Two Years of Level 1 Charging

[kmcdonal]

I just wrapped up two years of Level 1 charging, and I am here to say that it can be done (depending on your driving habits). Not only did I charge my Taycan on a 110 volt outlet for 2 years, but I shared that charger between the Taycan and another EV. As well, I only ran my Porsche charger at 50% to reduce the risk of tripping the circuit breaker.

We drive each car about 7-8K miles per year, or about 20 miles per day per car. Much of the time we had one of the two cars charging - we just had to be really diligent about plugging the cars in. One of the things that made it work is that the other EV, a Kia EV6, is very efficient and often gets 4+ miles / kW around town. At that efficiency, I could add at least 75-80 miles of range per day on the EV6. We added about 70-75 miles per day on the Taycan.

Outside of road trips, I had take my cars to fast chargers only about 3 times a year (combined between the two cars). We really only had an issue when the weather got down below 0F because the range dropped.

I know others on here have said that there is some fire risk from using a regular circuit for L1 charging, but running the charger at 50% only draws about 750 watts according to the Taycan. My son, like many teenagers, runs a PS5, a gaming PC and a ton of other electronics off one circuit. I assure you that those draw more than 750 watts and they sadly seem to be going 24/7 when school is out. If 750 watts plus a standard circuit at fire risk, I think we would be seeing houses all across the U.S. burning down.

You might ask why we did L1 for 2 years. Let's just say that even though we are in a "Right to Charge" state and I was pushing very hard, it can be quite the process to get chargers installed in a multi-unit building. I had to cut through a mountain of red tape and do a lot of education. I had no idea it was going to take so long to get our L2 charger installed. That saga probably could be a whole separate post.

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[daveo4EV]

I just wrapped up two years of Level 1 charging, and I am here to say that it can be done (depending on your driving habits). Not only did I charge my Taycan on a 110 volt outlet for 2 years, but I shared that charger between the Taycan and another EV. As well, I only ran my Porsche charger at 50% to reduce the risk of tripping the circuit breaker.

We drive each car about 7-8K miles per year, or about 20 miles per day per car. Much of the time we had one of the two cars charging - we just had to be really diligent about plugging the cars in. One of the things that made it work is that the other EV, a Kia EV6, is very efficient and often gets 4+ miles / kW around town. At that efficiency, I could add at least 75-80 miles of range per day on the EV6. We added about 70-75 miles per day on the Taycan.

Outside of road trips, I had take my cars to fast chargers only about 3 times a year (combined between the two cars). We really only had an issue when the weather got down below 0F because the range dropped.

I know others on here have said that there is some fire risk from using a regular circuit for L1 charging, but running the charger at 50% only draws about 750 watts according to the Taycan. My son, like many teenagers, runs a PS5, a gaming PC and a ton of other electronics off one circuit. I assure you that those draw more than 750 watts and they sadly seem to be going 24/7 when school is out. If 750 watts plus a standard circuit at fire risk, I think we would be seeing houses all across the U.S. burning down.

You might ask why we did L1 for 2 years. Let's just say that even though we are in a "Right to Charge" state and I was pushing very hard, it can be quite the process to get chargers installed in a multi-unit building. I had to cut through a mountain of red tape and do a lot of education. I had no idea it was going to take so long to get our L2 charger installed. That saga probably could be a whole separate post.

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...-related-porsche-ntsb-article-analysis.13902/

official Porsche charging document…

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10222530-0001.pdf

this is Porsche's official advice for residential EV charging and the Taycan…

Porsche has never explained their rational behind this recommendation/advise - but it is their official position on the matter.

 

[CrazyINP]

I bet has to do with their charger than actually the car.

 

[daveo4EV]

I bet has to do with their charger than actually the car.

my guess/speculation has to do with MTBF "hours" on the onboard charger (OBC) and other ECU's that are kept awake/running during the charging process…

if you take their battery warranty of 100,000 miles - at 3 miles/kwh that's ~33,000 kWh's to drive 100,000 miles

33,000 kwh @ 1.44 kW charge rate is 22,916 hours that the vehicle is "awake" charging
33,000 kWh @ 9.6 kW charge rate is 3437.5 hours that the vehicle is "awake" charging

or almost 10x fewer hours for the same number of miles driven for L1 vs L2 charging…

accumulated hours on all these electrical components and 12V battery are a factor in vehicle reliability and warranty issues…

if Porsche "knows" their OBC has a MTBF of say 12,000-15,000 hours - the number of house if an owner does L1 charging is inviting OBC failures just based on hours the unit is "awake/running"

also charging keeps a number of related ECU's and components awake during the charging process also - and the MTBF of those items also needs to be considered - L1 charger is simply so slow that it runs up a very large number of hours vs. work accomplished…

but that is only my personal speculation - but I believe it's a simple matter of what elements of the Taycan are kept awake/running for longer than necessary due the slow L1 charging process…

my $0.02 YMMV and it's just a guess on my part…

 

[gamueller]

I also charge 100% L1. I only drive ~3K miles/year.

