The Tesla Thread

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,593
Location
North West England
Definitely recommend getting a proper home charger. This also means if you switch to a cheap overnight charging tariff you can get more kWh in during the cheap period.

For example I am on Octopus Go which gives me 4 hours at 5p/kWh - the home charger means I can add 28kWh during that 4 hours whereas a 3pin would only add about 9kWh.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,047
Yeh we definitely got lucky! According to the Tesla Model 3 owners group on FB the 'Nabucco' ship delivered her stock to Southampton on Sunday. One of those red ones are ours! :D

442801-n.jpg

.
Looks like a photo of my work car park :D
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

I'm picking mine up on Sunday. How much of a Ballachulish I'd it charging off a 3 pin plug bearing in mind my commute is a total of 32 miles? There's talk about having electric charge points fitted at work, so I'm wondering whether to bother having one at home.
Massive. 3-pin charging will give you ~3 miles of range for every hour charged. A proper home EV charger will get you ~30 miles per hour of charge.
 

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,073
Massive. 3-pin charging will give you ~3 miles of range for every hour charged. A proper home EV charger will get you ~30 miles per hour of charge.
Someone above quoted 7mph on the "granny"? Thats half OK for most people and limits the current being drawn.

Slightly interested in this, I don't know what some people are doing about this situ - i only have a single 100A feed to my property. (And this applies to my new much larger one too, a single 100A feed). When it is cold/evening with the cooker and heating on, my house alone stresses that to the point that i get a lot of voltage drop and a clamp on showing us really stretching it, i assume you can heavily limit the current that these chargers can pull? I don't know how we'll safely charge an EV in the winter, let alone risk a couple of chargers if we ever had 2 of them - i think we'll need to contact the DNO about a 2nd 100A feed dedicated to the cars/heating, or even upgrade to 3ph dependent on availability.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,056
100A feed gives you 23kw to play with. How much energy are those appliances actually drawing? An oven is typically 2kw peek, a hob could be 7kw peek but both of these use a fraction of that once they are up to temp, heating your need to provide more info on.

Most decent chargers have grid limits you can set so they’ll ramp down the charger if the draw starts getting up to 100A to protect the fuse. Most people charge overnight as it’s cheaper to do so and you’ll not be drawing a lot of power then.

As part of the install process the electrician should look at the overall draw and provide some advice.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
26,251
Location
Here
Massive. 3-pin charging will give you ~3 miles of range for every hour charged. A proper home EV charger will get you ~30 miles per hour of charge.
Not many cars use 1.5mile/kWh. Most are 3-4.5 and it’s usually enough to use if the car is at home a lot. Longer journeys you are going need a charger regardless of how fast your home charger is.

If your car is only 1.5miles /kwh. What home charger you got to do 20kW charging ???
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
Definitely recommend getting a proper home charger. This also means if you switch to a cheap overnight charging tariff you can get more kWh in during the cheap period.

For example I am on Octopus Go which gives me 4 hours at 5p/kWh - the home charger means I can add 28kWh during that 4 hours whereas a 3pin would only add about 9kWh.

Getting a 7kW charger primarily to make benefit of cheaper overnight rates is a bit of a false economy, given the £650 install cost would otherwise fund 5,000kW odd of energy usage which at 13p difference (18p vs 5p) is ~12,500 miles until you break even.... I think! And that's if you ONLY do your charging during an off-peak, 5p rate.

Where is your nearest public charger, and nearest Tesla supercharger, @theone8181 ?
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,056
It’s not the only reason though is it, it’s convenience and practicality being the main drivers for me.

Don’t forget superchargers are at least 30p/kWh these days and unless it’s already a planned stop, it’s adding time you otherwise wouldn’t need to stop for.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
It’s not the only reason though is it, it’s convenience and practicality being the main drivers for me.

Don’t forget superchargers are at least 30p/kWh these days and unless it’s already a planned stop, it’s adding time you otherwise wouldn’t need to stop for.

Oh for sure, just playing devil's advocate. Part of my lack of use of my home charger is that I don't have a driveway, but it has made me realise you don't absolutely need one.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,041
Location
West Midlands
Using the upfront cost of a home charger as an excuse not to get one is a bit daft really, since it's not like it will break when you change to your next vehicle. I fully expect mine to last 10+ years like any other appliance I'd buy for the house. So £45 per year in the case of my install, based on 10 years, or less than £1 per week.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,056
Oh for sure, just playing devil's advocate. Part of my lack of use of my home charger is that I don't have a driveway, but it has made me realise you don't absolutely need one.



