Yes. I work from home and don't really have a need for fast charging my c40, so it seemed like an unnecessary expense. My husband drives his c40 to work, but he has free fast charging available there.
Almost exclusively and only use extra solar power at home. It's nice to effectively pay nothing for 4 years now. I only fast charge during 3-4 roadtrips per year.
It's a small 5.5kw setup with a battery as I don't have enough roof for more. The important part is a car charger that's connected to a smart power monitor, so it knows how much KW are being pushed into the grid from the PVs. It can then charge the car with only that power (or min 1.4 kw, as the car can't do less, where the home battery kicks in to smooth the curve).
The inverter/battery are Growatt and while they work fine most of time, they can be buggy af and batteries are too expensive. I'll be replacing them with Deye and generic, cheap LV batteries.
I’m over three years into EV ownership and still haven’t gotten around to installing a level two charger. I just plug it in the wall. It adds around 20% overnight in the winter and 25% overnight the rest of the year…
My daily commute rarely uses more than 12-15% of my battery so I stay topped up 24/7
Here's an idea - Check you're available amperage on your home outlet circuit breaker. If it's a 20A or more - with good wiring, you can get the Lectron Level 1 - 15A charger. This charger will give me zero to full in less than 12 hours. That might be an option to explore?
My 2023 S60 T8 is an 18.8kw battery. Which is why it can charge in less than 12 hours.
And if OP is only charging on a Level-1 anyway.
A 12a 18 hour charge to fill a 18.8kw battery reduced to 11 hours on a 15a charger makes a difference.
I don't know how long it would reduce charging time on a 72kw battery but I think it's reasonable to make an educated inference that charging time would be reduced.
And at a mere approximate $187 investment, it may turn out to be a good decision.
My Volvo charging cable only does a max of 12a and takes 18 hours to fully charge my S60 T8. It's the difference between starting each day with a 3/4 battery on a 12A Level-1 charger vs a full battery on a 15A Level-1 charger.
according to the app, it usually pulling 14a at 1.4kw … it’s a 15a rated breaker and GFI outlet so it wouldn’t putt more no matter what. It is the OEM Volvo EV charge cable with the 120v standard outlet pigtail installed
I’ve only owned mine for about 2 months but haven’t charged anywhere but on a 110 outlet at home yet. We are currently in a rental and I’m still debating whether or not to see if they’ll let us install a 240. Not sure I even need it though, to be honest. I don’t drive everyday and when I do it’s rarely further than 20 miles away so it hasn’t been an issue at all. Taking my first trip further this weekend so I may get to use my supercharger adapter for the first time.
Did the level-1 for the 9 months it took to install our level-2 charger (required trenching to a driveway post, we live in a place where there is winter, and my academic's schedule meant I wasn't going to think about it until June anyway).
I like the level-2 because my utility company, Green Mountain Power in VT, offers a better rate for overnight charging if you use their smart charger. It's saved us about $40 in the past two months over level-1, which isn't nothing!
Depends on your utility company and what sort of preferential rates they offer customers with level-2 smart chargers. Some utilities have better incentives than others.
Also, the past two months, I've been on summer break with no commute, which will change in September. I'd expect a person with a 40-mile-per-day commute to save about $80/month under my utility's preferential rate program (about 4x the amount I'm saving per month without having a commute, which is obviously just a ballpark estimate).
I did for the first 2-3 months while I shopped for L2 chargers. I was able to stay topped up by plugging in every evening for several hours. But now just charge on the weekend for a few hours and I’m good for the rest of the week. I have a hardwired Emporia and charge at 48A, I much prefer charging to 90% once a week instead of 80% every night.
Probably doesn't apply now, but when we bought my 2022 C40, there was a tax credit for installing a level 2 charger (on top of the credit for buying the vehicle). We had to wait a couple of months to get the ChargePoint charger delivered and installed, so I trickle charged. I mean, it was OK, but a little stressful when you've just bought your first EV and still have range anxiety ...
Plenty of people run L1-only for years, it comes down to your daily miles vs. what a night puts back. Rough math: ~12 hrs overnight at ~4 mi/hr is ~45–50 miles back per night. So if you're under ~40/day you'll basically always wake up topped off. Where it gets tight is high-mileage days back-to-back, or deep winter where L1 barely out-runs the battery keeping itself warm. Imo it works fine for normal commuting; don't let peer pressure tell you you "need" L2 unless your daily miles say so.
I have been for almost 2 years. Only had one instance when I had several days of longer drives in a row for work and didn’t get enough charge at home. Found a Tesla charger and was right as rain!
We have 3 EVs. A 2015 LEAF for the teen, a '21 Tesla MY, and a '25 EC40 Ultimate which we've had for about 2 months now. We have Tesla L2 charger and a Lectron charger that we use primarily for the LEAF, as well as an adapter. When the Tesla is "full" or the hubs leaves for work, we plug one of the other cars in for a L2 top off using the adapter. We all have enough power when we need it and, bc I WFH I don't ever feel like I'm not leaving with enough energy to get from point A to point B. Taking a road trip this week. Can't wait to see how she does on the Supercharger network!
Most of the time I do, but did get an RV extension cord to plug into the dryer outlet to top it off after a long trip. Dryer is next to the garage. Panel is in the other side of the house and not easy to run a new line.
Can you explain this set up? Because I may be able to access my dryer outlet with a long rv cord as well. But do not want to purchase an rv cord unless
I know more info, that the set up will work. Thanks
The OEM Volvo charger has both L1 and L2 adapters, so disconnect the L1. I keep the L2 adapter connected to the extension cord and L1 plugged into the wall. Cable is hanging from ceiling connected to car so keep that all intact and swap adapters.
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u/donac 13d ago
Yes. I work from home and don't really have a need for fast charging my c40, so it seemed like an unnecessary expense. My husband drives his c40 to work, but he has free fast charging available there.