Tesla out of wall connectors - Alternatives

[sleepydoc]

Instead of the wall connector, I went with a NEMA 14-50 setup at my house. The charge time difference isn't that much less.

One caveat with this approach - if you are plugging and unplugging frequently the higher average receptacles (particularly Leviton ones) are prone to wearing out.

Another cost consideration - code requires garage receptacles to be GFCI protected which will add about $100 to the cost. A wall connector generally doesn't have this requirement.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

A wall connector generally doesn't have this requirement.

...in fact [the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector] specifically says to not use a GFCI



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.

 

[DMateo]

One caveat with this approach - if you are plugging and unplugging frequently the higher average receptacles (particularly Leviton ones) are prone to wearing out.

Another cost consideration - code requires garage receptacles to be GFCI protected which will add about $100 to the cost. A wall connector generally doesn't have this requirement.

Agreed. Thankfully, my electrician is on the Tesla recommended list of electricians in my area and purposely chose one that's prone to wear/tear as well as the elements (outdoor setup). Also set up the GFCI protection, charged me $780. Everyone's setup is different so the price I paid shouldn't be used as a benchmark.

 

[chadelectric]

Such a great forum ! Thank you for all responses..

First I called my Tesla Advisor who suggested to check daily-never knew its at 5.30 am

I will check with my electrician to see if they can do the set up work meanwhile.. How much an electrician usually charges? I know it "depends" -but approx would help. is it higher for Tesla charger vs a regular nema

 

[mstatkus]

Such a great forum ! Thank you for all responses..

First I called my Tesla Advisor who suggested to check daily-never knew its at 5.30 am

I will check with my electrician to see if they can do the set up work meanwhile.. How much an electrician usually charges? I know it "depends" -but approx would help. is it higher for Tesla charger vs a regular nema

So like mine was existing NEMA outlet - > 6ft with conduit and then the wall connector.

I've heard of electricians charging more, but you could be looking at a ~ $75 hr fee + materials and install and possibly a flat fee for just showing up. If you're running from say a panel opposite to a garage or something thats going to vary greatly. Could be the difference of a $500 est. to $2500. All ballpark guesstimates.

Main thing is getting those connections torqued down to spec as I had a friend that even had an electrician do his and 1st day he used it one terminal popped free.

So like some stated the car will only use 80% of what you give it (60A down to 15A household outlet). And the Wall connector is just making that a bit more convenient with a 18ft cable if you get one with that so I'm not having to mess with the mobile charger in the trunk. You could get an extra one though. Main benefit for me was the Federal Tax Credit related to the wall connector.

 

[chadelectric]

You can go to The Home Depot and buy plugs and outlets. You can buy a 6-50 plug and a 14-50 outlet, for instance, and by connecting them with 3 feet of 6-3 w/ ground you have a handy adapter. Do this for any weird 220 volt outlet you encounter, such as at far flung relatives' homes, and feel free to drop in unannounced, just as other relatives do! I have made several, and have found what the frunk is for: Cable storage.

On top of this, buy a few 50 amp circuit breakers in common brands so you can pull an unused 50 amp circuit breaker from your inlaw's house, like their pool heater, and plug yours in, previously wired with your 14-50 outlet on the other end of 3 feet of 6-3 w. ground. They will be happy to know you can charge all night for only a fourth of what a full tank of gas would have cost them, around $10 - 15.

Only drawback is that they will suddenly be leaving just as you drive up, on a long weekend to Aunt Ida's place two states over.

LOL.. Those are some great inputs. I will message you before I go to Home Depot in case I have further questions... Thank you so much

Right now, I have an issue where my garage and house are detached with a patio in between. Electric Companies have to come and estimate.. Not sure how expensive it will get.. finger cross...

 

[chadelectric]

So like mine was existing NEMA outlet - > 6ft with conduit and then the wall connector.View attachment 702117
I've heard of electricians charging more, but you could be looking at a ~ $75 hr fee + materials and install and possibly a flat fee for just showing up. If you're running from say a panel opposite to a garage or something thats going to vary greatly. Could be the difference of a $500 est. to $2500. All ballpark guesstimates.

Main thing is getting those connections torqued down to spec as I had a friend that even had an electrician do his and 1st day he used it one terminal popped free.

So like some stated the car will only use 80% of what you give it (60A down to 15A household outlet). And the Wall connector is just making that a bit more convenient with a 18ft cable if you get one with that so I'm not having to mess with the mobile charger in the trunk. You could get an extra one though. Main benefit for me was the Federal Tax Credit related to the wall connector.

yes it may be expensive in my case....with a patio inbetween...

I like the federal credit part

 

[chadelectric]

Instead of the wall connector, I went with a NEMA 14-50 setup at my house. The charge time difference isn't that much less.

how ,any miles can u charge per hour with 14-50 ? vs Tesla

 

[chadelectric]

I'd echo what others stated about timing. Your power company may offer a rebate on L&I permit and licensed contractor work.
The connector at the house is handy but I found I even turned mine down to 20A (20mi per hour) since I didn't need max charge(48A). It is handy to have the option case I needed a quick turn around or unplanned trip and needed 41-44mi per hour.

Household outlet at 4mi per hour would be rough if you don't have a NEMA and I noticed the adaptor kit is also sold out.

what's the washer dryer outlet amp? can I use that time being and get 20 an hour?