I know :)

I’ve got a load of lightly used 7kw public chargers within a few minute walk from my house. I think some of them are even free but that doesn’t mean I’d bother using them. It’s just far too much hassle compared to just plugging in on the drive.

2 are in McDonald’s which has the smallest parking spaces in the world while being very busy. There just ask for door damage on my car parking there.

2 at costa over the road from McDonald’s and a few in tesco the other side of the same roundabout. The Tesco ones are a bit busier but I guess that’s because they are free.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
16,405
Location
Shakespeare’s County
Getting a 7kW charger primarily to make benefit of cheaper overnight rates is a bit of a false economy, given the £650 install cost would otherwise fund 5,000kW odd of energy usage which at 13p difference (18p vs 5p) is ~12,500 miles until you break even.... I think! And that's if you ONLY do your charging during an off-peak, 5p rate.

Where is your nearest public charger, and nearest Tesla supercharger, @theone8181 ?

Well yeah.... so mines paid for itself in the space of 1 year, saved me hours of faff, arguably added appeal to my house and helps protect me against the inevitable price rise in April for no doubt the increase base rate oh and help manage grid peak loads...

Even i'm keeping my cars for longer than a year now :p and my next car is electric anyway - the idea its false economy is false.

The other benefit is visitors have a credible way to charge at mine :cool:

Only needed a touch of man maths there as its a no-brainer! Same with that guy who always goes on about Go standing charge, I swear electric cars can fried peoples logic segment of their brain for some simple calculations.

I got my bill for October usage yesterday - 1002kWh @ 7.8p average. :D
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465



I’ve spent about £25 in two full months of ownership. My commute is about 10 miles and I’ve covered 1400 miles or so, meaning I’ve charged sporadically as required.

I’d never give up my ability to charge at home. Knowing the car is “full” when I wake up is a nice safety blanket.

As electric vehicles get more popular then spaces public chargers are going become like gold dust, so I wouldn’t want to be caught short for the sake of plugging in a cable every few days at home.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
Well yeah.... so mines paid for itself in the space of 1 year, saved me hours of faff, arguably added appeal to my house and helps protect me against the inevitable price rise in April for no doubt the increase base rate oh and help manage grid peak loads...

Even i'm keeping my cars for longer than a year now :p and my next car is electric anyway - the idea its false economy is false.

The other benefit is visitors have a credible way to charge at mine :cool:

Only needed a touch of man maths there as its a no-brainer! Same with that guy who always goes on about Go standing charge, I swear electric cars can fried peoples logic segment of their brain for some simple calculations.

I got my bill for October usage yesterday - 1002kWh @ 7.8p average. :D

You know I have an EV and a charger at home right?
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
Just no way of reliably connecting the two right ?

Yeah exactly, but hence why I'm just coming from an angle of actually, you can very easily live with an EV without having one, especially with such a short commute and/or charging at work.

No doubt I would use mine a lot more if I had a driveway, BUT I also do 90% of my charging at work which is free so I would still do that regardless.

Aside from any limited-time grants or deals which obviously changes things I'd certainly say you could not install one and see how you get on initially. I remember reading lots of chat before I got an EV re: "you MUST have a home charger" etc and wondering if I therefore couldn't get one, but like I said I wish I hadn't had one installed now so just want to make that clear to others reading this that may not have a driveway too.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
26,251
Location
Here
Well if you have free charging at work then I guess it’s obvious you don’t need a charger at home. Surely that’s not going to be free forever though?
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,281
Location
Bristol
Well if you have free charging at work then I guess it’s obvious you don’t need a charger at home. Surely that’s not going to be free forever though?

It will be because I'm a co-director :p. So ok not ENTIRELY free, but very cheap and very tax efficient!

Only mentioned it since the OP said he may be able to change at work in future.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
Getting a 7kW charger primarily to make benefit of cheaper overnight rates is a bit of a false economy, given the £650 install cost would otherwise fund 5,000kW odd of energy usage which at 13p difference (18p vs 5p) is ~12,500 miles until you break even....

12,500 miles to return your investment seems like a pretty good payback period to me, far from a 'false economy', for most people it'll pay for itself inside a couple of years :p
 
Back
Top Bottom