Will a Tesla work for me?

[SRQPG]

I am interested in getting the Tesla 3 , but I question the practicality of it for us.
First off, I do NOT have access to a 220V outlet at my house. THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage.

Second, my driving consists of 2 most common trips - many times a week I do short drives - 1 - 3 miles.
And several times a year I'll do a long drive - 300 miles or so. Last time I made the trip, I purposely looked for chargers on I-75's Alligator Alley. Few & far between it seemed. And even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?
Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Does all this mitigate against being a Tesla owner?

Thanks

 

[Sam1]

Your house can't support 220v? Never heard that one before. Was it built in 1933 or something?

 

[LoudMusic]

I charged my car on 120v 15a (standard wall outlet) for a month and it was fine. That's like bare minimum, but it works.

My brother in law has driven a Leaf for like 8 years on nothing but wall outlet in his garage.

You can get about 30 to 35 miles of range recharged in 10 hours (overnight) on a standard wall outlet. You can get a full charge (~300 miles) in less than 3 days.

You're right - there aren't a whole lot of Tesla Superchargers on your route, but probably more than you think. Also, if you use the car's built in navigation it will plan the route for you and include the required stops and how long you will need to stop and charge.

Find Us | Tesla

Use the interactive Find Us map to locate Tesla charging stations, service centers, galleries and stores on the go.

www.tesla.com

 

[LoudMusic]

Your house can't support 220v? Never heard that one before. Was it built in 1933 or something?

That's very much not what they said. Probably just doesn't have room in the breaker box, and/or the breaker box is very far from the garage making it cost prohibitive.

 

[ss71]

A Model 3 long range or a std range will easily work for you. If your normal days are just a handful of miles, even a regular outlet will be ok for charging. On a 300mi trip, you should have a supercharger to make that journey easy and you won’t be charging past 30min tops.
Do it, you won’t regret it.

 

[STS-134]

That's very much not what they said. Probably just doesn't have room in the breaker box, and/or the breaker box is very far from the garage making it cost prohibitive.

Put a single breaker slot in your existing panel for your entire garage, and run 240V split phase to a full subpanel (of at least 100A capacity, preferably 125-200A) in the garage, then branch out from there. Whatever existing stuff you have in your garage (garage door opener, 120V wall outlets, etc.) should then plug into the subpanel, and then you can add a NEMA 14-50 or a Wall Connector to the same subpanel. You can even add another Wall Connector or 14-50 in the future!

You could probably get by with a 120V outlet but keep in mind that the maximum you'll get out of an outlet like that is about 1400-1500W, and the car has a 300-400W overhead whenever it is actively charging to run the computers. So in that sense, it's very inefficient and you could be losing about 30% of the energy to resistive heating in the wires plus running the car's computers.

 

[LoudMusic]

Put a single breaker slot in your existing panel for your entire garage, and run 240V split phase to a full subpanel (of at least 100A capacity, preferably 125-200A) in the garage, then branch out from there. Whatever existing stuff you have in your garage (garage door opener, 120V wall outlets, etc.) should then plug into the subpanel, and then you can add a NEMA 14-50 or a Wall Connector to the same subpanel. You can even add another Wall Connector or 14-50 in the future!

You could probably get by with a 120V outlet but keep in mind that the maximum you'll get out of an outlet like that is about 1400-1500W, and the car has a 300-400W overhead whenever it is actively charging to run the computers. So in that sense, it's very inefficient and you could be losing about 30% of the energy to resistive heating in the wires plus running the car's computers.

"THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage."

Sounds like they're not interested in a Major major project to get power to the garage for the car.

And technically there are 120v 30a standards so they could go that route and get quite a lot of power in a single breaker position. NEMA 5-30 and TT-30 could both work.

The point I think people are missing is increasing power in the garage is cost prohibitive and they simply want to know if 120v15a is good enough.

I think it is good enough.

 

[Unclepaul]

There is a Supercharger in the middle of Aligator Alley, and also in middle of HWY 41. Makes travel easy.

Your dash computer will tell you how long you should expect to stop to reach your destination with the amount of reserve you choose.

Electricity is relatively inexpensive in Florida. Great place to own a Tesla.

 

[roblab]

And even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?
Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Not at all. One does not ever need to sit in a car for "hours" if one uses superchargers, which take about a half an hour to give you decent charge, and this time can be used to (gasp) read a book, or play games. As for leaving the car in a garage for weeks, it's been done before. I calculate you'll lose about 20-30 miles, though I've never actually done it. Others here have had similar situations, and it wasn't a problem.

