Preparing home for Tesla vehicles

[joe98342]

Got Y and X on order, thinking about best ways I should charge at home and other things.
Down south in Florida my garage is always above 100 degrees in the summer. I heard these things need to be at room temperature, otherwise they dont properly charge? Do I really need to insulate my garage?

On my electric box I got 5 slots free, not sure if its enough to run 4x 115v lines to charge with 230v socket, do I need anything special there?

Wondering if it's worth going solar just to charge them up. Its like 20k to get solar, but I'm at 14c per kwh, it'll take years for it to make sense, worth it, no?

Trying to price out what and all I'll need to change, to support the cars.
Thanks

 

[jjrandorin]

I heard these things need to be at room temperature, otherwise they dont properly charge?

Not sure where you heard that, but unless your garage goes regularly below zero in the winter you wont have an issue.

As for the rest of it, you probably need to start with getting a quote for a the "highest amp circuit a load calculation shows your home can support for EV charging, without costly upgrades".

You have a bunch of numbers in your post that are not quite correct, even though its fairly easy to see what you mean, it means to me that you dont have a bunch of knowledge around this topic.

You dont need solar to charge an EV, if your electricity is cheap, then you dont need to worry about that.

 

[HankE-LA]

Got Y and X on order, thinking about best ways I should charge at home and other things.
Down south in Florida my garage is always above 100 degrees in the summer. I heard these things need to be at room temperature, otherwise they dont properly charge?

I’m a Deep South guy also and yeah, I looked at the summer heat and how it may affect charging. The owners manual for the TWC states that operating temperature range is -22 to 122F. It also states that in rare instances it may reduce amperage starting at 95F. Fair enough. Now how to work with it. For those blast furnace days in the middle of the summer I think it may be best to schedule charging towards the evening. Like 10:00pm to give everything a chance to cool down at least a little bit.

In your case with two Teslas you can run one 220 line to two TWC. The units have power sharing capability. Your max output on a 60 amp breaker is still 48 amps but it will be split between the two vehicles. Just let the Wall Connectors do rock paper scissors via WiFi and let them figure out who gets what.

Don't overthink it. Just get quotes from at least two, preferable three Tesla Certified Installers. Be aware that quotes are all over the map. I got one for over $3000 and the next one was $800. Both minus the TWC.

Tesla certified installers.
Gen 3 Tesla Wall Connector Manual

 

[GSP]

I also recommend installing one or two Tesla wall connectors. Also getting quotes from three electricians to install them. Ask them how much ampacity can be added to your panel. 60 Amps should be plenty, split between the two vehicles. That allows 48 A for EV charging (80% of 60 A). I have 40 Amps (32 A charging) split between two Teslas. It works fine, so if your panel can only support that much I would not pay to upgrade it.

Some people use one wall connector and charge one vehicle on even days and the other on odd days. However, IMO having one for each vehicle is more convenient. The two wall connectors will split the current when both cars are charging at the same time. This allows them to share 60 A total from your panel. Don't let an electrician quote you an upgrade to allow 120 Amps to be added.

No need to insulate your garage. I do recommend scheduling charging to happen at night though. Best is to use "scheduled departure," so that charging does not start until needed to finish up before you leave in the morning.

Good Luck with your install,

GSP

 

[ATPMSD]

In your case, running a high amperage circuit to a subpanel in the garage would be a good idea. Then you can run two circuits from there to each TWC and let the TWCs handle the load balancing.

As to Tesla Certified installers, Tesla does not verify they know what they are doing and a there are lots of posts of inadequate installations by them. In the case of 60-amp TWC installations, the most common mistake is using #6 Romex wire; this wire is rated at 55-amps and cannot be used for a 60-amp circuit.

 

[bruce4000]

In your case, running a high amperage circuit to a subpanel in the garage would be a good idea. Then you can run two circuits from there to each TWC and let the TWCs handle the load balancing.

As to Tesla Certified installers, Tesla does not verify they know what they are doing and a there are lots of posts of inadequate installations by them. In the case of 60-amp TWC installations, the most common mistake is using #6 Romex wire; this wire is rated at 55-amps and cannot be used for a 60-amp circuit.

Yeah, I used an installer from the Tesla certified list and while they did a good job replacing my substandard circuit panel, they put the TWC on a GFCI breaker which caused problems tripping / was not necessary as it turns out the TWC has GFCI built in. Otherwise the TWC has been working great and would recommend.