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Taking advantage of 72 amp Charger

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I have a Sig X vin # 3xx soon to be delivered hopefully. My electrician installed a Nema 14-50 per Tesla website and I did not realize the Sig X came with a 72 amp charger and why that made a difference. To upgrade to take advantage of 72 amp charger I am being told I need to scrap the Nema 14-50 install new 100 amp fuse install new conduit and need wall charger to take advantage of 72 amp charger at home for $3k. I already paid $2k for the Nema 14-50 and have not even used it yet.

Does 72 amp charger help at all with Nema 14-50? Do I need a wall charger to take advantage of 72amp charger? Must I replace Nema 14-50 to take advantage of 72 amp charger?
 
Well, from my non-expertise, the 14-50 only allows 40a continuous charging on a 50a breaker. To fully take advantage of the 72a charger in the X, you'll have to upgrade the wires and the fuse/breaker. You will also have to purchase the HPWC, because the cable that comes with the car is only suitable for 40a, just like your 14-50.

You'll also have to ask yourself if it's necessary at home to use all 72a to charge. Most people charge over night daily, so whether it takes 3 hours or 5 hours, doesn't matter. You'll still be able to charge at some locations which have higher than 40a AC output.
 
Well, from my non-expertise, the 14-50 only allows 40a continuous charging on a 50a breaker. To fully take advantage of the 72a charger in the X, you'll have to upgrade the wires and the fuse/breaker. You will also have to purchase the HPWC, because the cable that comes with the car is only suitable for 40a, just like your 14-50.

You'll also have to ask yourself if it's necessary at home to use all 72a to charge. Most people charge over night daily, so whether it takes 3 hours or 5 hours, doesn't matter. You'll still be able to charge at some locations which have higher than 40a AC output.

+1

I would suggest you give the NEMA 14-50 a go for a while with your beautiful new incoming X before shelling out more $. We have a 75-80 mile round trip commute and can still almost sneak by with our TOU 4hr "window" with a 14-30 (can't believe it has been discontinued :mad:) charging @24A (18mi/hr. charge rate) for 3 years and 60,000 miles.

Your 72A charger will still come in very handy at the many >48A Tesla destination charging locations.

Enjoy your new X!! :biggrin:
 
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Unless you are regularly travelling 200+ miles, coming home for less than six hours, and leaving again for another 200+ mile trip, the NEMA 14-50 will be fine. I would venture a guess that the majority of people with dual chargers in their Model-S charge at less than full amperage capability when at home.

The main advantage of the 72amp charger is for quick turnaround at destination charging when available.
 
Do you have time of use rates? If so, is the window for cheap electricity only 4 hours?

Do you plan to get another electric car?

My aunt and uncle had dual chargers on their first car - didn't use them once. After a while they stopped charging every day. Their new car doesn't have dual chargers.

I have a Smart EV. I charge on 110. There is maybe one time since I've owned it that I wished I had 220 at home. At 40a, you are charging 6-7x faster...

Now when I do run a line to my garage it'll be 200a so it's somewhat futureproofed. I think designing for "what you need now" when it comes to infrastructure upgrades in rapidly changing tech is poorly thought through.

Designs not rushed tend to be designs with least regret. Chart the potential permutations of your future situation now, then if you do need to make a $3000 change in a year or two, you won't have to do it AGAIN a year or two after that.
 
What Ohmman said.

If you are a small town professional or spook needing to make frequent runs in the middle of the night
you may need a HPWC.

Otherwise the NEMA 14-50 is just fine. After all the car will spend all night in the garage. Some also
claim that long term the lower charge rate is gentler on battery storage degradation.
 
I used the UMC with my Model S for nearly 3 years on my 14-50 outlet. Charging at 40A continuous was more than adequate 99% of the time. But after the first year, Tesla rolled out the 5.8.4 firmware update which caused my connection to continuously back off and only charge at 30A. For nearly 2 years I was not happy with that charging rate. I finally decided to abandon my 14-50 circuit. I purchased a HPWC for $750 and paid $500 for labor to install an 80A circuit for it. Now I can continuously charge at 64A, which is 47 miles of range per hour. By the way, IMO the HPWC is a much safer way to charge, with a hard wire connector and heftier conduit.

I took a 7,200 mile road trip in my Model S and really enjoyed using many of the Tesla Destination Charging Stations (which are 40A to 80A). So even if you don't upgrade to a HPWC at home right away, you'll still be able to take advantage of the Destination chargers, as well as the superchargers.
 
We received a Tesla HPWC with our "inventory" 2015 P85D with dual chargers last July. Now that we've had it for 6 months I agree with the consensus above: Use your 14-50 for a while and see if you really NEED a HPWC for your home charging. From my experience we've only needed to charge higher than the 14-50's 40A charge limit ONCE in 6 months... When I'd forgotten to plug in our Tesla when I got home. The HPWC 80A charge rate allowed me to get a full charge in the short time I had that morning before I left on a trip.

The only other advantage of having a HPWC is we leave our Tesla charge cable in our car all the time since the HPWC has its own cable. Definitely more convenient than unstowing / stowing the Tesla charge cable every time we charge at night. Buying a 2nd charge cable would solve this inconvenience but that cost would pay for a good part of a HPWC.

Oh and the HPWC green pulsing charging light is really cool... especially since our garage has a window. :cool: