Level 2 Home Charging Test

[hydbob]

So I'm going to be performing a lvl2 home charger test overnight, but prior to starting there is some interesting battery drain going on.

I have a Chargepoint Home Flex charger installed. I have it set to charge starting at 9:30pm to take advantage of the off peak charging rate.

I plugged the car in at 3pm and it was at 20%. I just checked via the app and the car is now at 17% SOC. It has used up 3% SOC while sitting there and having the charge cable plugged in but not feeding it any juice.

I will report back tomorrow morning but I find it VERY interesting it drains that much. It also is not shutdown like normal. I can hear the fans running slightly probably prepping for charge.

 

[Lucken]

That sounds curiously like the high phantom drain I got with my MS. I didn’t get that with either the I-Pace or the e-Tron while plugged in or not. However the Tesla would show a high phantom drain in either case. Like you, I would also hear the occasional high revving of fans. The other curious thing about the MS was that the drain was not consistent. So one day I might have zero drain and the next day I might have a drain as high as 5%! Many thought it was the car communicating back & forth with the mothership.

Have you checked the phantom drain in the garage while not plugged in?

Ultimately this does have a deleterious impact on range and is a dirty little secret with some BEVs.

 

[hydbob]

Yea when it wasn't plugged in over the week it was non existent, or rather not noticeable enough for me to note it down.

So unfortunately for me, the breaker to the charger tripped about 10 minutes in so..no charging test data this time around!

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

A friend who has a Tesla was telling me to make sure fob and phone is always far enough away. He now only uses ring on his finger. Drain could be from car awakening by getting just enough signal. Owners, would have to test range.

 

[Sandvinsd]

Yea when it wasn't plugged in over the week it was non existent, or rather not noticeable enough for me to note it down.

So unfortunately for me, the breaker to the charger tripped about 10 minutes in so..no charging test data this time around!

The breaker tripped? can I ask about your configuration? I have never had that issue on my Chargepoint Flex. However my Leaf will only draw 32 amps, so It is not close to the max. I have my Flex set to a 40 amp draw on a 50 amp circuit with a NEMA 14-50 plug. The Lucid should draw every bit of that 40 amps as that is only half of the max it can take. Really don’t want it popping the circuit when it charges so will be an issue if it does that routinely. Just curious about why it happened To you.

 

[borski]

The breaker tripped? can I ask about your configuration? I have never had that issue on my Chargepoint Flex. However my Leaf will only draw 32 amps, so It is not close to the max. I have my Flex set to a 40 amp draw on a 50 amp circuit with a NEMA 14-50 plug. The Lucid should draw every bit of that 40 amps as that is only half of the max it can take. Really don’t want it popping the circuit when it charges so will be an issue if it does that routinely. Just curious about why it happened To you.

Usually it isn’t the charging circuit tripping but the sub panel. For example if both the charger and a bunch of other high loads were running, that would trip it. Curious to hear about this case though!

 

[hydbob]

So I read up on it. I have my home flex in a 14-50 plug instead of hardwire. When I set it up initially, I chose the 50 Amp setting because the breaker I have going to that plug is rated at 60amp.

Apparently this is still too high. It charged for around 30 min before the breaker tripped. I factory reset the home flex and set it to 40 Amp instead of 50 Amp. I ran it for about an hour before I unplugged, didn't trip that time around. I will test it again tonight and see if it stays charging this time around.

 

[borski]

So I read up on it. I have my home flex in a 14-50 plug instead of hardwire. When I set it up initially, I chose the 50 Amp setting because the breaker I have going to that plug is rated at 60amp.

Apparently this is still too high. It charged for around 30 min before the breaker tripped. I factory reset the home flex and set it to 40 Amp instead of 50 Amp. I ran it for about an hour before I unplugged, didn't trip that time around. I will test it again tonight and see if it stays charging this time around.

Yeah, the 50 in 14-50 means it’s only rated (by code) for a 50amp breaker, and since EVSE loads are considered continuous should never do more than 80% (aka 40amps). That’s almost certainly why it tripped.

To use the full 48 amps (80%) on a 60amp breaker, you’d need to hardwire it.

To use 50 amps, you’d need to upgrade the breaker to 70A (and the wire obviously has to support those rates - you don’t want it burning and melting heh).

 

[Sandvinsd]

So I read up on it. I have my home flex in a 14-50 plug instead of hardwire. When I set it up initially, I chose the 50 Amp setting because the breaker I have going to that plug is rated at 60amp.

Apparently this is still too high. It charged for around 30 min before the breaker tripped. I factory reset the home flex and set it to 40 Amp instead of 50 Amp. I ran it for about an hour before I unplugged, didn't trip that time around. I will test it again tonight and see if it stays charging this time around.

Yes. You should be fine running at 40 amps. Of course, if you have a 60 amp circuit with the appropriate wiring, you could just hardwire the Flex and can set it at 48 amps. The difference will be 9.6kW per hour vs ~11.5

 

[hydbob]

Yea figured as much, so I stepped down my charger for now. I don't want to hardwire since I'm planning on moving it sometime in the future.

