120v charging do I need more?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan Wolf
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Dan Wolf

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My ICE car ("Lurch") is dying and his last wishes are to be replaced with a plug in hybrid or EV.

My garage is a separate building it would be about $4000 to put a level 2 charger there or about $1500 if I was willing to leave the car outside to charge and put the charger on the house (Hudson Valley NY so snow/cold can be a problem).

The EV I am considering is a Kona with about a 258mi range. Our son's school is about 60 miles away and we usually only go up there once per month. Most of our other driving is local 4-6 miles occasionally 40 round trip. All friends and relatives are within the range of the Kona where a round trip could be made without charging or a minor boost to complete the trip. Between our ICE and Hybrid we drove about 12,000mi total last year.

I am looking for opinions about only using 120v to charge at home. Do you think this should be enough or do I need 240v? Perhaps I should just get the EV and if I get frustrated only using 120v I could add the 240v later.

Thanks,
Dan Wolf
 
Dan Wolf said:
Do you think this should be enough or do I need 240v?
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There are some on this forum who use L1 primarily and it works just fine for them. It sounds like it could work for you as well.
As you said, a 240V EVSE can be added at any time providing your electrical service can handle it, should you require a faster charge at a future point.
 
I have 240 volt but usually set it at 12 amps be cause I only drive 50 miles a week. I could easily charge on 120 volt. With the kona if you keep it plugged in when it in the garage and set for 80% you should have more than enough for any of your trips.

I have a friend with a bolt and she charges with 120 volt and never has a concern for mileage.
 
bwilson4web said:
Can you take advantage of the Federal tax credit?

Bob Wilson
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Yep! Looking at used only so just $4000 credit. I got the estimate for the 240v already and the guy who installed my last panel gave me 3 options. On the house (no garaging), house to garage (I need to hire someone to dig and bury the line) or a new service direct from the pole (2 bills from the electric company).

I'm thinking staying 120v or trying the dryer outlet option (been watching yootoob too much). The dryer outlet is not convenient and bugs, mice could get in but in a pinch it could help speed things up. Adding 240v on the house (cheapest option) if I cannot stand using 120v or the dryer.

Thanks!
 
electriceddy said:
There are some on this forum who use L1 primarily and it works just fine for them. It sounds like it could work for you as well.
As you said, a 240V EVSE can be added at any time providing your electrical service can handle it, should you require a faster charge at a future point.
Click to expand...

Yes, my system can handle 240v if needed. They same guy who installed my panel last year in an emergency (water leaked in and I heard a sizzle noise) gave me the estimates for the 240v line. He loves EV for his business.

Thanks
 
Some random thoughts:
  • What is your service? - Mine was 100 A but the service line rotted away in the Southern weather. To fix it, I upgraded to 200 A.
  • Added a 16 kW, gas fueled, automatic, emergency generator - 7 kW for the house and 7 kW for EV charging.
Bob Wilson
 
For the first six months or so driving our Smart fortwo electric drive, and when we had a similar use case where we could easily replenish daily used kWh overnight, we charged on 120V at home. Then when we bought a second Smart (we were provided a Mercedes Benz EVSE), we occasionally charged the two EV's on two different 15 amp circuits at the same time. The Smart EVSE pulled a steady 9 amps, and the Mercedes Benz EVSE was adjustable from 6-16 amps, but we mostly used the 6 amp setting since the circuits had other intermittent minor loads. The outlet in the garage was pretty old, occasionally faulted and I recently replaced that outlet. I would have replaced it with a commercial grade outlet if we were still using it for charging.
 
I think you can get by with 120 volts. Note they do sell snow covers for the charging plug that you could try to see if an outdoor install would work for you.

If you live close to the Hannaford supermarket, there is a Tesla supercharger with a CCS magic dock connector if you need to fast charge.

If you thinking about a Hyundai, I make a test call to the service department to see how responsive they are. My local Hyundai dealer's service department doesn't answer their phones or call back.

Also Hyundai is offering $7,500 off and $600 for a charging install for cash buyers of the Ioniq 5 SEL until the October 31, 2023.
 
Short answer - you are probably perfectly fine with L1 charging.

You mentioned you’re in the Hudson valley. Depending on where you are and your son’s college is, there may be a convenient DC charger as a backup. For example, LaGrange, Red Hook, and Kingston all have chargers. If your son goes to school in Albany, the whole area is pretty well covered.

Another option is to install L2 I. The driveway as a backup. Yes you get snow and ice but not all the time. Mostly keep the car in the garage on L1, but charge in the driveway for those occasional times you need it. I suspect if you try to live with L1 for a while you’ll find you do t really need L2 at home.


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Also further south is well covered on the eastern side of the river. Carmel and Brewster both have DC chargers, and there are more in Westchester that I’m less familiar with because I don’t often go south of Carmel.


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