First time EV owner, what charger for the house?

[Shawn_Turismo]

Hello everyone! Looking to buy my first EV, namely a taycan CT 4S so I honestly don’t know much about charging. I’ve done a lot of searching on the forum but the terminology is not familiar to me so I need to keep educating myself.

My somewhat daily commute is only 50 miles round trip so I won’t need to be charging nightly (although I think I read charge often but to 80%?).

Question is, can I rely on the mobile charger that comes with the car and maybe make some light modifications to my garage to power it as a Level 2? Could someone help explain what a decent setup would be for a beginner in layman’s terms? Really appreciate the help as I continue to get educated!

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[Tooney]

Suggest you not rely on any Porsche brand EVSE for home charging. See many posts on forum for why, including this thread: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...uide-to-the-porsche-evse-pmc-pmcc-pwcc.13886/

For related info on home charging see:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/us-home-charging-recommendation-this-is-as-simple-as-i-can-make-it…honestly-bare-bones-least-amount-of-text….11745/
and:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/us-over-the-top-the-well-equipped-ev-home-garage…for-those-that-wish-to-over-do-it-….2343/
and:
https://www.youtube.com/@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney

 

[violuma]

IMHO, anything written by @daveo4EV on this topic should essentially be considered the best available information.

That being said, here's my take:

1. Pretend that Porsche does not make any sort of charging equipment whatsoever.
2. Find an electrician you trust.
3. Decide whether you will be satisfied with 40A - that will give you about 10kW/hour, and is the maximum that you can do with a plug/socket situation.
4. If the answer to 3 is "yes", then have the electrician from step 2 install a 240V NEMA socket in your garage. The wall you are facing when you pull in is a good default choice, because the Taycan can charge on either side.
5. If you want more juice, the electrician will need to hardwire the charger, so you should decide which charger you want to buy first. You can delay doing this if you go with the plug/socket solution.

I have a hardwired ClipperCreek 48A, which delivers about 11.5kW/hour.

 

[OzzieT]

I went with a Tesla Wallconnector 3 Phase. Available, relatively inexpensive, plenty of installers.

 

[whitex]

IMHO, anything written by @daveo4EV on this topic should essentially be considered the best available information.

That being said, here's my take:

1. Pretend that Porsche does not make any sort of charging equipment whatsoever.
2. Find an electrician you trust.
3. Decide whether you will be satisfied with 40A - that will give you about 10kW/hour, and is the maximum that you can do with a plug/socket situation.
4. If the answer to 3 is "yes", then have the electrician from step 2 install a 240V NEMA socket in your garage. The wall you are facing when you pull in is a good default choice, because the Taycan can charge on either side.
5. If you want more juice, the electrician will need to hardwire the charger, so you should decide which charger you want to buy first. You can delay doing this if you go with the plug/socket solution.

I have a hardwired ClipperCreek 48A, which delivers about 11.5kW/hour.

^THIS except skip the NEMA 14-50 and go straight to 48A hardwire, even if you'll limit it to 40A. Unless you absolutely plan to unplugging your EVSE and taking it with you (honestly, why? just buy another one for under $300 to keep in the car), just hardwire your EVSE in your garage - avoid any local regulation issues (like a requirement to have the NEMA 14-50 to have GFCI) as well as possible melting issues (unless you use an industrial NEMA 14-50).

 

[Shawn_Turismo]

Thank you all! This is making way more sense now to me!

I’ll need to figure out where to find an electrician that is knowledgeable about EV charging. Might reach out to my local Porsche dealer to see who they recommend.

 

[Zsport]

IMHO, anything written by @daveo4EV on this topic should essentially be considered the best available information.

That being said, here's my take:

1. Pretend that Porsche does not make any sort of charging equipment whatsoever.
2. Find an electrician you trust.
3. Decide whether you will be satisfied with 40A - that will give you about 10kW/hour, and is the maximum that you can do with a plug/socket situation.
4. If the answer to 3 is "yes", then have the electrician from step 2 install a 240V NEMA socket in your garage. The wall you are facing when you pull in is a good default choice, because the Taycan can charge on either side.
5. If you want more juice, the electrician will need to hardwire the charger, so you should decide which charger you want to buy first. You can delay doing this if you go with the plug/socket solution.

I have a hardwired ClipperCreek 48A, which delivers about 11.5kW/hour.

 

[PNWTaycan4S]

I just installed the Tesla Universal Wall Connector, and it works great. Universal Wall Connector (tesla.com). I've been using the Tesla Mobile Connector with a J1772 adapter for the last four years on a regular basis and it has been terrific. The advantage of the Universal Connector is that it has both the J1772 plug, currently used on Taycans, and the NACS (Tesla) plug that all U.S. based electric cars will have starting in 2025. Future proofing.

 

[Randylip]

Hello everyone! Looking to buy my first EV, namely a taycan CT 4S so I honestly don’t know much about charging. I’ve done a lot of searching on the forum but the terminology is not familiar to me so I need to keep educating myself.

My somewhat daily commute is only 50 miles round trip so I won’t need to be charging nightly (although I think I read charge often but to 80%?).

Question is, can I rely on the mobile charger that comes with the car and maybe make some light modifications to my garage to power it as a Level 2? Could someone help explain what a decent setup would be for a beginner in layman’s terms? Really appreciate the help as I continue to get educated!

