Wall connector installation

[voip-ninja]

Thanks ninja. We only have a single oven and we never (only once in ten years) run the cleaning cycle. So I guess I think we have a quite a few circuits with more capacity than they generally need.We have no air conditioning at all. Water heater and close dryer are gas. What we do have is:
a portable electric heater (about 10 amps at 115 V)?
an electric oven/ boiler (about 12 amps at 115 V)?
a toaster (about 8 amps at 115 V)?
microwave (? amps at 115 V)
LED TV, modem, misc electronics, chargers, etc, maybe another 5 or 10 amps ?
Our lights are mostly LED
It is a small house.)
I am thinking that 125 amps means 125 amps at 240 V, which is I guess about 30 kVA. Or does 125 amps mean 125 A at 115 V = about 14 kVA?

Start here. It might well be that with a 125amp service you won’t be able to go above a 40 or 50 amp charging circuit.

You will for sure have to replace either a few breakers or the panel itself since you are full.

http://www.douglas.co.us/documents/single-family-dwelling-service-entrance-standard-calculations.pdf

 

[gilscales]

Thanks. Yes, I think that is our situation. I was puzzled by seeing breakers saying "Dryer" when I was pretty sure our dryer is gas. It seems me we have 60 amps to spare. I did a load calc at that site you linked and it totaled to just 60 amps.
I am guessing that we have a bunch of circuits that are under-utilized. Not sure how we can tighten that up. Even though 30 amps wouldwork 90% of the time, I think it might by nice to have that full 60-48 possibility for the occasional night before a trip.

Depends more on your daily habits, I always charge to 90% as that is the maximum daily recommended, the night before a trip I will charge to 100%, one trip we came home with 7% left and had to leave the next morning on a long drive for the day, it was 10 hours later and we were back in the 90+% range, if you drive a long distance every day for work then it may be worth it but even with 24A charging ability for a 30A circuit you will most likely be charging 2 to 4 hours a night.

One thing you may want to try is a $35 adapter to fit your Dryer outlet and see if it keeps up with your driving habits, if not then you have another charging option for traveling with for a $35 investment and then proceed with the installation of a HPWC

 

[boaterva]

Why don’t you just wrap it around the HPWC body as it was designed that way?

Because I think I looks like crap? Actually it’s not made for the 24’ cable length. It tends to fall off when you want only a few feet of it which is what you do want when the car is next to it.

As I said, we have the long cable to use for charging cars further away on special occasions, not on a daily basis. Many many people use other methods to secure the excess cable.

 

[GSP]

Utility pricing? I am not sure why? Do they price based on your peak draw or something? I thought they just charged by the Watt?

Mostly charge at 32? Do you mean you can choose that? Can you select or control your charging rate when you have a Wall Connector?

You can manually lower the charge rate on the car touchscreen. This works with any AC charging station: HPWC, UMC, Public J1772, etc. However superchargers always run at max speed.

It makes sense to not charge at the max Amps that your breaker or circuit can support if you don't need it. It is fine to charge at max rate when needed, but lower rates are usually fine for overnight charging, and put less heat stress on your equipment.

Charging at less than the max 48 Amps the car supports reduces stress on the in-car charger that converts AC to DC power, extending its life. It is fine to run at 48 Amps when helpful, but most of the time the car will be fully charged every morning at lower charge rates. I charge my Teslas at 16 Amps (240 V) and they are always fully charged in the morning (my wife and do not have long commutes).

Good Luck with your HPWC install, and enjoy your car.

GSP

 

[brkaus]

Utility pricing? I am not sure why? Do they price based on your peak draw or something? I thought they just charged by the Watt?

Mostly charge at 32? Do you mean you can choose that? Can you select or control your charging rate when you have a Wall Connector?

I have a rate that allows unlimited charging off peak. The price varies depending on the breaker size. 50a or lower is one price. 51a or above is a higher price. The other price break point is that over 60a requires a local cutoff switch and those can be expensive.

Regarding 32a, I set that in the car. t remembers it by GPS location. I selected 32a as it has roughly 1/2 the heat loss in the wires as 40a (power lost through resistance is a factor of current squared).

My point is that getting max charging amps is nice, and if it can be done at reasonable cost I would pay a bit more, but not always necessary.

 

[mrau]

The 24' cord on the Wall Connector comes in handy for having the car parked in different spots. Cord wraps OK on the wall Connector when using the extra back plate for the "top entry conduit" install. Since mine is mounted between two garage doors I use a small laundry hamper to help keep the cord away from the overhead door tracks. The hamper has a wire frame that keeps it opened up. It easy to take off a couple of loops instead of the the whole length of cord when the car is parked close. I'll post a photo.

Always looking for new ideas though.

 

[MaryAnning3]

but even with 24A charging ability for a 30A circuit you will most likely be charging 2 to 4 hours a night.

Thanks. For a LR AWD model 3, what is the charging rate in miles per hour at 24 Amps (with a HPWC)?

(If there is a table somewhere of charging rate vs current for a LR model 3, I have not found it. But I am guessing that for a model 3 charging with an HPWC, the empirical formula 0.6 * current (Amps) = charging rate (in miles per hour). Does that work at all? Maybe it is a off on the high end?)

