NEMA charge or trickle charge

[SaratogaLefty]

Aren't you on net metering and TOU?

So for the first time I hooked up my included 14-50 cable to my Nema outlet in the garage (I've been using EA exclusively) because I'm leaving at 6:30 am for my trip and I wanted to make sure I had a full charge upon departure. It had been fully charged at the Millbrae Center earlier today (had a problem fixed) and then they delivered it back to my house but by that time it was showing 436 miles of range. So I hooked it up and it ran full out (9 kw) for about 10 minutes and range showed 445 miles. Leaving it plugged in all night to keep it fully charged. Will reset my Trip A to see how well it does on this trip (should be around 400 miles total).

 

[Bbq9]

Aren't you on net metering and TOU?

Palo Alto doesn’t have TOU … its flat 24x7

at the moment I am paid for any excess I pump back into the grid, but psychologically I feel this is my free energy whereas I am currently getting full rate for every kw sent back… this will change soon as I will end up on a NEM2 rate.

 

[Sandvinsd]

in fact what I’d quite like is to charge during the day when my solar is in full effect, and not overnight - just can’t find a smart plug that is rated for this.

Just curious as to why charge the car during the day? In CA, it more sense to get paid for pumping solar into the grid during the day and then paying less money to pull it back for the car at night

 

[Bbq9]

Just curious as to why charge the car during the day? In CA, it more sense to get paid for pumping solar into the grid during the day and then paying less money to pull it back for the car at night

Actually Palo Alto doesn’t have a variable TOU rate. It’s flat 24x7.

but the main reason is psychological … during the day it feels like free
I really should just plug it in and not care about time of day

 

[Slam08]

So for the first time I hooked up my included 14-50 cable to my Nema outlet in the garage (I've been using EA exclusively) because I'm leaving at 6:30 am for my trip and I wanted to make sure I had a full charge upon departure. It had been fully charged at the Millbrae Center earlier today (had a problem fixed) and then they delivered it back to my house but by that time it was showing 436 miles of range. So I hooked it up and it ran full out (9 kw) for about 10 minutes and range showed 445 miles. Leaving it plugged in all night to keep it fully charged. Will reset my Trip A to see how well it does on this trip (should be around 400 miles total).

How did your trip go? How far did you go on a charge?

 

[SaratogaLefty]

How did your trip go? How far did you go on a charge?

I left home at 6:30 am. I live only a little over a mile from the freeway and it was freeway unimpeded all the way down to SLO (~197 miles) except the last 10 miles which was slower surface street speeds but again unimpeded. I used Cruise Control set to 75 (which I believe is actually 73 mph) all the way down with no temp control on as it was cool outside. I never exceeded the 75 setting. The car was fully charged at start showing 445 miles of range when I left home. When I arrived at SLO at 9:20 am the remaining range was 198 and I had driven about 200 miles, meaning I lost an additional 47 miles of range somehow along the way. I had a tail wind going down and temp was 53 degrees when I left home and 65 degrees when I arrived in SLO. Trip back was into a slight headwind and temp was 85 degrees when I left SLO at 3:45 pm and rose as high as 92 degrees on the way North in the area from SLO to King City. I arrived hone in Saratoga at 7:15 pm. Made a 30 minute stop at Paso Robles to add additional 210 miles of range. Arrived home with 136 miles of range left. I had reset Trip A when I left home this morning. Going South I was able to average 3.0 mi/kwh and coming North only around 2.8 mi/kwh probably because of headwind and having to use Air Conditioning on parts of the return trip. So bottom line is Trip A is now showing 2.9 mi/kwh. Anyway, 3.0 mi/kwh is the best I've ever seen on this car and that seems low to me, especially since some are getting over 4. This afternoon I tried driving for a short trip of ~15 miles with Cruise Control set at 68 mph (which should actually be 66 mph) and still only 2.7 mi/kwh. Sent a copy of the Trip A results from the SLO and back trip to lead tech at Millbrae and they will check the car out when it comes in next week for a part replacement (unrelated).

 

[Pete44]

As an EV newbie, looking for guidance to achieve a long battery life. Keeping in mind, we don't drive far on any given day (maybe 50-75 miles tops and even then, not daily)

1. Is it best to trickle charge with 110 and only to use the NEMA outlet when needing to power up at a faster pace?
2. Is it suggested to "exercise" the battery, that is to let it drop to 20-30 percent percent before powering back up to 80?

Guidance appreciated.

I had a service technician over my house yesterday to fix a malfunctioning left turn signal. He arrived within 2 hours of my calling the service center since I was heading north for a few weeks early this am. Anyway he asked how long I would be gone and mentioned that he would suggest using a 110 outlet rather than my NEMA 50A 14-50 after charging the car to my desired level. I mentioned that I’ve left my Telsa plugged in to a 50A NEMA 14-50 for 6 months at a time and never had a problem and my range really hasn’t dropped much in 6 years. He kind of shrugged and said fine if it works but he recommends using a 110 outlet for anything more than a few weeks to just trickle charge the car.

 

[Sandvinsd]

I had a service technician over my house yesterday to fix a malfunctioning left turn signal. He arrived within 2 hours of my calling the service center since I was heading north for a few weeks early this am. Anyway he asked how long I would be gone and mentioned that he would suggest using a 110 outlet rather than my NEMA 50A 14-50 after charging the car to my desired level. I mentioned that I’ve left my Telsa plugged in to a 50A NEMA 14-50 for 6 months at a time and never had a problem and my range really hasn’t dropped much in 6 years. He kind of shrugged and said fine if it works but he recommends using a 110 outlet for anything more than a few weeks to just trickle charge the car.

If you are storing the car for a while, I would set the max charge setting to something like 55% and just leave it plugged in so it stays pretty constant around the midpoint. It is not going to be pulling much of a charge if you are not using it so 110 or 240 won’t matter.

 

[Pete44]

If you are storing the car for a while, I would set the max charge setting to something like 55% and just leave it plugged in so it stays pretty constant around the midpoint. It is not going to be pulling much of a charge if you are not using it so 110 or 240 won’t matter.

Thanks. Makes sense. Think I’d rather have dedicated 240 circuit to avoid what happened to @MoniputerLM!

 

[MoniputerLM]

Thanks. Makes sense. Think I’d rather have dedicated 240 circuit to avoid what happened to @MoniputerLM!

I would only use a dedicated 20amp 110v circuit but a 220-240v 50amp one is much better. I just installed a ChargePoint home charger on a 60amp breaker and it works great. From around 128 miles to full, daily limit, I averaged 43miles/hr.