Thanks, you explained what I meant. And if you did it that way with an adapter between a 14-50 and a 10-50, you wouldn't have to manually remember to dial down the amps.
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Thanks, you explained what I meant. And if you did it that way with an adapter between a 14-50 and a 10-50, you wouldn't have to manually remember to dial down the amps.
I have a tandem garage -- 2 cars in front, 2 in back. I have a 14-50R on the left side and can usually park there, but due to other drivers in the household, sometimes I have to park on the right. There is an unused 240V/30A receptacle there on the right that I could configure with NEMA 10-30R and use a Tesla 10-30P plug adapter (I got one!) . The only issues I have with this is the ungrounded nature of the 10-30R, and having to ensure that the charge current is locked at 24A. Alternatively, I could just drag the UMC cable across the floor from the left 14-50R and let the other cars drive over it. I suppose they're pretty rugged, but that just seems wrong.
My questions:
My questions:
- Is the ungrounded NEMA 10-30 okay at 24A with Tesla plug (should be; they sold it to me).
- And is allowing cars to rolling over the UMC cable really dumb?
1. NEMA 10-30 is ungrounded by nature/design. I think if I recall correctly, it's because the neutral acts as a ground. So if you have the genuine adapter, you'll be fine and the car will be fine. And the car will automatically dial back the amps to 24 so you don't have to do anything.
2. And yes, letting cars run over your UMC cable is a dumb idea. Don't do that.
As supratachophobia (um, what phobia is that?) said, using a 10-30 is fine. While it is ungrounded, it has a neutral, which the Tesla adapter uses instead of a ground (this works fine because the neutral and ground are bonded together in your main panel anyways). And because it is a Tesla adapter, it tells the car to draw a maximum of 24A, so no need to fiddle with charge settings.
brucet999
Active Member
I don't think the UMC uses the neutral as a ground. Rather, its internal circuitry probably uses 120V current, which requires a neutral.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
No, the UMC doesn't need or use the neutral pin on the 14-50 plug; you could cut it off. This makes adapters for 10-30 and 10-50 outlets easy to construct: just hook up ground to ground and skip the neutral connection on the 14-50R. EV adapters of this sort are not suitable for when the neutral is needed, as would be the case with an RV. That's why an EV adapter should be marked as being "For EV use only, no neutral connection", or something like that.
I never said the UMC uses the neutral as a ground. I said the Tesla 10-30 adapter uses the NEMA 10-30 receptacle's neutral as a ground (and passes it to the UMC as a ground).
As far as your conjecture on the UMC's internal circuitry goes, the UMC only draws power from the two power pins it is given by any Tesla adapter. It does not use the ground pin from the adapters to return current, it uses that only as a safety ground (with the exception that it does a brief test to see if the ground can in fact accept current). To power itself, the UMC no doubt has a power supply that can accept either 240V or 120V from those two power pins.
Relevant, we have a voting pole going to try and gauge interest in the 14-30 adapter in the hopes that Tesla will re-release it.
Hey Tesla, there is a need for that NEMA 14-30 adapter still!
Hey Tesla, there is a need for that NEMA 14-30 adapter still!
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