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what do i need to charge at home and what is level 1? i think i saw they come with something for a regular outlet. i have outlets in and around my garage. i contacted an electrician to get an idea of the cost of installing a level 2 charger and they gave me a $1k estimate plus id have to buy the wall connector for about $500.
Level 1 charging is charging from a regular outlet hopefully with a dedicated breaker (or at least without too much else drawing power from it). People are getting 4 to 4.5 miles an hour charging from a regular outlet. If you reckon that your car charges at home for about 9 hours a day on average and you average less than 40 miles of driving a day, then you can potentially do that.
Level 1 charging is charging from a regular outlet hopefully with a dedicated breaker (or at least without too much else drawing power from it). People are getting 4 to 4.5 miles an hour charging from a regular outlet. If you reckon that your car charges at home for about 9 hours a day on average and you average less than 40 miles of driving a day, then you can potentially do that.
Do you own your home?
i own my own home. this is my commuting car and i put on about 100 miles M-F. car is parked from around 630pm to 8am next day (13.5 hrs). shouldnt be hard to find an available outlet but i probably will need to upgrade so i dont have to worry about range.
i own my own home. this is my commuting car and i put on about 100 miles M-F. car is parked from around 630pm to 8am next day (13.5 hrs). shouldnt be hard to find an available outlet but i probably will need to upgrade so i dont have to worry about range.
I see. It is nice being able to charge faster if something comes up, but in your case with the rather short driving distances and long charge times, it doesn't seem that necessary. If you're keeping your vehicle charged to 80%, you can forget to charge for several days and still be able to make your daily commute pretty easily. Then again, the price of installing level 2 charger is pretty small compared to the cost of the car and there's a chance there's some program in New Jersey that helps with the cost of that). Might also get the slightest of bumps to your home value as well to make up for part of the expense.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 08-14-2020 at 08:48 AM..
what do i need to charge at home and what is level 1? i think i saw they come with something for a regular outlet. i have outlets in and around my garage. i contacted an electrician to get an idea of the cost of installing a level 2 charger and they gave me a $1k estimate plus id have to buy the wall connector for about $500.
Do you happen to have a 220 volt outlet in your garage? AKA the kinda dryer uses?
what do i need to charge at home and what is level 1? i think i saw they come with something for a regular outlet. i have outlets in and around my garage. i contacted an electrician to get an idea of the cost of installing a level 2 charger and they gave me a $1k estimate plus id have to buy the wall connector for about $500.
You don't really need a wall charger - the vehicle should come with a 240v charger, you just need a place to plug it in. You will need an adapter from Tesla that runs $35. Optimum is a NEMA 14-50 connection, 50 amp will charge at 40 amp max - charge full in about 6 hrs - the plug itself is less than $25. I used a 30 amp dryer plug for over a year - 30 amp dryer connection will charge at 24 amp max - charge full in about 10hrs.
i own my own home. this is my commuting car and i put on about 100 miles M-F. car is parked from around 630pm to 8am next day (13.5 hrs). shouldnt be hard to find an available outlet but i probably will need to upgrade so i dont have to worry about range.
100 miles a day or a 100 miles a week?
If it is a week, then a regular 110v is fine. It will charge 4 mph overnight. If it is a day, all you need is a 220v dryer outlet installed in your garage. You’ll get at least 30mph charging on that.
If it is a week, then a regular 110v is fine. It will charge 4 mph overnight. If it is a day, all you need is a 220v dryer outlet installed in your garage. You’ll get at least 30mph charging on that.
i see how the way i wrote that wasnt clear, i drive about 100 miles per day, M-F. i have handy 110 volt outlets but not a 220 in the area of the garage. i guess ill need some electrical work done.
i see how the way i wrote that wasnt clear, i drive about 100 miles per day, M-F. i have handy 110 volt outlets but not a 220 in the area of the garage. i guess ill need some electrical work done.
Definitely, unless you have a charger (or 220 line) available at work.
i see how the way i wrote that wasnt clear, i drive about 100 miles per day, M-F. i have handy 110 volt outlets but not a 220 in the area of the garage. i guess ill need some electrical work done.
One piece of good news is that you don't need major electrical work done if you don't want. The charger that comes with the Tesla is awesome in that it will accept power from many different styles of outlets. You could have an electrician simply combine two of the 120 volt outlets and you could get 8-15 miles of range per hour charging at 240v but low amps, depending on the model of car. So in 10 hours, 80-150 miles of range recovered.
Another option that requires zero electrical work is something called a "Quick 220", which provides a 240v outlet by plugging into two 120v outlets. Both the Quick 220 and having an electrician combine outlets for you is luck of the draw whether it will work in your situation as the two outlets need to be on opposite breaker legs, but it's possible.
All that said, running line for a 20a 240v outlet is not too expensive. It's only if you need a full power charger that you'll need a 50a outlet and heavy gauge wire. Basically depends on whether labor or parts is the bigger expense in your neck of the woods. Where I live, the labor is immensely more expensive such that the price difference between 12ga wire (20a) and 6ga wire (50a) doesn't really move the needle on the project.
I installed my charger as a DIY project since my panel was very close to where I needed the outlet. All in cost was about $30 and my car charges at 9.6kw, which is roughly 25 miles of range per hour. 9 hours to charge from dead, but only 3.5 or so to recover the 100 miles that you'll drive daily.
one problem i have with the q3 and x1 is value. they are a bit nicer than my forester but not really that much. for the extra $11k-$15k, im not sure they will bring smiles to my face. here is the price difference in new options and the forester id get if i stuck to what ive been doing (i always try to get the lowest level car with no options in the model i choose). the only option id care about is autopilot and more powerful engine. i feel like the tesla will provide me a more interesting experience and unique car. i also wont have to go to the gas station, less maintenance and i can pretend to be an environmentalist when it suits me.
Those are MSRP's, though, right? Tesla's price "is what it is" while you can usually get BMW's and Audi's for about 10% off MSRP.
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