Charger Installation Q

[Jonathan S.]

And the answer to the distance from the 14-50 outlet on the rear deck for the non-existent hut tub to the closest point at which I could park a car for charging via EVSE with extra-long cable and/or J1772 extension cable is ... infinite?
Turns out the previous or prospective hot tub was hard-wired, hence no outlet there at all now, just a long wire (oddly enough, only 30a) running there from the 50a breaker in the panel, with a 60a GFCI along the way.

So back to the original plan to have an electrician run a new wire from the 50a breaker to the nearby (yet detached) garage, and hope that Porsche will reimburse me for the TUWC (even though it's not really a direct substitute for the OEM mobile charger).

And the answer to the mystery of the wiring for the lights & outlets in the detached garage: double tapped from the 15a breaker #3 for the fire alarms.

I'm not worried about any fixes for that if it's not already pigtailed since with the work for hardwiring the TUWC in the garage and the work for installing garage door openers, seems relatively trivial.

(I suspect the solution for all of that might be disconnecting the current local service to the garage from the double tapped 15a braker #3, running an upgraded wire out to the garage using the same currently buried route, and installing a subpanel in the garage for the existing lights, existing outlet, TUWC, garage door openers, and perhaps a space heater ... which will all add up, but should be a good investment in both convenience and safety, plus the electrician is a local guy with an excellent reputation, so happy to support my new neighbors, especially as a stereotypical second-home owner from MA.)

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[ShiftyWolf]

should be a good investment in both convenience and safety, plus the electrician is a local guy with an excellent reputation

Having everything up to code will likely help you sleep a bit better at night, too. It's been a long time since I cracked a NEC book but I don't think you're supposed to have anything else running off your fire alarm circuit.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Charging my wife's i4 from the 30a dryer outlet worked just fine.
Minor drawback is that our i4 charge setting jumps down from 32a to 20a, in both the phone app and in the car, with the option for 24a not added until a mid-MY23 change that was part of subsequent firmware updates for pre-Aug builds.
Still though, her itinerary worked out okay for fully charging back to 100% at 20a instead of 24a worked. And the temperature at the plug never rose more than ~10F above ambient.

Electrician visited afterwards. Still waiting on the estimate (probably includes a 50% surcharge for non-residents!), but everything is straightforward for installing a subpanel in the garage and hardwiring a Tesla Universal Wall Charger.
Probably won't happen for another month so as to let the ground soften for working on the buried line to the detached garage.

Warmer temps will also allow me to reach the house without any worries. Mileage along the fastest route is 185. My wife added a few more miles with a stop for our daughter and a friend. So maybe 190 each direction.
On the way there, Saturday morning, taking the slightly shorter and slower-speed route, with dry roads, but net elevation gain of ~1200' and temps in high 30s F, arrived with 13%.
On the return, Sunday afternoon, taking the slightly longer and faster-speed route (i.e., far more interstate, with 70mph limit, instead of the usual 65), and with wet roads, but offset partially by net elevation loss of ~1200', I had predicted high single digits, and sure enough she arrived home at 8%.

That would require a charging stop or some nervous moments with the 4CT.
But I need to make one more trip anyway with the larger cargo capacity of the A6 ar.
For the trip after that, I'll probably take the 4CT, since I'll stop at a supermarket along the way that has a 50kW within walking distance, especially since I need to stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables. (Closets place with any fresh produce is 20 min from the house, and I'm used to being able to walk or bike to seven different options from our primary residence!)
Plus temps will be warmer.

In case you're wondering about the lack of snow, Saturday started off bone dry at lower elevations, with the local nordic ski center entirely closed.
Then Sunday morning we could ski from the house.
A few ski pics below, with more at my Strava feed:
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1583171

 

[Maybe-Used]

I did not read all of the replies so my replay may be irrelevant , but be careful when connecting the garage to the main building using an underground conduit. I did that in my house to add a 100 amp sub panel, and when it rains a lot I get infiltration and water in the basement from the sealed opening.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Good reminder, thanks!
Fortunately the existing line to the garage has not caused any problems, so I'll take that as a good sign for any upgrade.

 

[Jonathan S.]

On my third trip to the new house, I did not need the extra cargo capacity of my A6ar, so took the 4CT instead.
I wanted to stock up my fridge/freezer at a big supermarket along the way only ~20 min from the house, so that I wouldn't need to worry about everything thawing.

