I just got home from work and now my wife needs me to pick up the kids 3 counties over; *now*" scenario...
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