Nice work Tom, very informative and explained perfectly. Those of us who live in the EV world sometimes forget how many questions people new to EV's have.
Everyone needs this info. Argued yesterday with an engineer friend. Based on his college learning- 50 years ago- his worst case is that no one can charge at home…
I know EV drivers who don’t know the foggiest about the physics of electricity and charging delivery - any more than most ICE drivers know about the mechanics of refuelling. So a video like this is likely very useful for plenty of people who “live in the EV world”.
One other thing people should consider is if they have “Time of day electric service” it may actually save money in the long run to install at least the fastest EVSE/circuit their EV can support, so that it can reach their preferred state of charge in the cheapest rate window.
Tesla comes with an app so you don't have to buy anything. Just open the app and put in the hours that it can charge. The car decides how much to pull, when to start and when to stop.
@@cleanitup_pls7893 Some people have a very limited time window set by their power company (I.e. not an app thing) when energy is very cheap but if they have a slow EVSE/circuit and a EV with a large battery, they may find they have to continue charging their vehicle well into pricier time windows to get their EV to the required state of charge.
Vevor32A variable amperage capable.10-32A..$100. 14-50 plug $15.Running a 32a charger out of a 50a rated plug is fine. #6 copper 3+ground, 2ft out of the panel. 50a breaker $33. All set for an upgrade as well. Cost $150. Plus 3hrs labor. Take shop class kids. Pays dividends year after year.
Over here I have a triple phase 16A connection on 400V. So that is 11KW. Technically My charging point is capable of 32A, but my home connection is 3x20A and my car’s internal charger is limited to 11KW (3x16A).
Thanks for making this video. I say that not necessarily for me. I just purchased my first EV in March 2023. Prior to making the switch to an EV I had to do a lot of research on all the topics you covered in this video, especially the topic of things to consider when your home has limited amperage. I think if your video had existed it would have cut down on the amount of research I would have had to do because it's all explained very succinctly and concisely in this one video. So, hopefully, future potential EV owners will greatly benefit from your video.
By far the best quick study video for EV charging-on all of You Tube. Other videos go straight to the physical steps for charging like “when the charger clicks you will see a slow blinking green light”. etc, etc. Most of the people I know would simply freak out bc “what is a slow blink? Why is it blinking green real fast!” They’d go crazy overthinking all of that. If all they had to do was grocery shopping - they’d just get in the gas powered car and go. This video should be mandatory for all new buyers. If they are halfway smart they’ll finally understand why some phone wall chargers cost more than others, why some charge faster. Excellent video!
This is all good advice. Personally, I put in a 50 amp circuit and paired it with a 32 amp max EVSE. The circuit needs to be future proof, but the EVSE can be sized to your current needs. You are going to wear out your EVSE eventually by dragging the wire across the concrete, plugging and unplugging it every day, etc. I figured out that there was essentially no scenario where it would be critically important to me to charge my current vehicle at 40 amps vs 32 overnight. So I saved a bit of money on the cost of the EVSE, I have an extra margin of safety on the circuit, I'm being more gentle with my batteries by not charging them as fast as possible, and I've given up nothing for it. Do your own homework, but charging as quickly as possible at home is not nearly as important as most people think it is. Fast charging matters on road trips, but at home it makes little difference if your car is done charging at 3AM or at 6AM if you almost never leave home before 7AM.
@@tedmoss no but it does cause more heat and wear down your home electrical components more over time. I keep my 50 amp circuit limited to 32 amps even tho it could be 40. I don’t need the extra amps and it’s worth protecting my circuit breaker and home wiring
Agree, but with one exception. In the event that you wake up the morning of a long trip and realize that you forgot to plug in the night before, the speed of home charging actually does matter. But, even then, it's not a huge deal. Worst case, forgetting to plug in means you have to stop at a public charger on the way back and spend an extra 10 minutes.
Awesome info Tom, I’m an electrical engineer and I agree that it’s best to over build when it comes to the circuit and EVSE. I’m new at the EV game and still learning stuff every day. One suggestion I would make is to include one other electrical property called, “resistance”. Unwanted resistance can equate to inefficiency. Example: My idea was to use a 50 amp circuit (I’m limited because I live in a condominium) which dictates 6 gauge electrical wire and a EVSE designed for 40 amps. The EVSE I bought was a Wallbox 40 amp unit which is a very popular brand. But what I learned is the Wallbox 40 amp unit only uses 10 gauge wires for the 25 foot EV service cable. I noticed when I charged my vehicle, the cable would get very warm to touch. The smaller the wire, the more “resistance” creates heat loss which in turn loses money in the long term. I’ve decided to change to an EVSE designed for 48 amps and dial it back to 40. My hope is the new unit will have a larger gauge service cable and run very cool. For those who may be confused about my numbers, the lower the number, the larger the wire. Hence 10 gauge (10AWG) is smaller than 6 gauge (6AWG). Most manufacturers don’t mention the gauge wire used in the service cables. It would be great if you added those figures when you review the different EVSE units. Thank you and keep up the great work!
You should read through the install guide for the Chargepoint Flex. The guide tells you the circuit rating for each charging amperage. For a 48amp load, you need a 60 amp circuit. Wire size for a 60 amp varies depending on the style of the wire. THHN wires can take the highest because they are not bundled so heat can more easily dissipate. Problem is they then need to be in conduit. For my 48amp install (60amp circuit), i had electrician run #4romex from 60amp breaker to cutoff switch above my charger. He then ran #6 THHN in conduit a short distance to my charger. My Homeflex charger cable feels warm at 48amp but it isn’t hot.
Excellent timing of this video for me. I am in the process of choosing an EV to replace my X3 in few months and want to have a L2 installed. This is an important topic for people to get educated on. 👍👍
Tom, god knows how many youtube clips I have seen so far on this subject, and yet your clip was by far the best ever created, explained, and right to the points. I enjoyed it much. Thanks for your contribution.👍
Excellent and thorough video. I’m a new EV owner and you’ve taken all the anxiety and stress out of figuring out the charging debacle. I was ready to return my EV because there were no DC charges close to my home. I drive 65 miles a day for work and need more than the 1kw trickle I’m getting now. Thank you for making this easy to comprehend.😅
Great video, Tom. The chart says it all. There isn't very much information on this basic charging technology out there, and it will be an eye-opener for most people (who are not technically schooled), even for people who already own EVs-who will no doubt be advising friends and relatives. This is especially true when most charging stories in the mass media exclusively talk about public charging-the familiar gas-station model. My charging station is on a 30-amp breaker, but using a 40-amp cable to the EVSE; the heavier gauge cable costs only a little more.
I’ve only used level one (which you denigrated) for the last 9 years. This has worked brilliantly for two cars. Admittedly, we just commute with the vehicles … we don’t road trip with either. But the viewers need to understand that simple level one works terrifically for the daily commute!
I'm not sure he was actively negative on Level 1, just indicating that many will want a more robust option. I am currently using Level 1 for my EV, Ford Mustang Mach-E. This works great for me as I don't need to drive into work every day. I get about 25 miles replaced overnight, and about 50 miles a day (I suspend charging during a higher TOU rate period). That is enough to carry me through a full week even if I were to go in every day. If I get one of the chargers at work for 4 hours, I have replaced at least as much as I need for that day. I will eventually get a smart charger as I want to use excess solar generation to charge the car.
I agree that we all get too worried about charging speeds, especially when you get your first EV. We only have 20 amp service to our detached garage, so uprading to higher service would have been expensive. I had a Wallbox installed, dip switch set it to max at 16 amp. We've had our EV for about a year now and only once has the charging speed been an issue, and that was because my wife had two "longer" trips in one day. I also put in a 48 amp Emporia at my office, which is only 1/4 mile away from our house, so if we need a faster charge we have another option.
This is exactly my experience too. I have a 20-amp 120v outlet in my garage too. I have the 5-20 adapter for the Tesla mobile charger and use that. My Model Y charges then at 16 amps too. I’ve been using this setup for the past year. Only once have I had to hit a SC before going on a number of errands around town due to coming back from a long trip late at night and having around 10% SOC. By early morning when I left I had 30% which wasn’t enough. I’m amazed to read about people who spend thousands to get updated panels and high amp circuits added for charging. I could see it if you have to commute 100 miles per day with no charging at work but most of these people seem to mostly just putter around town. I did like going from 15-amp to the 20-amp setup. The 20-30% boost does help.
Bottom line EVs are not worth the extra money and headaches with costs , range and insurance rates for your home and I don’t even want to talk about maintenance costs of the battery pack if ever you’re battery pack gets damaged from road debris and road vibration or to replace the battery when they no longer cannot be charged due to age and also collision damage costs from your automobile insurance
@@mikethompson3534thermal runaway is potentially right under your butt or in garage while charging. Luckily it’s not real common now but wondering how much more it’ll be if essentially 95% more users will be when ICE is outlawed. And how in the world will the grid handle this especially when the gas furnace and gas stove are outlawed. We’d definitely need a lot more nuclear plants and/or coal fueled plants.
@@alleyoop5185The vast majority of EV charging takes place after hours as it is much cheaper and hardly has any effect overall on the grid! Don't believe everything you get online!
When I purchased my 2015 model S in March this year, I also purchased 2 x Tesla power walls. The power walls were both installed on dedicated 40 amp, 230V circuits. The model S was factory restricted to AC charge at 16 amps, so I had the onboard charger modified to charge at 32 amps. This is perfect for me and the way I use the car. I also have mobile 8 and 13.5 amp chargers to trickle charge when the model S is not in use. At my livin house, the power wall installation was $1200 for the dedicated circuit and $750 for the PW, all up about 2K. My other house was $750 for the PW and $450 for the DC as it was much easier to install the DC at my holiday house. I live in Australia.
I sincerely want to thank you for the quality of this presentation! I now understand the terminology and functionality of charging operations. Will receive my ioniq5 in a week and will listen to your other presentation in your list about my incoming I5. Thank you
You covered 99% very well. The only thing I would add is that where I lived in California, you got a real low charging rate between the hours of 11pm and 7 am. This reduced the charging to 8 hours, but as in my case, I left home at 6:15 am and sometimes even earlier cutting down my available hours to charge. This was never a problem because I had a 30 amp (24 amp) and a 20 amp (16 amp) charger available. My car only had a 33kw battery and my wife's PHEV only had a 17kw battery. With this setup, I think we really only used the 30 amp charger 98% of the time and used the small 20 amp charger very rarely. On another note, we had at work 2 chevy volts and a Prius prime that ran for 18 months without any of them using gas off of a single 120 volt receptacle in the parking garage. Our needs were light being in San Francisco and only driving 10-15 miles a day. I would set them all to charge at 8 amps and use a timer to charge one for 6 hours and then the other for 6 hours every night. The third one was my Volt that I would plug in during the day as I was mostly office based. I had to set them at 8 amps because occasionally somebody would plug in one level down and take 12 amps during the day. It was a difficult feat but I did keep 3 PHEV's from the gas station with a single receptacle for 18 moths.
