How do you charge at home?

I’m learning a lot from this discussion. I plan to make calculations and get bids this winter for our new/renovated home and shed/garage to be built.

We loose power often: 5-6 times a year due to the trees. Battery storage is appealing. Shown is our new home in Guilford Connecticut.

IMG_9610.webp
 
Sam_Julier said:
I’m learning a lot from this discussion. I plan to make calculations and get bids this winter for our new/renovated home and shed/garage to be built.

We loose power often: 5-6 times a year due to the trees. Battery storage is appealing. Shown is our new home in Guilford Connecticut.
Click to expand...
The economics of going solar are pretty straightforward. Battery storeage is more complicated and not worth it for many of us.
 
Astro_Guy said:
@E365 Is that power sharing dynamic, meaning when one battery fills the other two chargers split the 48 amps equally between them?
Click to expand...
Exactly. One car gets the full 48A. Add a 2nd and they each get 24A, add a 3rd and each gets 16A. Then as a car finishes it reallocates power to the ones still charging. All live & automatic (wifi and Bluetooth networked). Seems like about half the EVSEs on the market have this capability. I’ve actually never run 3 EVs at the same time, but I’ve done 2 many times and it’s worked perfectly. About to replace a gasoline car with another EV - so hopefully can test 3 soon.

Another good option is something like the Grizzl-e Duo. It does that live between two cords from the same EVSE unit. Limited to 2 cords though, and I wanted 3 cords.

IMG_3403.webp
 
Last edited:
Sam_Julier said:
I’m learning a lot from this discussion. I plan to make calculations and get bids this winter for our new/renovated home and shed/garage to be built.

We loose power often: 5-6 times a year due to the trees. Battery storage is appealing. Shown is our new home in Guilford Connecticut.
Click to expand...
The economics of going solar are pretty straightforward. Battery storeage is more complicated and not worth it for many of us.
 
dogememe said:
Most annoying part is the Tesla locks the charger to the vehicle so I need to unlock it in the app if my ex wants to use the charger and it’s currently in my car. The Equinox it’s simple… I can just unplug it as needed.
Click to expand...
You must be locking your Tesla. We have ours set up to not lock when its at our home address (as its kept in the garage) and when its not locked, it doesn't lock the charger either.
 
Astro_Guy said:
The economics of going solar are pretty straightforward. Battery storeage is more complicated and not worth it for many of us.
Click to expand...

We had solar at our previous home so I’m familiar with it. This time I plan to cover every square foot possible on the SE, S and SW sides. The aesthetics do not bother me. “Go big or go home!”
 
Last edited:
Dave Hess said:
Nice.

How much for installation ?
Click to expand...

Good question. It was DIY (multiple electricians in family. Also permitted and inspected). I’m sure I spent a solid $750 on wire, conduit, breakers, a subpanel, etc. 2 of the 3 EVSE units were “free” from the power company. The 3rd was another ~$500 retail.
 
Sam_Julier said:
I’m learning a lot from this discussion. I plan to make calculations and get bids this winter for our new/renovated home and shed/garage to be built.

We loose power often: 5-6 times a year due to the trees. Battery storage is appealing. Shown is our new home in Guilford Connecticut.

View attachment 346680
Click to expand...
The design vernacular, including a dedicated mudroom, is very familiar to me.

IMG_0345.webp
 
I charge my Lightning on L1, and if I ride the train to work that's enough to get me by. If I drive the office, we have L2 chargers in the parking garage to supplement my slow home charging.

My wife uses an 14-50R receptacle that I installed along with a $159 Amazon EVSE, works great for her Mach-E. I have the amperage on the EVSE turned down to 24A because the subpanel is only 80A total, but that's never been an issue in practice and it was fine at 32A, but, I did the load calculations and under some unusual circumstances with basically everything in the house on at once and every plug in use with a 1000W load, it would be possible to exceed 80% of capacity, so I cut the EVSE down to 24A. It's always been enough for our use of the vehicle.
 
Brons2 said:
I charge my Lightning on L1, and if I ride the train to work that's enough to get me by. If I drive the office, we have L2 chargers in the parking garage to supplement my slow home charging.

My wife uses an 14-50R receptacle that I installed along with a $159 Amazon EVSE, works great for her Mach-E. I have the amperage on the EVSE turned down to 24A because the subpanel is only 80A total, but that's never been an issue in practice and it was fine at 32A, but, I did the load calculations and under some unusual circumstances with basically everything in the house on at once and every plug in use with a 1000W load, it would be possible to exceed 80% of capacity, so I cut the EVSE down to 24A. It's always been enough for our use of the vehicle.
Click to expand...
It worked fine as it was, ie charging at 32 Amps whenever we got home. But you've given me more rationale for what I've already done - cutting back the charging rate to 25 Amps (from the maximum rate of 32 Amps) and also charging in the middle of the night.
 
ecotourist said:
It worked fine as it was, ie charging at 32 Amps whenever we got home. But you've given me more rationale for what I've already done - cutting back the charging rate to 25 Amps (from the maximum rate of 32 Amps) and also charging in the middle of the night.
Click to expand...
If I were you, I would install an EV rated recepticle rated for extended loads.. It ain't much. See my post #8.
Levitron EV rated NEMA 14-50
 
@JeffKeryk What vehicle/Amperage was your neighbour charging when he scorched that receptacle in your post #8? I assume it was 240 Volts.

How did he figure out there was a problem? Any issues before that?

It would be interesting to see what's happened inside.

My receptacle says the conductors are "all copper", and gives torque specs for tightening the conductors.
 
Astro_Guy said:
The economics of going solar are pretty straightforward. Battery storeage is more complicated and not worth it for many of us.
Click to expand...
It's actually very straightforward, especially if it's intended for short-duration outages. For most it won't work for long outages. Need a propane tank and generator for that. But for short outages, just a day or two, it's under $5,000. If there's ToU pricing from the utility it can be used for arbitrage as well.
 
ecotourist said:
@JeffKeryk What vehicle/Amperage was your neighbour charging when he scorched that receptacle in your post #8? I assume it was 240 Volts.

How did he figure out there was a problem? Any issues before that?

It would be interesting to see what's happened inside.

My receptacle says the conductors are "all copper", and gives torque specs for tightening the conductors.
Click to expand...
The receptacle was installed over 8 years ago if I had to guess. It has charged the original RAV4 EV and 2 (or 3) Bolts. Their Juice Box was plugged in and not unplugged until almost 2 weeks ago when they started using the Lexus RZ350E Mobile Connector. I don't know what a Bolt pulls, 32A maybe? I don't know what setting my neighbors have been using over the years.

There was no tell-tale problem AFAIK. Of course zi don't hang out much in their garage...
Since their new car's port moved from the Bolt's driver rear fender to the RZ passenger front fender, I had my electrician guy come and move the NEMA 14-50 receptacle. Of course he agreed an EV rated receptacle should be used. I was pretty shocked when I saw the old one.

Perhaps @OVERKILL, @UncleDave or others can speak to the extended high load demands of EV charging.
There is a reason for the EV rated receptacles. I urge owners to do it right. As my grandmother from Ukraine used to scold me, "Don't fools around!"
 
Brons2 said:
Just buy the Hubble on Amazon, it is the best. I don't trust Leviton's efforts in this space.
Click to expand...
The Hubbell is the best, no doubt. A couple of electricians I've spoken to tell me they've installed hundreds of the Leviton.
But I tend to agree with you. Pay once cry once. And sleep well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

0
Maximizing the charge on an Odyssey AGM
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
f355spider
Back
Top Bottom