I had a BMW 330e for two years which I charged every night with the supplied 13A plug. I now have a Tesla Model 3 AWD Long Range which I've charged the same for a year, both on a cheaper overnight tariff. It all depends on your daily mileage and charging needs. Plus Granny chargers are a handy temporary or emergency measure. I have now installed the Tesla home charger which I've had in the loft since buying the car. Speaking as an electrician, please do not charge an EV with an extension lead without limiting the current to 6 amps. They are not designed for continuous, long term use at higher currents. And also, always completely unwind the coil.
Hi Ian, second day I got my model Y, my home wall charger went pop. It took 4 days for the company to replace under warranty. The granny charger saved the day to top up overnight, enough to get to a supercharger if required. Thank you granny.
Recently bought Tesla, when ever I had a question about Tesla and if i come to youtube and thats it there is a video related to it from you. These videos are much needed ones and quite handy. Great videos.
Maybe I'm in the minority but we ONLY use a granny charger for our car (we are in New Zealand so 240v, 10A) with no extension cable and brand new wiring. We have an LFP Model 3 so whenever it's home, it's plugged in. We don't drive 400KM's every day, so on the days we drive less, the charging catches up that evening and fills the battery. Unless you're consistently driving long distances every day using most of the battery, or you drive around all night instead of sleeping, then IMO you really don't need a level 2 charger.
Good topic for debate. Granny chargers do have their uses in my opinion. If I go to my relatives houses for the day, they don't have a charging unit and it's not worth me or them paying for one to be installed as it would only get used very infrequently. I'd usually be there 10 hours, so even being able to add 40-80 miles of range back into the car is better than having to pay for that at a public charger. The car is sat there so it might as well be charging.
I've only ever used the 'granny charger' on my 62kWh Leaf. I will use the Tesla 'granny charger' on my Tesla Y LFP battery when I take deliver end of December.
Having read a few comments I thought I’d add this info as a main comment as opposed to just replying to another’s comment. The Tesla granny charger has interchangeable ends! In the UK you can just pull/yank on the the UK 3pin plug chargers tail and it will come out. You can purchase other charging tails direct from Tesla to insert (think builders BLUE big round 3pin end). You can have an electrician fit a 32A commando socket (female) either on the side of your house, garage or any install point just like you could/would get a proper level 2 charger fitted. A commando socket fitted in the UK costs a fraction of a level2 charging box (probably less than £200). You can then use the Tesla granny charger with the 32A commando tail inserted and turn your slow 6 - 9 mph granny charger into the exact same speed as a fully fitted 32A charger (7.4KW) which should give circa 25 - 29 mph charge to the likes of a Tesla model 3. P.s a granny charger is called a granny charger because it is SLOW (like most granny’s driving along the road) not because you can use it at your granny’s house. Although, you can do that too!! 🤪 For those non-Tesla granny charger holders it can be worth getting hold of a Tesla granny charger for the use case above. I’m not aware of other granny chargers that have this capability as they usually have a hard wired 3pin plug end that is not interchangeable or can handle such wide variety of power (13A-32A). This way you can have an easy way to get 32A charging for ANY EV!! Well any EV that can take the type2 charging end (sorry to you CHADEMO users). I would not recommend granny/commando charging long long term though, there is more safety built in to a fully fitted type2 unit opposed to long term granny/commando charging. Enjoy!
Had no idea you could swap a Commando plug on the end and charge at 32A! Ok, that makes it genuinely useful. May even need to revisit the topic in a future video...
Hi folks, scroll down a bit and read Cosmosrays comprehensive comments. Basically in the UK you can get adapters for the Tesla 'granny' charger that then will plug into a 32 amp or 16 amp 'Commando' sockets - they are different sizes. Socket must by law be professionally installed but is much cheaper than a so called 'wall charger' - which is really a sophisticated connection unit - the 'charger' is actually in the car. A 32 amp Commando socket will give the same charge rate as a single phase UK wall unit. Wall unit is somewhat safer and gives more facilities buy can cost up to £900 to have installed depending on where it is placed - a Commando is just a couple of hundreds. 32 amps will charge three times faster than the maximum 10 amps that can be drawn from a UK 13 amp socket. On an Economy seven tariff one could get around 50 kilowatt hours of charge into your vehicle battery during the seven hours of overnight cheap tariff for a cost at the time of writing of under £4.50 - £0.09 per kilowatt hour. That would give a range of about 200 miles at 4 miles per kilowatt hour - or pro rata if more or less efficient. For long term use if possible I strongly suggest a full on wall connection unit - it will add value to your property and is a very sound investment. It is a bit safer and more convenient. I hope this is helpful to people thinking about getting an EV. Well done for considering it!