Every time I was going to comment about something, you covered it! I really hope new people watch the ENTIRE video!!!! Lots of important information at the end!
As the first EV owner many of my friends and family have met, I can say my number 1 question is "Where do you charge?". Many are surprised when I say "My garage"! There really is a perception that you would drive your EV to the "electron station" to charge up ever couple of days. Great video! I've only had my first EV for ~ four months (Tesla Model Y) and my wife and I both work from home so we have modest charging needs (~40 miles / day of charge). Truthfully, we would have been fine so far just having a standard 110 outlet L1 charging but - we have the car parked in the garage 20+ hours a day. We did install a L2 EVSE wired up for 40A continuous but I keep it set for 15A for less batter degradation. Long-term I think we'll probably keep our one 40A L2 charger, and any additional EVSE we install we might just opt for mobile connectors on 110 outlets, or lower priced L2 EVSE wired for 20A continuous. That should meet all of our needs, and whenever we do need a 0-100 overnight, we'd have the 40A connection to work with. I'm also thinking about friends and family visiting with their future EVs and would want them to be able to add a hundred miles of charge in a few hours so again, I will always want to have ready access to a 40A EVSE.
That’s a good point. I live in the middle between my parents and my brother. My parents live just out of range for most EV’s to drive there and back again. So my 11KW charger might be a good solution for them to make a quick 1 hour social stop and get back home again.
GREAT presentation. This is still something that so many people don't understand but especially DO NOT KNOW about Electric cars and charging. I put in a 40 Amp Breaker and fully charge with my 2022 M3 Standard Range "EVERY NIGHT" at 32 Amps and full battery every morning (Even if I didn't really need to charge!). My wife no longer thought of so called "Range Anxiety" after our first trip about 1200 Km over a long weekend. I bought myself 40 feet of 240V AWG 6 NMD 90 Electrical Wire (Ready for the future!), ran the wire myself as per specs from my panel (Not PLUGGED in, all the way through to my Garage, then called my Electrician to finish connecting and VERIFYING my connection to my 40 Amp breaker!! Always better to be safe!!!
A 40A circuit, while technically adequate for 32A load, is actually not a great idea. Circuits don't typically have the type of use/load that an electric car causes. It will pull 32A for hours at a time, unlike a range for instance that may have a lower load for a limited time. Upgrade your wire and breaker to 50A load capacity to be safe. If you can't do that, dial your charging down to 24A. 99% of the time that will be more than fast enough anyway.
Absolutely love this video! Great work Tom! Fantastic and easy to understand educational video for new and current EV owners. Charging and the electrical terminology is always confusing for people but you did a great job of making it easy to follow and understand. The chart is fantastic. Education is one of the keys to mass EV adoption. Love it.
First off, great video Tom! In my research over a year ago, I had these same questions, and steps, and knew I wanted to figure out how much power items take in my house. 12:15 an even better way to understand how much power your house is using is to actually measure it over weeks/months. I got the Emporia Home Energy Monitor, so i can tell how much power my house takes, max Amp/kw draw, etc. It helps in letting your electrician know what your usage actually is rather than just base it off a load calculation. 18:01 Another point when deciding with your electrician what size circuit to install is if your house has conduit, you may be able to just use existing conduit and run new wire to your EVSE. This will save a bit of money to not have to run a new conduit to your garage. This what I did... I already had 1/2" conduit running to my garage that had room in it, so he just wired it with the max size wire (10ga) that will fit into a 1/2" pipe, and a 30 amp circuit, so I can charge at 24amps. So my Emporia Smart EV charger is just set to 24amps. I figured if in emergency i could run to the nearby Supercharger and top off, but I've never had to do that in over 15k miles. Eventually I'd like to get new subpanel installed in my garage, but in the mean time this has been fine and much cheaper.
Very nice explanation. I limit my Tesla Level II to 40A just to keep things from getting too warm. Heat eventually kills electrical components. I also have a NEMA 14-50P for guests. I suggest limiting those to 32A---just in case.
I know a lot about this subject in the uk and was curious about the us. I am writing this comment because I wanted to say what a good job Tom did, explained everything clearly. I am sure it will help a lot of people.
You do such an outstanding job in all of your videos. I always recommend your channel to anyone who has EV questions. Top notch. Thanks for what you do!
Great presentation. Very informative. That chart is an extremely useful tool. One just has to look at what your vehicle’s maximum usable capacity to determine what’s the most they would probably need as a worst case and look at 80% of that to see what’s the most they realistically probably would need. For example, the extended battery on a Mustang Mach E has 91 kWh usable. Since they recommend not to go over 80%, then 80% of 91 is 72.8. Since most people would rarely, if ever charge from 0%, the 32 amp output is probably more than enough (it provides 70 kWh over the 10 hours) and the 40 amp usable provided by your Lightning, which provides 85 kWh would be more than sufficient for a Mach E owner.
Thank you sir for this Master Class of this topic. Long contemplating my first EV acquisition, I now consider myself very-well informed. I do have one question remaining, regarding house electrical wiring. Working with an architect and builder, I designed and built my home 12 years ago. I requested a dedicated circuit with high-capacity wiring from the service panel to the garage wall. I told them to terminate the garage end of the wires in a standard junction box since my plan was to hard wire the wall-mounted charger. And for inside the service panel, I told them to hold off installing a circuit breaker, just leave the three wires (L1, L2, ground, NO NEUTRAL) unconnected to anything. The breaker would be selected and installed in the future.
Long after moving in, I discovered that the electrical subcontractor used #8 AWG (19-stranded copper THHN/THWN-2 wires inside dedicated raceways) for the wires between the service panel and the junction box in the garage wall. It's about 35 foot run. From what I have read, based on wire gauge and the distance of the run, the highest amperage circuit breaker I can install would be a 30 amp. Agree? Or could I install a 40 amp breaker?
Thanks for a very thorough review, which should be a continual reference. My only concern is that more emphasis should be placed on continuous use circuits only being set at 80% of breaker capacity. A 40 amp circuit should only be used for a 32 amp or lower EVSE, for example.
The EV charging terminology breakdown at the beginning is priceless. My husband and I were sitting at dinner last night talking about what our personal definitions of Amps, Watts, and Volt, kW, and kWh are. We each agreed that we might need to go back to school for an electrical engineering degree now what we own a Bolt EUV and Tucson PHEV. lol, this video made it feel like we got this. I never comment on videos, but I am so glad I found this channel, I just had to! Pure EV Gold!!
Thanks, Tom. It is more accurate to refer to volts as pressure (force is close), but not speed. Current is volumetric flow, more akin to speed than pressure or volts.
Voltage is like water pressure, like psi. Amps is like flow rate, or gallons per hour. Watts is like ratings for pressure washers, where you have gallons per minute along with the psi, which indicates how powerful the pressure washer is, since pressure alone without enough water won't clean very well, and a lot of water but with no pressure behind it also won't have much cleaning power. kWh is the total energy stored up, like the amount of gallons pumped up to a certain height, so 50 gallons pumped to 10 feet would have more energy capacity than 50 gallons pumped up to 1 foot.
My ID4 is capable of charging at 48 amps, but I am getting by quite comfortably on the 16 amp charger I bought years ago for my Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. It can be slow, sometimes taking over ten hours to get me back to 80%, but it's never been a problem. And, I've never been tempted to spend the money to upgrade the wiring and charger.
My experience too. I had a readily available 20A circuit so I decided to use it instead of having to fish cable from the panel for a 50A circuit. So far the EVSE set at 16A works for our purposes.
I don’t drive a whole lot on a daily basis. All my charging needs at home for my Model Y have been met with the Tesla mobile connector and a 110volt 20 amp outlet in my garage. I upgraded the standard kit’s 15 amp adapter with a 20 amp one to speed it up by 30%. The Tesla device will only draw 16 amps continuously, doing the NEC recommended derating to 80% of capacity since it runs continuously for long periods of time. I can get 20 KWHr on a 12 hour overnight, good for about 80 miles of range per day. With a Supercharger 2 miles away, which I haven’t had to use yet, this meets all my needs.
Great video. On the charging esp winter time, I find it best to keep current low so battery is charging all night long. This has the battery warm when you are ready to go. This will allow a little more range when you go. It’s also good to preheat the cabin on the house so your max range for driving with a warm car, seats and wheel also.
Tom, excellent explanation! The best I've seen! One comment: When placing text on the screen that you want people to read, don't place the text "over" narration. The human brain can't both read and listen at the same time. If it's wordy text, it's better to pause the video and place the paragraph on-screen by itself, then allot enough time for it to be read, and then go back to the video. A very short phrase or title is the exception.
“This may be your first EV, but it won’t be your last EV.” Truth. I got my Tesla M3 SR+ in March, 2021. My wife, an EV doubter, saw the light and dumped her Camry for a VW ID.4 in July of that year. Two years on, and neither one of us is looking back. She’s very excited about the VW Buzz (and I gotta admit, so am I). Regardless of when we get our next EV, neither of us is going back to gross ICE vehicles. Great job on this video, Tom! It’s an excellent primer, and I’ve sent it to some I know who’ve expressed an interest in EVs. Safe travels to all.
Same situation here. My wife didn’t give a lick about cars until I bought our Bolt EUV. She is completely in love with it and is now asking me my thoughts about trading in our 2017 Volt for a second fully electric vehicle. We are also considering the ID buzz but we are close to being empty nesters so we probably don’t need that much space.
@@meandmyEVI'm looking at the bolt euv as well, gosh would be fun to have one. And I figure I'll save quite a bit in gas bc our current daily driver is a Kia Sorento which averages about 21 mpg mixed. Not good at all. We spent at least $250 a month on gas which, I figure hey, if we have a car payment anyway, might as well pay less in gas, right?
In 1988, I expected to have a home/office data-center, so had 300A service installed with 2 panels. It was a new service so added about $1200 for the added amps. Most homes are 150-200A. Good call, about doing higher gauge wiring and industrial sockets. One solid run of wire from the breaker/fuse box to the charger is best since every connection is a unbalanced load that produces heat. Stay safe, and stay charged.
This was extremely helpful overall, and the chart at 15:09 explaining the relationship between breaker amps, evse amps, kw and mi added was exactly what I needed. Thanks!
Thanks for this video and its valuable information. I had a 220 or 240 volt outlet installed in my garage before I got my 2023 Tesla, and have the basic mobile kit to interface to the vehicle. Being retired, only drive around town so most of my charging of the EV is just at home, and I don't connect to my 220 volt outlet every night. I charge up my vehicle on off peak hours when electricity rates are lower. Works very well so far. Take care.