 

[Randylip]

All you need is a 50 amp dryer outlet. When Porche recalled my charger and gave money to purchase another I bought enel x charger which works great. I don't know if your taycan has the new charger, if not it will only work at 1/2 charge. Hope this helps.

 

[daveo4EV]

my personal top 2 Choices for home/residential EVSE in North America are:

• Tesla Universal Wall Charger
• ChargePoint Flex

both offer easy access to J-1772 and NCAS charging cables - Tesla has a built-in J-1772 adapter, and ChargePoint offers an easy-peasy cable swap…

https://store.chargepoint.com/acces...3YuOBhdbFmiy4Qo3zR1y389HS9MOXgzUaAr4oEALw_wcB

both are adjustable amps so they can run on _ANY_ breaker size (Tesla 15-60 amp, Chargepoint 15-70 amp) - you just configure them when you install them to match your actual installed breaker.

Both look good, both work well, both offer some level of wifi access for stats and status via app or web portal…

both are less than $800 (much less)

both are easy to install and have good/decent customer support should there be a problem

chargepoint "wins" the internet for having perhaps the _BEST_ documentation for their charger and EVSE's in general - you almost have to consider them because their documentation is simply excellent, well done, and shows a lot of care for details, accuracy, professionalism and it just exudes quality. You can tell when companies care about all aspects of their product, and Chargepoint's documentation brings a tear to my eye because it's just 100% quality to a level few if any companies demonstrate these days.

https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers...3YuOBhdbFmiy4Qo3zR1y389HS9MOXgzUaAr4oEALw_wcB
https://qmerit.com/ev/chargepoint/
https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/home/resource


for me personally the Tesla gets "the nod" because:

• future proofing with powersharing setup to share a single breaker for multi-EV charging
  • you can "add" unto 5 other Tesla Wall chargers and configure them to "share" a power budget - to allow charing multiple EV's at the same time and they will all stay with in a given power budget in terms of AMPs - great for your future EV household
• default/built-in J-1772/NCAS support with no "cable swap"
• Tesla's install/dock is excellent/well design and easy enough that it's a DIY affair if you already haves the "circuit installed" - myself and my friends have all self installed a Tesla Wall Charger
  • The ChargePoint flex is also easy to DIY install - but it's not quite as DIY as the Tesla - but close

Both units can be plug-based or hardwired (Tesla "becomes plug base" if you "add" a 4-10ft NEMA 14-50/6-50 appliance cable - see amazon or my previous posts for the actual part number).

ChargePoint offers factory: NEMA 14-50/6-50/Hardwired variants - Tesla is only hardwired from the factory but it's easy to attach a NEMA 14-50/6-50 appliance "whip".

Another option is the Porsche Wall Charge Connect PWCC - $1500'ish - it's adjustable from 15-100 amp breakers, wall mounted, hardwired, and works well with Porsche EV's but has some reported "issues" with other EV's so it's a YMMV situation - works great for some people not so great with others…

all in all there are excellent non-Porsche EVSE alternatives and once installed you'll never look back - this is also a piece of infrastructure for your home and EVSE are not vendor specific by design the default expectation is they work with all EV's - EVSE's that do not work with a North American EV is a design defect and you should expect your EVSE vendor to "fix" by either modifying their product or working the EV vendors to gain compatibility with that particular vehicle…

there are other EXCELLENT choices and there is no one true "list" - that's the beauty here - there are choices and it honestly doesn't really matter - so it almost makes no difference…

the only truth I've determined is that the Porsche PMC+/PMCC should be on "no one's" list of choices - it's a deeply flawed product and Porsche seems out of it's depth to provide any meaningful customer support or path forward to an acceptable product…but that's ok - you can you love their vehicles (I do) - and charge their EV's with a non-Porsche EVSE - it's honestly no problem and works great…

so buying advice is easy - virtually _ANYTHING_ but not any of the Porsche mobile chargers…throw a dart at a choice if you have to… just not the Porsche product.

 

[laua]

Just get the Tesla wall connector. It’s cheap, works flawlessly and electricians are familiar with it. For electricians - I spoke to my local town permitting office and got some local references. I initially priced out Tesla recommended electricians in my area but they all charged 2-3x what the guy I ended up using charged (and he was licensed and got this inspected by the town).

 

[jasonh]

I’ve had good experiences with both an Enel X charger and now a 2-cable Grizzl-E charger. Both use a NEMA 14-50 socket.

noted elsewhere, be sure to get an Industrial or EV rated socket. Anything less will melt. (Been there, replaced it.) the Hubbel socket is about $80 and it’s a beast.

I’m fine without internet connectivity. The car has plenty of smarts.

 

[Shawn_Turismo]

So what are people’s thoughts about an industrial level 14-50 socket and using the Porsche mobile charger connect that will come with the car as Level 2? Has anyone had issues with this type of a setup?

 

[SergeyIndy]

So what are people’s thoughts about an industrial level 14-50 socket and using the Porsche mobile charger connect that will come with the car as Level 2? Has anyone had issues with this type of a setup?

Not ideal. Too many points of failure. We are steering you toward the other end, which is a non-Porsche EVSE and direct wire to the panel, shortest copper wire between them, which is the simplest and most reliable way of doing it. I was new to all of it as well a year ago and settled for this. No visible wires, no sockets to be melted, no fumbling with the Porsche mobile charger that is not reliable, and EVSE power cord reaches to the second parking spot in the garage to the left charging port of the car.

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