What did you do today?

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Yes 60A breaker, and #6 THHN wire. That stuff is a BEAR to work with. Stuffing the green ground into the ground bus bar was a pain. Took much “smoothing” and careful insertion with a needle nose pliers before it went in.

The Tesla charger base plate AND the 60A breaker were much more accommodating to #6.

$115 worth of parts and two hours most of that time in wall penetration.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Nicely done!

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

I was under a time crunch! Our neighbors just got a new Tesla Model 3 and while it came fully charged, it was down to about 20%. They are heading from NC to Key West on Thursday, and the thought of trickle charging at 110V was just too long. They charge during the day when the sun is shining as they have solar panels on the roof. So just when I thought I was home at 5:30 to make dinner, NOOOOO I'm over at the neighbors installing a charger. All is good, great neighbors...

By contrast the backflow at the other neighbors was a 20 minute job. I did one on Sunday and the next neighbor this coming weekend; many of these cracked in the winter cold here, and nobody can get any irrigation people to call them back, much less do any work.

It's amazing how busy I can be as a handyman simply by being responsive and returning a call.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Interesting idea the solar panels. Do the solar panels provide enough energy in bright sunlight to keep the "status quo" or is a discharge to "dangerously" low levels still a reality?

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

They have 10 solar panels. Their average electric bill has been about $14/month. Mine, just down the street, about $100. During the night, if they charge, they are drawing power through the grid, and pay for that. During the day, if they are sucking that power from the panels into the Tesla, it stays at home and does not go into the grid. So, it's best for them to charge during the day, not overnight.

There's no storage of electricity; the excess is fed back into the grid and the local utility pays a wholesale rate. Best to use that instead.

I don't have an electric car, and it would take many years of those kinds of savings to even begin to break even. But that's an environmental choice for them, not necessarily a financial one.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Oh thanks for the clarification. I misinterpreted your post and I thought the Tesla itself had some solar panels on the roof of the automobile.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Oh thanks for the clarification. I misinterpreted your post and I thought the Tesla itself had some solar panels on the roof of the automobile.

…and there it is.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Very nice. By the way, the only way I'd own a fully electric vehicle is if it had a trailer hitch on it and I could pull an appropriately sized engine generator with fuel to keep the battery topped off.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

…and then there’s the backflow. Very few people around here do anything about these in the winter. It was 9 degrees here on Christmas Eve and many cracked. Thankfully Zurn makes the plastic center “business” available as a $150 repair part, as the entire unit is like $600. A 15 minute installation. Eight bolts and a little cleaning and grease on the O-rings.

 

[breplum]

Was doing a repair few days ago ProPressing some 1-1/4" service entry valve and PRV.
Customer didn't know the colleague I was helping did water heaters.
She had just paid that prior week, $4,300 to a 'water heater guys' company for a straight swap-out 50 g. gas. Not a savvy shopper.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Was doing a repair few days ago ProPressing some 1-1/4" service entry valve and PRV.
Customer didn't know the colleague I was helping did water heaters.
She had just paid that prior week, $4,300 to a 'water heater guys' company for a straight swap-out 50 g. gas. Not a savvy shopper.

That’s really sad and gives lots of contractors a bad name.

 

[Zanne]

I've heard that the Tesla home chargers (the official ones) broadcast a signal or get registered on some sort of network to show up on some sort of Tesla app to alert people of charging station locations. There have been several reddit posts about people with the charging stations having entitled jerks hooking up to charge their vehicles (if the chargers are outside) and trying to get in to the garage and demanding entry to charge claiming the chargers are public. There was one story where after being told to leave & that it was a private charger (and being escorted away by police) the angry entitled neighbor took an axe to the OP's garage door to try to break in to use the charger bc she was too cheap to buy her own.

Been exhausted from the heat the last few days. Got the PVC boards painted but the roller covers I had were garbage and left a rough texture. I wanted smooth. Crud from the ceiling fell on the stuff when I was finished & it was still wet so I had to remove stuff. I'm going to get different roller covers that are smoother and try again after light sanding in between. At least the black bar codes that were printed on the boards aren't visible anymore.

My brother got the shop vac open for me so I could dump it out and dust off the filter. Need to find more filters but I think I threw the box out and don't know the model of the shop vac.

I found a different dremel head to use to remove most of the botched repair on the tub. I exposed some of the black underneath. I then tested some of the other colors that came in the repair kit. Found that mixing the dark and light ceramic ones it came out pretty close. It needs to be sanded, smoothed, and maybe given a coat of turtle wax, but it looks better.

I'm going to have to use my corner grab bar in another area because the wallset has just enough of a curve to it that it won't let the grab bar fit. I might get a different one or figure out a different solution. The bath mat I got prevents slipping so that is a plus.

I have a lot to get done but I mostly have to do things at night when its cooler.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

This particular Tesla charger, is merely a connection between the Homes service panel and the car. There are no electronics of any kind in it. No Wi-Fi connection, no anything. All of the brains so to speak are in the car itself. My neighbor got a universal charger because they also own a Nissan Leaf; so they must use the adapter that came with their car, which allows the car to recharge that any charging station anywhere.

 

[havasu]

From what I understand, IF you have an official Tesla Charging Station installed at your home, you can "opt in" to rent it to neighbors to make a few bucks, but this sits strictly with the homeowner whether they choose to do it or not.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

From what I understand, IF you have an official Tesla Charging Station installed at your home, you can "opt in" to rent it to neighbors to make a few bucks, but this sits strictly with the homeowner whether they choose to do it or not.

I’ve heard that!

 

[havasu]

On another forum related to those dumb electric cars...

My friend brought out his model Y for the weekend to launch his boat. 2 of us said take your Raptor, it is not going to work well.

He drives out, and it takes an extra hour and a half in total. Charges up to 80% in Needles. Picks up his boat there. He’s down under 10 miles range when he gets to his place towing his boat from Needles to Havasu and can’t understand why it used so much power.



Plugs it into 110 at midnight last night to charge and realizes he lost a seat cushion on the tow out. He’s obviously stuck and can’t go looking for it. Car has like 40 miles of range this morning so he asks around who will loan him an ICE vehicle to go look for his lost cushion this morning.



He’s not really sure yet how he is going to get home either after the revelation that towing sucks with an EV. The car will be dead every day from launching the boat and only charging in 110.



The Tesla won’t be back.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

Charging a plug-in electric vehicle with 110 V is like using a battery tender trying to charge the battery on your car. It’s just not enough current flowing fast enough to do anything affective.

Even with that 60 amp 220 V charger I installed for my neighbor it was going to take quite a few hours to get up to full charge. I think something like six.

The real difference is with the Tesla superchargers, but those are not for home use. More current and more voltage than any normal house would ever have.

Right now the superchargers consume power at a rate of 150 to 350 kW depending on the version.