Well, it’s about 1.5 years later, but I’ve done it. As a reminder, I wanted a decent high-amp charging circuit in my garage, but I only had a single 30 A line powering my air conditioner.
I received a Tesla Wall Connector for having a few referrals, so the endpoint is hardwired. It’s set to 24 amps (and 240 V).
I use spiral conduit to run the cable to the wall with the A/C unit. Two 8 AWG stranded hot lines and a solid 10 AWG ground. The conduit runs close to the ceiling and is well supported. I use ferrules in the Wall Connector because the screw terminals don’t clamp the stranded wire that well by themselves (this appears to be a common oversight by electricians).
This circuit runs to the relay box. The box is sealed and locked. Inside are two relays: a 40 amp DPDT model with 240 V coil, and another 10 amp SPDT model with 24 VAC coil. I need two coils because the thermostat transformer can’t quite drive the big relay directly. It’s set up so that when the thermostat kicks on, the car charger is disconnected. I use lug screw terminals that clamp the stranded wire nicely.
Next in line is a breaker box with a dual 30 A breaker. The source is a 30 A line to the main panel (I believe 10 AWG, but in any case I didn’t touch this). This is redundant with the breaker in the main box but acts as a subpanel and replaces an existing fuse box.
I believe I’ve done everything to code, was generous with the ratings (specced to at least 40 A despite the 30 A breaker and 24 A load). Everything is UL and/or NEMA rated. I’ll probably get an inspector in at some point but I’m happy with how it turned out, and I know I avoided some problems that even some licensed electricians make when installing EV circuits.
Congratulations! That’s a nice perk, how many more for a Cybertruck? I’ve only bagged one referral (so far).
I’ll be interested to hear how you like having the fast stuff on tap. I had kind of decided to not put a 240V outlet in, but I am considering it now that the cold weather season is back; I do like pre-warming, and also keeping the cabin at temp when I’m out and about. I find myself plugging in more frequently than in the summer, and I also like the idea of being able to put a “full tank” in overnight, as I’ve taken a couple of 250-300 mile trips on short-ish notice over the past year.
Sadly, they’ve really cut down the program since I got the referrals. A few people have been promised a 2020 Roadster… but I don’t think anyone’s getting a free Cybertruck :(. Most you get these days is Supercharger credits.
120v charging had been totally sufficient for the past 1.5 years. I really do have a short commute. However, I do make trips from the Bay Area to Sacramento maybe a dozen times per year–about 140 miles each way. Optimally, I can just make it round trip on a charge. If it’s cold or whatever, it’s not quite enough, so I stop for a quick top-off at a Supercharger. But either way, when I get back the car’s at empty. And it took a full week to charge back up to the normal 85%.
So far, this hadn’t been an issue. But there might come a time where I really need the juice the next day, or early in the week. So the fast charger is definitely nice in that respect.
I may set a lower default charge level to make the battery last longer. Even at 85%, if I wanted to get to 100% for a trip, I’d have to start two days in advance. But now, I can keep it at 70% and still have no problem at all.
Overall, it just gives me a bit more flexibility. And it’ll probably pay for itself with the increased efficiency and less time spent on peak or partial-peak rates. But at the same time, I think anyone driving 10k miles/year or less will do just fine, and shouldn’t let the lack of an L2 charger stop them from getting an EV.
Well, I won’t talk you out of it! There is a level of comfort in seeing a nice high charge rate. If you have any questions about installation, I’m happy to answer them. I’ve done enough research that I think I can answer most stuff at this point.
In other news, Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in China is humming right along. I don’t think anyone knows yet how close they are to capacity, but they’re clearly at mass production levels now.
As a reminder, they broke ground on the factory on Jan 7. Of 2019. So bare field to making production vehicles in under a year’s time.
I seem to recall one of the posters here (Balthisar, maybe?) talking about their experience in opening a new factory in China as a contrast to Tesla’s difficult Model 3 ramp. It appears both that “China speed” is a real thing, and that Tesla has more or less figured out how to put together a new factory. Not bad for an automaker without a century of experience…
Reviving this old thread to comment on what a huge mistake it was to buy a Tesla. What I should have done was bought TSLA, then bought a Tesla.
This is how much the TSLA stock would be worth as of close Friday (8/23/2020) if I’d spent the money I used to buy the car on TSLA stock at these important events in my Tesla history:
The day I put in my reservation: $515,000
The day I put in my order: $349,695
The day I paid for the car: $401,408
(This is all just “winning the lottery” fantasy, because if in 2016 I could have predicted TSLA would be over $2,000 in 2020, then I’d be billionaire and could buy any car I want (still would be a Tesla).)
It is truly nuts. Though I have already trained myself to have a “no regrets” philosophy regarding this stuff. The company I work for has had roughly 35,000% growth since I joined. I did well enough but if I had held onto all of my grants? I haven’t even done the math but it would have been a lot.
The stock price doesn’t make sense except in the context of COVID, but nevertheless it does seem to indicate that the market isn’t impressed with Tesla’s competition. Too expensive, too limited, etc. Little indication that they are making money on each car sold. And still without key features unrelated to EVness, like over-the-air updates. So people looking for anywhere to shove their cash look toward business that still seem to have growth potential, like Tesla.
The referral bonus wheels came in a couple months back; they look pretty slick:
Overall, the car’s still running great. Got upgraded to HW3 when the wheels came in. Traffic cones everywhere!
Wheel question: has anyone replaced their 19" wheels with 18"? I’m thinking of doing so down the road when I’m due for new tires; better choice for city driving I think. Any pitfalls or gotchas?
The standard aero wheels are 18". No real gotchas there. I’ll bet you could pick up the standard rims for fairly cheap from someone looking to upgrade. If you don’t like the aero cover, the rims still look pretty good beneath.
Going from 18" aero to 20" performance wheels, I lose about 10% range at highway speeds. They may look good but I do miss the high efficiency. The 20" tires are also stickier and will almost certainly wear out faster (treadwear 300 vs. 500).
Thanks for the feedback. Is there anything special that has to be done to re-calibrate the electronics for a new wheel size? If so, can a third-party tire shop (or car owner) do that?
The outer diameter of all the tires is the same; the only difference is the rim diameter. You can see that the tires for the 20" rims are super low profile. 18" have relatively high profile tires so that the outer diameter comes up the same.