 

[cgell]

Short answer is, yes you will love it. Longer answer is…

When I researched buying a Tesla I thought a lot about charging both at home and at superchargers. After having it for a while I realized that I way overthought charging. I still have never been to a supercharger in the 6 months I’ve had it. I do small trips most of the time and maybe one or two longer roads trips per year. I probably don’t need more than a 120v for home charging. The wall connector is nice, but I probably didn’t really need it.

Parking for several weeks is not a problem. A member recently posted their experience parking for two weeks at temps just under 40F and they lost only 2%. Just make sure to turn of features that will drain battery such as sentry mode and avoid frequently checking the app as it wakes the car.

 

[jjrandorin]

I am interested in getting the Tesla 3 , but I question the practicality of it for us.
First off, I do NOT have access to a 220V outlet at my house. THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage.

Second, my driving consists of 2 most common trips - many times a week I do short drives - 1 - 3 miles.
And several times a year I'll do a long drive - 300 miles or so. Last time I made the trip, I purposely looked for chargers on I-75's Alligator Alley. Few & far between it seemed. And even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?
Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Does all this mitigate against being a Tesla owner?

Thanks

The short answer to the thread question is.= " yes, this could work, if you want it to". The one concern I would have that you have called out, is that 300 or so mile trip, AND at the end of that trip, parking for 3-4 Weeks (presumably without charging but check with the parking garage to see if they have charging).

The charging part of that is likely not a problem ( I expect you will find a supercharger or two on that commute), and charging on the way wouldnt take that long unless you were trying to "fill up" which isnt what one normally does on a supercharger stop on a trip. HOWEVER.... your need to complete the trip, then park for 3-4 weeks (and presumably after that time turn around and go back) might be problematic if there is no supercharger close to the parking garage, or the parking garage doesnt have charging.

 

[jrweiss98020]

Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Does all this mitigate against being a Tesla owner?

That may be the most significant issue for you.

Normally, with Sentry Mode and Cabin Overheat Protection OFF, you should see about 1%/day decrease in the battery charge. That means a month without charge is doable. However, with either of those enabled, you will see a definite increase in the use of electricity. Sentry Mode may use 4-5%/day, so 3 weeks could leave you with a VERY low battery - not a huge issue IF there is a Supercharger nearby (charge to full before parking; go immediately to Supercharger when you return). I have not had to park in hot sun for long periods, so I don't know how much COP will take. It will, however, turn OFF automatically at 20% battery charge.

If the garage is safe (don't need Sentry Mode) and covered (no direct sun to increase cabin temp to 105°F), you should be OK.

 

[STS-134]

"THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage."

Sounds like they're not interested in a Major major project to get power to the garage for the car.

That could mean a lot of things. It could just be that they don't want to do the work because they have other (larger) projects to work on. I was once working with a contractor for a new alarm system and he kept insisting on wireless sensors. I didn't want to use wireless sensors because with 30 sensors, and a battery life of about 3 years, that's a sensor failure about every month. It became obvious that the issue wasn't that he couldn't do the work, or that he couldn't charge me a fair price for it, but it was that he simply didn't want to actually do the work of running the wires. So I told him to just sell me the wiring and that I'd run all of the wires, drill all of the holes through all of the window frames, and leave the wires hanging there, and label the wires at the main box. Then I'd call him when I was done and he could install all of the sensors and magnets on the windows. So he did, and everyone was happy.

 

[cgell]

That may be the most significant issue for you.

Normally, with Sentry Mode and Cabin Overheat Protection OFF, you should see about 1%/day decrease in the battery charge. That means a month without charge is doable. However, with either of those enabled, you will see a definite increase in the use of electricity. Sentry Mode may use 4-5%/day, so 3 weeks could leave you with a VERY low battery - not a huge issue IF there is a Supercharger nearby (charge to full before parking; go immediately to Supercharger when you return). I have not had to park in hot sun for long periods, so I don't know how much COP will take. It will, however, turn OFF automatically at 20% battery charge.

If the garage is safe (don't need Sentry Mode) and covered (no direct sun to increase cabin temp to 105°F), you should be OK.

I think that 1% per day is inaccurate (not that high). Personally mine does not drain that fast. Other members have also noted the same...

Hi guys -

wanted to share an interesting observation. We recently parked out MY for 14 days at JFK airport in the long term garage. I expected that it would drop about 1% per day.

I did the following:
- Charged to 90% at JFK super charger
- Turned off: Sentry + Wifi, Auto Lights and anything that could possibly draw any energy while I am gone.
- Manually powered down the system
- Car was at 87% by the time I parked it.
- Average temp was around 38F, so definitely not proper winter temps.

To my surprise it only dropped 2% over two weeks. I did check on the car 2 times over the two weeks but also used Tezlabs Deep-Sleep Assist. Not sure how that affected it but definitely was positively surprised that we had enough charge to drive home (140 miles) without the need of a re-charge.