Thanks for the info! I am in an older house that doesn't have much juice. I was plugged into an (120v) outlet that was original to the house (1957). I caught it burned out. Looking, the gauge was way to small. I then plugged into a outlet that was added years later and could handle it. I don't plan on being here all that long. And I eventually, want to be on an off grid farm. So I have opted to install an expandable solar panel system dedicated to charging my Lightning. I work from home so this is very feasible. The system is up and running, 5.4kw of solar tops out at about 4.5kw of AC. The Ford Pro charger, doesn't play all that nicely with the solar. If I manually bump the charging amps through the amp to high, I have to wait 10-15 minutes after unplugging the truck to reset it back down. I followed your previous video and got a Emporia charger because they have an add on that should scale up and down the charging rate automatically. First one I got, I had some issues and the truck wasn't happy. The Ford Dealership reset the truck and I am just waiting to get it back now (it has some updates, why does it take over a day...). Once it is back, I will be testing this system out. They are supposed to be able to go from 1.4kw up to my 4.5kw automatically. With the ford one, I can only choose 6, 8, 10,12,14, etc. And I have to do it manually. Get one good cloud and it kicks off, etc.
Are you saying it's straight solar to the truck without running through any buffer battery? If so, I'm surprised it works at all as the power would be constantly fluctuating.
Really good video. When I try to explain this stuff to people I get stuck on "where do I start?" Oversize with adjustable output is great advice. I have an old 32amp charger that is on its third EV. At the time I bought it, that was pretty good sized EVSE. With my PHEV, it was really overkill. Then along came our Bolt as our second car, and it was plenty. Now, with an Ioniq 5 as our only car, it still gives me an overnight charge easily and reliably.
my electrician told me my panel has 90 amps and around half of it is being used currently. That i would need to upgrade my panel to 200 amps to be able to use EV charger . Thanks to your video, I can go back and ask him the right questions.
Hi Tom, regards from Brazil! I've been following you for a long time now. I work on the solar business and we also offer EV "chargers". Very nice and comprehensible compilation. I was really happy to see the same arguments I use for the actual recharging needs. That means I've learned well from you! Thanks a lot! Keep up the good work!
As a soon to be EV driver, I really enjoyed this video. You answered so many of my outstanding questions and that charging chart was the icing on the cake. Thank you so much for your channel and EV videos. My house has a 100amp panel and I plan to install a 50 amp circuit breaker to feed my Grizzl-E smart charger (max 40amp draw). Since 90% of my driving will be local, and well under 60 miles a day, I plan to use the smart app to select a lower charging rate, hopefully to avoid any issues. I keep hearing about the 80% rule - unless absolutely necessary, only charge your EV to the 80% level. Be interested in a video on this topic. Thanks for your videos.
This is a very useful video, I often explain similar issues to people, both EV drivers and those that are interested. The fact is that the vast majority of typical driving needs can easily be covered by a 3kW charger (E.g. a typical 13A socket at 240V in Europe). At one point, my wife was driving 100 miles per day with our car (the average commute in the U.K. is less than 20 miles), and a 3kW charger was still enough to charge the battery back to the charging limit each night between when she got back from work and started her drive to work again the next day.
@@mikeydude750 Not really - we use a communal car park that does not have designated parking, but the bottom two levels of the car park have chargers at every parking space. Similar facilities are being built across the UK. Many towns are rolling out kerbside charging facilities for people who park on the street as well. So the opportunities are getting better, though it obviously takes time.
@@mikeydude750 Why do you think 7kW chargers are expensive? You can get one installed on a house for a few hundred pounds, and an established operator can buy them in bulk.
Thank you for this. Before I got my Rivian I thought I would need a 60 amp breaker with plans to charge at 48 amps. I have been using the mobile charger instead connecting to a NEMA 14-50 and I set the car to draw a max 24 amps (5.7 kw). I replenish my usual daily driving in less than 5 hours
I preordered a Volvo EX 30 for my first-ever EV. I’m trying to educate myself ahead of time and figure out what charger will work best for that vehicle as well as my home. Thanks for making these! I’m saving them to a playlist for the 2024 delivery.
I currently have a PHEV and I am likely to go full EV within a year. I had an electrician install a dedicated 50 amp line to the garage with its own breaker box to feed the 32 amp Blink 150 wall charger. I did that because I understand about continuous load and how a car might cause a spike as it draws the power . It was good to hear you add that precaution in your video so other people will be aware.
What size line did you run to the Garage? I ran #8 to my garage with a sub-panel. With a second unused conduit, originally for phone. I have never stressed the system.
@@tedhardulak7698 I do not know. I contracted with a company that does electrical installations & repairs to do the install of the new line and circuit breaker box.
@@tedhardulak7698 I will be keeping a pure gasoline vehicle in the household collection. Just in case this promised electric utopia doesn't live up to all the promises.
15:37 - Helpful charge table here. I only had room for a 40 Amp circuit in my panel, therefore a 32 Amp charger for me. If I wanted to go to say a 40 Amp charger, I would have had to upgrade my panel from a 120 to a 125 Amp. That cost would have been north of 2k. So I'm perfectly happy with sticking to 32 Amps. I'm ok to wait. ☺
Another option you didn't mention is at your panel install an EV electrical management device (an extra box worth about $500 retail). This monitors the amps you are pulling in from your whole house and will throttle the EV should your home be at 80 Amps say dyer and air conditioner is on at the same time. I have this for my 240 circuit, my draw is set at 37.5 amps and on occasion the charge is interrupted for a few minutes. My BMW i4 portable level 2 charger is fine with that and starts again fine all automatically.
AWESOME explanation. The EV sellers should pass this link to every buyer. (I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten into this discussion with the EV cautious). I think the fear shuts their hearing off. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ Great video!! 🙌🏼
Well said and thought out, great information. I did a service upgrade when I installed solar and put my old 100 amp panel in the garage as my subpanel! Garage is set for this century :)
This would be the best EV advise that I have seen on line. Congratulations State of Charge. I am a retired Electrician and I fully agree with the advise. The only thing that I would advise people to consider is the cost, not only the cost of instalation but also future power costs. Most countries will have a major cost in increasing their power supply demand to accomodate the requirements of EV charging. A lot of countries will have major requirements on the power supply so will have major upgrades that will need to be financed by the tax payer (you and me) to meet the demand. As the demand for petrol goes down and the demand for EV charging goes up, guess who pays? (not the Goverment it is always you and me). A lot of power is suuplied by burning of Fosill fuels in a lot of countries anyway, where is the benifit. I live in NZ and I am of 2 minds as to which way I jump. At the moment we do not have the support here for charging infrustracture to make people confident about short time recharging for EV's, maybe in 10 years time. Maybe things will have changed in that time? I hope so. I am not going to jump now although most of our power is produced from renuable sources (wind, water and solar. a small amount from coal). Govt's get a lot of taxes from fuel, if that disappears where does it come from?, taxes, yours and mine. All Govts lie, when push comes to shove it is not the corp's that pay their fair share, it is the wage and salary earner that foots the bill and pays the most tax. Rick Smith
If the EV owners also have , even a small, powerwall, it will help the grid in most countries "to survive". Now I'm talking about the grid from the nearest transformers. It's no big problem for the backbone 400 kV power grid. I know about a small area in Finland where the backbone high voltage power grid is too small for the number and capacity of wind power turbines built. It seems easier to build wind power turbines than the power lines away from the actual area! Are the 7 MW turbines nowadays so cheap that you can idle some of them in a wind farm. In many countries electric power will be quite cheap, maybe, already in 5-7 years.
Hi Tom! We are currently in final testing for a couple new chargers that will need up to a 120A 240v circuit and deliver a max of 23kW or sister all the way down to 5.7kW when 4 units are used. I own a large solar company and approximately 6 months ago we crested our 10,000th EVSE install. Would love to have you out to the shop sometime to glean some insights. 🍻
One of the biggest factors imo should be is if you're trying to game ToU rates and how long your low rate window is and how many miles you intend to replace during charging sessions
@@FrunkensteinVonZipperneck Sure. But his/her point is that a higher amperage EVSE/Circuit increases your chances of fully charging your car within the time window when the energy is cheapest.
For the first year of owning my Model 3 I would use level 1 and was fine. I only drive about 20 miles per day and overnight I would get 60 miles. But I discovered level 1 isn't as efficient as level 2. 85-88% compared to 96-98% respectively. So I eventually installed a 48a charging station in my garage. I haven't used my mobile charger in a really long time, so I see why it's now an option when buying a EV. A lot won't need it going forward.
Something most people never want to hear though is "I can't". If you suddenly have an opportunity to go a friends airbnb, meet them on the coast, take an advantage of impromptu hike, and you didn't plan on it, you suddenly "can't" unless you have a fast charger. It's hard to live spontaneously if you have to think ahead all the time on predicted range needed with a slow wall charger.
I just got my first EV and have been using the provided level 1 portable electric supply unit, totally fine for now but was not aware of the lower efficiency
Charging efficiency aside, I have been charging my Mach-e using the level 1 charger for 6 months now without issues. I am planning to move to a level 2 charger though as level 1 is slow (faster=more flexibility). If your mileage requirements are not great, level 1 will get you by for a while. Remember that you can always unplug, run an errand, then plug in and continue charging you don't always need a full charge (a bit like using a cell phone).
Best for the EV battery life to keep charge between 30% and 80%. Smaller amounts for each charge session will also prolong the life of the battery(e.g. 60% to 80%)
Yes I charge our Ioniq 5 after most drives, sometime it's only 60-80% or even 72-80%. It has just over 20K miles on it now and the battery degradation was only 0.3%, at that rate it will take around 70K miles to even loose 1%.
That also requires more charging cycles which also reduces the life of the battery. Try to minimize the amount of times that charger gets plugged into the car for max life.
Something that is worth mentioning is power loss during transmission. It sounds silly, but it really adds up. 120-v charging has around 40% transmission loss due to heat! Nearly half your power is just GONE. As you increase the amperage, that rate goes down. So it might make sense to get a higher amperage charger even if you don't need it to save money on transmission losses over time.
As someone who is changing from a 100' 120V extension cord, I can confidently tell you that most people don't need as much charging capability as they think they do. In fact I have it turned down to 10A. A NEMA 14-50 outlet is more than enough for 99% of use cases. Don't waste your money on a "charger."
Thanks, Tom. This is awesome. I just bought a Ford F150 and I drive 180 miles a day back-and-forth to work and I like to charge overnight currently I’m charging at stations around town but I need to put a system in my house so I have a Ford F150 and I’m looking for overnight charge to me. It looks like I don’t need the top level charger. I needed the one that provided 9.6 because that’s what my truck can accept. Am I on the right?
Your truck can accept 48-amps, which is ~11 kW. I would probably get a 48-amp home charger, but a 40-amp (9.6 kW) one would probably be OK also. You would charge a little faster with a 48-amp unit.
Thanks Tom, this was extremely helpful. It's a charging master class in 26 minutes. I'm really glad you addressed the idea of future-proofing an installation, as I'm thinking about that. Question: if I were to install a 100 amp circuit to be ready for eventual 80 amp charging, would the heavier gauge wiring I would need be in any way impede or slow down charging when I had the EVSE configured for, say, only 40 amps? And how's the tooth?
