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The "standard" car charger is usually overkill—but your electrician might not know that [32:26]

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  • Agreed, and that headline is needlessly inflammatory . Looking at my EV mileage , I could almost certainly get away with just plugging into a standard outlet. However the level 2 charger means that even if I screw it up, I can be mostly charged in a couple of hours. It’s been really effective at helping me get over what range anxiety I had. It’s really helped keep car usage as a somewhat impulse thing, rather than a process: I’m ready to go anywhere anytime.

    It also means I can charge multiple EVs, if I wanted to.

    If you screw up, you can usually get to a charger a few blocks away and snag 50% of your battery in 20 minutes.

    I charge entirely off of a standard 120 outlet, and it easily handles my daily and weekly travel needs, along with my partner's numerous errands and extra trips throughout the week.

  • Code allows painting the white conductor black which is what i do. Or at least it did 10 years ago when I last checked.

    This.

    That said, it's rare that only one or two outlets in a garage are tied to a breaker. Usually they're all on one circuit in older homes, in my experience.

    If you can find a circuit like this, though, it's perfectly valid. Many chargers made for 110V also have a 230V/15 or 20 amp mode. My Mother-in-law's portable charger has a 230V NEMA 2-20 adapter that comes in the bag with it.

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    In recent test of a German auto club they found out that it‘s cheaper/ more effective to charger faster. You loose a lot of energy if you load slow over hours.

    This energy is taken by the electricity of the car. So, while charging the car is on and takes some Watts. There are just a few brands that have decoupled the charger circuit from the overall electric circuit of the car.

    Can’t find the article now, but I think charging a PHEV through a standard power plug had about 20% energy lost. It was clearly visible that a charger is a good choice.

    Edit: link https://www-adac-de.translate.goog/rund-ums-fahrzeug/elektromobilitaet/laden/ladeverluste-elektroauto-studie/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

    You‘ll loose

    • ~10-30% AC 2.3kw Standard Power Plug
    • ~ 5-10% DC 11kw Wallbox
    • Internal car electronics are crucial: Is the loading circuit de-coupled or the entire car On?
    • Temperature or pre-heating the battery before loading reduces losses at DC charging
  • Can you cite a time stamp? I don't want to watch a 30 minute video.

    I'm very curious where "42 amps max" comes from, as NEMA outlets are rated for 15A, 20A, 30A, 50A, or 60A. 42A is a rather oddball number; I'd like some context for it.

    Most dryer outlets are rated for 30A, NEMA 10-30, or 14-30.

    Not the same person and cba to get a timestamp right now, but it's the 80% rule - the electrical stuff isn't designed to deliver the rated amperage continuously for hours on end, so for car charging, you're apparently supposed to limit it to 80%. Now, 80% of 50 isn't 42 but 40, so not sure if it's a case of 80% not being a precise number or a mistake here, but it roughly checks out.

  • You explained how it's doable when you drive 60 miles

    Read it again. I said 60 miles the day after driving it to 0%. People don't "usually" need this.

    Average EV has 293 miles of range currently; even if you arrived home with 20% battery remaining and you only wanted to recharge to 80%,

    Thats 176 miles of range. People don't "usually" need that.

    At least once every few months we take a day trip to the nearest "big" city, which is 105 miles away.

    You said all of this already and I already replied to it.

    I'm certainly not saying that a L2 charger is a must for...most people. But I would not agree that L1 is enough for most people.

    🤔 Wat. Do you think there's like a L1.5 or something?

    Wat. Do you think there's like a L1.5 or something?

    There's the option of a level 1 charger at home, supplemented with an occasional stop at a fast charger.

    The L1 charger is not quite enough to keep up with their usage, but their usage isn't enough to make an L2 absolutely necessary.

  • In recent test of a German auto club they found out that it‘s cheaper/ more effective to charger faster. You loose a lot of energy if you load slow over hours.

    This energy is taken by the electricity of the car. So, while charging the car is on and takes some Watts. There are just a few brands that have decoupled the charger circuit from the overall electric circuit of the car.

    Can’t find the article now, but I think charging a PHEV through a standard power plug had about 20% energy lost. It was clearly visible that a charger is a good choice.