Fortunately within a [long] walking distance (and in the rain: https://www.strava.com/activities/11051620620) are two car dealerships with one 50kW each.
After getting skunked at EA so often by Bolts, ironic that I had the Chevy dealership charger all the myself:

And it's not all that much slower than the typical EA 350kW charger in New England:

Each day I was driving only ~5 miles to skin up the ski resort, since the weather and snow conditions were not favorable for backcountry skiing on Mt Washington.
Given the efficiency of skinning laps at a ski resort instead of in the backcountry, my ratio of charge time to away-from-house time was high enough that the first three nights I use just L1 in the detached garage:

And yes, the Tesla Universal Wall Charger box is in the picture just for fun.
Although installation is awaiting electrical upgrades, which are awaiting softer ground, which could be awhile given that winter keeps returning.

Yesterday afternoon, upon returning from my fourth and final ski day on this trip, I wanted to make sure I had 100% before driving home, just in case of ... something.
L1 charging might not have achieved that, so I set the Porsche charger to 50%, swapped out the L1 plug for the 14-50, plugged it into my mongo-thick extension, plugged it into the adapter, and then finally into the dryer outlet, with the laundry room window close the driveway.
The 4.3 kW rate is faster than a typical shared ChargePoint L2, so good enough for this situation.

I departed with 100% and eventually arrived home with 14%, so I could have gotten away with not charging at all before my departure.

But upon my arrival back home, received a strange prompt about Porsche Charging Planner, which would not disappear even when I unclicked its box in the PCM, and which seemed intent on doing something other than charging to 85%, even though I was no longer navigating anywhere.
Upon searching the internet, which of course led to some old threads here, the conclusion seemed to be that this sometimes happens, and the only solution is the two-finger PCM reset.
I was a bit nervous, never having done this before, but worked just fine, whew!

 

[snstevens]

But upon my arrival back home, received a strange prompt about Porsche Charging Planner, which would not disappear even when I unclicked its box in the PCM, and which seemed intent on doing something other than charging to 85%, even though I was no longer navigating anywhere.
Upon searching the internet, which of course led to some old threads here, the conclusion seemed to be that this sometimes happens, and the only solution is the two-finger PCM reset.
I was a bit nervous, never having done this before, but worked just fine, whew!

If and when you see this again, try setting a new destination and then canceling that destination. I believe that sometimes works for this error.

 

[Jonathan S.]

If and when you see this again, try setting a new destination and then canceling that destination. I believe that sometimes works for this error.

Ah, thanks, that fix make sense.
IIRC, I merely noted that I was no longer navigating to a destination, but I did not think of navigating to a new destination then cancelling -- I'll try that next time ... although best to not have a next time for this!

 

[Tooney]

Before you start AC charging, ensure that there is no destination active in the nav. Otherwise charging planner may decide the car does not need any additional charge, and you will get the notification, and cannot charge.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Before you start AC charging, ensure that there is no destination active in the nav. Otherwise charging planner may decide the car does not need any additional charge, and you will get the notification, and cannot charge.

Ah hah, that could have been the culprit, thanks for the warning on that!
I had started nav back to Western Mass but with the ski house as stopover, then stopped to AC charge at the ski house, but probably without stopping the nav.

 

[Tooney]

Ah hah, that could have been the culprit, thanks for the warning on that!
I had started nav back to Western Mass but with the ski house as stopover, then stopped to AC charge at the ski house, but probably without stopping the nav.

I learned this the hard way, too.

 

[Jonathan S.]

Fortunately the charger became inoperable after my session, not before.

And never even got above half where I should have been on my charging curve despite being an ostensible 350kW unit.

Quite the difference from how my wife hit 212kW on her i4 last week at a Magic Dock.
(And all my Taycan Magic Dock speeds have been faster than all my EA speeds despite the 350 rating.)

 

[Jonathan S.]

Interesting to see the range creeping back up as the temps increase -- or at least increase on the highways, into the 50s F on my return drive yesterday afternoon, despite full-on winter conditions that morning at the summit:
https://www.strava.com/activities/11128409638
... complete with 46mph recorded gusts at the time!

That meant I used up 84% taking the longer-distance/faster-speed route of 190 miles (69mph avg throughout the entire drive, including secondary highways, my driveway, etc. -- perhaps everything up north was fleeing in advance of the eclipse viewers?), as compared to 86% for the shorter-distance/lower-speed route of 186 miles about a week earlier.

Which is especially good given that trying to charge yesterday would have a been a disaster with all the eclipse traffic, as shown here for the EA station near the junction of I-89 & I-91, that same station I had stopped at Wednesday, but must have been something like a wait of four hours to get a charger then actually charge (i.e., if 16+ = 18, then for three working chargers, have to go through six rounds, and if each of those plus your own is only a little over half-an-hour...):

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