Supercharging in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago

The TM Supercharger page does not show any indication of additional superchargers in Chicagoland through 2016. The present stations in Highland Park, Aurora, Grand Ave., and Country Club Hills currently appear to be adequate for the needs of "en route" charging for travelers coming from the north, west, and south and those who need to top off after or during a trip to downtown. I get the impression from the phrasing of your query (correct me if I am wrong) that you are going to find current Supercharger distances from your home inconvenient for primary/basic charging - which is not the stated purpose of superchargers. There are other threads about this, but the accepted practice, in spite of occasional violations, is to charge overnight at home and use superchargers only for topping off if your basic charge appears insufficient for reaching your destination.

Doubt we'll see a Supercharger in the NW suburbs beyond what we have already anytime soon. You wouldn't have to go 40/50/60 miles to "top off" to go on a road trip anyway. You start off with a full charge from your house and you drive a couple hundred miles (or whatever) and charge at Angola, IN, going east, Springfield, IL, going south, Mauston, WI, going to the NW, Indianapolis going SE, etc., etc. Works great. Have done it several times now.

If you can arrange for charging at home, then you never have to think about charging, or spend any time on it. You can leave for anywhere with a 100% charge, no problem. It is well worth going to some trouble to get home charging installed, even in a condo.

GSP

Buckeye2320 said:

Well I don't have a 40A circuit or a 20A circuit in my garage that would allow me to be Fully Charged and drive to work on a regular basis. I have your standard outlet and at 3 miles/hr (According to the Telsa Site) it would be 88 Hr to charge my car. This is where the Supercharger would help.

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Yikes, that is going to be a problem, especially in the winter. If I remember correctly, I plugged into an outlet in my garage in the winter one time and it barely charged at all. I wasn't even getting the 3 miles/hour I normally got in warmer temperatures.

You can't get a circuit wired for your garage for a charger or a NEMA 50 plug?

The owners of the Aurora restaurant are tesla owners. They offered Tesla space.

Buckeye2320 said:

Well I don't have a 40A circuit or a 20A circuit in my garage that would allow me to be Fully Charged and drive to work on a regular basis. I have your standard outlet and at 3 miles/hr (According to the Telsa Site) it would be 88 Hr to charge my car. This is where the Supercharger would help.

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I don't understand your problem. Garages don't come with circuits for electric cars, they have to be installed. Just get an electrician to install a 50A circuit (NEMA 14-50 outlet) and you won't have these concerns about needing to "top off" at a supercharger. Thats what almost every Tesla owner with a garage has done. Sorry if this comes across as mean, but it's kind of a prerequisite for buying the car.

TexasEV said:

I don't understand your problem. Garages don't come with circuits for electric cars, they have to be installed. Just get an electrician to install a 50A circuit (NEMA 14-50 outlet) and you won't have these concerns about needing to "top off" at a supercharger. Thats what almost every Tesla owner with a garage has done. Sorry if this comes across as mean, but it's kind of a prerequisite for buying the car.

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Even a 30A dryer circuit would be a vast improvement over the 120V outlet. It's not as efficient at the 50A circuit, but certainly doable. I had a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed by an electrician at my previous house, but am using an extension cord (NEMA 10-30) I made myself as a temporary solution at my new house.

Buckeye2320 said:

TexasEV, As I had mentioned earlier and you even copied. I have your standard outlet and at 3 miles/hr (According to the Telsa Site) it would be 88 Hr to charge my car.

		Volts / Amps	Kilowatts	Miles of Range per Hour of Charge
NEMA 5-15	Standard Outlet	110 V / 12 A	1.4 kW	3

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Yes, everyone has a 15A circuit in their garage, and it only gives 3-4 miles/hr. But that's not relevant to what I was trying to tell you. Everyone can also have an electrician install a 240V 50A circuit in their garage too, which the 14-50 UMC adapter plugs into. Most owners do this before the car is delivered, either that or have HPWC installed. You're not going to be happy with the car unless you have 240V charging in your garage.

Buckeye, you are correct that using a 120V/15A circuit to charge a Tesla is an exercise in frustration. Since you are a homeowner, with your own garage, in my opinion it is essential that you install a 240V/40A circuit for charging. The cost is generally modest, and is but a tiny fraction of the cost of your Tesla. It will make it easy for you to make 200+ mile round trips on a daily basis and you will not need to be concerned about finding a Supercharger. Do you regularly drive more than 200 miles in a day?

Buckeye:
The best money you can spend is to upgrade with a 14-50 NEMA outlet installed in your own garage, as daily charging via a 120V outlet will simply not cut it.

I know this from first hand experience.
When my car arrived really early (16 days after order), and I could not coordinate schedules with the electrician to visit my house for the first 3 weeks, so I really monitored and curtailed use of the car.

Ever since the upgraded outlet has been installed, I just pull into the garage and plug it in.

You can use a 120 V outlet for charging in a pinch (like when I visit my sister), but not as your daily charging resource.

ecarfan said:

Buckeye, you are correct that using a 120V/15A circuit to charge a Tesla is an exercise in frustration. Since you are a homeowner, with your own garage, in my opinion it is essential that you install a 240V/40A circuit for charging. The cost is generally modest, and is but a tiny fraction of the cost of your Tesla. It will make it easy for you to make 200+ mile round trips on a daily basis and you will not need to be concerned about finding a Supercharger. Do you regularly drive more than 200 miles in a day?

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Agree- but you want a 50A circuit to enable 40A charging.