No it would not adversely affect the performance of say; a 50A EVSE. In fact, just the opposite. My recommendation though, if you are going to run that 100A 2-3 AWG wire, run it to a small subpanel instead instead of right to the EVSE. A 50A EVSE might not even have lugs big enough for that wire. It would also give you flexibility to add 2+ chargers sometime in the future. I highly doubt anything (other than the hummer maybe) needs it's own 100A circuit if you drive 150mi a day. I drive a min of 120mi a day and charge my model 3 at 22 amps. Charges overnight in 5-7hrs. Make sure you hire a pro and/or get it inspected if you're not 100% confident in doing it yourself. Don't want to mess around with incorrect panel installation with grounding/bonding and proper torque applications.
Most believe so, but if you look at batteries that often have been fast charged, you can't really see a big difference. As of now, 2024, the age (in years) seems to be the most significant factor. As battery cell technology evolves, it's right now difficult to say what will happen in the future, but we all hope that they will last longer that's more years. Then we have a question that needs to be responded to, what happens when the battery lasts way longer than the rest of the car... 😯🥺😉
@@leiflillandt1488 Not only the age, also the amount of charging cycles counts. But I agree with you that it is less important if you charge with level3 chargerrs (fast) or at home or on public ac chargers . (Source; Test videos made by teslabjorn)
Here’s a little tidbit I found using ChatGPT. Basically the real question is as the owner of the vehicle is the slight difference going to matter for you personally. In my mind, the following statistics would not warrant a change in how I would charge my own Tesla vehicle.. ChatGPT Findings: Vehicles using Superchargers frequently (more than twice a week) show up to 10% degradation after 150,000 miles, while those mainly using Level 2 charging show around 5-7% degradation over the same distance.
@@leiflillandt1488 The last question...I 'm told that old batteries can be used as home batteries (for solar panel owners...saving energy at daytime, using that energy in the dark and rainy days.
A very informative video: Thank you! I'm 1-2 years out from the purchase of my first EV, but it's good to start thinking about the wiring requirements now.
I can use 40A out of the outlet in my garage. Since I now have two plugins, I bought a beefy RV splitter for the NEMA 14-50 outlet. Then it splits to a small 16A charger, and my Juicebox Pro 40 set to 24A. Works great! My house only has 100A service so I don't feel comfortable going higher.
This was an excellent discussion to inform home owners about requirements they should consider. Looking at it from the neighborhood supplied by a utility, there needs to be coordination with the utility because a neighborhood circuit can be overloaded just like your home can. Some utilities also charge by the KW demand a customer may use during any 15 minute period during the month, possibly $20/KW for example. Commercial customers see this more however increased capacity of utility circuits must be considered. The utility may love to see the increased load and sales however upgrades may be needed.
It may be great at some point.... But It will increase complexity in the short to medium term.... and monopolistic control is never a good thing.... So look forward to seeing what kind of agreement was set up?
@@nc3826 I doubt that Tesla will be the only choice and likely other charging networks will follow and adopt NACS, as I believe there is no licensing needed to use the NACS.
@David Lutz: Just the opposite has been the case in the past.... Charging networks have asked, but Elon has refused.... EVgo ended up using an Inferior adapter option.... I know CCS reliability in North America sucks... So I know why Farley did it... But the only thing we can be sure of at this point, is that we're ending up with a more closed end ecosystem.... But Hope Springs Eternal...
Thanks for this video, Yes you are correct, I am watching this because I am new to E.V's Here in the UK, we are quite slow in the uptake of E.V's. I have gained a lot of info from this. Thanks. USA. Our friends.
My main breaker entering the box is 100 Amps. Let's see... Christmas turkey in the oven with a box of stuffing on the back burner with a 40 amp breaker, tablecloth still in the dryer on a 30 amp line, the Green Giant is in the microwave, fridge running, 8 strings of Christmas lights on, Santa's new EV just arrived with a 32 amp charger ordered from Amazon. Why is the whole house dark?
@@DK-pr9ny 100 amps because it’s old and gas heated. My previous 2-bdrm house (built 1950) had 60-amp service, with no main breaker. Very alive! One of its previous owners had burned a big welt on the screw holding the incoming red wire, prolly quite a memorable oops moment as everything from the transformer met his screwdriver.
Tom, most people are WRONG, and it's very bad for someone like you to call EVSE chargers. Your channel is to inform new customers, and you should NEVER call a charger an EVSE. Just think if everyone called "electronic fuel injection" a carburetor. HOW DUMB is that! They kind of do the same thing but are NOT the same. The same thing about calling DC fast chargers level 3. We need to use the correct terms NOW so we don't have a bunch of idiots using the wrong term. Look up the Weber Auto video. "There is no such thing as level 3 charging." AC level One is up to 1.92 kw 120 volt, which requires a 20 amp breaker using 16 amps. Thus 120 x 16 = 1.92 kw AC level Two is up to 19.2 kw 240 volt requires a 100 amp breaker, using 80 amps Thus 240 x 80 =19.2 kw DC FAST CHARGING level One is up to 48 kw DC FAST CHARGING LEVEL TWO IS UP TO 400 kw The Megawatt Charging System (MCS) is a charging connector under development (in 2020 to current) for large battery electric vehicles. The connector will be rated for charging at a maximum rate of 3.75 Megawatts (3,000 amps at 1,250 volts) direct current (DC). These are in use in 2023. DC Chargers are at the stations, direct current the battery with communication to the vehicle as to its requirements. EVSE: Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment for AC charging of level One 120 volt and level two 240 volt. Think of the EVSE is just a "smart power cord". The AC chargers level 1 & 2 are in the vehicle. 33.7 kilowatt hours is equal to one gallon of gasoline. The term "Superchargers" is Tesla branded DC fast chargers. These can range from Version 1 from 118 kw to 250+ kw for Version 3. Tesla version 4 superchargers coming in June 2023 as high as 360+ kw. The term "Urban" chargers are Tesla inner city charging around 71 kw.
I respectfully disagree, David. Every company that sells them calls the chargers, look at their websites - that's not going to change. As long as the companies that sell them call them chargers, it's game over and that's what they will be know as. The ship as sailed on this topic, as far as I'm concerned. I'll continue to explain to my followers that they don't actually "charge" the vehicle, but the nomenclature will stand. I've discussed this with so many journalists and editors over the past decade and just about everyone has come up with the same conclusion as I have.
@State Of Charge Tom, I, too, respectfully disagree with you. Being that your channel is to "inform" new EV buyers. I could understand another EV channel that does not do EVSE testing and have 40+ EVSE'S mounted on the wall, calling them "chargers." It's terrible that you call Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment a charger. I forgive you! 😳 I hope your visit with the dentist/surgeon went well and that you're recovering. Can't wait for some more Rivian R1S videos.
Nice work Tom, very informative and explained perfectly. Those of us who live in the EV world sometimes forget how many questions people new to EV's have.
Thank you. This is probably not for many of my loyal followers, it's more for those new to EVs. 🙂
“Those of us who live in the EV world”
talk about a deep seated need to get over yourself
Everyone needs this info. Argued yesterday with an engineer friend. Based on his college learning- 50 years ago- his worst case is that no one can charge at home…
I know EV drivers who don’t know the foggiest about the physics of electricity and charging delivery - any more than most ICE drivers know about the mechanics of refuelling. So a video like this is likely very useful for plenty of people who “live in the EV world”.
Those of us who live in the EV bubble 😂😂
I have elevated myself to live in the solar energy bubble,screw these guys who still go to the gas station 😅
One other thing people should consider is if they have “Time of day electric service” it may actually save money in the long run to install at least the fastest EVSE/circuit their EV can support, so that it can reach their preferred state of charge in the cheapest rate window.
Yes, we have extreme off peak, 11:00Pm to 5AM.
Tesla comes with an app so you don't have to buy anything. Just open the app and put in the hours that it can charge. The car decides how much to pull, when to start and when to stop.
@@cleanitup_pls7893 Some people have a very limited time window set by their power company (I.e. not an app thing) when energy is very cheap but if they have a slow EVSE/circuit and a EV with a large battery, they may find they have to continue charging their vehicle well into pricier time windows to get their EV to the required state of charge.
@@cleanitup_pls7893So do Fords.
until everyone gets an ev and charges at that time.. . Hello primetime. @@tedmoss
Electrician my self, can’t explain better than you have. Got many answers. 🙏
Vevor32A variable amperage capable.10-32A..$100. 14-50 plug $15.Running a 32a charger out of a 50a rated plug is fine. #6 copper 3+ground, 2ft out of the panel. 50a breaker $33. All set for an upgrade as well. Cost $150. Plus 3hrs labor. Take shop class kids. Pays dividends year after year.
@@jefsel881keep in mind, NEC code requires GFCI for all outdoor and garage outlets. So that 50A breaker will be $150 or so…
@@whochecksthis none of my outlets inside of the finished garage are GFCI.
@@jefsel881 then you are not in NEC compliance.
@@whochecksthis Outsides are protected insides no. Don't need them. regardless. They nuisance trip when TIG welding.
Very well done. Every potential EV owner needs to watch this!. Very well done. Every potential EV owner needs to watch this!.
Just for info, here in the UK (240v power supply), the standard for single phase home chargers is 7.5kW - 32amps.
The grid connection
You go all the way to 24kW. Although this would be the limit of the 100 amp main fuse of your house ;) Luckily I have 3-phase wooooo.
Over here I have a triple phase 16A connection on 400V. So that is 11KW. Technically My charging point is capable of 32A, but my home connection is 3x20A and my car’s internal charger is limited to 11KW (3x16A).
Stop bragging please we know you guys get 240V and 3 phase and we dont
@@KiRiTO72987we don't get 3 phase unless you pay for it, the costs can be £5000-£££££££ for that.
@@KiRiTO72987yeah your so backward over there😅
Thanks for making this video. I say that not necessarily for me. I just purchased my first EV in March 2023. Prior to making the switch to an EV I had to do a lot of research on all the topics you covered in this video, especially the topic of things to consider when your home has limited amperage. I think if your video had existed it would have cut down on the amount of research I would have had to do because it's all explained very succinctly and concisely in this one video. So, hopefully, future potential EV owners will greatly benefit from your video.
By far the best quick study video for EV charging-on all of You Tube. Other videos go straight to the physical steps for charging like “when the charger clicks you will see a slow blinking green light”. etc, etc.
Most of the people I know would simply freak out bc “what is a slow blink? Why is it blinking green real fast!” They’d go crazy overthinking all of that. If all they had to do was grocery shopping - they’d just get in the gas powered car and go. This video should be mandatory for all new buyers. If they are halfway smart they’ll finally understand why some phone wall chargers cost more than others, why some charge faster. Excellent video!