    Edit: link https://www-adac-de.translate.goog/rund-ums-fahrzeug/elektromobilitaet/laden/ladeverluste-elektroauto-studie/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

    You‘ll loose

    • ~10-30% AC 2.3kw Standard Power Plug
    • ~ 5-10% DC 11kw Wallbox
    • Internal car electronics are crucial: Is the loading circuit de-coupled or the entire car On?
    • Temperature or pre-heating the battery before loading reduces losses at DC charging

    Did that account for battery lifetime, because if not, that could offset efficiency gains as fast charging degrades batteries.

  • This post did not contain any content.

    I watched the video and it seems to make good points, but no matter how many times I see something related to US power circuits it just feels so ... antique? I have 3x25A fuses on the house and several 3x16A outlets around so getting 11kW out is just a matter of plugging in a socket.

    Obviously it would be a good thing to have controls so that water heater, floor heating or sauna stove aren't all on together but I think I've replaced a single 25A fuse over 10 years we've lived on this house and I'm pretty sure that was caused by a small(ish) surge on the grid and not our load.

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    We have a granny charger that came with one of our EVs that we use as a backup and with our caravan to charge on sites that allow it. As I am UK it tops out at 2.4kw (10A @ 240v) and its annoyingly slow even charging for more than 12 hours at a time.

    Our main home charger is 7kw, and as we get cheap electric every night for 7p a KwH for 5 hours, we can charge about 40kwh in that time period. Means even our largest battery is fully charged in two nights from completely empty. If we tried that with the granny charger it would cost significantly more, as it would be up to 40p a KwH outside of the main hours and take 40 hours to charge the same amount.

    Now if you doing only a few miles a day, less than 40 miles (4 miles per KwH, charge for the 5 cheap hours using the cars charging timer, charge 10 KwH), it might work out ok for you, but then charging every day cannot be good for the battery? I know it would get annoying quite quickly. It would also get pretty painful if you have more than one EV, we have three between us and the kids, so its not remotely practical.

  • We have a granny charger that came with one of our EVs that we use as a backup and with our caravan to charge on sites that allow it. As I am UK it tops out at 2.4kw (10A @ 240v) and its annoyingly slow even charging for more than 12 hours at a time.

    Our main home charger is 7kw, and as we get cheap electric every night for 7p a KwH for 5 hours, we can charge about 40kwh in that time period. Means even our largest battery is fully charged in two nights from completely empty. If we tried that with the granny charger it would cost significantly more, as it would be up to 40p a KwH outside of the main hours and take 40 hours to charge the same amount.

    Now if you doing only a few miles a day, less than 40 miles (4 miles per KwH, charge for the 5 cheap hours using the cars charging timer, charge 10 KwH), it might work out ok for you, but then charging every day cannot be good for the battery? I know it would get annoying quite quickly. It would also get pretty painful if you have more than one EV, we have three between us and the kids, so its not remotely practical.

    Granny chargin', not triple phasing like you should.

  • I watched the video and it seems to make good points, but no matter how many times I see something related to US power circuits it just feels so ... antique? I have 3x25A fuses on the house and several 3x16A outlets around so getting 11kW out is just a matter of plugging in a socket.

    Obviously it would be a good thing to have controls so that water heater, floor heating or sauna stove aren't all on together but I think I've replaced a single 25A fuse over 10 years we've lived on this house and I'm pretty sure that was caused by a small(ish) surge on the grid and not our load.

    I'm not sure what you mean by this. Any modern US house would have a similar capability, it's just older homes that would struggle since there would never be a need for such high power devices in a garage.

    Most older garages would only need enough power to run a single lightbulb, if it was slightly newer, maybe a low power automatic garage door opener.

    It's the same in any country with buildings over 100 years old.

  • Granny chargin', not triple phasing like you should.

    You almost had me charging? You never had me charging - you never had your car charging, it had tripped the socket

    Pedantic but: 7kw isn't three phase in the UK, just 30A. Three phase electric can give you up to 22kw in the UK for charging, obviously not every EV can charge that fast, most only go up to 11kw AC. I would kill for that extra charging speed but I can't justify the extra cost and effort to get it fitted by the electric company

  • Did that account for battery lifetime, because if not, that could offset efficiency gains as fast charging degrades batteries.

