Anyone else only use the portable 120V EVSE?

[NorthernSpark]

I thought when I bought the car I would need to invest in a Level 2 charging station but 13 months into ownership and I haven't really found the need. The circumstance where we have run the battery down to below 50% and do not have enough time to charge it up with enough juice for the following day's commute is a rare occurrence. Anyone else finding the portable 120V EVSE sufficient?

 

[MrDRMorgan]

I thought when I bought the car I would need to invest in a Level 2 charging station but 13 months into ownership and I haven't really found the need. The circumstance where we have run the battery down to below 50% and do not have enough time to charge it up with enough juice for the following day's commute is a rare occurrence. Anyone else finding the portable 120V EVSE sufficient?

I used the L1 EVSE for about 5 months until I received my Bosch L2 EVSE. During that time it met my needs but I had some charging sessions in the summer that lasted about 20 hours. The L2 EVSE makes full charging overnight a breeze. Now that I have 2 Spark EVs, I do use the L1 EVSE when I need to charge both vehicles at relatively the same time.

 

[Homer]

I also find the 120v EVSE to be perfectly fine. Obviously it depends a lot on your commuting patterns but I have not found a need for the L2 charger at home, and didn't bother getting my free one.

 

[SparkevBlogspot]

120V would work perfectly fine for me, but the problem is that I need to carry it with me. Then I have to plug-unplug and wrap the wires each and every time. I could do with two 120V EVSE, but since I got the L2 for free, I use that for home and leave the 120V unit in the trunk.

In fact, I'd prefer 120V since I live on top of a hill and I prefer not to charge it to full, and 12 hours at home fits that well (only 50% charge after 12 hours). But with L2, even 3 hours would do the same, so I have to set an alarm to unplug it after 2 hours. Sometimes, quicker charging isn't so good.

 

[lude219]

My daily commute is 25mi round trip, so the sparkie can actually go about 3 days (4 if I'm really pushing it) before I have to charge it, so the hassle of unwrapping/wrapping the cord and putting the L1 evse back into its trunk storage isn't really much of an issue. I was also contemplating of getting a L2 charger before I got the car, but now, I don't see much of a need.

Being that I only use the L1 evse and mainly charge at home, I wrote to OnStar for the need of a 12A toggle button on their RemoteLink app. Hopefully they listen...

 

[NORTON]

.... and didn't bother getting my free one.

But, but ,, it's free !! How can you not 'bother' to get a free L2? Do you know what they are worth?

As for the title of this thread:

I have never used the L1 that came with the car. (I should probably test it...)
I only charge at free public sites, L2 and DCFC.

Although I have plugged in to my home L2 in the dead of winter overnights for TMS reasons, only about $35 per season.

What about the thought that it is better for battery life not to top it to 100% all the time and leave it sit there?

Charging once every 3rd day may be good for the theoretical life of the pack.

And then for EVSE life, why tightly wind the cord every time? With my previous EV I'd wind it Roadie Style, hold the EVSE and the car connector in one hand and loosely make 2 big loops with the cord, then lay that on the rear seat floor. This is much easier on the cord.

 

[wywa]

The Tesla chargers that run on 120v, e.g. the Roadster emergency charge cord, operate with only about 50% efficiency compared to chargers that operate on 240v. So lots of KWHs wasted when you are not using both both legs (phases) of the AC wiring. It seems unlikely that GM's system would be any different from Tesla's.
--

 

[SparkevBlogspot]

L1 was measured to be about 80% efficient with SparkEV in moderate weather; you don't hear the pumps running whereas you hear the pump after an hour or so with L2. But in hot weather where TMS takes about 0.7 kW which is 50% of 1.4 kW (12A) and 70% of 1 kW (8A), making them 50% efficient or 30% efficient.

 

[flyinbrick]

Same situation here; round trip daily commute is 50 miles so the 120V charger suffices. PG&E does offer an EV rate plan that would make it a bit cheaper if I did have a 240V charger since all charging would be done off-peak. However, I don't have a 240V plug in the garage and the cost to put one in might be $500 to $1000. Even with the free Bosch charger, I ran the numbers and don't think I would save that much in electricity to justify it over 3 years on cost alone. So I got the free Bosch charger (actually an upgraded 30A model) but then sold it on eBay for $500.

The one thing that really annoys the heck out of me though is having to set the charging mode to 12A each and every time I park.