Do I need to run new 400 amp service in my house for the Lightning + everything else?

[Charley]

First, you don’t have to charge at 80 amps. It can be lower if you choose, unless you drive 300 miles every day. Second you can get load splitters which will prioritize which item gets the load.

Also check with your power company as there may be other options such as a 320 amp service up grade. Or you may be able to install a separate 100 amp service for the charger.

So we may have really screwed this up. I hired an electrician to install a 100 amp breaker box at my pole barn. We installed the recommended wiring from the house breaker box, 200 amp, out to the pole barn. This is where I put my charging station. We put 100 amp breaker in this box and installed the charger according to the installation instructions. The charger now is overheating at 80 amp. (Does fine at 64 and frankly I’m not sure what I really get out of charging at 80 anyway.) What did we do wrong? I wish I could’ve used Sun Run, but those jokers wouldn’t even talk to me, they don’t cover out here in the country.

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[Fastnf]

The charger now is overheating at 80 amp. (Does fine at 64 and frankly I’m not sure what I really get out of charging at 80 anyway.)

I would check the voltage at the charger when charging at 80 amps to see if there is a voltage drop at the charger. That could be one posible problem. If the voltage drop is with in a reasonable amount. then I would assume the problem is with the charger itself. There are other threads on 80 amp chargers overheating so you might do a search on them.

 

[Grumpy2]

While your charging, did you check your voltage at the barn?

 

[Pioneer74]

So we may have really screwed this up. I hired an electrician to install a 100 amp breaker box at my pole barn. We installed the recommended wiring from the house breaker box, 200 amp, out to the pole barn. This is where I put my charging station. We put 100 amp breaker in this box and installed the charger according to the installation instructions. The charger now is overheating at 80 amp. (Does fine at 64 and frankly I’m not sure what I really get out of charging at 80 anyway.) What did we do wrong? I wish I could’ve used Sun Run, but those jokers wouldn’t even talk to me, they don’t cover out here in the country.

Did the FCSP get the software update that fixes the overheating issues?

 

[Maquis]

So we may have really screwed this up. I hired an electrician to install a 100 amp breaker box at my pole barn. We installed the recommended wiring from the house breaker box, 200 amp, out to the pole barn. This is where I put my charging station. We put 100 amp breaker in this box and installed the charger according to the installation instructions. The charger now is overheating at 80 amp. (Does fine at 64 and frankly I’m not sure what I really get out of charging at 80 anyway.) What did we do wrong? I wish I could’ve used Sun Run, but those jokers wouldn’t even talk to me, they don’t cover out here in the country.

An EVSE is just a switch. Voltage drop will not cause it to overheat. I second the likelihood that your FCSP needs a software update…do you have WiFi coverage at the FCSP?

 

[Charley]

While your charging, did you check your voltage at the barn?

I did not. Will do.

An EVSE is just a switch. Voltage drop will not cause it to overheat. I second the likelihood that your FCSP needs a software update…do you have WiFi coverage at the FCSP?

Do have Wi-Fi coverage.

 

[Charley]

Did the FCSP get the software update that fixes the overheating issues?

Don’t know. I’ll ck

 

[MTBAZ]

So we may have really screwed this up. I hired an electrician to install a 100 amp breaker box at my pole barn. We installed the recommended wiring from the house breaker box, 200 amp, out to the pole barn. This is where I put my charging station. We put 100 amp breaker in this box and installed the charger according to the installation instructions. The charger now is overheating at 80 amp. (Does fine at 64 and frankly I’m not sure what I really get out of charging at 80 anyway.) What did we do wrong? I wish I could’ve used Sun Run, but those jokers wouldn’t even talk to me, they don’t cover out here in the country.

Most will not need to charge at 80 Amps. If daily drive uses 90% or more of your battery and the truck sits less than 12 hours. 80A will likely be needed. The less you drive/longer it sits the lower you can run your charge levels. To put it in use of your lighting terms. Your truck can do 0-60 in 4.3 sec, but do you do that every time you accelerate?

Watch your utility bill as well. If you pull 80 amps constantly it could change your bill to Demand charged based (base charge for power is determined by your highest 15min current pulled from the grid, then your billed per kwh after that)

For your install, do you know what size wire they pulled and length of the run to the barn?

 

[Maquis]

Most will not need to charge at 80 Amps. If daily drive uses 90% or more of your battery and the truck sits less than 12 hours. 80A will likely be needed. The less you drive/longer it sits the lower you can run your charge levels. To put it in use of your lighting terms. Your truck can do 0-60 in 4.3 sec, but do you do that every time you accelerate?

Watch your utility bill as well. If you pull 80 amps constantly it could change your bill to Demand charged based (base charge for power is determined by your highest 15min current pulled from the grid, then your billed per kwh after that)

For your install, do you know what size wire they pulled and length of the run to the barn?

There are only a handful of utilities that have demand charges for residential service. He’s in Florida, and presumably FPL. They don’t have residential demand charges the last time I checked.

 

[ridgebackpilot]

Picking up my 2022 Lightning Lariat this week. Comes with a Ford Charge Station Pro. However, after reading this thread, I'm not sure I'll install it, at least not right away.

That's because I already have a Level 2 charger on my garage wall, which I use to charge two Mustang Mach-Es. My detached garage only has a 50 amp feed, so I had to derate the Level 2 charger to 40 amps maximum to stay within code. So far, that has been sufficient to charge the Mustangs overnight and in the morning during off-peak hours.

I also have a solar array and three Tesla Powerwall batteries, which provide backup to the house and allow me to shift all of my draw from the grid to off-peak hours. So I don't really need to use my Lightning to provide backup power for my home.

I'm going to try and get by on a single Level 2 charger for all my EVs. But with three of them rather than two, including the higher-capacity Lightning, that may turn out to be a stretch. If I need more charging capacity, I'm either going to install a switch so that two wall chargers can share the existing feed, or upgrade my garage from 50 to 100 amps so that I can install the Ford Charge Station Pro at its full 80 amp capacity. Any thoughts?

 

[Amps]

Any thoughts?

Unless you're driving over 300 miles a day between all of your vehicles, you should be able to easily keep up. If you have a 12-hour charging window and don't mind switching the cable around between vehicles, you should be able to deliver around 9 kW to the vehicles every hour after losses. That's enough to charge an 80% depleted Lightning ER battery in 12 hours (~200 miles).

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