So that folks have it, the formula is VoltsxAmps/1000 gives you kiloWatts/hour. Here in the USA, we have 120V/15A circuits, and for clothes dryers they tie 2 together to give 240V/30A. The code here says for continuous charging (def. over 3 hours), you must only use 80% of the amperage. My Tesla automatically knows to charge at 12A on my 15A circuit, and 24A on my 30A circuit. I've read that the efficiency of level 1 chargers is about 80% and level 2 chargers around 90% (although I've never tested that). (Superchargers are 99-100% efficient)
example: 120V x 12A / 1000 = 1.44kW/hour. Times 0.8 efficiency = 1.152kW/hr charging which is my experience. 240Vx24A/1000=5.76kW/hr * .9 efficiency = 5.184kW/hr also my experience here in the USA.
A clothes dryer pulls 10 amps… anyone ever worried about its power socket or the in home wiring ? I charge a model 3 standard range with a granny charger at home. Our sockets over here are rated 16amps @ 240v, the granny charger accepts 13 amps. Charges the car just fine over night. I guess it all depends on how far you drive your car per day. A nine hour charge gives me 27kwh which is about what’s between 30% and 80% charge (the sweet spot for its generation battery chemistry) good for about 170km. So yeah.. it all depends on how much you drive per day I guess..
As others have pointed out it really depends on daily use, when we get ours in a week or two we will only be doing 15-20 miles per day and maybe 100 over a weekend, so perfectly feasible for us to keep it topped up, i will probably get my electrician to put in a 32amp commando socket so i can use it on that as i dont have any outdoor sockets on the front by driveway anyway, im assuming that the cable he uses for the commando socket could be reused to fit a 7kw wall charger in the future if theres any decent deals on them (just missed £200 off deal with Octopus)
We have the Model Y long range in the US and use 120 volt charger with no problem. On average we only use about 20% of the battery per day so it always charges up by the next morning.
Many people can happily just plug it in on a cheap overnight tariff. My commute is 25 miles so I always have a full battery after a few hours charge. When I go much further, I just use a supercharger as needed or leave it plugged in for longer. A dedicated charger would cost a minimum of £900 installed. That's nearly the cost same cost as 13,000 Kw hours, 214 full charges or 50,000+ miles. Besides, no-one ever refills their ICE with petrol or diesel after every journey so I'm really confused with the obsession with doing so with batteries.
Really great channel - nice to see some practical, real world EV content. I’m curious about one thing - with the Tesla charging at home, how easy is it to disconnect the charging plug? My home charger won’t be a Tesla unit and wondering if this will cause extra hassle?
Cool, thanks. I thought that might be the case. Have been looking at Tesla style plug kits so I can just press the button and have it stop charging so I don’t have to mess with my phone at 3am in the rain!
Ganny charger is fine for charging after general round town use. I charge from solar and only use grid power on longer trips. Havnt charged from the grid in a few months.. and i live in " the land of the long white cloud" so sunny areas like California would be plentiful for solar charging. Its almost too good to be true.
Re water in connector; Long term you will have corrosion in the connector and it will generate heat and eventually fail needing a new cable and charge port!
Better off leaving the cap off if it fills with water, or get a holder that you plug into on the wall. WD40 or contact cleaner / dewatering might be a good idea. Just going off to speak mine. Take care M.
I coped with a granny charger on my e-tron 55 with a 78kwh battery fine doing 70 mile round trips daily, took about 11 hours worth of charging overnight but it was doable - that's with a much bigger battery and a much lower mi/kwh (~2.0 winter, 2.6-2.8 summer)
The granny charger should be an emergency thing and should only be used in an emergency so you would never charge it to full . Charge it just enough to get to a proper charger , or charge over night then go to a proper charger the next day.
