Level 1 charging (in rarer instances)

[mc9er]

Hi all – have my 4S+ on order with a mid-April delivery. Very excited! Getting prepared and I’m curious to know a little more about level 1 charging and the Taycan.

Some info and then my question: I am having a ChargePoint installed in my garage connected to a NEMA 14-50 plug (40 amp, 9.6kwh, charging... All good there). I am going to keep the Porsche charger that comes with the car in my trunk for when traveling, etc. Believe it’s the Porsche Mobile Charger (the NON wifi ”connect” version). Here’s where the question starts... I have two different family members with houses roughly 100 miles away (200 miles round trip) that we visit quite often. One of them has a NEMA 14-50 plug in the garage so I am again all set there... the other, however, only has a NEMA 5-20 outlet. For level 1, I believe the Porsche mobile charger only comes with a plug for 5-15 charging speeds (1.44 kw). Is there an adapter to convert the 5-15 to 5-20 for 5-20 (1.92 kw) speed? It probably goes without saying, but I know the 5-15 will physically plug into the 5-20 outlet, but won’t charge at that speed. There must be an adapter or converter, right? It doesn’t seem like much, but overnight, ~25% extra charge speed between 1.44 and 1.92 really adds up!

Thanks for the help in advance

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[wemct]

If you are using the Porsche Mobile Charger I believe that Porsche only has the 5-15 plug and the charger will be limited to 8A when the PMC detects the 5-15 plug. Does your brother have an electric dryer? You can get adapters and an appropriately sized extension cord to charge at 24A with the PMC.

 

[wemct]

Another option is to locate a nearby DC charger.

 

[daveo4EV]

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...se-that-wish-to-over-do-it-….2343/#post-31739

 

[daveo4EV]

recommend a Mustart travel EV charger with NEMA 5-20 supply cable or Tesla UMC Gen 2 with the NEMA 5-20 supply cable - I’ve tested the Tesla UMC and it does charge the taycan at the higher 1.92 kW rate - both of those options are cheaper, better, lighter than the porsche option and have a wider range of NEMA plug adapters.

to my knowledge VW/Porsche/Audi do not have a NEMA 5-20 (and equivalent bump in charging speed) as an option.

a jury-rigged approach would be to use the NEMA 14-50 adapter to NEMA 5-20 plug adapter and then dial the amps down to 16 amps - but that would be kinda of an iffy plan...

also for what Porsche charges for a single supply cable for the PMCC or PMC you can buy and entire mobile charger + all the adapters from Mustart or Tesla (w/TeslaTap) as your mobile charging kit.

 

[daveo4EV]

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/ev-roadwarrior-adapters-“kit”.1364/

 

[Mike in CA]

I'm not an electrician but I suspect that your problem will be that no matter what adapter you use the fact is that the Porsche charger comes with a 5-15 plug and that connection is by default set for a 1.44kW charging speed. The charger only cares that the 5-15 plug is being used, not what kind of adapter comes after it in the circuit.

 

[daveo4EV]

@Mike in CA is correct - the maximum charging amps reported to the vehicle is all related to what supply cable is currently attached to the PMCC

you’ll need an EV charger (EVSE) that supports a NEMA 5-20 supply cable adapter - at which point the EVSE with the 5-20 cable attached will report to the vehicle it can charge at 16 amps (80% rated load for a 20 amp circuit)

the alternative is to put a “bigger” cable on the PMCC - then find an adapter from that cable to fit a NEMA 5-20 plug type - and then dial the amps down on the PMCC screen to 16 amps so that you don’t overload the circuit - but I don’t like that appraoch and it’s prone to error

I _HAVE_ charged my Taycan at 16 amp from a NEMA 5-20 socket wtih a Tesla UMC with a 5-20 supply cable and a Tesla Tap - it works great and does charge faster than NEMA 5-15 (unlike the Chevy Bolt which will only charges at maximum 12 amps for _ANY_ 120V power source)

i’ve tested the Taycan with the following 120V/L1 charging sources using Tesla UMC + TeslaTap + appropriate NEMA plug supply cable for the Tesla UMC

NEMA 5-15 - works great
NEMA 5-20 - works great
NEMA TT-30 (RV parts 120v hookups) - 120 volts @ 30 amps (24 amp charge rate) - works great

the Mustart and Tesla mobile EVSE’s are affordable, reliable, smaller, rugged and have a wide range of NEMA plug adapters and report the correct amps for charging to the vehicle based on what NEMA adpater you currently have attached, and both can be had with all adapters for way way less money than what Porsche charges for a single NEMA supply cable.

