I’ve never owned an EV but have been casually considering what it would entail. Like would I really need level 2 charging at home? I’m sort of thinking not at this point. The commute for me or my wife would be something in the 20 km round trip range. We don’t live in a big city. Errands could increase that somewhat. But if let’s say the charger could add back even 5 km/hr, which I think is a pretty conservative estimate. That should be plenty to handle our needs with overnight charging on 120V.
As for intercity, well, you’d likely be using some public fast charger right? So that’s kind of a moot point as far as what you need at home.
I don’t know if I’m missing something though in this analysis? Like I’ve heard winter driving affects range fairly considerably. And that’s unfortunately also the time I’d be more tempted to drive over riding the e-bike everywhere. But even so, I doubt I’d ever exhaust the battery in my home town?
Like would I really need level 2 charging at home?
No, you don’t need it. A level 1 charger will handle most, if not all of your weekly driving needs with some overhead.
I have a MachE, as my daily. It goes to work and back with me, which is ~20 miles round trip, and then my wife uses the car after work to run some errands or go to appointments or whatever she wants to do. She has her own car, but prefers to take mine to save gas. At the end of the day, I’m usually going from 80% down to 65%. Charging overnight at home on level 1 covers most, if not all of that. One the weekends, the car typically gets all the way back to 80. During a particularly bad week where I was driving around a lot for work, I got down to 25% charge at the end of the day on Friday. If it gets too low, you can always go to a supercharger and top of 50% in like 10 minutes.
That being said, Level 2 is not too expensive to get in your home, depending on your situation, you could do it for under 300 bucks (for comparison, my L1 setup was about 150 for just the cable). I’d get L2 if you are going to have multiple EVs, or if you have market rate billing on your electric. L2 would let you charge more when electricity is cheaper.
I’d advise you to get the type 2 home charger anyway. Even if your expected mileage is very low.
The savings of not getting one aren’t worth the hassle of having to charge slowly constantly, and being depended on that slow charge.
A proper charger will enable you to take spontaneous drives more often.
It could allow you to take advantage of cheap hourly rates (if that’s an option).
It removes the dependence on public chargers.
It’ll be fast enough for two cars if you eventually need that in case one of you gets a new job or you have family visiting etc.
So, sure, you don’t neeeeed it, but it’s easier in all of those situations that are just a little outside the ordinary and optimized commuting schedule.
I’ve owned an EV for 5 years, and I still don’t have a level 2 charger at home. It works for me, but it mostly depends on your daily drive.
It is less efficient than a L2 charger, so I am spending money on electricity that just disappears as heat, so I’ll probably get one installed eventually.
That’s interesting. I hadn’t considered the efficiency aspect. L2 would be a pain to install where I live, I’m thinking. It’s a bungalow and the breaker box is about as far from the driveway in the basement as is humanly possible. So lots of wiring and drilling to bring the power out to where it’s needed seems likely.
From what others are saying, I probably do not need L2 for my modest driving needs, but the efficiency aspect could imply it would eventually pay itself back in energy savings. But if I have essentially what amounts to the worst case scenario in terms of upfront installation cost, that could take a long time…
Off the top of my head, I think L1 is like 75% efficient and L2 is closer to 95%, so it’s a pretty significant efficiency drop. For me though, it’s a similarly difficult install, and I’ve just got so many other other projects on the go that I’ve just never made it a priority. Maybe one day if I ever get solar installed…
I’ve never owned an EV but have been casually considering what it would entail. Like would I really need level 2 charging at home? I’m sort of thinking not at this point. The commute for me or my wife would be something in the 20 km round trip range. We don’t live in a big city. Errands could increase that somewhat. But if let’s say the charger could add back even 5 km/hr, which I think is a pretty conservative estimate. That should be plenty to handle our needs with overnight charging on 120V.
As for intercity, well, you’d likely be using some public fast charger right? So that’s kind of a moot point as far as what you need at home.
I don’t know if I’m missing something though in this analysis? Like I’ve heard winter driving affects range fairly considerably. And that’s unfortunately also the time I’d be more tempted to drive over riding the e-bike everywhere. But even so, I doubt I’d ever exhaust the battery in my home town?
No, you don’t need it. A level 1 charger will handle most, if not all of your weekly driving needs with some overhead.
I have a MachE, as my daily. It goes to work and back with me, which is ~20 miles round trip, and then my wife uses the car after work to run some errands or go to appointments or whatever she wants to do. She has her own car, but prefers to take mine to save gas. At the end of the day, I’m usually going from 80% down to 65%. Charging overnight at home on level 1 covers most, if not all of that. One the weekends, the car typically gets all the way back to 80. During a particularly bad week where I was driving around a lot for work, I got down to 25% charge at the end of the day on Friday. If it gets too low, you can always go to a supercharger and top of 50% in like 10 minutes.
That being said, Level 2 is not too expensive to get in your home, depending on your situation, you could do it for under 300 bucks (for comparison, my L1 setup was about 150 for just the cable). I’d get L2 if you are going to have multiple EVs, or if you have market rate billing on your electric. L2 would let you charge more when electricity is cheaper.
I’d advise you to get the type 2 home charger anyway. Even if your expected mileage is very low.
The savings of not getting one aren’t worth the hassle of having to charge slowly constantly, and being depended on that slow charge.
A proper charger will enable you to take spontaneous drives more often. It could allow you to take advantage of cheap hourly rates (if that’s an option). It removes the dependence on public chargers. It’ll be fast enough for two cars if you eventually need that in case one of you gets a new job or you have family visiting etc.
So, sure, you don’t neeeeed it, but it’s easier in all of those situations that are just a little outside the ordinary and optimized commuting schedule.
I’ve owned an EV for 5 years, and I still don’t have a level 2 charger at home. It works for me, but it mostly depends on your daily drive.
It is less efficient than a L2 charger, so I am spending money on electricity that just disappears as heat, so I’ll probably get one installed eventually.
That’s interesting. I hadn’t considered the efficiency aspect. L2 would be a pain to install where I live, I’m thinking. It’s a bungalow and the breaker box is about as far from the driveway in the basement as is humanly possible. So lots of wiring and drilling to bring the power out to where it’s needed seems likely.
From what others are saying, I probably do not need L2 for my modest driving needs, but the efficiency aspect could imply it would eventually pay itself back in energy savings. But if I have essentially what amounts to the worst case scenario in terms of upfront installation cost, that could take a long time…
Off the top of my head, I think L1 is like 75% efficient and L2 is closer to 95%, so it’s a pretty significant efficiency drop. For me though, it’s a similarly difficult install, and I’ve just got so many other other projects on the go that I’ve just never made it a priority. Maybe one day if I ever get solar installed…
I suggest this video from the youtube channel “technology connections”.
The key takeaway is that you can charge your EV with any household outlet, unless you drive a lot.
Thanks that was very informative!
That is the way.