I don’t agree with you at all because you can use the exact same Tesla ‘granny charger’ but change the UK 3pin plug end which you can just pull out and insert a Tesla supplied commando socket end and plug it straight into a 32A Supply. So the Tesla granny charger instantly becomes a full on 32A full level 2 charger capable of charging @ circa 25 - 29 mph depending on actual supply.
@@CosmosRays using a 32 amp commando socket without the relevent protection for EV charging is highly dangerous. EVSE with any connection can be dangerous if you are unaware of the installed protection in the circuit so regular use is not advised. Rumours have it evse may well be illegal very soon . With proper protection they are safe but the cost involved to get it to the correct standard would be similar to a dedicated charger .
@@PabloTBrave Paul, I absolutely agree with your sentiments. I would always urge people to utilise a fully installed and protected EVSE over ANY other form of charging. Currently the ability exists and one would say even a 32A commando socket being fitted should be installed with the. Ire that it “could” be used for EV charging and thus should be installed with relevant protection as standard? I can see that there may be a shift to recommending the likes of a commando socket is not used for EV charging but at the moment I doubt they will actually say it is illegal. Well certainly not until the eventually bring out Ed19? 👍🏻
If I go away to friends over weekend and they think it's okay to charge at their house I use the granny charger. Most of the time car reports that I can pull 13 - 16 A from the house so I use to adjust it down to 8 - 9 A to not push the electric system too hard. If the care isn't used so much during that weekend the charging speed are more than enough to make my battery charged at the time for going back home. Even if I want to charge it to 100 % it would be enough juice in the charger to make the car fully loaded. So it has a meaning, but if I would have to buy it separately I don't know if I would do that. Here in Sweden we get the charger with the car on delivery.
If you park up for long periods then it won't matter how slow it is. Ideal for occasional use car. Set the climate timer and it heats the cabin from the mains before you go. Take care M
You are not understanding electrical power systems in US homes, while it is true that most outlets are 120 Volts, houses also have 240 volt outlets for washers and dryers that can be used to charge, and like you most people with a Tesla add dedicated 240 volts 48 amp line.
Just an observation but you should probably look to get a charger holder for that type-2 charging cable to prevent water ingress rather than relaying on the rubber cover. It may well ultimately lead to significant issues with either the charging cable or worse still, the Tesla charging port. They are only £10-£15 on Amazon. Mine came with one and it's been dry as a bone since May.
WHAT?? Rather than pull out an extension cord, you couldn't move your Model Y up ONE foot???? OR BACK your Model Y up instead of driving straight in??? REALLY!!
I could back up to the charger. Involves turning the car round to do so, then turning it again to get out. But as various people use extension cables why not get that out to talk safety? I showed an image of my Outlander PHEV charging from a different extension cable - I would set that up if using the granny cable regularly.
That's entirely up to you. I have had a chuckle reading your ALL CAPS anger. And wondering the state of mind to get so ANGRY about something you don't know about such as the layout of a TH-camr's driveway. Take a chill pill! REALLY!!!
It all depends on your needs. I'm retired, in a rural area and go into town once a week for supplies. Grandpa has all week to plug Granny.
I had a BMW 330e for two years which I charged every night with the supplied 13A plug.
I now have a Tesla Model 3 AWD Long Range which I've charged the same for a year, both on a cheaper overnight tariff.
It all depends on your daily mileage and charging needs. Plus Granny chargers are a handy temporary or emergency measure.
I have now installed the Tesla home charger which I've had in the loft since buying the car.
Speaking as an electrician, please do not charge an EV with an extension lead without limiting the current to 6 amps. They are not designed for continuous, long term use at higher currents. And also, always completely unwind the coil.
Hi Ian, second day I got my model Y, my home wall charger went pop. It took 4 days for the company to replace under warranty. The granny charger saved the day to top up overnight, enough to get to a supercharger if required. Thank you granny.
Recently bought Tesla, when ever I had a question about Tesla and if i come to youtube and thats it there is a video related to it from you. These videos are much needed ones and quite handy. Great videos.