This is all good advice. Personally, I put in a 50 amp circuit and paired it with a 32 amp max EVSE. The circuit needs to be future proof, but the EVSE can be sized to your current needs. You are going to wear out your EVSE eventually by dragging the wire across the concrete, plugging and unplugging it every day, etc. I figured out that there was essentially no scenario where it would be critically important to me to charge my current vehicle at 40 amps vs 32 overnight. So I saved a bit of money on the cost of the EVSE, I have an extra margin of safety on the circuit, I'm being more gentle with my batteries by not charging them as fast as possible, and I've given up nothing for it. Do your own homework, but charging as quickly as possible at home is not nearly as important as most people think it is. Fast charging matters on road trips, but at home it makes little difference if your car is done charging at 3AM or at 6AM if you almost never leave home before 7AM.
All true, charging at 48 Amps will not deteriorate the battery to any great extent vs. 40 Amps since you are not going over the "C" rating.
@@tedmoss no but it does cause more heat and wear down your home electrical components more over time. I keep my 50 amp circuit limited to 32 amps even tho it could be 40. I don’t need the extra amps and it’s worth protecting my circuit breaker and home wiring
Agree, but with one exception. In the event that you wake up the morning of a long trip and realize that you forgot to plug in the night before, the speed of home charging actually does matter. But, even then, it's not a huge deal. Worst case, forgetting to plug in means you have to stop at a public charger on the way back and spend an extra 10 minutes.
@@ab-tf5fl what's the difference in cost if you need to charge at the public charging stations vs. at home?
Mr. Your subject matter may be limited but you might be making one of the best done and informative videos on RUclips thank you.
Thank you!
Awesome info Tom, I’m an electrical engineer and I agree that it’s best to over build when it comes to the circuit and EVSE. I’m new at the EV game and still learning stuff every day. One suggestion I would make is to include one other electrical property called, “resistance”. Unwanted resistance can equate to inefficiency. Example: My idea was to use a 50 amp circuit (I’m limited because I live in a condominium) which dictates 6 gauge electrical wire and a EVSE designed for 40 amps. The EVSE I bought was a Wallbox 40 amp unit which is a very popular brand. But what I learned is the Wallbox 40 amp unit only uses 10 gauge wires for the 25 foot EV service cable. I noticed when I charged my vehicle, the cable would get very warm to touch. The smaller the wire, the more “resistance” creates heat loss which in turn loses money in the long term. I’ve decided to change to an EVSE designed for 48 amps and dial it back to 40. My hope is the new unit will have a larger gauge service cable and run very cool. For those who may be confused about my numbers, the lower the number, the larger the wire. Hence 10 gauge (10AWG) is smaller than 6 gauge (6AWG). Most manufacturers don’t mention the gauge wire used in the service cables. It would be great if you added those figures when you review the different EVSE units. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Hello, 10AWG is only suitable for 32A chargers, 40A chargers require 8AWG, and 50A chargers require 6AWG
What is the terminal temperature rating of a Tesla Wall Connector based on your interpretation of NEC 110.14(C)(1)(a)?
You should read through the install guide for the Chargepoint Flex. The guide tells you the circuit rating for each charging amperage. For a 48amp load, you need a 60 amp circuit. Wire size for a 60 amp varies depending on the style of the wire. THHN wires can take the highest because they are not bundled so heat can more easily dissipate. Problem is they then need to be in conduit. For my 48amp install (60amp circuit), i had electrician run #4romex from 60amp breaker to cutoff switch above my charger. He then ran #6 THHN in conduit a short distance to my charger. My Homeflex charger cable feels warm at 48amp but it isn’t hot.
Thank you. Bought a new plug-in hybrid and the manufacturer provided little info. This is just what I needed. Appreciate you.
Very well done. Every potential EV owner needs to watch this!
Best one stop shop for learning everything EVs. Thanks Tom! there no as comprehensive video as yours available on the net. Thank you for your service!
Excellent timing of this video for me. I am in the process of choosing an EV to replace my X3 in few months and want to have a L2 installed. This is an important topic for people to get educated on. 👍👍
Finally someone that knows how to explain. Its called a PROFESSIONAL! Subscribed!
Tom, god knows how many youtube clips I have seen so far on this subject, and yet your clip was by far the best ever created, explained, and right to the points. I enjoyed it much. Thanks for your contribution.👍
Came here to see hoa many amps needed. Left with a whole lotta of usefual information to boot. Thanks a lot.
Charger, smarger. Your detail and delivery are excellent and you demonstrate a sincere desire to inform with clarity.
Thank you.
Excellent and thorough video. I’m a new EV owner and you’ve taken all the anxiety and stress out of figuring out the charging debacle. I was ready to return my EV because there were no DC charges close to my home. I drive 65 miles a day for work and need more than the 1kw trickle I’m getting now. Thank you for making this easy to comprehend.😅
Great video, Tom. The chart says it all. There isn't very much information on this basic charging technology out there, and it will be an eye-opener for most people (who are not technically schooled), even for people who already own EVs-who will no doubt be advising friends and relatives. This is especially true when most charging stories in the mass media exclusively talk about public charging-the familiar gas-station model. My charging station is on a 30-amp breaker, but using a 40-amp cable to the EVSE; the heavier gauge cable costs only a little more.
this first ev and my last because on long road trips 3 to4 hour wait in line to charge
I’ve only used level one (which you denigrated) for the last 9 years. This has worked brilliantly for two cars. Admittedly, we just commute with the vehicles … we don’t road trip with either. But the viewers need to understand that simple level one works terrifically for the daily commute!
I'm not sure he was actively negative on Level 1, just indicating that many will want a more robust option.
I am currently using Level 1 for my EV, Ford Mustang Mach-E. This works great for me as I don't need to drive into work every day. I get about 25 miles replaced overnight, and about 50 miles a day (I suspend charging during a higher TOU rate period). That is enough to carry me through a full week even if I were to go in every day. If I get one of the chargers at work for 4 hours, I have replaced at least as much as I need for that day.
I will eventually get a smart charger as I want to use excess solar generation to charge the car.
I agree that we all get too worried about charging speeds, especially when you get your first EV. We only have 20 amp service to our detached garage, so uprading to higher service would have been expensive. I had a Wallbox installed, dip switch set it to max at 16 amp. We've had our EV for about a year now and only once has the charging speed been an issue, and that was because my wife had two "longer" trips in one day. I also put in a 48 amp Emporia at my office, which is only 1/4 mile away from our house, so if we need a faster charge we have another option.
This is exactly my experience too. I have a 20-amp 120v outlet in my garage too. I have the 5-20 adapter for the Tesla mobile charger and use that. My Model Y charges then at 16 amps too. I’ve been using this setup for the past year. Only once have I had to hit a SC before going on a number of errands around town due to coming back from a long trip late at night and having around 10% SOC. By early morning when I left I had 30% which wasn’t enough. I’m amazed to read about people who spend thousands to get updated panels and high amp circuits added for charging. I could see it if you have to commute 100 miles per day with no charging at work but most of these people seem to mostly just putter around town. I did like going from 15-amp to the 20-amp setup. The 20-30% boost does help.
This rule states that an OCPD can be loaded to only 80% of its rating for continuous loads.
Bottom line EVs are not worth the extra money and headaches with costs , range and insurance rates for your home and I don’t even want to talk about maintenance costs of the battery pack if ever you’re battery pack gets damaged from road debris and road vibration or to replace the battery when they no longer cannot be charged due to age and also collision damage costs from your automobile insurance
@@mikethompson3534thermal runaway is potentially right under your butt or in garage while charging. Luckily it’s not real common now but wondering how much more it’ll be if essentially 95% more users will be when ICE is outlawed. And how in the world will the grid handle this especially when the gas furnace and gas stove are outlawed. We’d definitely need a lot more nuclear plants and/or coal fueled plants.
@@alleyoop5185The vast majority of EV charging takes place after hours as it is much cheaper and hardly has any effect overall on the grid!
Don't believe everything you get online!
When I purchased my 2015 model S in March this year, I also purchased 2 x Tesla power walls. The power walls were both installed on dedicated 40 amp, 230V circuits. The model S was factory restricted to AC charge at 16 amps, so I had the onboard charger modified to charge at 32 amps. This is perfect for me and the way I use the car. I also have mobile 8 and 13.5 amp chargers to trickle charge when the model S is not in use. At my livin house, the power wall installation was $1200 for the dedicated circuit and $750 for the PW, all up about 2K. My other house was $750 for the PW and $450 for the DC as it was much easier to install the DC at my holiday house. I live in Australia.
I sincerely want to thank you for the quality of this presentation! I now understand the terminology and functionality of charging operations. Will receive my ioniq5 in a week and will listen to your other presentation in your list about my incoming I5. Thank you
You covered 99% very well. The only thing I would add is that where I lived in California, you got a real low charging rate between the hours of 11pm and 7 am. This reduced the charging to 8 hours, but as in my case, I left home at 6:15 am and sometimes even earlier cutting down my available hours to charge. This was never a problem because I had a 30 amp (24 amp) and a 20 amp (16 amp) charger available. My car only had a 33kw battery and my wife's PHEV only had a 17kw battery. With this setup, I think we really only used the 30 amp charger 98% of the time and used the small 20 amp charger very rarely.
On another note, we had at work 2 chevy volts and a Prius prime that ran for 18 months without any of them using gas off of a single 120 volt receptacle in the parking garage. Our needs were light being in San Francisco and only driving 10-15 miles a day. I would set them all to charge at 8 amps and use a timer to charge one for 6 hours and then the other for 6 hours every night. The third one was my Volt that I would plug in during the day as I was mostly office based. I had to set them at 8 amps because occasionally somebody would plug in one level down and take 12 amps during the day. It was a difficult feat but I did keep 3 PHEV's from the gas station with a single receptacle for 18 moths.
Superb, comprehensive essay on a crucial EV topic, especially for those considering buying their first EV.
Every time I was going to comment about something, you covered it! I really hope new people watch the ENTIRE video!!!! Lots of important information at the end!
As the first EV owner many of my friends and family have met, I can say my number 1 question is "Where do you charge?". Many are surprised when I say "My garage"! There really is a perception that you would drive your EV to the "electron station" to charge up ever couple of days.
Great video! I've only had my first EV for ~ four months (Tesla Model Y) and my wife and I both work from home so we have modest charging needs (~40 miles / day of charge). Truthfully, we would have been fine so far just having a standard 110 outlet L1 charging but - we have the car parked in the garage 20+ hours a day. We did install a L2 EVSE wired up for 40A continuous but I keep it set for 15A for less batter degradation. Long-term I think we'll probably keep our one 40A L2 charger, and any additional EVSE we install we might just opt for mobile connectors on 110 outlets, or lower priced L2 EVSE wired for 20A continuous. That should meet all of our needs, and whenever we do need a 0-100 overnight, we'd have the 40A connection to work with. I'm also thinking about friends and family visiting with their future EVs and would want them to be able to add a hundred miles of charge in a few hours so again, I will always want to have ready access to a 40A EVSE.
