[US] - Home Charging Recommendation - this is as simple as I can make it…honestly - bare bones least amount of text…

[nickmdp]

Chill out. I just find it funny for someone to scoff the extra cost of the faster charging while at the same time spending $11k on paint.

I'm perfectly fine, was just giving you some friendly advice that what you think might be friendly can actually be seen as rude.

Back on topic, all I'm saying is that 'best' is a pretty subjective thing, and I wouldn't consider it scoffing at the price as much as seeing it as a way to pay more for something that provides me zero benefit even in a two EV house like I have. If you're buying an EVSE for something beyond the Taycan, you can certainly talk yourself into wanting quite a bit, but that additional capacity could very well go unused and be better off spent on extra options or saving up for your next EV.

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[Jhenson29]

I’ve seen 24kW DC chargers that run off of 240VAC single phase and briefly thought about getting one since I was putting 100A charging capacity in the garage…but they’re just a little too expensive.

But generally, I prefer to charge as fast as possible when home. For numerous reasons.

 

[Windpower]

Most people these days are running a set of 6 (or sometimes 8) gauge wires to their garage for EV charging.

I installed my EVSE in 2015 and the one thing I wish I had done is run 3 gauge THHN wires. Had I done that, I would be set for a world where we have two EVs in a home being charged at the same time. I have a Taycan and a Tesla and while its rare to need to charge both at the same time, once or twice a year I need to do this.

Keep in mind the bulk of the installation cost is running the wires. Moving from 6 gauge to 3 gauge THHN will cost more but will be more "future proof". The numbers:

8 gauge NMB can supply up to 32 amps for one car (80% of 40 amps for 8 gauge NMB)
6 gauge NMB can supply up to 40 amps for one car (80% of 55 amps for 6 gauge NMB)
3 gauge THHN can supply up to 90 amps, or about 40 amps each for two cars (80% of 115 amps for 3 gauge THHN)

When you go fatter than 6 gauge, you'll most likely want (need) a sub panel in the garage. You can run 14-50 connectors from the sub panel to supply power for the EVSE's. Or you can direct connect the EVSE's to the sub panel.

 

[daveo4EV]

 

[satchurator]

I’ve seen 24kW DC chargers that run off of 240VAC single phase and briefly thought about getting one since I was putting 100A charging capacity in the garage…but they’re just a little too expensive.

But generally, I prefer to charge as fast as possible when home. For numerous reasons.

Home DC charging would be pretty hardcore. However, besides the next-level expense, AFAIK Taycan charging profiles don't apply to DC charging, so you wouldn't be able to depend upon the car self-limiting to a battery charge level less than 100%. Maybe the charger could manage that...

I do wonder where things will go next; e.g. when future generations of EV's get mass-produced solid state batteries or ultra capacitors, would those energy density/cost improvements allow more economical home energy storage (a la PowerWall) along with DC fast charging? I think that L2 AC charging @ 80A is going to be the upper bound of mainstream home charging for quite a while, more because of the owner/home safety factors.

 

[JimBob]

This thread is quite interesting. You have DIYer's, the best at any cost and no idea whatsoever.

The OP's original recommendations are a great place to start.

So a question, given your current setup, assume you are on a TOU plan. Could you charge two/three EV's? at the same time?

I have a 400 amp service, 125 amp subpanel in the garage. On paper yes/maybe, but the sub panel is also running some other stuff. Depends on what's running at the same time as the cars are charging.

You need to learn to how to size your circuit. Makes me respect professional electricians even more.

 

[satchurator]

So a question, given your current setup, assume you are on a TOU plan. Could you charge two/three EV's? at the same time?

I have a 400 amp service, 125 amp subpanel in the garage. On paper yes/maybe, but the sub panel is also running some other stuff. Depends on what's running at the same time as the cars are charging.

Fun - a home EV fleet charging exercise! Depending on what you already have on that 125 amp panel, you could potentially have two 50A circuits with NEMA 14-50 sockets serving two 40A EVSEs. Or a single 100A circuit, with three hardwired load-sharing EVSEs (e.g. Clipper Creek) configured to never exceed 80A total draw.
I’ll defer to your local EV-savvy electrician and/or @daveo4EV for the soundness of this!