Maybe I'm in the minority but we ONLY use a granny charger for our car (we are in New Zealand so 240v, 10A) with no extension cable and brand new wiring.
We have an LFP Model 3 so whenever it's home, it's plugged in. We don't drive 400KM's every day, so on the days we drive less, the charging catches up that evening and fills the battery.
Unless you're consistently driving long distances every day using most of the battery, or you drive around all night instead of sleeping, then IMO you really don't need a level 2 charger.
Good topic for debate. Granny chargers do have their uses in my opinion. If I go to my relatives houses for the day, they don't have a charging unit and it's not worth me or them paying for one to be installed as it would only get used very infrequently. I'd usually be there 10 hours, so even being able to add 40-80 miles of range back into the car is better than having to pay for that at a public charger. The car is sat there so it might as well be charging.
I take your point! I'm happy to have it, but would I pay for it when Tesla delete them from the spec? No.
I've only ever used the 'granny charger' on my 62kWh Leaf. I will use the Tesla 'granny charger' on my Tesla Y LFP battery when I take deliver end of December.
Having read a few comments I thought I’d add this info as a main comment as opposed to just replying to another’s comment.
The Tesla granny charger has interchangeable ends! In the UK you can just pull/yank on the the UK 3pin plug chargers tail and it will come out. You can purchase other charging tails direct from Tesla to insert (think builders BLUE big round 3pin end).
You can have an electrician fit a 32A commando socket (female) either on the side of your house, garage or any install point just like you could/would get a proper level 2 charger fitted. A commando socket fitted in the UK costs a fraction of a level2 charging box (probably less than £200).
You can then use the Tesla granny charger with the 32A commando tail inserted and turn your slow 6 - 9 mph granny charger into the exact same speed as a fully fitted 32A charger (7.4KW) which should give circa 25 - 29 mph charge to the likes of a Tesla model 3.
P.s a granny charger is called a granny charger because it is SLOW (like most granny’s driving along the road) not because you can use it at your granny’s house. Although, you can do that too!! 🤪
For those non-Tesla granny charger holders it can be worth getting hold of a Tesla granny charger for the use case above. I’m not aware of other granny chargers that have this capability as they usually have a hard wired 3pin plug end that is not interchangeable or can handle such wide variety of power (13A-32A). This way you can have an easy way to get 32A charging for ANY EV!! Well any EV that can take the type2 charging end (sorry to you CHADEMO users).
I would not recommend granny/commando charging long long term though, there is more safety built in to a fully fitted type2 unit opposed to long term granny/commando charging.
Enjoy!
Had no idea you could swap a Commando plug on the end and charge at 32A! Ok, that makes it genuinely useful. May even need to revisit the topic in a future video...
Hi folks, scroll down a bit and read Cosmosrays comprehensive comments. Basically in the UK you can get adapters for the Tesla 'granny' charger that then will plug into a 32 amp or 16 amp 'Commando' sockets - they are different sizes. Socket must by law be professionally installed but is much cheaper than a so called 'wall charger' - which is really a sophisticated connection unit - the 'charger' is actually in the car. A 32 amp Commando socket will give the same charge rate as a single phase UK wall unit. Wall unit is somewhat safer and gives more facilities buy can cost up to £900 to have installed depending on where it is placed - a Commando is just a couple of hundreds. 32 amps will charge three times faster than the maximum 10 amps that can be drawn from a UK 13 amp socket. On an Economy seven tariff one could get around 50 kilowatt hours of charge into your vehicle battery during the seven hours of overnight cheap tariff for a cost at the time of writing of under £4.50 - £0.09 per kilowatt hour. That would give a range of about 200 miles at 4 miles per kilowatt hour - or pro rata if more or less efficient. For long term use if possible I strongly suggest a full on wall connection unit - it will add value to your property and is a very sound investment. It is a bit safer and more convenient. I hope this is helpful to people thinking about getting an EV. Well done for considering it!
In the USA you can change that adapter from 120V to 240V and charge twice as fast with the same charger.