That’s a good point. I live in the middle between my parents and my brother. My parents live just out of range for most EV’s to drive there and back again. So my 11KW charger might be a good solution for them to make a quick 1 hour social stop and get back home again.
GREAT presentation. This is still something that so many people don't understand but especially DO NOT KNOW about Electric cars and charging. I put in a 40 Amp Breaker and fully charge with my 2022 M3 Standard Range "EVERY NIGHT" at 32 Amps and full battery every morning (Even if I didn't really need to charge!). My wife no longer thought of so called "Range Anxiety" after our first trip about 1200 Km over a long weekend. I bought myself 40 feet of 240V AWG 6 NMD 90 Electrical Wire (Ready for the future!), ran the wire myself as per specs from my panel (Not PLUGGED in, all the way through to my Garage, then called my Electrician to finish connecting and VERIFYING my connection to my 40 Amp breaker!! Always better to be safe!!!
A 40A circuit, while technically adequate for 32A load, is actually not a great idea. Circuits don't typically have the type of use/load that an electric car causes. It will pull 32A for hours at a time, unlike a range for instance that may have a lower load for a limited time.
Upgrade your wire and breaker to 50A load capacity to be safe. If you can't do that, dial your charging down to 24A. 99% of the time that will be more than fast enough anyway.
@@billstevens3796I charge my ev with 24 amps on a 30 amp circuit that used to be for a split AC.
Absolutely love this video! Great work Tom! Fantastic and easy to understand educational video for new and current EV owners. Charging and the electrical terminology is always confusing for people but you did a great job of making it easy to follow and understand. The chart is fantastic. Education is one of the keys to mass EV adoption. Love it.
Thank you for your support
101 I love...too!!
First off, great video Tom! In my research over a year ago, I had these same questions, and steps, and knew I wanted to figure out how much power items take in my house. 12:15 an even better way to understand how much power your house is using is to actually measure it over weeks/months. I got the Emporia Home Energy Monitor, so i can tell how much power my house takes, max Amp/kw draw, etc. It helps in letting your electrician know what your usage actually is rather than just base it off a load calculation.
18:01 Another point when deciding with your electrician what size circuit to install is if your house has conduit, you may be able to just use existing conduit and run new wire to your EVSE. This will save a bit of money to not have to run a new conduit to your garage. This what I did... I already had 1/2" conduit running to my garage that had room in it, so he just wired it with the max size wire (10ga) that will fit into a 1/2" pipe, and a 30 amp circuit, so I can charge at 24amps. So my Emporia Smart EV charger is just set to 24amps. I figured if in emergency i could run to the nearby Supercharger and top off, but I've never had to do that in over 15k miles. Eventually I'd like to get new subpanel installed in my garage, but in the mean time this has been fine and much cheaper.
Very nice explanation.
I limit my Tesla Level II to 40A just to keep things from getting too warm. Heat eventually kills electrical components. I also have a NEMA 14-50P for guests. I suggest limiting those to 32A---just in case.
Be careful, most of those dryer sockets and plugs are not rated for continuous use. I used direct wire and checked mine with an infrared camera.
I know a lot about this subject in the uk and was curious about the us. I am writing this comment because I wanted to say what a good job Tom did, explained everything clearly. I am sure it will help a lot of people.
You do such an outstanding job in all of your videos. I always recommend your channel to anyone who has EV questions. Top notch. Thanks for what you do!
Thank you!
11 months late, but this video has been a HUGE help for me understanding how much I should spend on an charger. Thank you, Tom!
Great presentation. Very informative. That chart is an extremely useful tool. One just has to look at what your vehicle’s maximum usable capacity to determine what’s the most they would probably need as a worst case and look at 80% of that to see what’s the most they realistically probably would need. For example, the extended battery on a Mustang Mach E has 91 kWh usable. Since they recommend not to go over 80%, then 80% of 91 is 72.8. Since most people would rarely, if ever charge from 0%, the 32 amp output is probably more than enough (it provides 70 kWh over the 10 hours) and the 40 amp usable provided by your Lightning, which provides 85 kWh would be more than sufficient for a Mach E owner.
Lots of useful info and numbers. I plan to charge via a solar panel and need some facts. Thanks.
Great video, Tom. You are very good at explaining charging for "regular folks."
Thank you sir for this Master Class of this topic. Long contemplating my first EV acquisition, I now consider myself very-well informed. I do have one question remaining, regarding house electrical wiring. Working with an architect and builder, I designed and built my home 12 years ago. I requested a dedicated circuit with high-capacity wiring from the service panel to the garage wall. I told them to terminate the garage end of the wires in a standard junction box since my plan was to hard wire the wall-mounted charger. And for inside the service panel, I told them to hold off installing a circuit breaker, just leave the three wires (L1, L2, ground, NO NEUTRAL) unconnected to anything. The breaker would be selected and installed in the future.
Long after moving in, I discovered that the electrical subcontractor used #8 AWG (19-stranded copper THHN/THWN-2 wires inside dedicated raceways) for the wires between the service panel and the junction box in the garage wall. It's about 35 foot run. From what I have read, based on wire gauge and the distance of the run, the highest amperage circuit breaker I can install would be a 30 amp. Agree? Or could I install a 40 amp breaker?
Thanks for a very thorough review, which should be a continual reference. My only concern is that more emphasis should be placed on continuous use circuits only being set at 80% of breaker capacity. A 40 amp circuit should only be used for a 32 amp or lower EVSE, for example.
Yes, what you said is very correct. The maximum power of the charger cannot exceed 80% of the circuit breaker, usually controlled at 50%
Any electrician dat don’t derate Issa Plummer wannabe
The EV charging terminology breakdown at the beginning is priceless. My husband and I were sitting at dinner last night talking about what our personal definitions of Amps, Watts, and Volt, kW, and kWh are. We each agreed that we might need to go back to school for an electrical engineering degree now what we own a Bolt EUV and Tucson PHEV. lol, this video made it feel like we got this. I never comment on videos, but I am so glad I found this channel, I just had to! Pure EV Gold!!
Thanks, Tom. It is more accurate to refer to volts as pressure (force is close), but not speed. Current is volumetric flow, more akin to speed than pressure or volts.
Exactly, but try to explain electrical potential to someone (not a physicist or engineer). 🙄
Voltage is like water pressure, like psi. Amps is like flow rate, or gallons per hour.
Watts is like ratings for pressure washers, where you have gallons per minute along with the psi, which indicates how powerful the pressure washer is, since pressure alone without enough water won't clean very well, and a lot of water but with no pressure behind it also won't have much cleaning power.
kWh is the total energy stored up, like the amount of gallons pumped up to a certain height, so 50 gallons pumped to 10 feet would have more energy capacity than 50 gallons pumped up to 1 foot.
I've owned my EV for over a year now. This has been the best video re: this topic. Well done and very informative.
My ID4 is capable of charging at 48 amps, but I am getting by quite comfortably on the 16 amp charger I bought years ago for my Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. It can be slow, sometimes taking over ten hours to get me back to 80%, but it's never been a problem. And, I've never been tempted to spend the money to upgrade the wiring and charger.
My experience too. I had a readily available 20A circuit so I decided to use it instead of having to fish cable from the panel for a 50A circuit. So far the EVSE set at 16A works for our purposes.
Same here. Charging an ID.4 at 16 amps is just fine. It charges while we sleep.
I don’t drive a whole lot on a daily basis. All my charging needs at home for my Model Y have been met with the Tesla mobile connector and a 110volt 20 amp outlet in my garage. I upgraded the standard kit’s 15 amp adapter with a 20 amp one to speed it up by 30%. The Tesla device will only draw 16 amps continuously, doing the NEC recommended derating to 80% of capacity since it runs continuously for long periods of time. I can get 20 KWHr on a 12 hour overnight, good for about 80 miles of range per day. With a Supercharger 2 miles away, which I haven’t had to use yet, this meets all my needs.
Great video. On the charging esp winter time, I find it best to keep current low so battery is charging all night long. This has the battery warm when you are ready to go. This will allow a little more range when you go. It’s also good to preheat the cabin on the house so your max range for driving with a warm car, seats and wheel also.
Tom, excellent explanation! The best I've seen! One comment: When placing text on the screen that you want people to read, don't place the text "over" narration. The human brain can't both read and listen at the same time. If it's wordy text, it's better to pause the video and place the paragraph on-screen by itself, then allot enough time for it to be read, and then go back to the video. A very short phrase or title is the exception.
Seems a lot of people like things read to them though, so they usually object to just a caption showing up on screen without any talking.
“This may be your first EV, but it won’t be your last EV.”
Truth.
I got my Tesla M3 SR+ in March, 2021. My wife, an EV doubter, saw the light and dumped her Camry for a VW ID.4 in July of that year.
Two years on, and neither one of us is looking back. She’s very excited about the VW Buzz (and I gotta admit, so am I).
Regardless of when we get our next EV, neither of us is going back to gross ICE vehicles.
Great job on this video, Tom! It’s an excellent primer, and I’ve sent it to some I know who’ve expressed an interest in EVs.
Safe travels to all.
At 80 years old I fully expect my Teslas to be my last cars. Who should I will them to?
@@tedmosswhy, me of course. :)
Same situation here. My wife didn’t give a lick about cars until I bought our Bolt EUV. She is completely in love with it and is now asking me my thoughts about trading in our 2017 Volt for a second fully electric vehicle. We are also considering the ID buzz but we are close to being empty nesters so we probably don’t need that much space.
@@meandmyEVI'm looking at the bolt euv as well, gosh would be fun to have one. And I figure I'll save quite a bit in gas bc our current daily driver is a Kia Sorento which averages about 21 mpg mixed. Not good at all. We spent at least $250 a month on gas which, I figure hey, if we have a car payment anyway, might as well pay less in gas, right?
In 1988, I expected to have a home/office data-center, so had 300A service installed with 2 panels. It was a new service so added about $1200
for the added amps. Most homes are 150-200A. Good call, about doing higher gauge wiring and industrial sockets. One solid run of wire from the breaker/fuse box to the charger is best since every connection is a unbalanced load that produces heat. Stay safe, and stay charged.
This was extremely helpful overall, and the chart at 15:09 explaining the relationship between breaker amps, evse amps, kw and mi added was exactly what I needed. Thanks!
Thanks for this video and its valuable information. I had a 220 or 240 volt outlet installed in my garage before I got my 2023 Tesla, and have the basic mobile kit to interface to the vehicle. Being retired, only drive around town so most of my charging of the EV is just at home, and I don't connect to my 220 volt outlet every night. I charge up my vehicle on off peak hours when electricity rates are lower. Works very well so far.
Take care.
