Charging Station?

[roncappy]

Hi everyone. I’m in the US and just purchased a ‘23 Model S, and want to install a charger in my home. I am retired so just need the car for local and mid distant trips, but the closest Supercharger is 30 miles from my house. I was thinking of installing a Level 2 Tesla Charger, 50 amp (we have a brand new home which will give me 44 miles/hour of a charge, BUT maybe I don’t need that much? Maybe a lower amp charger
Would be enough? I’d appreciate any and all thoughts! Thank you. Ron C.

 

[fholbert]

Hi everyone. I’m in the US and just purchased a ‘23 Model S, and want to install a charger in my home. I am retired so just need the car for local and mid distant trips, but the closest Supercharger is 30 miles from my house. I was thinking of installing a Level 2 Tesla Charger, 50 amp (we have a brand new home which will give me 44 miles/hour of a charge, BUT maybe I don’t need that much? Maybe a lower amp charger
Would be enough? I’d appreciate any and all thoughts! Thank you. Ron C.

I agree with you, wall chargers have the advantage.

Install the 50amp, you can turn down the amperage at the Tesla if you want.

By the way, 50 amp is going to downgrade at the car 20% to 40 amp.

 

[ewoodrick]

Hi everyone. I’m in the US and just purchased a ‘23 Model S, and want to install a charger in my home. I am retired so just need the car for local and mid distant trips, but the closest Supercharger is 30 miles from my house. I was thinking of installing a Level 2 Tesla Charger, 50 amp (we have a brand new home which will give me 44 miles/hour of a charge, BUT maybe I don’t need that much? Maybe a lower amp charger
Would be enough? I’d appreciate any and all thoughts! Thank you. Ron C.

A 48A charge is fine and is a common default for EVs. It allows for the fasted home charging and just makes life easier.
If the installation of a 48A charger is too expensive, then you can back down to whatever you can get at a reasonable cost.
Even a normal 120V 15A wall connector will charge at about 40 miles in 12 hours, but can take days if the battery is empty.

By charging at home, you will significantly reduce your operating costs and increase the flexibility of the car. You plug in when you get home, unplug when you leave. It makes EV operation really simple and convenient.

Superchargers require you to site and wait for a period of time and is often 5X the price of charging at home.

Recommendation: Charge at home, use the Supercharger only when necessary.

For many people, the last Supercharger they will ever use is the one closest to the house.

 

[phxazcraig]

First, let's talk options. Tesla Wall Connector, or Tesla Mobile Connector.
The Tesla Wall Connector (and I assume Universal version with J1772 and NACS connectors) uses a 60amp breaker but is set to use 80% of that, meaning 48amps, max. That's the one that gives you 11.5kWh charging. It will typically charge my model Y from 20% to 80% in 3-4 hours.

Down from that is the Mobile Connector, which can plug into 120v or 240v, but needs the right plug adapter. Here you mostly see two options in the US:
1. Use a 50amp circuit (set to a max of 80% or 40amps in the charger) and a NEMA 14-50 plug.
2. Use a 30amp circuit (set to max of 24amps) and a NEMA 14-30 plug. These outlets are somewhat common in US houses as they typically get used for an electric dryer. Figure double the charge time of the Wall Connector, so maybe 6-8 hours to do a typically deep charge.

And of course you can plug the Mobile Connector into 120v sockets, either NEMA 15-20 (120v, 20 amps, derated to 16amps) and typically found in bathrooms and behind a refrigerator, or the most common, a 15-15 socket, max of 15amps at 120v.

It's my opinion that any of the 240v options work for a single car, and many 2-car charging situations. The 30amp circuit is the slowest I'd go for.

120v? That's only going to work in a very limited driving basis, but if the car often sits for 2-3 days at a time, it should be OK.

 

[philander]

The mobile connector is $250, the 48A Gen3 wall connector is $450.

The mobile connector will require a 240V connection for level 2 charging. As mentioned previously, this is commonly paired with a NEMA 14-50 socket to leverage the included 14-50 adapter that comes with the modern mobile connector. The mobile unit can only provide 32A maximum to the car, but I would recommend wiring the outlet to support a full 240V/40A load for rudimentary future-proofing, which means a 50A breaker and appropriate gauge cabling and conduit. You are currently only setting up your house for a single EV, but if you have enough room in your panel you may want to wire up two sockets for flexibility in the event you acquire a second Tesla or host other EV owners and want to offer them a top-up during their visit. At one time I believe Tesla did not recommend using the mobile connector as a primary charging solution, but I do not see any warnings in the current manual.

The wall connector is hard-wired and is most commonly connected to a 60A breaker to provide enough headroom for a continuous 48A load. The fixed nature of the wall unit requires a bit more forethought in regards to placement, but if you are not bringing a second EV or destination charging for visitors into the equation, locating it should be pretty simple.

It does not appear you will need the full 48A very often, so the mobile connector and a socket or two may be your best option. The Gen3 wall adapter does have deeper integration into the Tesla charging ecosystem, meaning some additional insights and data will appear in your app, but I don't think you'll get much use out of that.

I think you might be able to get by with 120V charging, and maybe that's a place to start with the mobile connector. My guess is that you'll start to feel like a hobo before too long, though. At-home level 2 charging, even at 24A(one of my four wall adapters is limited to that rate, I still use it frequently), is one of the core aspects that makes EV ownership really go, in my opinion.

Installation is where knowing a good electrician makes a big difference. Both the socket and hard-wired versions are extremely straightforward to install, but you run the risk of getting soaked for a quote when an outfit from the yellow pages finds out that you're wiring for an expensive EV. I found this to be even more true when getting a quote from a local firm sourced from Tesla's web page- it came in at three times the rate of another firm, and during the visit I got the impression they didn't really want to do the work. At one time I think you could ask for a quote to install a dryer in your garage and feel like you were getting an appropriately proletariat quote, but my guess is those days are long gone.

Lastly, I'd look around to see if there are any state incentives to get your home set up for level 2 charging. Last I checked in North Carolina the atmosphere was pretty hostile, but in the event there's a program like there is in Illinois I'd jump on it.

 

[gillmj24]

You can also derate the amperage with the app in real time. Even without a Tesla charger. I went with 60 amp circuit to try and get 48A charging speed. Unfortunately the chargepoint charger I bought second hand is locked at 40A and they won't assist since I didn't buy it from them. I think the bluetooth/wifi board failed so I can't add it to my chargepoint app and change settings. But 40A has been good enough for the chevy bolt and the S85D. If necessary I can charge both cars from ~25% to ~80% overnight at 40A. Both cars are capable of 48A/240V (11.5 kW)