 

[MaryAnning3]

The hamper has a wire frame that keeps it opened up. It easy to take off a couple of loops instead of the the whole length of cord when the car is parked close. I'll post a photo.

Thanks mrau. That looks really cool!

 

[MaryAnning3]

Charging at less than the max 48 Amps the car supports reduces stress on the in-car charger that converts AC to DC power, extending its life. It is fine to run at 48 Amps when helpful, but most of the time the car will be fully charged every morning at lower charge rates. I charge my Teslas at 16 Amps (240 V)

Thanks a lot GSP. Really good to know. So far I have only charged at home with the 115 V plug and at superchargers. That makes a lot of sense. So when you are using the in-board charger at home, going slow makes a lot of sense. Maybe even just like 8 miles per hour?

I hadn't thought about that because, my at home charging has been so slow already (4 mph). I am only realizing in reading your comment that charging at home is fundamentally different from the supercharger, which bypasses the on-board charger, and that just because you can charge at an ultra-high rate on the road doesn't mean that a high rate at home is benign or comparable in any way.

 

[MaryAnning3]

I have a rate that allows unlimited charging off peak. The price varies depending on the breaker size. 50a or lower is one price. 51a or above is a higher price. The other price break point is that over 60a requires a local cutoff switch and those can be expensive.

Wow. Good to know. I will try to learn if we have something like that in California. Probably we do. There is a lot to learn about and I really appreciate your posts!

 

[brkaus]

Wow. Good to know. I will try to learn if we have something like that in California. Probably we do. There is a lot to learn about and I really appreciate your posts!

California has some time of use plans. I hear they are tricky to navigate and it depends on the area. Best find some local advice on that.

 

[MaryAnning3]

even with 24A charging ability for a 30A circuit you will most likely be charging 2 to 4 hours a night.

I think my first response to this was not accurate. Would a Model 3 (LR) charge at about 22 miles per hour charging at 24 amps? (That actually does sound plenty fast. )

Is that about right (22 mph at 24 Amps with an HPWC)? Also, for a long range Model 3 battery, does 22 miles per hour correspond to about 5.36 kiloWatts?

 

[voip-ninja]

I think my first response to this was not accurate. Would a Model 3 (LR) charge at about 22 miles per hour charging at 24 amps? (That actually does sound plenty fast. )

Is that about right (22 mph at 24 Amps with an HPWC)? Also, for a long range Model 3 battery, does 22 miles per hour correspond to about 5.36 kiloWatts?

When I charge at work on 30amp 220V service, so charge rate is 24amps, my car returns about 21 miles per hour of charging.

There is some built in overhead in charging the car, so when possible you want the fastest charging rate possible.

 

[mrau]

I sometimes use a 20 amp 240v service, so the charge rate is 16 amp. It returns about 14 miles per hour of charging.

Here's a chart that Tesla uses for their own Mobile Connector that comes with the car.

 

[gilscales]

I think my first response to this was not accurate. Would a Model 3 (LR) charge at about 22 miles per hour charging at 24 amps? (That actually does sound plenty fast. )

Is that about right (22 mph at 24 Amps with an HPWC)? Also, for a long range Model 3 battery, does 22 miles per hour correspond to about 5.36 kiloWatts?

I get 5.76 KW and yes approx. 22 range rated miles per hour of charge, also you can opt to use your umc (mobile connector) to charge at anything 32A and under saving you the install of a HPWC if you can use your dryer outlet (if its within reach of your charging area) all you need to do is purchase the appropriate adapter from Tesla for $35

 

[voip-ninja]

I get 5.76 KW and yes approx. 22 range rated miles per hour of charge, also you can opt to use your umc (mobile connector) to charge at anything 32A and under saving you the install of a HPWC if you can use your dryer outlet (if its within reach of your charging area) all you need to do is purchase the appropriate adapter from Tesla for $35

She potentially doesn't have a dryer outlet since her dryer is gas.

 

[brkaus]

She potentially doesn't have a dryer outlet since her dryer is electric.

There is a 30a double pole breaker on the panel labeled "Dryer". May have been repurposed but many houses with gas will still provide electric outlet, It's an odd tandom 240v breaker (at least odd to me).

 

[voip-ninja]

There is a 30a double pole breaker on the panel labeled "Dryer". May have been repurposed but many houses with gas will still provide electric outlet, It's an odd tandom 240v breaker (at least odd to me).

Yes, my gas cooktop has a 50 amp circuit run for it but I don't believe it's actually terminated to an outlet at the cooktop... looks like they run it in case the homeowner wants to switch it out.

 

[MaryAnning3]

So then with a 30 amp breaker and charging with a current draw of 24 amps, one would charge at about 21 miles per hour. So in 10 hours the battery could go from 62 miles of battery range (20%) to 272 miles of range which is about 88%. That sounds pretty darn adequate for almost any situation!

 

[MaryAnning3]

Regarding purchasing an actual Wall Connector, I was thinking I would just buy the new black one with the 24 foot cable from Tesla. Does that make sense? "Gloss Black Wall Connector"
I think Tesla just introduced this new version in October.)