I got my first EV about a month ago. I charge off a 120v 15a outlet at home and I've been fine. Yes, it would take 2 days to go from 0 to 100%, but that's not necessary. It only takes a few hours to charge the 6% I average per day.

Technology Connections is great. The last video on renewables helped make my mom look into EVs and this one might convince my older brother since charging was a main concern of his

That video is well done and good at laying it all out. I wish I could get my brothers to watch it.

The thing is, I came here as devils advocate, thinking he was going too strong on level one. But he did well.

• I had a similar discussion with my older brother, where I tried to convince him level one was possible, especially short term, but that he’d be happier with more. He installed 50a level 2, after I explained it’s the same as an electric range circuit (that’s what I have. Almost always more than I need but nice to have)
• no luck at all with my younger brother. He works for a legacy car manufacturer and is convinced EVs are not practical. They found it impossible to install chargers at a plant since it would need the power of a city ….. since they assumed every spot needed a fast charger and that all would be in use all day

I was confused as to why this didnt show up in my RSS feed, but turns out i dont have Connextras in there

A great option for some that’s worth communicating. That’s how I charge mine. Only once or twice in the last couple of years has it given me anxiety—which turned out to be unfounded. Not a heavy driver though, I don’t plug it in every day, and my range is nearly 300 miles.

My older brother need to see this, but then he won't even watch past 1min mark.

We made it work for several months with our EV and a Level 1 charger cable ran out the back door before I could get the time to install the level 2 charger. For regular commuting around town, the wall plug would keep up. For longer trips, we would have had problems and had to have sought out level 3 chargers until we got the level 2 install finished. Level 2 charging at home was a game and cured range anxiety for us.

Well, at least this video might convince my older brother, especially with current gas prices

I've been charging my cars this way for 9 years. You do need a sufficiently efficient vehicle. You ain't charging a Hummer this way. Also I recommend getting a "heavy duty" receptacle because I have melted a couple of them after a while.

I don't have an EV yet, but I already refuse (prefuse? pre-refuse?) to use an app to charge my car which pretty much locks me out of most fast chargers.

I've been WFH since COVID and only drive a few times a week. When I do get an EV hopefully in the next 1-3 years, it's probably going to basically trickle-charge from a modest PV setup. If it takes 3 days to fully charge, so be it; it'd just be sitting there anyway. Though I'll probably wire in a 220v level 2 charger (or whatever they're classified as) on the rare occasion I need a faster charge.

He makes good videos in general and this one is long enough I’ll have to make time to watch as usual, but as he has ranted about extension cords in the past, I’m not sure that it’s a wise idea to make the case to just use any plug and pull maximum (12? Amps) current for 10 or more hours continuously, let alone with the potential addition of an extension cord because the garage outlet isn’t quite in the right spot.

I think for safety reasons it’s probably best for people to have a shiny purpose built high amperage circuit installed so that old work doesn’t burn the house down. Even if it’s just a dedicated 110V in the USA (which adds transmission losses a bit too).

The UK is mandating heat pumps in new builds. Should they carry that further and mandate a EVSE circuit for every parking spot?

I tried trickle charging, and it worked. Keeping it plugged in all the time while I wasn't driving meant, by week's end, I was back to full.

However, I don't have a garage, I have a carport. Keeping the cable run on the ground in a common area all the time was drawing ire from the HOA, so I installed a Level 2, so I only have to charge it once a week overnight.

i wish i was lucky enough to have a garage. we had to run a new circuit out to our townhouse parking lot anyway, so at that point we figured might as well make it an L2 charger. now we have 2 EVs and it would be way more of a pain in the ass (or impossible) to trickle charge them. not to mention i just prefer having the cable out as little as possible in a public space. also sucks having to deal with snow/ice freezing the plug to the car.

"The last people you should be getting advice from about electric cars is electric car enthusiasts."

And then, Alex the electric car enthusiast himself, goes on to say later:

"I don't know why the world isn't getting excited about this! You can literally have a gas station at home using the exact same technology that operates a clothes dryer!"

I love you Alex! Never Change!

First, he's right in his first statement. Those of us that really are enthusiasts will go far beyond what is needed, and may lose sight of what someone that isn't an enthusiast actually cares about.

Second, a suggestion for Alex, if you are on the Fediverse: You very briefly touched on the NEMA 6-20, but I think it needs more attention.

To me that outlet (which goes on a 240v at 20A circuit) is the sweet spot for home EV charging with regards to speed and low cost. Why? It uses the same common cheap 12/2 household wire that many of your existing household circuits use. With copper prices always on the rise, larger gauge wire starts getting exponentially expensive. The magic is really the 240v. You don't get double the charging speed of 120v, you get nearly quadruple! And for the same wire! One other change I'd recommend is getting hardwired EVSE (car charger) because it can let you charge faster on the same wire as a plug in charger (because of electrical safety codes). If you have an electrician at your house running a circuit anyway, having them wire up a hardwired charger at the same time is not a high price increase.

I know this is a Tesla specific charge, but the value here is showing all the various current ratings and how that scales with charging speed. Check out our 240v 20A hardwired charger performance (in the green square):

15 MPH of charging from cheap 12/2 wire (regular yellow romex)!

One extra note here, if you already have a dedicated 120v (15A or 20A) circuit to your garage with a regular outlet on it, you can simply change the breaker in the box to a 240v breaker and change the outlet receptacle in the garage with zero modification to the wire in the wall) and get the benefits of 240v speed charging!