120v level 1 charging at home

[ThunderDome]

I do not drive much - less than 30 miles a day on average in my FE (ER). Therefore, 120v slow charging at home using the Ford mobile charger gets me all the juice I need overnight to stay charged up, with an occasional stop at a fast charger if a special day trip or circumstance calls for it. Are there any downsides to charging at home this way 3-4 days per week, in terms of battery health or other considerations? Or is it really just that it’s not ideal for most people because it charges so slowly at about 3 miles per hour of charge and that added range overnight doesn’t usually cut it?

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[moocrab]

I don't think that there's negative downsides with this process. In-fact, the owners manual says that it's preferable to use L1/L2 chargers and to only use DCFC when needed on road trips.

I'd speculate that for some their commute is too great that using the L1 just wont keep up; And for others that they are trying to get as close of an experience to ICE that faster charging is desirable.

 

[RonTCat]

Are there any downsides to charging at home this way 3-4 days per week, in terms of battery health or other considerations?

No.

 

[c max]

No.

I have had my Select RWD SR since Feb. 2021......am retired and most daily driving is under 25 miles....I have been charging with 120 only......if I get too low, I charge once a week over night.....oh, I do use the free volta charger at the one mall I go to occasionally.....and here in Bergen Cty, NJ our small local county zoo also has free volta chargers......(these are L2)......also, I guess because of my driving style, FordPass says I get about 5 miles /hour of charge not the 3 Ford has said......when I had my c max energi, I always got more charge and faster then Ford said....

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

The slower you charge, the more gentle on the battery. When you need more than your level 1 charge, you may be able to find a level 2 charger at a hotel of mall and plug in there for a couple hours. The less DCFC the better over the long term. But I doubt the occasional usage is problematic.

 

[Blackbluff]

Level 1 charging is like a trickle charge that is gentle on the battery system. Preferred if it will meet your usage needs. I have solar power so I charge during the day (retired, heh, heh) to minimize the drain on the storage battery we have for non solar time, like at night. I think you have to find what is best or comfortable for your own set of circumstances.

 

[mr_raider]

In Florida, no problem. In colder climates, the battery conditioning will eat up all the juice and leave little for recharge.

Another consideration is that most household outlets are not designed for sustained 12amp current draws for hours on end. Depending on how much your builders cheaped out, you may melt your socket.

At some point you should pony up the cash for a NEMA-14-50 socket if you can.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Are there any downsides to charging at home this way 3-4 days per week, in terms of battery health or other considerations?

None at all.

 

[ThunderDome]

Appreciate all the feedback confirming my suspicions! Great community. Absolutely the most helpful resource out there.

 

[LS61303]

Pinging this thread as a new MME owner. I have had my car for a month now (absolutely love it) and got my first electric bill after charging at home 9 times in the month, for about 131% of the battery (according to the FordPass app), aka 115kwh. My electric bill accounted for a 226kwh difference from the last meter reading. I was perplexed as to where the 111 kWh difference was coming from, so I asked my brother who is an electrician, and he helped me understand that the electric companies bill per kWh because the amount of time (per hour) that the power is being drawn is just as important to how much power is being drawn. Makes sense. I have been using a 120V with the Ford Mobile Charger connected to an outlet outside my house, and admittedly, have let my car sit on it for sometimes 12-13 hours. Although I am still curious as to where 111kwh worth of energy went, I know that 220V charging is a lot more efficient and understand that energy can be lost between what my house is putting out, and what my car is actually getting. But should it be that much of a difference…? Putting a call out for folks who have charged exclusively at home, and am curious what your electric bill increases were like as you’ve owned the car for longer and longer. Thanks!

