Rearrangeelectrons
New Member
I'm still waiting for the electrician to show up and install my Emporia L2 charger. I've got about 10 days left on my return window to Amazon and I'm seriously considering shipping it back. Why?
#1. I changed the amperage setting on the Level 1 charger that comes with the ,I5 from 6A to 10A and it's made for a big jump in how quickly I can charge from a standard 110V outlet.
#2. I discovered a pair of free Level 2 chargers about a mile from my front door. It's in a parking lot of a small shopping center, not marked in any way and to top it off, the charging heads are actually Tesla's, but they have J1772 plugs on them. I gave one of them a try a few days ago and got a 28 mile charge in 60 minutes.
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#3. As many of you are probably aware, in Europe Tesla has opening up their SuperCharger installations to other manufacturers. They are rolling this out slowly, but they'll get to the USA sooner or later. And that same shopping center that has the the free Level 2's has a SuperCharger station with 10 units. They're in a completely different section of the shopping area, so most people never get near the free units I stumbled on.
The three of these things combined cause me to wonder if I really need to go to the expense of installing a Level 2 charger.
The negatives are 1. the cost of shipping the Emporia back. It weighs something like 50 pounds and if I'm sending back just because I changed my mind Amazon is fully within their rights to require me to pay the shipping. 2. I live in one of the most popular tourist destinations in New England. The population increase in the summer is huge. Even if it's difficult to find those level 2 units, I'm not stupid enough to think that no one else will. But the summer season here is only 3 - 4 months long. Maybe I'd be better off spending the $1000 + anyway.
Think about how long charging will take and how that fits in with your life. Suppose you just returned from a trip and you want to add 150 miles of charge. Your L1 charger gets you about 5 miles per hour. You may want to use your car before it has been charging for 30 hours. The L2 chargers at the supermarket would get you about 25 miles per hour. 6 hours is a long time to go shopping, or you could leave the car and walk home. That is not very nice to other EV owners and there are security issues. If you have an L2 charger at home, you plug in, go to bed and the car is full (or at 80%) in the morning. It's really the best choice.