[Skirmish]

A little bit ago I decided to commit to the United Charger’s Alpha L2 EVSE. I put my money in for a preorder and waited. Well I’m still waiting as they have part supply issues but I’m not stressed. I know if I need to I can hit the EA and top off but for the last few weeks I am slow charging at home and loving it.

In Vegas an EV owner can get on a Time of Use plan (TOU) with our electric company. On that plan from 10 PM till 8 AM we have a special EV charge rate of 4.8 cents per kWh, other than 1-7 PM week days are off peak at 5.3 cents and on peak is 35 cents. That really leaves me with pretty cheap charging anytime other than afternoons on weekdays. I’ve adjusted my AC to be light during peak and even with charging the car I’m saving about $80 off July from my bill last year in a Vegas heat wave.

I commute 25 miles, 5 days a week but can replenish that in around 6 hours of charge time. If I make an extra trip say out to a mountain bike trail head, it does cut into my charge time as well as adding charge needed but I can make it up easily on the other nights.

One of the big issues I have, funny enough, is how difficult it is to figure the math out because VW has tried to treat us like children. The car display shows useless things like percent and charging speed in miles. The app shows percent and time till charged. I know I am charging at about 1.2 kWh but I need to figure out that 1% = .77kW so if I need to charge from 72% to 80% I need 6.16 kW which takes just over 5 hours…why so much math? Can’t VW just tell me the battery state and charge rate in kW? Maybe in the future.

Anyway, maybe I’ll do a video on the practical side of charging on the supplied EVSE. I just wanted people to know that it is possible.

 

[Nai3t]

OEM is the key word. I survive on aftermarket L1 running at 16 amps, 8 hours per day sucking off of my employer's free juice, but when I did this with 12 amps I was visiting the fast charger every weekend. There's not way I could have done it at VW's provided 10 amps. My mileage was a little different than yours, roughly 40 miles per day and more on the weekends, but I was attempting this on a slightly more efficient i3 but with only 130 miles range on an ideal day.

I observed a similar problem with the meager info provided by the car (only estimated completion time of charge). On 12 amps I could gain 25% over 8 hours (~30 miles), or on 16 amps 40% (~50 miles).

Don't know if you saw but the VW EVSE will plug in to 220 volts and effectively double your rate (actually it'll do a little better than double).

 

[Skirmish]

I’ve seen the 220v and if I wasn’t getting my L2 sometime in the future I might go that route.
The math is the stupid killerl, right? I get home, see a percentage of charge left and say, “that doesn’t help”. I probably sit in the average use for most people at 10k miles per year so it’s more practical but I still think I could pull off 40 miles recharged pretty easily. I wouldn’t want it to be a regular stress though, I would much prefer a 40 amp charge to know I am not getting behind if I miss one.

 

[Nai3t]

Is your wiring already prepped for the Alpha?

The i3 with its low range is close enough to a 1 to 1 relationship between charge percentage and miles remaining. The ID.4 involves a few more mental gymnastics, but since 80%=200 miles then 40%=100 miles so 60% must fall in the middle and, well, I have to admit it's nice having the L2 40 so I don't have to think about it!

 

[Skirmish]

I am a “qualified” electrician and will be hardwiring the Alpha so I don’t have to deal with the gfci bs. I could wire in the outlet and pretend it was there in 09 when the house was built before the gfci requirement but I’ll play the game. I’m more concerned with the drywall than the wiring. I suck at making things pretty. It’s a race right now to see if I can get the solar install done before the Alpha ships. HOA red tape vs worldwide chip shortage.

 

[Eyegautdis]

L1 wouldn't work for me. I have 66 miles of round trip commute and a daycare pickup every weekday. So about 75 miles minium. Maybe I could keep losing some range until the weekend and then catch up then but id rather not play that game and leaving every day with 80% is too good to give up. I could hit up EA more often but its about 15 minutes out of my way and I have to leave earlier to sit there and charge. I do that if I have to make an evening trip after my hectic driving day but at that point "in for a dime, in for a dollar." As far as my time is concerned.

I have a 6-20 in my garage that suits my needs very well and between the outlet install and my evse the whole thing was under $500. 3.5Kw takes under 6 hours to get me back to 80%. After living with the lowest form of L2 I can honestly recommend it. Everyone is going for 30+ or 40+ amps but id bet 20 amps would do the trick for most.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

I am a “qualified” electrician and will be hardwiring the Alpha so I don’t have to deal with the gfci bs. I could wire in the outlet and pretend it was there in 09 when the house was built before the gfci requirement but I’ll play the game. I’m more concerned with the drywall than the wiring. I suck at making things pretty. It’s a race right now to see if I can get the solar install done before the Alpha ships. HOA red tape vs worldwide chip shortage.

Having L2 EVSE with options to adjust current is good choice it will give you efficiency at 94-96%
L1 is less efficient 120 V 87-90%...and whenever there is call from BMS for thermal management cooling or heating it will have to use L1 at full current allowed and the difference needed from battery.
Having 24 amp current settings on L2 EVSE is enough to get enough juice whenever there is call from BMS for cooling...and charging at the same time.
Can you survive on L1 yes .
But it will be impossible to figure true energy delivered to battery.....because any time BMS is calling battery management it will use portion of battery pack to fill in difference between juice available at L1 and juice required to run AC compressor or heater for battery.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

L1 wouldn't work for me. I have 66 miles of round trip commute and a daycare pickup every weekday. So about 75 miles minium. Maybe I could keep losing some range until the weekend and then catch up then but id rather not play that game and leaving every day with 80% is too good to give up. I could hit up EA more often but its about 15 minutes out of my way and I have to leave earlier to sit there and charge. I do that if I have to make an evening trip after my hectic driving day but at that point "in for a dime, in for a dollar." As far as my time is concerned.

I have a 6-20 in my garage that suits my needs very well and between the outlet install and my evse the whole thing was under $500. 3.5Kw takes under 6 hours to get me back to 80%. After living with the lowest form of L2 I can honestly recommend it. Everyone is going for 30+ or 40+ amps but id bet 20 amps would do the trick for most.

My settings are summer 24 amp and winter max 40-48 amp....it all depends on someone lifestyle.
Keeping it around 20-24 amp is going to help you running less battery management in summer time. But if weather is hot it will run no matter what you like or not.

 

[Eyegautdis]

My settings are summer 24 amp and winter max 40-48 amp....it all depends on someone lifestyle.
Keeping it around 20-24 amp is going to help you running less battery management in summer time. But if weather is hot it will run no matter what you like or not.

I hadn't really thought too much about the battery management piece. Now im pondering (randomly) that and stress on the car's inveter. I wonder which is better or worse?: More current but less time or less current but longer times. Same for the BMS/thermal management. My experience over the years has been that most times when something electronic breaks unexpectedly its because it was pushing it too hard and less so just from general use but thats purely anecdotal from a lamen.

If its less stress then is that an incentive to use L1 if it suits the need?

 

[Luckydog]

Oddly enough, we've "surviving" on the L1 OEM Charger that came with the car just fine. We both work from home and driving is mostly shopping trips and running the kids around. I did buy a level 2 charger but the outlet that is in my garage seems to not have power. Getting an electrician in to check it has been on my to do list, but hasn't been a huge priority since the few times I wanted to charge quickly have few and there's an EA station not too far away to make it too inconvenient. We got the car 5/28 and just turned over 3000 miles.