So that folks have it, the formula is VoltsxAmps/1000 gives you kiloWatts/hour. Here in the USA, we have 120V/15A circuits, and for clothes dryers they tie 2 together to give 240V/30A. The code here says for continuous charging (def. over 3 hours), you must only use 80% of the amperage. My Tesla automatically knows to charge at 12A on my 15A circuit, and 24A on my 30A circuit. I've read that the efficiency of level 1 chargers is about 80% and level 2 chargers around 90% (although I've never tested that). (Superchargers are 99-100% efficient)
example: 120V x 12A / 1000 = 1.44kW/hour. Times 0.8 efficiency = 1.152kW/hr charging which is my experience. 240Vx24A/1000=5.76kW/hr * .9 efficiency = 5.184kW/hr also my experience here in the USA.
A clothes dryer pulls 10 amps… anyone ever worried about its power socket or the in home wiring ?
I charge a model 3 standard range with a granny charger at home. Our sockets over here are rated 16amps @ 240v, the granny charger accepts 13 amps. Charges the car just fine over night. I guess it all depends on how far you drive your car per day.
A nine hour charge gives me 27kwh which is about what’s between 30% and 80% charge (the sweet spot for its generation battery chemistry) good for about 170km.
So yeah.. it all depends on how much you drive per day I guess..
As others have pointed out it really depends on daily use, when we get ours in a week or two we will only be doing 15-20 miles per day and maybe 100 over a weekend, so perfectly feasible for us to keep it topped up, i will probably get my electrician to put in a 32amp commando socket so i can use it on that as i dont have any outdoor sockets on the front by driveway anyway, im assuming that the cable he uses for the commando socket could be reused to fit a 7kw wall charger in the future if theres any decent deals on them (just missed £200 off deal with Octopus)
We have the Model Y long range in the US and use 120 volt charger with no problem. On average we only use about 20% of the battery per day so it always charges up by the next morning.
Perhaps I was too harsh on the granny charger. If you only do short distances I can see how it works for you
Many people can happily just plug it in on a cheap overnight tariff. My commute is 25 miles so I always have a full battery after a few hours charge. When I go much further, I just use a supercharger as needed or leave it plugged in for longer. A dedicated charger would cost a minimum of £900 installed. That's nearly the cost same cost as 13,000 Kw hours, 214 full charges or 50,000+ miles. Besides, no-one ever refills their ICE with petrol or diesel after every journey so I'm really confused with the obsession with doing so with batteries.
I am in the middle of shooting a granny charger challenge. I have switched off my wall box and am only using the granny. Video coming soon…
Really great channel - nice to see some practical, real world EV content. I’m curious about one thing - with the Tesla charging at home, how easy is it to disconnect the charging plug? My home charger won’t be a Tesla unit and wondering if this will cause extra hassle?
Just press the "unlock charge port" button on the app
Cool, thanks. I thought that might be the case. Have been looking at Tesla style plug kits so I can just press the button and have it stop charging so I don’t have to mess with my phone at 3am in the rain!
Ganny charger is fine for charging after general round town use. I charge from solar and only use grid power on longer trips. Havnt charged from the grid in a few months.. and i live in " the land of the long white cloud" so sunny areas like California would be plentiful for solar charging. Its almost too good to be true.
I am using my stock Tesla charger with NEMA14-50connection Instold by licensed election. 35Amps 25 m/h Basicli talking full charge overnight time.
Re water in connector; Long term you will have corrosion in the connector and it will generate heat and eventually fail needing a new cable and charge port!
Better off leaving the cap off if it fills with water, or get a holder that you plug into on the wall. WD40 or contact cleaner / dewatering might be a good idea. Just going off to speak mine.
Take care M.
I've now hung the charge cable so that it is cap up not cap down. Problem solved
I coped with a granny charger on my e-tron 55 with a 78kwh battery fine doing 70 mile round trips daily, took about 11 hours worth of charging overnight but it was doable - that's with a much bigger battery and a much lower mi/kwh (~2.0 winter, 2.6-2.8 summer)
At 10 amps? Im hoping to rely on a granny charger once a week
The granny charger should be an emergency thing and should only be used in an emergency so you would never charge it to full . Charge it just enough to get to a proper charger , or charge over night then go to a proper charger the next day.