 

[db4z]

Pinging this thread as a new MME owner. I have had my car for a month now (absolutely love it) and got my first electric bill after charging at home 9 times in the month, for about 131% of the battery (according to the FordPass app), aka 115kwh. My electric bill accounted for a 226kwh difference from the last meter reading. I was perplexed as to where the 111 kWh difference was coming from, so I asked my brother who is an electrician, and he helped me understand that the electric companies bill per kWh because the amount of time (per hour) that the power is being drawn is just as important to how much power is being drawn. Makes sense. I have been using a 120V with the Ford Mobile Charger connected to an outlet outside my house, and admittedly, have let my car sit on it for sometimes 12-13 hours. Although I am still curious as to where 111kwh worth of energy went, I know that 220V charging is a lot more efficient and understand that energy can be lost between what my house is putting out, and what my car is actually getting. But should it be that much of a difference…? Putting a call out for folks who have charged exclusively at home, and am curious what your electric bill increases were like as you’ve owned the car for longer and longer. Thanks!

I wouldn't think 120v would be more than 10% less efficient than 220v, somewhere around 80-90% overall. I'm guessing the rest of your bill increase was due to other factors like a change in weather affecting your heating/cooling, or if you have electric appliances (range, dryer) a difference in usage from one month to the next, etc. The number of billing days might even be different. Or if you use preconditioning that will consume shore power while plugged in.

If you really want you can buy an outlet meter that measures how much wattage something plugs into it pulls, charge the car for say 4 hours, and see how much the battery charges compared to 4 hours at however many watts the charger is pulling.

 

[LS61303]

I wouldn't think 120v would be more than 10% less efficient than 220v, somewhere around 80-90% overall. I'm guessing the rest of your bill increase was due to other factors like a change in weather affecting your heating/cooling, or if you have electric appliances (range, dryer) a difference in usage from one month to the next, etc. The number of billing days might even be different. Or if you use preconditioning that will consume shore power while plugged in.

If you really want you can buy an outlet meter that measures how much wattage something plugs into it pulls, charge the car for say 4 hours, and see how much the battery charges compared to 4 hours at however many watts the charger is pulling.

Thanks for the quick response. I also immediately thought of other variables that could have caused the spike in kWh usage, and can’t really say that anything has changed in my usage other than plugging in my car. Compared to the last 2 months, and then compared to last year’s usage of those same months, my average usage has stayed about the same. And that’s considering using AC/fan, and my electric appliances.

So today I’ve taken note of the meter readout before I plugged my car in, and will see what it reports after I unplug, and how that lines up with what the FordPass app is reporting. Something just isn’t adding up…

 

[RickMachE]

Our library loans out Kill-O-Watt devices, with which you can get a readout of what the device is pulling, both currently and in total.

120v has a higher loss from the wall to the car then 240v does, about 10%. I.E. If the wall sends 10kw to the car, the 120v adapter puts 8 in. The 240v adapter puts 9 in. Roughly...

If you pre-condition with 120v, you'll discover that it's awful at it (at least it was on our Fusion Energi). It will both draw power from the house and the battery, and still not pre-condition as good as 240v.

I didn't do a scientific study, but charged a handful of times on 120 until we got our charger put in last Tuesday. We got something like 2.8 miles per hour.

 

[SeattleMachE]

I think the only possible downside is if you are repeatedly unplugging/plugging in your mobile charger, with the wear and tear that would place on the outlet. I think I've also seen some people mention the 120v struggles/is unable to both charge the car AND do the battery conditioning, in colder climates - can't speak to that personally but perhaps someone can chime in with better experience there.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I wouldn't think 120v would be more than 10% less efficient than 220v, somewhere around 80-90% overall.

Yes, 120V charging is 5-10% less efficient than 240V charging. It's because it has to step the voltage up even higher, the bigger the difference in voltage between input and output, the lower the efficiency.

Because it's so slow, you also have to condition the pack for many more hours, which uses more electricity vs. only needing to condition for a couple hours before shutting down. Similar to how setting back your thermostat more hours per day saves energy.

For a lot of reasons, 120V charging really isn't a long-term solution, it's just not enough power to do a lot of things the car was designed for. And it wastes more energy, 30% wasted seems reasonable for 120V (cut that in half for 240V). That's why I think everyone that owns this car needs to get a 240V charger installed of some type, even a little 20A/240V outlet with a 16A EVSE would be a big improvement.

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