 

[DMateo]

how ,any miles can u charge per hour with 14-50 ? vs Tesla

About 29-35 miles an hour

 

[FloridaSun]

Emporia Level 2 48 AMP EV Charger UL Listed

The Emporia EV Charging Station is a Level 2 electric vehicle charger that charges any EV up to 40 amps with NEMA 14-50P or up to 48 amps with hardwired installation. It comes with a 25’ cable with an SAE J1772 connector so it works with all electric cars. Its IP66 enclosure is made to withstand...

shop.buildwithrise.com

 

[mrwug]

I've heard of electricians charging more, but you could be looking at a ~ $75 hr fee + materials and install and possibly a flat fee for just showing up. If you're running from say a panel opposite to a garage or something thats going to vary greatly. Could be the difference of a $500 est. to $2500. All ballpark guesstimates.

My panel is on the far side of the house from the garage. The three estimates I got (others never responded to my query) were for $1250, $2100, and $3600. All were referred from the Tesla website. I think the two takeaways are

1. You need to seek out a bunch of estimates because the response rate isn't great
2. You need to seek out a bunch of estimates because the range of quotes is huge

 

[1QYKMY]

They just appeared for sale again and I was able to order.

 

[mstatkus]

what's the washer dryer outlet amp? can I use that time being and get 20 an hour?

If the panel is labeled decent, you may be able to sort out what breakers are running the outlet.
If you plug the car in though it's going to sort that out and display it. Then only use 80% of it.
Cars onboard charging will adjust this based on it conditioning batteries, level of charge it charging etc ..
So rough numbers:
House outlet 15A (12A) - 4 mi p/h
Wall Connector with car dialed back to 20A - 19-20 mi p/h
Wall Connector with car dialed back to 32A - 27-30mi p/h
So I would say as long as you can get access to 20A you'll get around 20mi p/h. Car does some conditioning and if your running other stuff it may effect it too. I leave it plugged in so if I go out and the Air Conditioning kicks on it starts pulling off the wall connector instead of the batteries. I'm interested to see how this goes in the winter.

I had several people tell me my power bill will blow up too. Its mainly some rough math to calm that down:
my average watt hour use is 270 in the Y right now.
so 270 x 100 miles = 27000 Wh (watt hours) or 27 kWh (kilowatt hours).
Now multiply that with your charge rate from the power company 27 x $0.07495 per kWh = $2.02

 

[sleepydoc]

For estimated charging rates, the Tesla Store adapter page has a chart that is fairly accurate. (The first 2 lines are 120V adapters, the rest are 240V)

Like @mstatkus said, if you want to estimate costs (or compare to a super charger) the formula is:

Wh/mi * miles driven * electric rate ($/kWh) / 1,000

Wh/mi will vary on your driving; I’ve averaged 270 Wh/mi in my MY over a year of driving in MN, including winter, snow, etc.

 

[Sophias_dad]

But the first two lines are largely crap for a model 3... they regularly see 5 and 7 m/hr. Strangely, the 240 volt lines seem pretty correct.

 

[sleepydoc]

But the first two lines are largely crap for a model 3... they regularly see 5 and 7 m/hr. Strangely, the 240 volt lines seem pretty correct.

I was actually wondering about the 120V rates. I haven’t tried charging on 120V since the first night I had my car and I didn’t have anything else so I can’t remember what I got. 240v gives twice the power per amp, so 5 and 7 m/hr would make more sense since the 240V rates are 11 and 17.

Realistically 5 mi/hr is still a pathetically slow rate.

 

[mstatkus]

I plugged in at a family members house on 120V and it was 4mi p/h. Maybe it's possible its a 15A or 20A situation?
I'm grabbing a 6-50 adaptor as a 'just in case' when I take a trip here to Eastern WA. I know my father has a welding outlet he uses. Should start getting colder in the night up over 2300ft and I'd like to have a backup option if the household outlet doesn't cut it for some reason. Might even be worth getting a 25ft extension for that too.
Trying to also slap PPF on the car before I leave! I didn't get PPF on the rear door but Tesla did give me front mud flaps.

 

[Sophias_dad]

I plugged in at a family members house on 120V and it was 4mi p/h. Maybe it's possible its a 15A or 20A situation?
I'm grabbing a 6-50 adaptor as a 'just in case' when I take a trip here to Eastern WA. I know my father has a welding outlet he uses. Should start getting colder in the night up over 2300ft and I'd like to have a backup option if the household outlet doesn't cut it for some reason. Might even be worth getting a 25ft extension for that too.
Trying to also slap PPF on the car before I leave! I didn't get PPF on the rear door but Tesla did give me front mud flaps.

It is entirely possible to only see 4, rare to see 3. If that 15 amp circuit is being fed by a decently long 14 gauge wire, you'll get significant voltage loss. If you then add another 25-50 foot 14 gauge extension, you'll get even more losses. Since its the current that's limited to 12 amps and NOT the delivered power, when the voltage goes down, the power goes down.

Add into that the allowed ~5% tolerance on the to-the-house voltage. Voltage Tolerance Standard – ANSI C84.1 – Voltage Disturbance suggests that 114V is allowable for the power coming to a home. Lets suppose you start at the low end, and then add 5% more in cabling losses. Now your tesla is getting 108V, for 108x12 watts. That is actually STILL just over 5mi/hr, but I imagine the power actually delivered to the battery is 15% lower(due to keeping the computers awake and such), and that's now 4.25 mi/hr which will certainly display as 4.

I'm not sure exactly what the protocols are, but my home regularly sees input voltages below the 114V 'minimum'. After a while of frequent <108V visits, I called the electric company and they changed the pole transformer last summer, which has helped a good bit. I still can see 108, but its rare.