An easier way to charge vehicles at home

Ok that makes sense, but I think I have some 20 amp 120v outlets in the kitchen so that's 2400 watts right there, no?
You are correct but as a rule the 20amp circuit should l not be loaded to full capacity for safety reasons for long periods of time.
Its safe to say the recommendation for anything constant is 80% which would be 1920 watts.
 
Well, when I installed my air compressor in the basement, I just taped into my central A/C unit for 220V, ran a line 20' along the ceiling and put an outlet on a ceiling joist near the compressor. $30 in parts. While that might not work for EV charging in the summer unless you shut off the A/C while charging, it might be a possibility
One of my backup heating sources is baseboard heaters. [The real back up is a wood stove.] I have not used the baseboard heaters since I installed a heat pump. And assuming my heat pump continues to work I don't plan to ever use them.

My EV charger and the baseboard heaters are on the same circuit. I can't use the EV charger at the same time as the baseboard heaters.
 
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Well, when I installed my air compressor in the basement, I just taped into my central A/C unit for 220V, ran a line 20' along the ceiling and put an outlet on a ceiling joist near the compressor. $30 in parts. While that might not work for EV charging in the summer unless you shut off the A/C while charging, it might be a possibility.
Well what DIY does and uses vs an electrician who follows and understands codes are two very different things.

The issue with EV Charging and is it a sustained large load which will heat up the "wiring" not a brief surge load like an air compressor start followed by low load running for a few minutes.
 
No, it takes twice as long. Overnight is quite reasonable to be able to use an existing outlet. And how often is the meter anywhere near where the car is parked?
120 gets 3 to 4 mph; I get 30 to 32 mph at 32A from 220. It slows as you approach the limit.
By the way, running 60' of #6 copper wire from the service panel under the house to the garage and a NEMA 14-50 recepticle by a union electrician cost me $600 all in, including tip. About $200 for the materials alone. I upgraded to a 200A service years ago; otherwise I would not own an EV.
Model 3 charging.jpg
 
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Super chargers(Level 3) actually use DC not AC current and typically 480V with 400AMP draw.

The 220V home stuff is level 2 and 110V is level 1.
Ran across a Tesla employee installing some new superchargers in my town and I asked him how much voltage these things were pushing and he said they can go up to 600 volts. Wow!
 
Every house built in the last 50 years or more has 220V service. Any electrician can run a line to an outside wall and add a 220V outlet for charging for a coupe hundred dollars.

Not here. 200a didn't start showing up till the 90's. When we redid our house a few years ago we replaced the 40a box with a 200 though.
I am not sure you understand volts vs. amps. Houses have been wired for 240 (also referred to as 220) volt, two pole service since forever or so. One pole is your standard outlet throughout the house. These run your television, computer, toaster, lights, etc. Two poles runs things like your electric oven, water heater, dryer, etc. Volts are kind of like the amount of water pressure in your hose.

Amps are the amount of current. A 40 amp service would still be 240 volt. Our house came with a 100 amp/240 volt service. We upgraded to a 200 amp service when we got solar installed.

I have been charging with a regular outlet since I got my Mach E in December. One of these days I will install the 60 amp circuit so I can charge faster. The regular outlet is 110/120 volts at maybe 15 amps, or about 1,800 watts max. The new one would be 240 volts at 48 amps, or about 11,520 watts. The 60 amp circuit provides only 48 amps because you only load the circuit at 80% of capacity to comply with wiring codes and for safety.

Disclosure: I am not an electrician, but I was taught by my EE father and real electricians. Also, I keep a copy of Wiring Simplified around. Anyone messing with any wiring should have and read that little book. You can learn a lot.
 
I am not sure you understand volts vs. amps. Houses have been wired for 240 (also referred to as 220) volt, two pole service since forever or so. One pole is your standard outlet throughout the house. These run your television, computer, toaster, lights, etc. Two poles runs things like your electric oven, water heater, dryer, etc. Volts are kind of like the amount of water pressure in your hose.
So do the super chargers use 4 poles to get 480V? And can you install one at your house?
 
So do the super chargers use 4 poles to get 480V? And can you install one at your house?
A reasonable question, but 480 volts is going to be three phase and your home is supplied with single phase electricity. Three phase is used for things like industrial motors and other commercial applications because it is more efficient. The wiring coming into your home is 240 volt, single phase, two pole. Three phase would NOT be the same as three pole.

Keep in mind, I am neither an electrical engineer nor and electrician, so we have now exceeded my knowledge of electric power.
 
I have to believe that for the vast majority of home charging, a 240V 60A circuit is perfect.
Plus, charging with too much power is hard on batteries, right?
 
There are various schemes and ideas for providing higher voltage residential service but I don't know if any are implemented yet. One of the problems is that you still need nominal 120v/240v for most of the uses in the home which would mean either a transformer or a second service in addition to the higher voltage. 208v wye doesn't get you anything and a service with 480v would have a 277v leg. Good luck finding 277v refrigerators and lamps. As JeffKeryk notes it is just better to make sure the standard service drop has enough capacity. I do know they are installing 400A mains in some new homes just for this reason although sometimes the way that is implemented is through two 200A panels.
 
Why is everybody getting hung up on AC VOLTS ? It's all about DC CURRENT . The output ( amps ) of your charger is going to be limited by the input AC CURRENT available . Your average home is wired for 120/240 AC volts and usually no more than 200 amps .
 
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