    Any AC load you can throw at an EV is effectively “slow charging”.
    My car supports a maximum of 9.6kw from an AC charger, but up to 150kw from DC fast chargers. Even with the fast charging, its not like a phone, it has active thermal management which will cool the battery and slow down the charging if it gets too hot. phones don’t really have that and is mainly why they degrade faster if quick charged.

  • If you screw up, you can usually get to a charger a few blocks away and snag 50% of your battery in 20 minutes.

    I charge entirely off of a standard 120 outlet, and it easily handles my daily and weekly travel needs, along with my partner's numerous errands and extra trips throughout the week.

    you are assuming functional infrastructure, not everywhere has that.

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    My wife had to try charging on a 120V outlet last winter. The plug couldn't even keep up with the battery heating requirements to actually start charging; the battery percentage was going DOWN while plugged in. It was -25°C outside though, so it's a specific situation, but it's actually why she had to try to charge; it's a trip we can easily do without charging in the summer.

  • Any AC load you can throw at an EV is effectively “slow charging”.
    My car supports a maximum of 9.6kw from an AC charger, but up to 150kw from DC fast chargers. Even with the fast charging, its not like a phone, it has active thermal management which will cool the battery and slow down the charging if it gets too hot. phones don’t really have that and is mainly why they degrade faster if quick charged.

    It's a neat conversion for EV charging. 7kw x 2.5 miles per kwh is 17.5 mph. Most EV onboard chargers top out at 11kw, 27.5 miles per hour. So from the battery's perspective, 22kw is it's normal discharge rate at 60mph.

  • You almost had me charging? You never had me charging - you never had your car charging, it had tripped the socket

    Pedantic but: 7kw isn't three phase in the UK, just 30A. Three phase electric can give you up to 22kw in the UK for charging, obviously not every EV can charge that fast, most only go up to 11kw AC. I would kill for that extra charging speed but I can't justify the extra cost and effort to get it fitted by the electric company

    You don't double clutch on upshifts either (it was a drag race) so I'd say the parody is accurate

  • I watched the video and it seems to make good points, but no matter how many times I see something related to US power circuits it just feels so ... antique? I have 3x25A fuses on the house and several 3x16A outlets around so getting 11kW out is just a matter of plugging in a socket.

    Obviously it would be a good thing to have controls so that water heater, floor heating or sauna stove aren't all on together but I think I've replaced a single 25A fuse over 10 years we've lived on this house and I'm pretty sure that was caused by a small(ish) surge on the grid and not our load.

    Fuses sound antique compared to resettable circuit breakers. Though, if I remember correctly, your outlets have resettable breakers? Anyway, part of the wattage deficiency comes from the voltage being half of Europe's. The wires are similarly sized so they hit about the same max amperage (largely 15a for most circuits, 20a frequently in kitchens/garages/exterior outlets, 100-250a main breaker for the house) but halving the voltage halves the wattage available

  • You don't double clutch on upshifts either (it was a drag race) so I'd say the parody is accurate

    Well I did say I was being pedantic, which is absolutely the best way to watch fast and furious with friends

  • You don't double clutch on upshifts either (it was a drag race) so I'd say the parody is accurate

    Uh.

    I drove semi trucks in the US for years....

    You'd better either double clutch or float those gears, because if you don't, you're destroying your clutch brake, which means you'll have trouble getting it into gear from a dead stop. That applies for both upshifts and downshifts.

    Ever sit next to an old truck or bus and hear them grinding gears to get into gear?

    That's due to the clutch brake failing to stop the flywheel.

    All semi trucks in the US use synchro-less manual transmissions.

    When shifting a syncro-less transmission, YOU are the synchro.

    The clutch in these trucks has 2 positions. You either just barely engage the clutch enough to break contact, or you depress it fully to engage the clutch brake and (attempt to) stop the flywheel from spinning.

    If you do the second one while shifting a moving vehicle, you're causing undue wear and tear on the aforementioned clutch brake.

  • I watched the video and it seems to make good points, but no matter how many times I see something related to US power circuits it just feels so ... antique? I have 3x25A fuses on the house and several 3x16A outlets around so getting 11kW out is just a matter of plugging in a socket.