 

[daveo4EV]

here are some photos of a Taycan charging from a Gen1 Tesla UMC + TEslaTap with a NEMA 5-20 adapter & NEMA 5-15 adapter - Taycan is a champ and will charge at what ever maximum rate the EVSE (the Tesla UMC in this case) reports - and just swallows L1 or L2 (120v or 240V) - it's plug and charge with the correct adapters.

NEMA 5-20 charge rate is: 1.68 kW (1.92 at the "raw" socket level)
NEMA 5-15 charge rate is: 1.28 kW (1.44 at the "raw" socket level)

1.68 - 1.28 = 0.4 kW (400 watts)
0.4 / 1.28 = 31% improvement in charging speed on NEMA 5-20 circuit - and no tapering

 

[daveo4EV]

a great kit for NEMA charging is:

• Tesla Gen2 UMC - https://shop.tesla.com/product/gen-2-mobile-connector-bundle
• Tesla Gen2 UMC Adatpers - https://shop.tesla.com/product/nema-adapter-bundle
• [REQUIRED] TeslaTap 80 amp adapter - http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17&product_id=100
• NEMA TT-30 Tesla UMC Gen2 adapter - https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30-adapter-for-tesla-model-s-x-3-gen-2/

or

• Mustart Level2 TravelMaster EV Gen2 - https://www.mustartsolutions.com/co...rent-mustart-travelmaster-level2-ev-charger-1
• Mustart sells a range of NEMA adapter cables for the charger above - consult their website for a list of NEMA adapter cables they sell - they do not have a "complete" kit with all of them - so you need to add them to your shopping basket ala'cart - and I was too lazy to list them all here.
• [RECOMMENDED] TeslaTap 80 amp adapter - http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17&product_id=100

Both of these kits can be put together for less money than Porsche charges for a single PMCC NEMA supply cable - and both offer a wider range of NEMA adapter than Porsche.

Q: why include the Tesla tap in the two kits?
A: cause it's useful to have in all cases while traveling - it will let you charge your taycan at _ANY_ Tesla charger at hotels & businesses (not superchargers) - so with a TeslaTap you can charge at normal J-1772 public chargers _OR_ Tesla Public chargers
A2: the TeslaTap/JDApter is REQUIRED for the TeslaUMC kit - you'll need it to adapt the EVSE plug shape to the Taycan's industry standard J-1772 charging port - it is purely optional with the Mustart kit but highly recommended for reasons outlined above.

Q: why the 80 amp version of the TeslaTap
A: the maximum charge rate of the Taycan is 48 amps (60 amp breaker) - there are 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 amp Tesla chargers in the wild - when plugging into them you don't want to be "underspec" - TeslaTap sells a 40, 50, 80 amp version. The 80 amp version is the only one "over-rated" for 60 and above charge rates
A2: if you've ordered the MY'2021 19.2 kw charging option - you need the 80 amp TeslaTap to handle the load from a 100 amp Tesla charger.

 

[chrisk]

If you plan to plug and unplug PMCC in the other house's Nema 14-50 then you need to have an industrial strength 14-50 wall outlet. The $10 ones from Home depot should only be (un)plugged a handful of times and then they get loose and become a fire risk. The dryer plugs are similar. You are supposed to (un)plug a dryer very rarely.

 

[NC_Taycan]

If you plan to plug and unplug PMCC in the other house's Nema 14-50 then you need to have an industrial strength 14-50 wall outlet. The $10 ones from Home depot should only be (un)plugged a handful of times and then they get loose and become a fire risk. The dryer plugs are similar. You are supposed to (un)plug a dryer vary rarely.

This is an important safety tip not to be ignored.