Thanks for the info! I am in an older house that doesn't have much juice. I was plugged into an (120v) outlet that was original to the house (1957). I caught it burned out. Looking, the gauge was way to small. I then plugged into a outlet that was added years later and could handle it. I don't plan on being here all that long. And I eventually, want to be on an off grid farm. So I have opted to install an expandable solar panel system dedicated to charging my Lightning. I work from home so this is very feasible. The system is up and running, 5.4kw of solar tops out at about 4.5kw of AC. The Ford Pro charger, doesn't play all that nicely with the solar. If I manually bump the charging amps through the amp to high, I have to wait 10-15 minutes after unplugging the truck to reset it back down. I followed your previous video and got a Emporia charger because they have an add on that should scale up and down the charging rate automatically. First one I got, I had some issues and the truck wasn't happy. The Ford Dealership reset the truck and I am just waiting to get it back now (it has some updates, why does it take over a day...). Once it is back, I will be testing this system out. They are supposed to be able to go from 1.4kw up to my 4.5kw automatically. With the ford one, I can only choose 6, 8, 10,12,14, etc. And I have to do it manually. Get one good cloud and it kicks off, etc.
Are you saying it's straight solar to the truck without running through any buffer battery? If so, I'm surprised it works at all as the power would be constantly fluctuating.
@@aussie2uGA yep, solar to hybrid inverter (no batteries) to charger
Really good video. When I try to explain this stuff to people I get stuck on "where do I start?" Oversize with adjustable output is great advice. I have an old 32amp charger that is on its third EV. At the time I bought it, that was pretty good sized EVSE. With my PHEV, it was really overkill. Then along came our Bolt as our second car, and it was plenty. Now, with an Ioniq 5 as our only car, it still gives me an overnight charge easily and reliably.
my electrician told me my panel has 90 amps and around half of it is being used currently. That i would need to upgrade my panel to 200 amps to be able to use EV charger . Thanks to your video, I can go back and ask him the right questions.
Odd that you have 90 amp most places are either 100 or 200
If you only have 90amp panel it’s probably at least 30 years old, and tbh not a bad idea to replace and upgrade the panel.
Hi Tom, regards from Brazil! I've been following you for a long time now.
I work on the solar business and we also offer EV "chargers". Very nice and comprehensible compilation.
I was really happy to see the same arguments I use for the actual recharging needs.
That means I've learned well from you!
Thanks a lot! Keep up the good work!
Gastou o latim kkk
As a soon to be EV driver, I really enjoyed this video. You answered so many of my outstanding questions and that charging chart was the icing on the cake. Thank you so much for your channel and EV videos. My house has a 100amp panel and I plan to install a 50 amp circuit breaker to feed my Grizzl-E smart charger (max 40amp draw). Since 90% of my driving will be local, and well under 60 miles a day, I plan to use the smart app to select a lower charging rate, hopefully to avoid any issues. I keep hearing about the 80% rule - unless absolutely necessary, only charge your EV to the 80% level. Be interested in a video on this topic. Thanks for your videos.
This is a very useful video, I often explain similar issues to people, both EV drivers and those that are interested. The fact is that the vast majority of typical driving needs can easily be covered by a 3kW charger (E.g. a typical 13A socket at 240V in Europe). At one point, my wife was driving 100 miles per day with our car (the average commute in the U.K. is less than 20 miles), and a 3kW charger was still enough to charge the battery back to the charging limit each night between when she got back from work and started her drive to work again the next day.
Only if you own your home/condo and have a dedicated parking spot.
Most of my charging uses a granny charger running at 2kw. I have a 7kw wall charger but it is not used very much.
@@mikeydude750
Not really - we use a communal car park that does not have designated parking, but the bottom two levels of the car park have chargers at every parking space. Similar facilities are being built across the UK. Many towns are rolling out kerbside charging facilities for people who park on the street as well. So the opportunities are getting better, though it obviously takes time.
@@kardy12 Chargers at /every/ parking space? That's gotta be super expensive.
@@mikeydude750
Why do you think 7kW chargers are expensive? You can get one installed on a house for a few hundred pounds, and an established operator can buy them in bulk.
Thank you for this. Before I got my Rivian I thought I would need a 60 amp breaker with plans to charge at 48 amps. I have been using the mobile charger instead connecting to a NEMA 14-50 and I set the car to draw a max 24 amps (5.7 kw). I replenish my usual daily driving in less than 5 hours
Great Video Tom. This is a video I can send to my friends and family. So they can get a good idea of Charging. Keep up the Great Work.
I preordered a Volvo EX 30 for my first-ever EV. I’m trying to educate myself ahead of time and figure out what charger will work best for that vehicle as well as my home. Thanks for making these! I’m saving them to a playlist for the 2024 delivery.
I currently have a PHEV and I am likely to go full EV within a year.
I had an electrician install a dedicated 50 amp line to the garage with its own breaker box to feed the 32 amp Blink 150 wall charger.
I did that because I understand about continuous load and how a car might cause a spike as it draws the power .
It was good to hear you add that precaution in your video so other people will be aware.
What size line did you run to the Garage? I ran #8 to my garage with a sub-panel. With a second unused conduit, originally for phone. I have never stressed the system.
@@tedhardulak7698 I do not know. I contracted with a company that does electrical installations & repairs to do the install of the new line and circuit breaker box.
@@pauld6967 Well it great you did it right. Im sure you are safe. I have not gone electric yet, but want to.
@@tedhardulak7698 I will be keeping a pure gasoline vehicle in the household collection. Just in case this promised electric utopia doesn't live up to all the promises.
@@pauld6967 I agree I do not see any attempts to upgrade the Grid. Soon it will crash. Especially in Ca.
15:37 - Helpful charge table here. I only had room for a 40 Amp circuit in my panel, therefore a 32 Amp charger for me.
If I wanted to go to say a 40 Amp charger, I would have had to upgrade my panel from a 120 to a 125 Amp. That cost would have been north of 2k.
So I'm perfectly happy with sticking to 32 Amps. I'm ok to wait. ☺
Well done Tom. I can always learn something from your videos. It's very informative and explained clearly!
Really interesting and informative video that explains what most people actually need to know when they consider buying EV
Another option you didn't mention is at your panel install an EV electrical management device (an extra box worth about $500 retail). This monitors the amps you are pulling in from your whole house and will throttle the EV should your home be at 80 Amps say dyer and air conditioner is on at the same time. I have this for my 240 circuit, my draw is set at 37.5 amps and on occasion the charge is interrupted for a few minutes. My BMW i4 portable level 2 charger is fine with that and starts again fine all automatically.
The emporia unit has a $200 power management add on
Thanks for that info.
AWESOME explanation. The EV sellers should pass this link to every buyer. (I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten into this discussion with the EV cautious). I think the fear shuts their hearing off. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ Great video!! 🙌🏼
This is the explanation I've been searching for. Well done. Thank you.
Well said and thought out, great information. I did a service upgrade when I installed solar and put my old 100 amp panel in the garage as my subpanel! Garage is set for this century :)
Using your old panel as a subpanel is pure genius that is awesome
This would be the best EV advise that I have seen on line. Congratulations State of Charge. I am a retired Electrician and I fully agree with the advise. The only thing that I would advise people to consider is the cost, not only the cost of instalation but also future power costs. Most countries will have a major cost in increasing their power supply demand to accomodate the requirements of EV charging. A lot of countries will have major requirements on the power supply so will have major upgrades that will need to be financed by the tax payer (you and me) to meet the demand. As the demand for petrol goes down and the demand for EV charging goes up, guess who pays? (not the Goverment it is always you and me). A lot of power is suuplied by burning of Fosill fuels in a lot of countries anyway, where is the benifit. I live in NZ and I am of 2 minds as to which way I jump. At the moment we do not have the support here for charging infrustracture to make people confident about short time recharging for EV's, maybe in 10 years time. Maybe things will have changed in that time? I hope so. I am not going to jump now although most of our power is produced from renuable sources (wind, water and solar. a small amount from coal). Govt's get a lot of taxes from fuel, if that disappears where does it come from?, taxes, yours and mine. All Govts lie, when push comes to shove it is not the corp's that pay their fair share, it is the wage and salary earner that foots the bill and pays the most tax.
Rick Smith
If the EV owners also have , even a small, powerwall, it will help the grid in most countries "to survive". Now I'm talking about the grid from the nearest transformers. It's no big problem for the backbone 400 kV power grid.
I know about a small area in Finland where the backbone high voltage power grid is too small for the number and capacity of wind power turbines built.
It seems easier to build wind power turbines than the power lines away from the actual area! Are the 7 MW turbines nowadays so cheap that you can idle some of them in a wind farm.
In many countries electric power will be quite cheap, maybe, already in 5-7 years.
What you provide here is simple amazing educational vid!!! Thank you for putting this together!
Dear Tom, thank you for making this invaluable video. The best explanations I have listened to so far. Lots of love from Turkiye.
Wonderful presentation.
Great electrical info for any electrical application not just for Ev’s.
I have a 20amp circuit for my Tesla and I've never had a problem with it being too slow
Hi Tom!
We are currently in final testing for a couple new chargers that will need up to a 120A 240v circuit and deliver a max of 23kW or sister all the way down to 5.7kW when 4 units are used.
I own a large solar company and approximately 6 months ago we crested our 10,000th EVSE install. Would love to have you out to the shop sometime to glean some insights. 🍻
Hello. Are you local to me in NJ?
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney we don’t have a shop in NJ
The places youd find most interesting to see would be in tampa or san diego
Thanks for this video. You explained the "mystery of charging an EV" very well.
One of the biggest factors imo should be is if you're trying to game ToU rates and how long your low rate window is and how many miles you intend to replace during charging sessions
Tesla software adjusts for ToU.
@@FrunkensteinVonZipperneck Sure. But his/her point is that a higher amperage EVSE/Circuit increases your chances of fully charging your car within the time window when the energy is cheapest.
It will be a game for sure as more and more start using energy during off peak. Off peak only stays off peak when less use it.
Every new EV owner should be watching this one.
For the first year of owning my Model 3 I would use level 1 and was fine. I only drive about 20 miles per day and overnight I would get 60 miles. But I discovered level 1 isn't as efficient as level 2. 85-88% compared to 96-98% respectively. So I eventually installed a 48a charging station in my garage. I haven't used my mobile charger in a really long time, so I see why it's now an option when buying a EV. A lot won't need it going forward.
Something most people never want to hear though is "I can't". If you suddenly have an opportunity to go a friends airbnb, meet them on the coast, take an advantage of impromptu hike, and you didn't plan on it, you suddenly "can't" unless you have a fast charger. It's hard to live spontaneously if you have to think ahead all the time on predicted range needed with a slow wall charger.
I just got my first EV and have been using the provided level 1 portable electric supply unit, totally fine for now but was not aware of the lower efficiency
Charging efficiency aside, I have been charging my Mach-e using the level 1 charger for 6 months now without issues. I am planning to move to a level 2 charger though as level 1 is slow (faster=more flexibility). If your mileage requirements are not great, level 1 will get you by for a while. Remember that you can always unplug, run an errand, then plug in and continue charging you don't always need a full charge (a bit like using a cell phone).
