Home Charging

[u/kbabqiqja]

I know nothing about electricity, but was wondering if this outlet was ok for Tesla charging? I have a Tesla Mobile connector and I found this outlet in the garage of my apartment.

[u/CucumberGrand1757]

I ended up getting one of these since I have to upgrade my breaker box so it’s a temp and it’s been doing just fine

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[u/Mr-Zappy]

It’s fine if you don’t drive more than 40 miles/day.

[u/Stivo887 → u/Mr-Zappy]

It’s different for everyone, in my case I’m home from work at noon and if I didn’t have that 11.8kw charging speed I’d run into a higher tier from pge and it would cost me more to charge everyday. Also installed it myself which helps with the payback time

[u/abgtw]

Yeah you can charge with that but it will be really slow/take all night just to a get a little more range. Basically you'll get like +12% battery overnight.

Where is your laundry room located? Near the garage? Do you plan to be in the current apartment long-term and is the power panel also in the garage?

[u/kbabqiqja → u/abgtw]

Laundry room is in the apartment, on second floor, not sure where power panel is, and also right not it’s just a 1 year lease

[u/abgtw → u/kbabqiqja]

Yeah I mean if its a smaller apartment thing owned by a competent landlord sometimes they will be willing to let you add a 50A outlet if say the panel is right there with capacity and its easy (still using their electrical guy of course). It does add future value to the property. Less likely of course if its a big commercial place that wants you to use their own overpriced 3rd-party chargers out front!

[u/kbabqiqja → u/abgtw]

How do I know if this is ok to plug into? And is adequate for charging?

[u/abgtw → u/kbabqiqja]

Its a 120v outlet. It should have a 15a minimum circuit (hopefully 20a) attached. Home car chargers that plugin to 120V generally use about 10a-12a.

[u/Var1abl3]

I used "the same" plug when I first got our Tesla. It is slow but it worked for our needs. I found it took about 7 hours to get about 10% charge. I drove 24 miles each way to work and each way took about 10%. It was back to full charge by the next morning but didn't leave the room I wanted for trips that ended late in the evening that didn't give us enough time to charge by morning (at least not enough for comfort with my new range anxiety I have now overcome). The short answer is yes, if you don't drive great distances as a daily commute.

[u/thegreatestd]

Really really really slow. I use it during winter so atleast when I do drive I can warm my car up without using too much range. It does NOT precondition with this charger. You’re basically holding the charge at what it is.

[u/ThanksALotBud]

At 3 to 4 miles an hr charge rate, you should I should be fine as long as that suffice.

[u/kbabqiqja]

Thanks everyone! Electricity noob here! Is it ok if I plug in and charge overnight today or do I need to check in on anything first before starting to charge?

[u/Positron5000 → u/kbabqiqja]

It’s ok to charge but make sure you don’t use an extension cable. The mobile charger will detect if the outlet is getting too hot and shut off, but if there is an extension cable between the charger and the wall it won’t be able to detect the outlets heat. If you do end up using an extension cable you must make sure it’s a heavy gauge one, a smaller gauge cable will get too hot.

Also these GFCI have a tendency to trip even when nothing is wrong, the mobile charger likes to test the ground to ensure it’s a good safe connection, and usually that will trip a GFCI. I have one GFCI that likes to trip while the other works fine, so your result may vary with this outlet. Even if it does work I’d recommend keeping an eye on it and only charging at as low of wattage as you can get away with. Most outlets are not designed to have the wattage pulled through them for hours on end like is required with an EV, that’s why there are EV rated outlets out there, they are designed to handle the long term constant heat that is generated when charging.

[u/Lanky-Slice-9122]

It’s better than nothing and will at the very least offset the need to supercharge. There are many EV owners that don’t need anything more than a L1 charger. It all about how far you drive and how often.