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Charging with 110

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Patrick W

Active Member
Mar 17, 2015
1,524
943
SLC, UT
Most of us here probably know that charing a model S with 110 volts is slow.

I was curious just how slow so I plugged in with 198 miles showing.

Came back exactly 4 hours later and the miles were 213.

Not quite 4 miles per hour of charge.

So Tesla's not kidding when they say 110 is slow. :)
 
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If the dash indicated 110v then your extension cord was inadequate or your house/neighborhood wiring marginal. The standard nowadays is 117 or 120. Or maybe one says '110' since that was what everyone said way back when. In my mind it was always '115' but my analog meters were never really able to differentiate. If you got close to 4 mph then likely you were cooking at 120v, whee.
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I have resorted to Level 1 a few times. depending on the specific connection I have varied between 110v and 120v, natural given different connections and local supplies. the amps have varied between 10 and 20, but mostly 12-15. IME this is a decent option to eliminate phantom drawdown and add a few mph when the weather is warm. The rule I now follow when I must do that is set the max draw at 15 amps to avoid possible overload of the circuits. We all need to remember that regardless of code electricians seem level one installations tend to be a bit more casual than are higher-power connections.
 
I have resorted to Level 1 a few times. depending on the specific connection I have varied between 110v and 120v, natural given different connections and local supplies. the amps have varied between 10 and 20, but mostly 12-15. IME this is a decent option to eliminate phantom drawdown and add a few mph when the weather is warm. The rule I now follow when I must do that is set the max draw at 15 amps to avoid possible overload of the circuits. We all need to remember that regardless of code electricians seem level one installations tend to be a bit more casual than are higher-power connections.

I thought the only 2 110V charging applications were NEMA 5-15 and NEMA 5-20, rated at 15A and 20A, which means the car will charge at 12A and 16A?
 
I have charged at 110/120 on several occasions at a hotel I frequent during football season at Florida State. 4 miles of charge per hour is about the most I ever achieved. One thing I learned is that use of an extension cord most likely will reduce that rate to 2-3 miles. I had purchased a 20 ft heavy duty 110 extension cord based upon recommendations in an older thread on this forum. The cord did not overheat, but the charge rate was adversely affected. Luckily I was able to find a spot closer to a 110 plug, and the hotel let me plug into an outlet inside of a locked shed. That way I could lock most of my mobile charge cord inside the shed to avoid theft or vandalism.
 
> I could lock most of my mobile charge cord inside the shed to avoid theft or vandalism. [Lawsteve]

You could also put most of it in the trunk and slam the hatch door closed. The weather stripping is thick enough so the cord won't be damaged. THEN plug it into the wall outlet. :wink:
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I've done it at hotels a couple of times... ~40 miles of charge each night was enough to offset the next day's driving and build up enough range to make it back home...

For many places like hotels & airports, I think a bank of a dozen 120V/20A outlets & a couple of EVSE's might be preferable to 4 EVSE's...
 
I am still only on 120v at my house. I get 12a/120v on my dash and amp and charge 4 mi/hr 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time it drops to 12a/118v and alternates between 3 mi/hr and 4 mi/hr. Either way, by morning I've gained 30ish miles. Since I drive about 40 miles a day, it works for me. On the flip side, I have access to 30a/200v charging at work, hence why I've been ok living on 120v at home until I can get an electrician out to do some work.
 
My car gets home usually at 6pm, and I leave it plugged in until 8am. I've gotten 50+miles back in charge. My daily commute is 20.

My main concern is winter charging... a few members here have said 120V in winter does almost nothing besides keeping the battery pack warm.
 
My main concern is winter charging... a few members here have said 120V in winter does almost nothing besides keeping the battery pack warm.

I have a couple data points to counter that. I've made two winter trips to NJ and stayed at hotels with outdoor 120V outlets. In each case, even though temperatures stayed below freezing, I was still able to maintain 3-4mph charging and gain 30-50 miles of range overnight. And this was with the NEMA 5-15 adapter -- I own the 5-20 adapter now as well but have not yet had a chance to use it on a circuit where it would have made a difference.

YMMV of course. I'm sure if it gets much colder than freezing, and/or if you need an extension cord, and/or if you start charging when the car isn't warmed up, you won't see as much benefit from 120V.
 
I made a trip the first winter I had the car to friends house in an adjacent state, and experienced for the first time what driving in temps in the teens could do to range. When I got to his place, I plugged in for the ~4 hours we were there... although I only added 8-9 miles of range, I believe the big advantage was keeping the battery warm so I didn't incur a much more significant penalty due to battery heating when I started driving again...
 
I have a couple data points to counter that. I've made two winter trips to NJ and stayed at hotels with outdoor 120V outlets. In each case, even though temperatures stayed below freezing, I was still able to maintain 3-4mph charging and gain 30-50 miles of range overnight. And this was with the NEMA 5-15 adapter -- I own the 5-20 adapter now as well but have not yet had a chance to use it on a circuit where it would have made a difference.

YMMV of course. I'm sure if it gets much colder than freezing, and/or if you need an extension cord, and/or if you start charging when the car isn't warmed up, you won't see as much benefit from 120V.

Cool, thanks for the info!