Nice job! Been living with my Ford Mach-e since six months and haven't put in L2 charging yet. I do want to, though.
Best for the EV battery life to keep charge between 30% and 80%. Smaller amounts for each charge session will also prolong the life of the battery(e.g. 60% to 80%)
Yes I charge our Ioniq 5 after most drives, sometime it's only 60-80% or even 72-80%. It has just over 20K miles on it now and the battery degradation was only 0.3%, at that rate it will take around 70K miles to even loose 1%.
That also requires more charging cycles which also reduces the life of the battery. Try to minimize the amount of times that charger gets plugged into the car for max life.
Something that is worth mentioning is power loss during transmission. It sounds silly, but it really adds up. 120-v charging has around 40% transmission loss due to heat! Nearly half your power is just GONE. As you increase the amperage, that rate goes down. So it might make sense to get a higher amperage charger even if you don't need it to save money on transmission losses over time.
As someone who is changing from a 100' 120V extension cord, I can confidently tell you that most people don't need as much charging capability as they think they do. In fact I have it turned down to 10A. A NEMA 14-50 outlet is more than enough for 99% of use cases. Don't waste your money on a "charger."
Thanks, Tom. This is awesome. I just bought a Ford F150 and I drive 180 miles a day back-and-forth to work and I like to charge overnight currently I’m charging at stations around town but I need to put a system in my house so I have a Ford F150 and I’m looking for overnight charge to me. It looks like I don’t need the top level charger. I needed the one that provided 9.6 because that’s what my truck can accept. Am I on the right?
Your truck can accept 48-amps, which is ~11 kW. I would probably get a 48-amp home charger, but a 40-amp (9.6 kW) one would probably be OK also. You would charge a little faster with a 48-amp unit.
Thanks Tom, this was extremely helpful. It's a charging master class in 26 minutes. I'm really glad you addressed the idea of future-proofing an installation, as I'm thinking about that. Question: if I were to install a 100 amp circuit to be ready for eventual 80 amp charging, would the heavier gauge wiring I would need be in any way impede or slow down charging when I had the EVSE configured for, say, only 40 amps? And how's the tooth?
No it would not adversely affect the performance of say; a 50A EVSE. In fact, just the opposite. My recommendation though, if you are going to run that 100A 2-3 AWG wire, run it to a small subpanel instead instead of right to the EVSE. A 50A EVSE might not even have lugs big enough for that wire.
It would also give you flexibility to add 2+ chargers sometime in the future. I highly doubt anything (other than the hummer maybe) needs it's own 100A circuit if you drive 150mi a day.
I drive a min of 120mi a day and charge my model 3 at 22 amps. Charges overnight in 5-7hrs.
Make sure you hire a pro and/or get it inspected if you're not 100% confident in doing it yourself. Don't want to mess around with incorrect panel installation with grounding/bonding and proper torque applications.
Whoa, how big a vehicle do you have/plan on having and how far do you drive in a day? That's a lot of juice!
this should be printed of everywhere, it applies to no only EVs but pretty much all
I believe that a slow charge is healthier for an EV battery.
Most believe so, but if you look at batteries that often have been fast charged, you can't really see a big difference.
As of now, 2024, the age (in years) seems to be the most significant factor.
As battery cell technology evolves, it's right now difficult to say what will happen in the future, but we all hope that they will last longer that's more years.
Then we have a question that needs to be responded to, what happens when the battery lasts way longer than the rest of the car... 😯🥺😉
Right, it heats up the battery less. Avoid DC fast charging at DC fast chargers when you can. Use level 2 AC charging instead at home.
@@leiflillandt1488 Not only the age, also the amount of charging cycles counts. But I agree with you that it is less important if you charge with level3 chargerrs (fast) or at home or on public ac chargers . (Source; Test videos made by teslabjorn)
Here’s a little tidbit I found using ChatGPT. Basically the real question is as the owner of the vehicle is the slight difference going to matter for you personally. In my mind, the following statistics would not warrant a change in how I would charge my own Tesla vehicle.. ChatGPT Findings: Vehicles using Superchargers frequently (more than twice a week) show up to 10% degradation after 150,000 miles, while those mainly using Level 2 charging show around 5-7% degradation over the same distance.
@@leiflillandt1488 The last question...I 'm told that old batteries can be used as home batteries (for solar panel owners...saving energy at daytime, using that energy in the dark and rainy days.
A very informative video: Thank you! I'm 1-2 years out from the purchase of my first EV, but it's good to start thinking about the wiring requirements now.
The attention paid to home charging versus DCFC is way less than its importance. Thanks for focusing on what most EV owners do most of the time.
That chart at 15:00 was very helpful. Thanks. 👍
This great video should be included with every EV sale (or demo)! 👏👏👏!
Thanks! This helped a lot choosing how to transition from a 12amp charger on a 30 amp line for a hybrid, to a charger for a much larger BEV.
I can use 40A out of the outlet in my garage. Since I now have two plugins, I bought a beefy RV splitter for the NEMA 14-50 outlet. Then it splits to a small 16A charger, and my Juicebox Pro 40 set to 24A. Works great!
My house only has 100A service so I don't feel comfortable going higher.
I split my dryer plug and ran an RV extension into the garage to charge my car. Works great but can't do laundry and charge at the same time.
@@That-Guy_ Yes you can! Just hang the clothes on the line!
@@tedmoss
No thanks. Too many birds aroud here.
This was an excellent discussion to inform home owners about requirements they should consider. Looking at it from the neighborhood supplied by a utility, there needs to be coordination with the utility because a neighborhood circuit can be overloaded just like your home can. Some utilities also charge by the KW demand a customer may use during any 15 minute period during the month, possibly $20/KW for example. Commercial customers see this more however increased capacity of utility circuits must be considered. The utility may love to see the increased load and sales however upgrades may be needed.
what do you think of tesla and ford deal?
It's great for the entire industry.
Agreed
It may be great at some point....
But It will increase complexity in the short to medium term.... and monopolistic control is never a good thing....
So look forward to seeing what kind of agreement was set up?
@@nc3826 I doubt that Tesla will be the only choice and likely other charging networks will follow and adopt NACS, as I believe there is no licensing needed to use the NACS.
@David Lutz: Just the opposite has been the case in the past.... Charging networks have asked, but Elon has refused.... EVgo ended up using an Inferior adapter option....
I know CCS reliability in North America sucks... So I know why Farley did it...
But the only thing we can be sure of at this point, is that we're ending up with a more closed end ecosystem.... But Hope Springs Eternal...
Thanks for this video, Yes you are correct, I am watching this because I am new to E.V's
Here in the UK, we are quite slow in the uptake of E.V's.
I have gained a lot of info from this.
Thanks.
USA. Our friends.
My main breaker entering the box is 100 Amps. Let's see... Christmas turkey in the oven with a box of stuffing on the back burner with a 40 amp breaker, tablecloth still in the dryer on a 30 amp line, the Green Giant is in the microwave, fridge running, 8 strings of Christmas lights on, Santa's new EV just arrived with a 32 amp charger ordered from Amazon. Why is the whole house dark?
Lol. Time to Upgrades.
Luckily service normally comes it at 200 or 400 so easy to handle all that with a proper dedicated circuit wired up.
100 amp service is pretty rare..
@@DK-pr9ny 100 amps because it’s old and gas heated. My previous 2-bdrm house (built 1950) had 60-amp service, with no main breaker. Very alive! One of its previous owners had burned a big welt on the screw holding the incoming red wire, prolly quite a memorable oops moment as everything from the transformer met his screwdriver.
Easy to understand... In most cases if you did understand what Tom was saying, hire an electrician that regularly install EV chargers.
Absolute minimum: 40 amps (50 amp breaker)
Recommended target: 48 amps (60 amp breaker)
If budget allows: 80 amps (100 amp breaker)
As far as I know, there was an old Tesla charger (gen 2) that could use a 100 Amp breaker, but the new one (gen 3) only uses a 60 Amp breaker.
Good presentation for those who don't work in the electronics/electrical field.
Tom, most people are WRONG, and it's very bad for someone like you to call EVSE chargers.
Your channel is to inform new customers, and you should NEVER call a charger an EVSE.
Just think if everyone called "electronic fuel injection" a carburetor. HOW DUMB is that! They kind of do the same thing but are NOT the same.
The same thing about calling DC fast chargers level 3.
We need to use the correct terms NOW so we don't have a bunch of idiots using the wrong term.
Look up the Weber Auto video. "There is no such thing as level 3 charging."
AC level One is up to 1.92 kw 120 volt, which requires a 20 amp breaker using 16 amps.
Thus 120 x 16 = 1.92 kw
AC level Two is up to 19.2 kw
240 volt requires a 100 amp breaker, using 80 amps
Thus 240 x 80 =19.2 kw
DC FAST CHARGING level One is up to 48 kw
DC FAST CHARGING LEVEL TWO IS UP TO 400 kw
The Megawatt Charging System (MCS) is a charging connector under development (in 2020 to current) for large battery electric vehicles. The connector will be rated for charging at a maximum rate of 3.75 Megawatts (3,000 amps at 1,250 volts) direct current (DC). These are in use in 2023.
DC Chargers are at the stations, direct current the battery with communication to the vehicle as to its requirements.
EVSE: Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment for AC charging of level One 120 volt and level two 240 volt. Think of the EVSE is just a "smart power cord".
The AC chargers level 1 & 2 are in the vehicle.
33.7 kilowatt hours is equal to one gallon of gasoline.
The term "Superchargers" is Tesla branded DC fast chargers. These can range from Version 1 from 118 kw to 250+ kw for Version 3. Tesla version 4 superchargers coming in June 2023 as high as 360+ kw.
The term "Urban" chargers are Tesla inner city charging around 71 kw.
I respectfully disagree, David. Every company that sells them calls the chargers, look at their websites - that's not going to change. As long as the companies that sell them call them chargers, it's game over and that's what they will be know as. The ship as sailed on this topic, as far as I'm concerned. I'll continue to explain to my followers that they don't actually "charge" the vehicle, but the nomenclature will stand. I've discussed this with so many journalists and editors over the past decade and just about everyone has come up with the same conclusion as I have.
@State Of Charge Tom, I, too, respectfully disagree with you. Being that your channel is to "inform" new EV buyers.
I could understand another EV channel that does not do EVSE testing and have 40+ EVSE'S mounted on the wall, calling them "chargers."
It's terrible that you call Electrical Vehicle Supply Equipment a charger.
I forgive you! 😳
I hope your visit with the dentist/surgeon went well and that you're recovering.
Can't wait for some more Rivian R1S videos.
@@davidws5439 Thank you. The giant hole in my jawbone is healing🥴
Forgetaboutit, Tom, you explained yourself adequately.