 

[Alex]

Until Lucid has their own 80A Level 2 Charger available, you can source a Tesla Gen 1 or (older) Gen 2 Wall Charger. They support 80A (i.e.19.2kW). You can get an adapter that is rated for 80A that will go from Tesla Level 2 connector to J1772 connector. The one I bought is the TeslaTap MINI 80 AMP connector (http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17&product_id=160) which works with all the Tesla chargers. They also make the more bulky TeslaTap 80A High Power adapter, but it only works on the Gen 1 Tesla Wall charger.

I've used the TeslaTap MINI 80 AMP to recharge my wife's BMW plug in hybrid, although it only needs 32A. Since I have 3 Tesla Gen 2 Wall Chargers configured for a shared 80A total, I'll be using this for the Lucid. The chargers do put out 80A, since I used them with my previous 2012 Tesla Model S which had the dual chargers.

Just getting ready for the Lucid Air. I will look forward to faster charger than my Tesla's (since they now limit charger to 48A max).

 

[hydbob]

I'm really only trying to run this test to see how close to 118 I can get.

 

[Lucken]

I can’t get excited about significantly faster home charging since I’ve always charged at night. Running overnight it makes no difference to me if it takes 4 or 8 hours since either way it’s easily completed by the time I wake up. When you factor in that you’re really never going to be starting from zero, does it make that much of a difference?

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

I can’t get excited about significantly faster home charging since I’ve always charged at night. Running overnight it makes no difference to me if it takes 4 or 8 hours since either way it’s easily completed by the time I wake up. When you factor in that you’re really never going to be starting from zero, does it make that much of a difference?

Here Boone REMC rates are flat, maybe someone can speak to periods when rates are lower. How many hours and during what time period. Something tells me the rates will change here to this structure in the future.

Maybe it's hidden or requires the Lucid charger, but it's strange you cannot schedule charging on the Lucid app. Can this be confirmed.

 

[Adnillien]

Maybe it's hidden or requires the Lucid charger, but it's strange you cannot schedule charging on the Lucid app. Can this be confirmed.

Lucid claims that it is coming in the web site under "explore charging"

Charging demystified.
We take the guesswork out of charging. With the Lucid app, you can soon schedule your charge, setting when it should start or stop — at environmentally conscious hours, for instance — and monitor the progress.

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Lucid claims that it is coming in the web site under "explore charging"

Charging demystified.
We take the guesswork out of charging. With the Lucid app, you can soon schedule your charge, setting when it should start or stop — at environmentally conscious hours, for instance — and monitor the progress.

I guess while we are at this, is an 80a circuit using 100a wire enough for "Supporting up to 19.2kW"?

I think I can see what size wire was ran for our Kohler 20kW stand by generator tomorrow.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I guess while we are at this, is an 80a circuit using 100a wire enough for "Supporting up to 19.2kW"?

Yes. 240 volts x 80 amps = 19.2 kW
and drawing 80 amps requires a 100 amp circuit

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

Yes. 240 volts x 80 amps = 19.2 kW
and drawing 80 amps requires a 100 amp circuit

Thanks! I'm going to reach out to Boone REMC Monday to see if there's been outages at our new home. If so if they have data that can help make the decision to install another Kohler generator or go with Lucid bi-directional. Our current generator runs on propane and I believe can be converted to run on NG. I just don't know if we can take it.

 

[Easyrider949]

I can’t get excited about significantly faster home charging since I’ve always charged at night. Running overnight it makes no difference to me if it takes 4 or 8 hours since either way it’s easily completed by the time I wake up. When you factor in that you’re really never going to be starting from zero, does it make that much of a difference?

This has been my thinking too. While I think it’s really cool to have the availability of a fast 19.2 kW charging system at home and believe me I like fast things, I just can’t seem to justify spending the extra money to put in an 100 amp circuit for the 19.2 kW charger to allow me to get a few hours quicker charge time. I don’t mind waiting the extra couple of hours with my older 9.6kW while I sleep at night to get to my desired SOC level once a week as needed. I do have solar panels on my house so I can start the charge process anytime during the day with no extra cost. What I really care about is the ability to get real fast charging times while on road trips which allows me more time enjoying driving the Air.

 

[dawktah LucidGT]

This has been my thinking too. While I think it’s really cool to have the availability of a fast 19.2 kW charging system at home and believe me I like fast things, I just can’t seem to justify spending the extra money to put in an 100 amp circuit for the 19.2 kW charger to allow me to get a few hours quicker charge time. I don’t mind waiting the extra couple of hours with my older 9.6kW while I sleep at night to get to my desired SOC level once a week as needed. I do have solar panels on my house so I can start the charge process anytime during the day with no extra cost. What I really care about is the ability to get real fast charging times while on road trips which allows me more time enjoying driving the Air.

Do you have a home standby generator currently? Have you had any outages?

EVERYONE that doesn't have an automatic standby generator should have this. Freeze a cup of water in a flexible plastic cup. Once frozen place a quarter on top of the ice and keep in freezer. When you return and the power has been off, where the quarter is within the ice when refrozen tells you if any of your food is still good. If quarter is frozen at the bottom you just have frozen spoiled food.