Todd Burch
14-Year Member
Typo! There are 3 boxes. Otherwise the cats would have to wade through a mountain of sh*t just to find some litter...
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How to design my garage?
- Thread starter Citizen-T
- Start date
Typo! There are 3 boxes. Otherwise the cats would have to wade through a mountain of sh*t just to find some litter...
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
It gets more challenging in my case, because the cat door is in the people door :/
So I would need some kind of gate...
Maybe I'll just wing it and see how it goes.
Ah, well, can you add a new one in the wall next to the door? I had to put one in the wall for my garage, which was just a matter of using my stud finder to make sure the space was empty, cutting the hole in the drywall, and putting in the cat door. I'm not exactly a handy person, so trust me, it's not as scary as it sounds if you're not handy either
Anyway, we're mostly off topic. I'm just going to run a new 40-15 NEMA outlet in from my breaker panel which is in the garage right next to where I park. Should be simple. The only drawback is the charge port is on the wrong side for me. It'd be nice if Tesla gave you the option of whether to have the port on the left or right side. If it has to be on the driver's side, I'll have to consider some sort of hooks on the ceiling to run the cord...then I get into issues of if that's too long a distance (up the wall, over the ceiling, hang down on the driver's side).
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
When I installed a NEMA 14-50 outlet in my garage to charge the Model S, I used a 50A GFCI breaker. Did I just create trouble for myself by using a GFCI? Do the GFCI breakers tend to trip frequently when charging an EV?
It's supposed to be on a non-GFCI outlet according to this at least
http://webarchive.teslamotors.com/display_data/info_sheet_uc.pdf
Not sure if the new Model S mobile charger will be different. Could e-mail your Tesla rep.
W.Petefish
Active Member
I would say yes. Per the problems that people have had with using 2 GFCIs in line with the spare connector on the roadster.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
And to close that question, here's the response I got back from Dan at Tesla:
"Hi Todd,
Thanks for asking.
A GFCI circuit breaker is not recommended. The Universal Connector has one built in already, and we have seen these nuisance trip on several occasions. We will provide installation guidance, including the recommended plug configuration and circuit breaker information, within the next few months. Unless you are having other electrical work performed in the near term, I’d recommend waiting until we have published this guidance. If you do need further assistance before then, please let me know.
Best regards,
Dan"
"Hi Todd,
Thanks for asking.
A GFCI circuit breaker is not recommended. The Universal Connector has one built in already, and we have seen these nuisance trip on several occasions. We will provide installation guidance, including the recommended plug configuration and circuit breaker information, within the next few months. Unless you are having other electrical work performed in the near term, I’d recommend waiting until we have published this guidance. If you do need further assistance before then, please let me know.
Best regards,
Dan"
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
Now that I think about it, this is kinda not so good.
If there's a GFCI in the charging cable, and I shouldn't have one in the breaker box, then that means that the outlet has a decent chance of killing me.
Sure, the power cord/car might be OK, but the outlet sitting there on its own in my garage is an accident waiting to happen...
If there's a GFCI in the charging cable, and I shouldn't have one in the breaker box, then that means that the outlet has a decent chance of killing me.
Sure, the power cord/car might be OK, but the outlet sitting there on its own in my garage is an accident waiting to happen...
If you're that concerned, put a switch in the line near the plug. Then you can turn it off when the charger isn't plugged in.
That said, unless you're fond of sticking things in sockets, you are unlikely to experience any problems...
That said, unless you're fond of sticking things in sockets, you are unlikely to experience any problems...
Part of the problem with GFI has to do with the trip current. To protect people, the fault current is usually low like about 5ma. For equipment like your car it needs to be much higher, about 20ma to avoid nuisance tripping. If you installed a standard off the shelf 50 amp GFI from a big box store it is probably a type 'A' designed for a hot tub and will have a low trip setting so it will tend to trip before the GFI in the UMC trips. The type 'B' units trip at 20ma and tend to cost a lot more.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
I've been strongly considering getting two UMCs, one to be plugged in permanently at home and one to go in the car. This may well be cheaper than getting the HPC (if an extra UMC is over $1200, HPC here we come). The way my garage looks, looks are my *last* consideration.
This has the following features:
(1) The socket into which the UMC is plugged at home is very unlikely to electrocute you, even if it's not GFCI-protected, because you very rarely plug or unplug the UMC at home.
(2) If something unfortunate happens to your UMC on a road trip, you still have the ability to charge your car at home, without waiting for Tesla to mail you a new UMC.
Those were my thoughts.
This has the following features:
(1) The socket into which the UMC is plugged at home is very unlikely to electrocute you, even if it's not GFCI-protected, because you very rarely plug or unplug the UMC at home.
(2) If something unfortunate happens to your UMC on a road trip, you still have the ability to charge your car at home, without waiting for Tesla to mail you a new UMC.
Those were my thoughts.
NigelM
Recovering Member
N.B. Tesla recommended leaving the Roadster UMC plugged in; doesn't matter that it stays "warm", that's still better than plugging and unplugging every day with the risk of loosening the connections.
Quick question. We were looking at new homes today and saw a home under construction we liked. If I had a 220 installed in the garage what type of charge time would I get and would I need the dual charger to maximize it? Would the 220 be almost as good as the $1500 charger that tesla sells? Thanks.
My understanding is that the HPC with dual chargers gets 62 miles per hour--Gee it's weird talking miles per hour that way. A 50 amp RV would be around 30 miles per hour. The dual charger would not help for the RV type wiring. On the other hand the difference is $1200 vs $200. If you regularly drive more than 150 miles per day, or work long and/or possibly intermittent hours, then the HPC is the way to go because you need the car charged up fast. Or if you want to make a statement with the Tesla HPC. Otherwise, the RV is fine.
You would only need the dual charger if you bought the HPC and had a 100A circuit installed. That usually isn't necessary for home. You'd probably be fine installed a NEMA 14-50 outlet (50 A circuit allowing you to use the included UMC with the Model S to charge at 40A).
Install the 100 amp 220 circuit, and you can decide what to put on the end later (HPC or 14-15 plug) according to your needs.
Much better idea, I agree. Since the home is under construction that's definitely the way to go. You might as well run the wire to the other parking spots in the garage as well just in case you have more than one EV some day. I'd imagine they could always upgrade your electric box later but running the wire once the garage is built would be harder. You could always but a 14-50 plug on your extra outlets as place holders.
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