Car Charging Website

[EVA]

You might find this site useful.

http://carcharging.us/index.php

The thing you might find really useful is the section electrical plugs and adapters. Some make your own or buy.

There is also a really good discussion about 120 versus 240 volt charging.

It started as a Tesla thing, and has morphed into a more general EV charging how to site. He doesn't have a specific FFE section, but has almost all the other plug in electric vehicles covered.

 

[Guest]

Interesting, I found this statement there.

"Note that charging via 120V isn't as efficient as charging from a 240V source since the car draws more power during charging than when idle, meaning that a longer charging session results in more electricity being used overall. "

I had asked this question a while back and was basically told it used the same amount of electricity either way, all rates being equal. Perhaps the author is mistaken or the car uses electricity for other things than charging while charging. Or maybe his point isnt exactly clear.

 

[triangles]

Yep because with L1 charging there is a larger change in voltage going from 120VAC to 300+VDC (battery voltage) compared to L2 (240VAC to 300+VDC), L1 is a less efficient process. I don't claim to know the exact percentages but it isn't very large. We're talking about being in the neighborhood of say using 20.3kWh to put 18kWh useable in the battery on L1 vs say 20.0kWh to put the same 18kWh in using L2 charging. These are numbers I just made up so don't read to much into them. The actual difference could be larger or smaller.

 

[EVA]

Good catch on the 120 versus 240 charging.

I think everybody is kind of right. There is the theory, 120 is less efficient than 240. Probably true. The next question, and so? Meaning, how much more electricity are you going to use with 120 versus 240 - you'd never see the difference in your electric bill. From that perspective it is not worthwhile to even think about it (somewhere, somebody asked about the cost difference). The only way you would see a difference is if you were on time of use for electricity and the rates were dramatically different during the night. You'd have to charge all night long, at some much higher rate early in the evening and early in the morning with 120. With 240 you could charge during cheap only in the middle of the night rates. The rates would have to be extremely different for that to really matter.

The other side of it is cold winter or extremely hot summer charging. The car has to do things to keep the battery at the right temperature - heating or cooling the battery. I think the point others have made is that 120 at 16 Amps (or whatever the limit on a 20 amp circuit is) doesn't provide enough power to heat or cool the battery and add a lot of charge. So the charging session will be longer, until the battery gets to the right temperature. You can see that affect with GO times in cold weather. On 120 the car will get somewhat warm, but not toasty hot inside. On 240 the car will get super hot and be totally toasty. If you live in a moderate climate - you'd never see that affect at all.

Don't think the statement at the website is necessarily wrong or contradictory, it is just a complicated issue.