40A home charging - Should I do it

[Tony Burgh]

Does Ford still pay $400 towards the install?

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[Akemisdad]

Does Ford still pay $400 towards the install?

Not that I am aware. Just the free charger unit

 

[Adventureboy]

I have a 40A Grizzl-E Duo charger for charging my Lightning and my wife's MME simultaneously on a 50A circuit.

• Full 40A to the Lightning when it is the only one plugged in. 20/20 when both are plugged in and charging, 32/8 when both are plugged in and only one is charging.
• If you come in with SOC in the single digits at midnight, it won't be fully charged in the morning. It takes my ER about 12 hours to go from 10%-->90% when charging at the full 40A.
• 99% of the time, both vehicles are plugged in overnight and both are charged to the set SOC levels in the morning.

Works like a charm for our 50-55k kms per year.

Initially, I had a 100A service. It ran fine in the winter however, it wasn't enough when the charger was running at peak (40A), the AC was running at peak (~15A) and the hot tub heater kicked in (about ~16A) plus normal house loads. That said, I was running a crappy 100A Commander panel that has known issues running at 80% capacity and I think the main breaker went bad when I started pushing it with the EVs. I replaced it with a 200A panel since I already had 200A service to the meter - it was relatively inexpensive since I only had to replace the panel and a 4ft supply line. Check your meter and see what it is rated for as you could be lucky like I was.

In any case, 100A service will work if your normal house loads are light. It won't be if you have a few extra toys (like a hot tub) that pull on it as well.

 

[RedLightning86]

I have the FCSP, running at 48 amps, which I love, compared to 32 amps on a plug-in outside.

in theory your 100 amp service would support the 80 amps. BUT you would have to not run anything else at the same time, or breakers will pop off. Sun run probably added up your loads, and figured you only have 32 amps running most of the time, so you would have capacity for a load of 48 amps more, with fudge factor for starting power spike.

To upgrade my electric service from 300 to 400 amps, in order to go up to 80 amps would cost several thousand dollars. Or I would have to have electrician move loads from the 100 amp to the 200 amp sub panels, which would be costly and potentially lead to problems.

while convenience of doubling the charge rate would be nice, I am too cheap to pay for that. So I stick w the 48 amps, and love the convenience of indoor charging now, and piece of mind knowing that it is not going to burn out a fuse box or wiring in a wall, and that it is wired for the heavy continuous load, not just intermittent home loads. But your use=case might make the cost worth it.

 

[mb0220]

I personally would not go to the expense. I have the Ford Pro installed and set to 80 amps, but don’t seem to every get but a 10KW draw. That’s like a 32amp equivalent and I’m charging overnight regardless. That’s my 2cents worth.

Back to regularly scheduled programming.

Not to split hairs... but 10kW sounds more like 40 amps to me. Not 32.

 

[The Weatherman]

Not to split hairs... but 10kW sounds more like 40 amps to me. Not 32.

I took that estimate from the following post. So yes, it’s ‘like’ somewhere between 38 and 48 amps.

Hair split!

 

[RickLightning]

48 x 240 = 11.5kW, 10.4 or so to truck. 48amps.

 

[Nick503955]

It's all about how far you drive in an average day and how much time you have to charge if you're under a Time Of Use rate regime.

 

[lancersrock]

The whole "charging to full" kind of throws the numbers off because it slows down a lot as it gets closer to 100%.

How much do you drive each day?

Even a modest 24A charger on a 30A dryer outlet will get you 100 miles (46kWh) in 8 hours. So you could charge from 55% to 90% each day easily (or 45% to 80%).

I second this recommendation, I'm using a dryer plug with a y pigtail adapter and i drive 150 miles a day. The only reason im installing my pro charger after a year of ownership is winter months i have to stop and charge on the way home or im pulling in with less than 10% when i get home and will only get to 60-65% by the time i leave in the morning or worse depending how much the draw is for pre conditioning. If your in a garage even less likely to be an issue.

 

[flux capacitor]

I had a 14-50 receptacle in the garage connected to a 50a breaker in my sub 100a panel. I just connected a wired 14-50 plug and cord 50a to my FCSP and set the FCSP to 40a and it works great (10kwh). You can have any electrician install a 14-50 receptacle and add a breaker to your panel. You do not need to specifically have Sunrun to do it. Having it connected that way makes it easier if I later want to move it closer to my 200a panel for a full 80A connection.

 

[RickLightning]

I had a 14-50 receptacle in the garage connected to a 50a breaker in my sub 100a panel. I just connected a wired 14-50 plug and cord 50a to my FCSP and set the FCSP to 40a and it works great (10kwh). You can have any electrician install a 14-50 receptacle and add a breaker to your panel. You do not need to specifically have Sunrun to do it. Having it connected that way makes it easier if I later want to move it closer to my 200a panel for a full 80A connection.

A 40amp setting would result in 40x240= 9.6kW from the wall and 9.6 x 90% = 8.6 to the truck. To get 10kW you would need 48amp, which provides about 10.3 or so to the truck.

 

[mme_and_lightning]

Sunrun said I only have a 100A breaker, so they recommend installing my charge station pro on the 50A breaker at 40A which would mean 15% to full in 15 hours vs the 8 hours if at 80A. What are people's thoughts? It would probably be another 5K to upgrade to a 200A so..., but thinking that is it worth it? how much will I be driving my card down to 10-15% everyday?

If I had your situation, I would get estimates from reputable electricians and see if I can lower the 5K cost to upgrade to a 200 AMP service. Next, I already used Sunrun for my 80 AMP install and I was happy. But a good electrician can install the device. You then use the instructions to setup the unit's Wi-Fi. The FPCS will work without the Wi-Fi, but Ford tells me that they push updates to the FPCS unit (Why? I cannot tell you).

You will have the Lightning for years and likely other EVs over time. Get it done and a year from now all you know is the Lightning charges fast.

 

[Thunder1809]

I have the FCSP wired with a 100A circuit but ended up turning it down from 80A to 60A because it charged fast but the cable would get hot. I'm even thinking of turning down to 48A since I drive about 60 to 70 miles a day and even starting at 9 pm to give my batteries time to cool down after getting home, it still finishes in around 5 hours to 80%. I was fortunate to have (2) 200A panels so I had plenty of space, but knowing what I know now I could have gone with a 48A non-Ford and been fine. I had to think differently when I got an EV and was worried about range and charging speed at first. I just plug in when I get home and in the morning I have a 80% charged battery that has warm seats, steering wheel and cabin when I back out of my garage.

 

[KingStraasha]

Personally, I don't think you should use today's requirements which could limit yourself for tomorrow's potential. If you are going to be in your house for a while and may buy another electric vehicle in the future, I would put in the biggest circuit possible. Future proof yourself or you may be spending even more money in the future.

 

[Newton]

If you can get the government to pay for redoing your panel then do so, just because it is probably a good thing to do in general. There are a lot of subpar 100A panels out there that won’t meet current code and might be questionable with the continuous draw of EVs and the subsequent heat build up. If your panel says ”Federal Electric” or “Zinsco” then definitely get your panel changed (google it.)

Otherwise I would always charge at the lowest amperage that meets my needs. I have seen enough burned 30A and 50A marine power cords (some leading to large marina fires) to feel a faint shudder when I see people glibly installing devices that draw 90A continuous in a non-commercial or scientific environment. Like most boats in marinas, most people will be absolutely fine even with an installation that isn’t perfect but I question whether the risk - small as it may be — is worth having the truck fully charged at 3AM rather than 6AM.

I have a 32A Electrify America “charger” and a 20A Clipper Creek, and honestly the Clipper Creek is plenty for my needs.

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