About to buy a 2011 Roaster 2.5 - need some guidance

[AEdennis]

It is easy to convert an outlet down the road - but total capacity becomes an issue. My house has 200A service - typical for a modern 2-story normal-size home. I could do 2 50A outlets - but not 2 70/80A outlets. Alder houses often are only 100/150A. If you have a huge house you could have more - but check.

Agreed. I updated to a 200A feed when we installed solar on the roof and updated the utility and the main panel then.

 

[TEG]

Right. The original Roadster HPC was actually a variant of this EVSE. If you compare it to the Roadster HPC they're almost identical. Very rugged and durable.

Actually, I think the original-original one was some in-house design, but they went to Clipper Creek instead for some reason.

Very early HPC:

Later HPC:

 

[djp]

Maybe I should ask my Electrician if the NEMA outlet can be converted over down the road...

It would be a good idea to run heavier gauge wire to support 100A in the future. This way you can just swap out the breaker and won't need to run new wires.

Day 1 you can charge off a 120V household outlet. It's slow, but it's usually good enough for short daily commutes. This is what I did for a couple of weeks before my NEMA 14-50 was installed.

 

[slcasner]

Actually, I think the original-original one was some in-house design, but they went to Clipper Creek instead for some reason.

Once again, TEG beats me to the punch. I was going to post exactly that line myself. My original-original HPC has been working just fine for 6 years charging #33.

 

[MindMechanic]

Hi All,
Thanks for all the input. I think I'm going to punt the final decision down the road and get a NEMA outlet installed for now. Since the Roadster is a used vehicle, I'm not entitled to any rebates on it. I'll have the electrician run the heavier gauge wire, so when I do get my Model S, we can replace the NEMA with either a Tesla connector or a ClipperCreek, as well as adding a second connector for the new car. I can take advantage of the rebate then. I've pm'ed Henry to be placed on the list for a CAN SR, but will likely get both it and the CAN JR so I can take advantage of the J1772 chargers.

Looking forward to being a Tesla Owner and active member of this community.

Mahalo

 

[hcsharp]

So, in either case (HPC vs CC/SC) I'm looking at getting an adapter.

There's another option. I also make a Roadster connector that I could install onto a Clipper Creek / Sun Country Hwy CS-100. Not many people have asked me to do that because the CAN-JR adapter is only about $100 more than the Roadster connector, and then you have a CAN-JR to use whenever you travel. The problem with this, as @wiztecy pointed out, is a loss of convenience. When I get home I have a bag of groceries in one hand and want to plug the car in with the other, in under 2 seconds, without setting the groceries down. It's harder to do that if you're using an adapter. Of course this adds up to a lot of money since you pretty much have to buy the adapter anyway for public charging and a CS-100 is already expensive without a custom connector.

It looks like the best and most future-proof way to go is the ClipperCreek solution. However, the HPWC is half the price of the ClipperCreek.

There's a reason for that. With Clipper Creek you get what you pay for.

Maybe I should ask my Electrician if the NEMA outlet can be converted over down the road...

I'm a big advocate of wiring the NEMA 14-50 with big enough wire that you can install a higher-amp EVSE in the future. Labor is most of the cost so unless it's a long run or a hard pull, it's not usually that much more to use wire large enough for a future HPWC.

 

[adiggs]

Something i haven't seen talked about much, or that you've indicated MindMechanic - do you have a sense of the sort of mileage and trips that you're planning to make? I am particularly wondering if you anticipate regularly driving enough around town to use most of the battery, and then want to recharge as quickly as possible and do it again (same day)? Could be the case, but it seems to be a pretty rare use case.

For my part, the Roadster battery provides all the range I need for a day of errands and commuting and then some, with an overnight recharge really only needed 2 or 3 days a week. Even with a need for a nightly recharge, ~30 miles of range per hour will need 5 hours to recover 150 miles (NEMA 14-50 at 40A). Maybe you only sleep 2 or 3 hours a night and then you're back on the road again


Even when you get to Model S, if you're routinely / regularly driving 240 miles per day, that's still a reasonably common 8 hour overnight in the garage to be back to full. The advantage of the higher amp charger is if you've got a line of EV friends over to visit and people would like to top off, or you're needing to charge again before the car gets to sit overnight. It's useful, but I know my decision has been the 14-50 is just fine. Good chance that some day when Model X arrives, we'll stick with the 1 14-50 and use it to charge both Model X and the Roadster (maybe using a 110 now and then for supplementary charging). But we don't drive many miles, and nightly charging is usually an hour or so and done.

 

[Doug_G]

Actually, I think the original-original one was some in-house design, but they went to Clipper Creek instead for some reason.

You're right - I always forget about the original HPC.

They probably went to Clipper because it was more reliable and less expensive.

 

[MindMechanic]

Something i haven't seen talked about much, or that you've indicated MindMechanic - do you have a sense of the sort of mileage and trips that you're planning to make? I am particularly wondering if you anticipate regularly driving enough around town to use most of the battery, and then want to recharge as quickly as possible and do it again (same day)? Could be the case, but it seems to be a pretty rare use case.

Its a good question. I haven't quite figured it out yet. I make a weekly round trip of about 450 km (280 Miles) for business, which right now is not something I want to do with the roadster. Other than that, I have a daily commute of about 80 km/50 mi. Weekends are mostly with the family running various errands, so again the roadster would likely be used on short jaunts of 50 km/30 mi.

Now things are likely to change in a few months with 1) the Roaster 3.0 upgrade and 2) the delivery of my Model S. So I think that I will go a little conservative and stick with the NEMA 14-50 plug in for now, and upgrade down the road in a few months as necessary.

 

[PokerBroker]

Well the one thing that is a given is that you will run more errands after your purchase.

 

[adiggs]

Well the one thing that is a given is that you will run more errands after your purchase.

Truth. Two years later, and I'm still looking for excuses to do errands.

 

[MindMechanic]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to "running errands", and stepping out with my wife in the evenings. :biggrin:

Just got to wait for the weather in the GTA to improve a bit. Anyone know how the soft-top does in minus 20 degrees Celsius?

BTW, is there a Roaster Owners Club in Ontario/the GTA?

 

[Doug_G]

Just got to wait for the weather in the GTA to improve a bit. Anyone know how the soft-top does in minus 20 degrees Celsius?

The car is plenty cold no matter what the roof lol. The hard top is better in the cold, but the soft top does the job.

BTW, is there a Roaster Owners Club in Ontario/the GTA?

There is a Tesla club...