 

[mc9er]

a great kit for NEMA charging is:

• Tesla Gen2 UMC - https://shop.tesla.com/product/gen-2-mobile-connector-bundle
• Tesla Gen2 UMC Adatpers - https://shop.tesla.com/product/nema-adapter-bundle
• [REQUIRED] TeslaTap 80 amp adapter - http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17&product_id=100
• NEMA TT-30 Tesla UMC Gen2 adapter - https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tt-30-adapter-for-tesla-model-s-x-3-gen-2/

or

• Mustart Level2 TravelMaster EV Gen2 - https://www.mustartsolutions.com/co...rent-mustart-travelmaster-level2-ev-charger-1
• Mustart sells a range of NEMA adapter cables for the charger above - consult their website for a list of NEMA adapter cables they sell - they do not have a "complete" kit with all of them - so you need to add them to your shopping basket ala'cart - and I was too lazy to list them all here.
• [RECOMMENDED] TeslaTap 80 amp adapter - http://www.umc-j1772.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17&product_id=100

Both of these kits can be put together for less money than Porsche charges for a single PMCC NEMA supply cable - and both offer a wider range of NEMA adapter than Porsche.

Q: why include the Tesla tap in the two kits?
A: cause it's useful to have in all cases while traveling - it will let you charge your taycan at _ANY_ Tesla charger at hotels & businesses (not superchargers) - so with a TeslaTap you can charge at normal J-1772 public chargers _OR_ Tesla Public chargers
A2: the TeslaTap/JDApter is REQUIRED for the TeslaUMC kit - you'll need it to adapt the EVSE plug shape to the Taycan's industry standard J-1772 charging port - it is purely optional with the Mustart kit but highly recommended for reasons outlined above.

Q: why the 80 amp version of the TeslaTap
A: the maximum charge rate of the Taycan is 48 amps (60 amp breaker) - there are 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 amp Tesla chargers in the wild - when plugging into them you don't want to be "underspec" - TeslaTap sells a 40, 50, 80 amp version. The 80 amp version is the only one "over-rated" for 60 and above charge rates
A2: if you've ordered the MY'2021 19.2 kw charging option - you need the 80 amp TeslaTap to handle the load from a 100 amp Tesla charger.

Thank you for this great overview/info! Quick question regarding the Mustart Travelmaster... did some digging... and can't find a 5-20 adapter for the Travelmaster you referenced. Here's a link to a bunch of them. Link: https://www.amazon.com/MUSTART-TRAV...dentification-Auto-Adjusts/dp/B08PKNVNN2?th=1

I see a 6-20... but assume that's something different! Am I missing something?

Also, beggars can't be choosers, but it would be awesome if the Travelmaster could charge at 40 amps instead of maxing out at 32 amps charging (9.6 vs. 7.2 respectively). Seems I can't find a travel charger that does that high of charging AND allows for Level 1 charging of 5-20. Maybe we should go into this business??

 

[daveo4EV]

LOL

yeah the best mobile chargers are 32 amps - but if you think about the road warrior scenario under which you’re using them _MOST_ of the NEMA plugs are 30 amps or less - so yeah you’re giving up 8 amps on the top end - but if you’re using your mobile charger and one of the NEMA plug adapters you’re not going to get 40 amps anyways…

road tripping is typically:

1. fast chargers during the day
2. slow charge overnight for 8+ hours

I persaonlly don’t sweat the 32 amp vs. 40 amp 8 amp loss - cause when I’m using that charger it’s not my primary plan - fast charging is the primary plan with the slow charger presenting “opportunity“ charging sessions and more than likely not with a NEMA 14-50 or 6-50 but one of the other lesser plugs which is 30 amps or less.

YMMV

 

[daveo4EV]

hmmm - yeah I can’t find the 5-20 they used to have it - thoughts

1. call or eMail them
2. get the 6-20 and find an plug converter/adapter 6-20 to 5-20 - the only different is the number of hots and maximum amps are the same for 6-20 or a 5-20
   1. it turns on the EVSE doesn’t report voltage - ONLY amps - the vehicle/car detects/figures out voltage for itself - converting plug types of the same amps presents very few issues
   2. convertinging any 30 amp NEMA plug to another 30 amp NEMA plug isn’t an issue because the maximum amps are the same, and all we’re trying to do is prevent the car from overloading the circuit by pulling tooo many amps.

I would still consider the the TEsla UMC - they have the best set of NEMA plug adapter on the market and their price/portability can’t be beat.

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