 

[daveo4EV]

Fun - a home EV fleet charging exercise! Depending on what you already have on that 125 amp panel, you could potentially have two 50A circuits with NEMA 14-50 sockets serving two 40A EVSEs. Or a single 100A circuit, with three hardwired load-sharing EVSEs (e.g. Clipper Creek) configured to never exceed 80A total draw.
I’ll defer to your local EV-savvy electrician and/or @daveo4EV for the soundness of this!

I'm a big fan of "shared/dynamic" load EVSE's sharing a single breaker (60/80/100) - this allows one EV to charge as fast as possible, but when charging multiple EV's load is intelligently shared/adjusted so that everyone gets a fair shake during their charging session, but as EV's finish charging remaining EV's get progressively more amps so they can finish sooner…

ClipperCreek as a share2 feature where two EVSE's can share load from a single breaker
Tesla Wall Chargers can also share load

there are others that can do this but I'm not personally familiar with them but I'm sure they could be found.

 

[Jhenson29]

Home DC charging would be pretty hardcore. However, besides the next-level expense, AFAIK Taycan charging profiles don't apply to DC charging, so you wouldn't be able to depend upon the car self-limiting to a battery charge level less than 100%. Maybe the charger could manage that...

That’s correct and something I didn’t know at the time I was looking because it was before I had the car and didn’t know how all of the profiles and timers worked. So I would probably just have just charged to 100% all of the time.

If the cost was $3-4k, I’d have done it. But I remember it being closer to $10-12k and I wasn’t going to spend that when the 18kW was $1200.

 

[Jhenson29]

When you go fatter than 6 gauge, you'll most likely want (need) a sub panel in the garage.

I really think this is one of the best and most flexible options.

I put a 125A sub panel in with a 75A EVSE and a 14-30R so I could potentially run 99 amps of charging with that. But I only have the one EV and I don’t see a second one in my near future.

I only have a 200A main service, but most of my appliances are gas so I have a lot of available capacity for its size.

 

[Jhenson29]

And, as long as I’m sharing silly things I looked into for my home setup, it had also occurred to me that most devices can typically tolerate a 10% voltage variance. I considered (and looked for) a 20kVA single-phase transformer I could use to boost the EVSE supply voltage by 10% in hopes that the car would regulate the current the same and I’d just get more power. But I never found anything.

It’s probably not a good idea anyway, although it’s not uncommon to do the same thing on drive systems to maintain minimum voltage levels under load.

 

[CarbonTax]

Appreciate the thread daveo4EV

I'm getting an outlet installed this month and while I was provided an estimate on the "better" 60 amp charging circuit, I am going to request and compare to the "good" 50 amp charging circuit - NEMA 6-50 or 14-50 outlet - use the included PMC+/PMCC EVSE that is delivered with the vehicle (or any other 50 amp EVSE - 40 amp charge rate)

• matches the Porsche included charger (PMC+/PMCC) - 9.6 kW charge rate - good for 98.675% of the time - most daily charging less than 4 hours (3 or less probably)

FWIW - got 2 bids, small outfit @ $1750 and larger, experienced @ $1370

 

[refazi]

Great post!
I’m surprised you have not cover this option - I would recommend to plug in directly to the substation:

 

[Avantgarde]

Plenty is relative. Depends on use cases.

You mean some Taycan owners may want to do Uber 12 hours a day that would be a use case for 40 amp not being the “best” solution

 

[Avantgarde]

There is quite an obsession among some owners about charging speed. I’ve been driving plug-ins and EVs past 1.5 years. We do 30-40 miles a day and we only have a Level 1 charger, a mere 1.2kw worked out almost perfectly for us so for, believe it or not. Now would I prefer a 16 amp Level two set up, probably yes. Would i ever need anything more? Maybe once in a bluemoon a 32 amp level 2 setup would have a use case. Would I ever ever need anything faster? If i lose my job and left with only my Taycan and decide to become an uber driver i could regret not having that 60 amp setup, and it could cost me that 6am airport ride job after i come home with a depleted battery with all day driving the day before. Anyone can spend as much as they wish on chargers and wires and breakers if they get a pleasure from it. My advice if you don’t have an obsession, don’t spend the money before you observe your daily routine for a while. You will be surprised. (P.S. everything else being equal slower charging is also better for battery)

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