How is level 1 charging? 3 to 4 miles per hour?

[VandalSibs]

I don't know where you are, but connecting a EV charger was $800 minimum with permit fee and before taxes. I think this was with Rivian partner contractor, forgot the name. Others were similar or higher. I ended up paying $900- $1000 with some upgrades like higher gauge cable. The cable length was 10 feet at most, with charger about 5 feet from the charger, in the garage. Mine is as easy as the job gets.

I spoke to an Uber driver in MY who skipped install because he couldn't find anyone to do the job for less than $3000. His job needed to go through walls, no digging.

I'm in Eastern Washington State. And while the electrician at the time was a "Tesla preferred" (as that was what I owned at the time, so I went with that advice), other quotes were at about the same place.

More recently (about two years ago) I had the outlet replaced with an 80-amp sub panel in the garage (they were able to use the existing underground conduit, yay!). It involved rerouted a separate above ground electrical (which was then powering everything in the garage other than the 50-amp outlet), installed five new 120v outlets (including an outdoor outlet) on a new circuit, moved the garage door motor to it's own circuit, kept the 50-amp outlet for charging and replaced the lighting.

Different company than the first one, but all for about $3500.

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[ElGuano]

In my area, $2k was the bare minimum for EVSE install, and this is with the most bog-simple setup possible (1ft from main panel, no cutting through drywall or punching through out side of the house, using the 3ft flexible conduit included with the EVSE itself). Part of it was the mandatory permitting fee of ~$500 for the city.

My total install was just under $2k, which isn't cheap but it was worth it.

I tell myself this was a simple enough job where I could have done it myself for ~$50 in parts, but then I couldn't have gotten it permitted and honestly it's not worth what could happen if I misjudged something and ended up burning down the house.

 

[blzabub]

We get a lot of power outages at my house due to an above ground power line that runs from the street to a clump of three houses including mine. This area has a lot of tall pines that love to drop branches on that power line, the trees all not being on my property of course. Anyway, think we are planning on having an R1T and R2, then two R2s at some point. I'm probably going to install the Rivian vehicle to house (2 way charging) with their smart panel and switching when that all becomes available. Hopefully this solves both level 2 charging for me and emergency house power during outages.

 

[RichAZ]

Owned four EVs to date (Chevy Bolt, Tesla M3 SR LFP, and two MY AWD LR). Used 120v charging for some time prior to putting a 240v Nema 14-50 outlet. Just takes a bit longer to charge is all. Best motto for a 120v guy is;
ABC (Always Be Charging)

Run to the nearby Post Office, plug her back in, local shopping trip, plug her back in, etc.

Currently (sorry...) 120v working out for a buddy of mine with his new to him MY RW drive model.

Rich

120v going into our Bolt.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Interesting...I've lived with level 1 charging for years now. If I could squeeze out 6 to 7 mph that might be enough for me. Getting a level 2 charger in my home would cost over $10k due to the distance from panel to garage.

To step from 5-15 to 5-20 requires a cheap 5-20 outlet <$20; but you need to make sure that you have 12 gauge, not 14 gauge running from the box to the outlet, and of course you need a 20-amp breaker. There are a number of chargers that can do level 1 at 15-16amps. The Tesla charger is one, but you need to buy the Tesla 5-20 pigtail. Lectron also makes one.

 

[Thebandit]

To step from 5-15 to 5-20 requires a cheap 5-20 outlet <$20; but you need to make sure that you have 12 gauge, not 14 gauge running from the box to the outlet, and of course you need a 20-amp breaker. There are a number of chargers that can do level 1 at 15-16amps. The Tesla charger is one, but you need to buy the Tesla 5-20 pigtail. Lectron also makes one.

And if it is 14 gauge, you can go to 240v 6-15. The Tesla Mobile Connector has a 6-15 plug available, and it will get you over twice the speed of a 120v 5-15.

Or you can literally hardwire an EVSE and limit it to 12 amps.

The point is that repurposing an existing 14g romex line can get you like 8 mph charging, or repurposing a 12g line can get you 11 mph.

 

[R1Tiger]

Unfortunately about half of the 120v L1 power is overhead. Go 240 if you can.

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