I don’t agree with you at all because you can use the exact same Tesla ‘granny charger’ but change the UK 3pin plug end which you can just pull out and insert a Tesla supplied commando socket end and plug it straight into a 32A Supply. So the Tesla granny charger instantly becomes a full on 32A full level 2 charger capable of charging @ circa 25 - 29 mph depending on actual supply.
@@CosmosRays using a 32 amp commando socket without the relevent protection for EV charging is highly dangerous. EVSE with any connection can be dangerous if you are unaware of the installed protection in the circuit so regular use is not advised. Rumours have it evse may well be illegal very soon . With proper protection they are safe but the cost involved to get it to the correct standard would be similar to a dedicated charger .
@@PabloTBrave
Paul, I absolutely agree with your sentiments. I would always urge people to utilise a fully installed and protected EVSE over ANY other form of charging. Currently the ability exists and one would say even a 32A commando socket being fitted should be installed with the. Ire that it “could” be used for EV charging and thus should be installed with relevant protection as standard?
I can see that there may be a shift to recommending the likes of a commando socket is not used for EV charging but at the moment I doubt they will actually say it is illegal. Well certainly not until the eventually bring out Ed19?
👍🏻
If I go away to friends over weekend and they think it's okay to charge at their house I use the granny charger. Most of the time car reports that I can pull 13 - 16 A from the house so I use to adjust it down to 8 - 9 A to not push the electric system too hard. If the care isn't used so much during that weekend the charging speed are more than enough to make my battery charged at the time for going back home. Even if I want to charge it to 100 % it would be enough juice in the charger to make the car fully loaded. So it has a meaning, but if I would have to buy it separately I don't know if I would do that. Here in Sweden we get the charger with the car on delivery.
Yes, I dial mine back to 8 amps or so for the same reason. Take away any risk of taking 10a continuously
Can I suggest rather than get an extension leads out, turn your car around.
Turning the car around on my property is tricky
Removing the charger is the same as removing the spare wheel. You won’t notice unless you need it, and then it’s a showstopper.
If you park up for long periods then it won't matter how slow it is.
Ideal for occasional use car.
Set the climate timer and it heats the cabin from the mains before you go.
Take care M
You are not understanding electrical power systems in US homes, while it is true that most outlets are 120 Volts, houses also have 240 volt outlets for washers and dryers that can be used to charge, and like you most people with a Tesla add dedicated 240 volts 48 amp line.
Thanks for clarifying!
Just an observation but you should probably look to get a charger holder for that type-2 charging cable to prevent water ingress rather than relaying on the rubber cover. It may well ultimately lead to significant issues with either the charging cable or worse still, the Tesla charging port. They are only £10-£15 on Amazon. Mine came with one and it's been dry as a bone since May.
Good idea
If you spend £1k on a charger how many years will it actually last? 5 years?
Same as any electrical item - not sure! A grand feels like a lot
if you charge for 72 hours how much is that going to cost for electricity ?
Time isn't the issue, it is how much power you can put into the battery and how much your electricity costs.
Why not just back the car in to get the port closer
Because it involves turning the car round twice. I can only back down my driveway which means I'm nose in to the charger.
Turning the car around not easier? 😂
Nope. Watch of few of my videos and you will see that it's a big restricted
Power provided by Nuclear Energy
VW will charge you £300 on top of the price of the car for a granny charger .
WHAT??
Rather than pull out an extension cord, you couldn't move your Model Y up ONE foot????
OR
BACK your Model Y up instead of driving straight in???
REALLY!!
I could back up to the charger. Involves turning the car round to do so, then turning it again to get out. But as various people use extension cables why not get that out to talk safety? I showed an image of my Outlander PHEV charging from a different extension cable - I would set that up if using the granny cable regularly.
Funny 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Really what's the point owning a electric car.
It's cheaper than running a diesel!
In fact the electric is free at some chargers.
Just economics.
Take care M.
I just Unsubscribed.
That's entirely up to you. I have had a chuckle reading your ALL CAPS anger. And wondering the state of mind to get so ANGRY about something you don't know about such as the layout of a TH-camr's driveway. Take a chill pill! REALLY!!!