    Obviously it would be a good thing to have controls so that water heater, floor heating or sauna stove aren't all on together but I think I've replaced a single 25A fuse over 10 years we've lived on this house and I'm pretty sure that was caused by a small(ish) surge on the grid and not our load.

    What they do here for (a good amount of) home car chargers is read out the electricity meter using their serial port and dynamically adjust the charge current to never take more than those 3x25A.

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    They will say something like solar went from 600gw to 1000 thats a 66% increase this year and coal only increased 40% except coal is 3600gw to 6400. Hrmmmm, maybe these numbers are outdated? Based on this coal and gas are down: In Q1 2025, solar generation rose 48% compared to the same period in 2024. Solar power reached 254 TWh, making up 10% of total electricity. This was the largest increase among all clean energy sources. Coal-fired electricity dropped by 4%, falling to 1,421 TWh. Gas-fired power also went down by 4%, reaching 67 TWh https://carboncredits.com/china-sets-clean-energy-record-in-early-2025-with-951-tw/ are no where close to what is required to meet their climate goals Which ones in particular are you talking about? Trump signs executive order directing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement — again https://apnews.com/article/trump-paris-agreement-climate-change-788907bb89fe307a964be757313cdfb0 China vowed on Tuesday to continue participating in two cornerstone multinational arrangements -- the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord -- after newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump ordered withdrawals from them. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250121-china-says-committed-to-who-paris-climate-deal-after-us-pulls-out What's that saying? You hate it when the person you hate is doing good? I can't remember what it is I can't fault them for what they're doing at the moment, even if they are run by an evil dictatorship and do pollute the most I’m not sure how european defense spending is relevant It suggests there is money available in the bank to fund solar/wind/battery, but instead they are preparing for? something? what? who knows. France can make a fighter jet at home but not solar panels apparently. Prehaps they would be made in a country with environmental and labour laws if governments legislated properly to prevent companies outsourcing manufacturing. However this doesnt absolve china. China isnt being forced at Gunpoint to produce these goods with low labour regulation and low environmental regulation. You're right, it doesn't absolve china, and I avoid purchasing things from them wherever possible, my solar panels and EV were made in South Korea, my home battery was made in Germany, there are only a few things in my house made in China, most of them I got second hand but unfortunately there is no escaping the giant of manufacturing. With that said it's one thing for me to sit here and tut tut at China, but I realise I am not most people, the most clearest example is the extreme anti-ai, anti-billionaire bias on this platform, in real life most people don't give a fuck, they love Amazon/Microsoft/Google/Apple etc, they can't go a day without them. So I consider myself a realist, if you want people to buy your stuff then you will need to make the conditions possible for them to WANT to buy your stuff, not out of some moral lecture and Europe isn't doing that, if we look at energy prices: Can someone actually point out to me where this comes from? ... At the end of the day energy is a small % of EU household spending I was looking at corporate/business energy use: Major European companies are already moving to cut costs and retain their competitive edge. For example, Thyssenkrupp, Germany’s largest steelmaker, said on Monday it would slash 11,000 jobs in its steel division by 2030, in a major corporate reshuffle. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/High-Energy-Costs-Continue-to-Plague-European-Industry.html Prices have since fallen but are still high compared to other countries. A poll by Germany's DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce of around 3,300 companies showed that 37% were considering cutting production or moving abroad, up from 31% last year and 16% in 2022. For energy-intensive industrial firms some 45% of companies were mulling slashing output or relocation, the survey showed. "The trust of the German economy in energy policy is severely damaged," Achim Dercks, DIHK deputy chief executive said, adding that the government had not succeeded in providing companies with a perspective for reliable and affordable energy supply. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-german-companies-mull-relocation-due-high-energy-prices-survey-2024-08-01/ I've seen nothing to suggest energy prices in the EU are SO cheap that it's worth moving manufacturing TO Europe, and this is what annoys me the most. I've pointed this out before but they have an excellent report on the issues: https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/97e481fd-2dc3-412d-be4c-f152a8232961_en?filename=The+future+of+European+competitiveness+_+A+competitiveness+strategy+for+Europe.pdf Then they put out this Competitive Compass: https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/competitiveness-compass_en But tbh every week in the EU it seems like they are chasing after some other goal. This would be great, it would have been greater 10 years ago. Agreed
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