Cheers!

 

[one2many]

supercharge.info

This may help

 

[Mr Limpet]

I am interested in getting the Tesla 3 , but I question the practicality of it for us.
First off, I do NOT have access to a 220V outlet at my house. THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage.

Second, my driving consists of 2 most common trips - many times a week I do short drives - 1 - 3 miles.
And several times a year I'll do a long drive - 300 miles or so. Last time I made the trip, I purposely looked for chargers on I-75's Alligator Alley. Few & far between it seemed. And even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?
Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Does all this mitigate against being a Tesla owner?

Thanks

Where is your dryer located in relation to your garage? I only have 1 slot left in my main panel box. For the short term I purchased a garage buddy and will have it installed just to the inside of my laundry room which is directly off my garage. I can still charge 220 but only at 24A. Long term I will have my spot for the dryer in the main panel eliminated so I can run a sub to the garage. It has to cross my entire house (for some reason the geniuses that built my house thought it was a good ideal to put the main near a bedroom outer wall instead of the garage). I will the run the dryer and a charger plug off the sub.

 

[cgell]

supercharge.info

This may help

Tesla also offers a map to locate superchargers (and service locations) - Tesla Map

 

[Tam]

First off, I do NOT have access to a 220V outlet at my house...

What is missing is your access to 120V status? Do you or don't you have access to 120V regular outlet?

120V doesn't work too well in freezing winter but if your place is not freezing then 120V is slow but doable for warm weather.

Since you don't travel hundreds of miles a day, you can let the 120V slowly top it off, day after day.

If you need to go a long distance, there are plenty of Superchargers for that purpose. Make sure you buy the longest range possible.

Good luck.

 

[Knightshade]

OP is in Florida, freezing weather is probably not a concern for them

A normal 120v wall socket will be plenty if he usually only drives as he writes "many times a week I do short drives - 1 - 3 miles."

One overnight charge will be 30-40 miles of range back on, which sounds like all the driving they do in a week.

If I only drove a few miles a day I probably wouldn't bother with 240v even if it didn't require extra work as it sounds like is the case here.


BTW there's a new supercharger opening in Sarasota (where the OPs profile says they're from) this quarter. Also another one already there. So really, 240 seems bigtime overkill for as little as they drive.


As for the road trip, also no issue for the actual drive.... There's a new supercharger also opening this quarter in Punta Gorda (about 55 miles from Sarasota), one already there in Ft Meyers (about 85 miles from Sarasota), one already there in North Naples (about 120 miles from Sarasota), then one in Ochopee another 45 miles down I-75.... so in the first ~165 miles of driving- easily in range for ANY version of the Model 3, there's already 3 superchargers and a 4th coming soon.

Even from Sarasota all the way over to the east coast area (Davie or Pembroke Pines) is only about 210 miles total... and there's a BUNCH of superchargers over on that side, and quite a few more opening this year.


As to the last two items from the OP-

even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?

Not unless you pulled up in a Nissan Leaf.

A newer Tesla supercharger can add ~180 miles of range in 10-15 minutes on a LR Model 3.

Generally you don't want to charge to 100%, as the very top of the battery is where times slow down (though even then it'd never be "hours")

There's so many superchargers anywhere you've talked about driving there's never going to be a reason to anyway.

Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

As others have noted that might be the only concern.

If there's any way to plug into even a 120v plug in the garage you'd have no issue at all.

If you're ok turning off sentry and cabin overheat then just top off as much as possible before parking and you'll again be fine.

If you need to leave those on then you might want to consider running a quick trip out to a supercharger halfway through the 3-4 weeks (I don't see many places on the east coast where I assume you're going without a supercharger pretty nearby)

 

[dhrivnak]

I am interested in getting the Tesla 3 , but I question the practicality of it for us.
First off, I do NOT have access to a 220V outlet at my house. THe electricians tell me a Major major project to get a line to my garage.

Second, my driving consists of 2 most common trips - many times a week I do short drives - 1 - 3 miles.
And several times a year I'll do a long drive - 300 miles or so. Last time I made the trip, I purposely looked for chargers on I-75's Alligator Alley. Few & far between it seemed. And even where there are chargers, what does one do while charging - sit in the car for hours to get the charge?
Lastly, once I get there, I may be leaving my car in a parking garage for 3 - 4 weeks.

Does all this mitigate against being a Tesla owner?

Thanks

Typically most circuits are 20 amps with #12 wire. That #12 wire can be put on a 240v double breaker and then change the plug to a 20 amp 240v plug. You will more than double your charging speed and can easily work in your situation.