 

[Gino]

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...-related-porsche-ntsb-article-analysis.13902/

official Porsche charging document…

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10222530-0001.pdf

this is Porsche's official advice for residential EV charging and the Taycan…

Porsche has never explained their rational behind this recommendation/advise - but it is their official position on the matter.

GOOD NEWS!!!

I have been charging at 120V on my 2021 Taycan for about 12 months at 120V/10A & 120V/15A with a backup Lectron charger for 6 months. I’ve had no issues other than a failed 120V Porsche portable charger after 12 months.

PNA confirmed (along with lithium battery charging experts) that there is no risk of fire or battery degradation to the on board charging electronics or the battery itself when charging slowly at 120V.

I asked PNA if I am able to use the 120V charger for extended periods as I was told I could do when the vehicle was originally purchased or is there a reason I must follow the after the fact advice from the Porsche Service Bulletin released in early 2022 more than a year after my Taycan was delivered.

I was told the wiring or outlet in my garage could heat up and fail with continuous use. I told them that defies logic since a certified electrician insured both the wiring and outlet in my garage can supply up to 18A continuous with zero fear of overheating/melting the insulation on the 12 gauge wires or the Hubble 20A rated receptacle.

They then told me it was because I still had outstanding HV battery recalls which made it potentially dangerous to charge to above 80%.

So I charged for another 4 months to only a max of 80% until my HV battery had cleared all the recalls where PNA confirmed to me I could charge to 100% and for as long as I wished at 120V with no safety issues knowing my wiring and outlet met the continuous current requirement of the Taycan.

I believe I know the reason PNA advised against the extended use of the 120V charger for charging at 10A or 1.2kW/hour. It’s not the on board charger or the HV battery that’s the issue. It’s the charger itself that is not built to sustain extended charging on a routine basis.

My charger failed about 10 months after I started using it on average about 60 hours per week (not the 12 hours max only in emergencies as stated in the 2022 service bulletin)

I’ve been waiting for the warranty replacement of my 120V charger for 6 months and was told it will arrive in early March.

In the meantime I purchased a backup portable L1 charger from Lectron which is actually 15A not 10A continuous and it has worked perfectly with no issues, no outlet overheating/melting.

What I did notice was the likely cause of the Porsche portable 120V charger failure was noise/inductive voltage & current spikes on the same circuit in my garage from the garage door opener.

I attached a power analyzer to the outlet to see what was happening when I would open or close the garage door causing the Porsche charger to stop charging every single time once the charger had failed.

The charger would always work perfectly after it failed as long as I would unplug it to reset and plug it back in. It would work perfectly for hours and hours up until I opened or closed the garage door. Got the message “Charging not Possible”

These voltage & current spikes degraded the electronics in the portable charger over time & constant use every week for just .

I thought the 6A surge in current was the cause but that still only had the max current in the circuit at 18A which would never trip the breaker.

The real killer was the fact that the moment the garage door opened or closed the voltage dropped to 105V which appears to be outside the internal rating of the charger electronics which ultimately caused it to fail.

Typical electronics run on AC have a minimum safe voltage at 100V to operate without damage or degradation.

The Porsche charger didn’t like intermittent low voltage as well as voltage/current spikes.

The Lectron charger I’ve used while waiting for the warranty replacement has worked flawlessly. No wiring/outlet overheating/melting at 15A let alone at 10A for the Porsche charger.

I did install a quality surge protector on the garage door opener to keep spikes off the line and a power transformer to the outlet for the Taycan charger to insure the voltage would never drop below 110V to protect the new Porsche charger.

I fully expect the new Porsche charger will last a long time even with continuous charging now that I’ve cleaned up the power supply to the charger but I shouldn’t have had to do this.

The Porsche charger is poorly designed if it can’t filter out line noise and operate periodically at as low as 100V.

Now it is very understandable why Porsche asks for a dedicated circuit for their charger at 220V but also really for 120V as well since it appears the 120V charger actually prefers a computer grade power source or it will become degraded & fail like mine did.

 

[kern417]

Also going on 3 months of Level 1 and feeling pretty good about it. We are using the included charger so only getting about 6A, so less than ideal. I wouldn't mind 10-12A with an aftermarket charger, but I don't see that as an issue currently.

We expect to drive the Taycan ~5k miles per year.

 

[Gino]

Also going on 3 months of Level 1 and feeling pretty good about it. We are using the included charger so only getting about 6A, so less than ideal. I wouldn't mind 10-12A with an aftermarket charger, but I don't see that as an issue currently.

We expect to drive the Taycan ~5k miles per year.

Yes, we drive about 4K miles per year for each of our 3 vehicles so it’s easy to charge the 150 to 200 miles we drive per week at the most.
I’ve noticed absolutely no reduction in range over the past 2+ years charging slowly at 120V.

 

[gamueller]

Yes, we drive about 4K miles per year for each of our 3 vehicles so it’s easy to charge the 150 to 200 miles we drive per week at the most.
I’ve noticed absolutely no reduction in range over the past 2+ years charging slowly at 120V.

Let's call our L1 group "The 100% SOH Club".

 

[Gino]

Let's call our L1 group "The 100% SOH Club".

Sounds good…

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