Why is Charging so Fun?

[mattmass]

I've had my 85D for a little over a year now. Something that I've discovered is that I really enjoy charging the car. It's fun to find destination chargers. I've had a great time making cables and/or trying to source outlets and boxes to charge at the maximum power possible at relatives houses. And supercharging is a blast. I've also just recently had a 14-50 outlet installed in the garage, and that's wonderful. I don't drive enough to need that much power, but I really love having it.

Does anyone else take as much joy in charging as I do?

 

[ORB]

There's a lot of satisfaction in wiring your garage, either professionally or DIY. I repurposed my 220V dryer circuit using a large contactor (relay) to switch between my old 10-30 outlet for the dryer and the new 14-30 outlet for charging, meets my needs and met the city's electrical permit requirement. I use a tool balancer (from McMaster-Carr) to keep the Tesla charging cable up out of the way in my garage, takes 8 sec. to plug or unplug, still fun to do every other day on average.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I wired my own HPWC, just single phase 240V 32A. Great fun.

 

[Btrflyl8e]

After nearly 3.5 years and two Model Essesesses, it's still fun!

 

[gavine]

I don't need to charge outside of my house much, but I do enjoy it when I do. It can't explain why, but at least I know now that I'm not the only one who enjoys it.

I also enjoy running the "Activity" feature on the PlugShare app to see when new stations go online locally, even though I will likely never use them.

 

[ratsbew]

For me, it's fun to imagine my car sucking down 120kW from the grid. That puts a pretty substantial load on whatever generator is powering it. A natural gas generator (jet turbine) can put out something like 40 Megawatts so 0.12 Megawatts just from my car isn't insignificant.

Charging at home at 20kW is also fun for similar reasons. Sometimes I'll run my electric stove/oven to cook at the same time just to pull down more power.

 

[ABCCBA]

@ratsbew You got that all wrong. Telsa vehicles are smart enough to only use renewable energy that is on the grid. So, they are only running on the wind and solar portions of the power grid. No Nat Gas, No Coal, No Nuke, and no salmon stream water is used to charge them. Just Sunshine and Rainbows. lol

Oh, forgot to add, that in the winter time, you will want to have several neighbors charging at the same time to keep the ice off of the power lines.

For me, it's fun to imagine my car sucking down 120kW from the grid. That puts a pretty substantial load on whatever generator is powering it. A natural gas generator (jet turbine) can put out something like 40 Megawatts so 0.12 Megawatts just from my car isn't insignificant.

Charging at home at 20kW is also fun for similar reasons. Sometimes I'll run my electric stove/oven to cook at the same time just to pull down more power.

 

[Jeff4155]

Well there goes any chance of South Africa getting the Eco warriors happy, sins 90% of our power is generated by coal, hopefully one day that will change sins we have the sun and wind all at our disposal.

 

[Rocky_H]

Heh, yep. I find solving charging issues to be fun as well. When I went on a trip to Portland Oregon and we were renting a house, I got to string a 30 foot RV extension cord up the driveway, in the side pet door, down the stairs to the basement and then using an adapter cable to a 10-30 for their dryer. It was coming up about a couple feet short, but I had a couple of the 14-multi adapters from EVSEadapters that I put in to get it to reach. I did turn the current down to 21 amps instead of 24 to not pull too hard on this setup, but I felt a pretty good sense of accomplishment from it.

Also, to be really prepared, I bought a Quick220 box and tested it out at home. I had to build an adapter cable from its 6-15 output to the 14-50 plug on the UMC, and I found it pretty fun stripping the wire and putting that together.

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

I'm the same way. I'm sure there is some psychological diagnosis for this condition.

 

[freeewilly]

I enjoy finding free chargers

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Something that I've discovered is that I really enjoy charging the car. It's fun to find destination chargers.
Does anyone else take as much joy in charging as I do?

Similarly, I put my HPWC and NEMA 14-50 charging station on Plugshare.....and I'm tickled when someone drops in and uses it. The thought of helping people move on to their next destination makes me...happy!

 

[Rocky_H]

Similarly, I put my HPWC and NEMA 14-50 charging station on Plugshare.....and I'm tickled when someone drops in and uses it. The thought of helping people move on to their next destination makes me...happy!

Absolutely! I put my 14-50 outlet on Plugshare as soon as I got the car. Our city is on a semi-major interstate highway, and for about a year and a half there was not a Supercharger here, and my outlet was the fastest charging in the city. I got to meet some other Tesla travelers from other states who were coming through and needed to charge. It was great fun. We went out and had lunch or beers and got to have a great time talking.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

Absolutely! I put my 14-50 outlet on Plugshare as soon as I got the car. Our city is on a semi-major interstate highway, and for about a year and a half there was not a Supercharger here, and my outlet was the fastest charging in the city. I got to meet some other Tesla travelers from other states who were coming through and needed to charge. It was great fun. We went out and had lunch or beers and got to have a great time talking.

Yeah - agreed! We are near a secondary highway heading to a vacation area. No superchargers. It's 200 - 250 miles round trip from Toronto. More than a few folks have overestimated their range, and I get a visit. My charging station is attached to our horseback riding arena, which has a full kitchen (and bar). I have met many of the visitors over a coffee or beer........nice conversation.