To me installing the charging station is just a more elegant built in solution. That appeals to me.

 

I would agree. The #1 home charging issue is your current home electric service. Does your service panel have room for a large circuit? Many older homes do not. Our little Los Gatos home was built in 1962 I think and had a 70A service I believe. Years ago, during a (painful) remodel, we rewired much of the house and upgraded to a 200A service. Permit and all. So adding charging capability was a breaker, 60' of #6 copper wire, a NEMA 14-50 recepticle and an electrician.

I told him I might upgrade to the Tesla Wall Charger one day; he prepped everything for an easy wired installation. This is likely my future, especially if we have 2 Teslas...
Bottom line is, perspective buyers need to know what they have at home or they just might be in for a big surprise.

 

When I finished my basement I added a sub panel, and ran the line to the garage so it’s ready for installation of an EV charger when that time comes. Figured the electricians were here anyways doing the sub panel so why not.

 

It's definitely a more elegant solution, as taking the charging cables out of the trunk, putting them back in can be a hassle, where a charging station is like your personal gas station

 

What happens if your charger can't be inside a garage, if it has to otherwise be outside your house - adjacent to a driveway for example. Is is weatherproof? How do you secure it? What's to stop someone from pulling into my driveway during the day when I am not home, and charging up? Is there some smart phone enabled pass key that activates the charger, or would I have to turn the breaker off (on) inside my house every time I wanted to charge a car, and also secure it from tampering?

 

I would be more than happy to answer your questions. No, a Level 2 charger does not have to be in a garage, as you can see from my pic, it's mounted on the wall in my back yard. And yes, they are 100 percent weatherproof. That includes from extreme heat to pouring rain and snow. They can be mounted in the front yard, or in my case the backyard. If you mean by securing it so it can't be stolen, it is mounted by heavy duty concrete screws, you would need power tools to remove it. There would really be no value for a thief to steal it, it would be more work than it's worth (there are more valuable items in the garage for them to go after).

In my case it's in my backyard (with a German Shepherd ), so I have it set so you just plug the cable in my car and it automatically starts charging, but you can set it so that you need to use the app to start charging, the App will have a pop up where you need to give permission. In the case of my brother in law, he has one in the garage, and one outside the garage in front of his house. He lives in a gated community so no one is going to use his charger. I have lots of friends that have chargers installed at the side of their houses in the front for years, nobody touches them, and people who own EV's have tons of access to chargers and have no need to "bum a charge" without permission.

Can someone tamper with it? Sure, some A hole can take a bat to it, but they are not that expensive to replace, and generally your auto insurance would cover it. Several of my friends and family have had EV chargers for years installed at the side of the house and have never had their chargers touched or tampered with. Keep in mind that many houses also have their main panels at the front side of their houses...I would be more worried about someone tampering with the main panel than a relatively cheap Level 2 charger

 

AMIRZA786 has taught us a lot of valuable information in his post. While these cars are different, you learn. As he has pointed out, if you like driver's cars, the Model 3, in any form, will put a smile on your face. It never gets old.
Are they for everyone? No. Are they expensive? Yes. Is Elon whack? Probably. But these cars are the future, here today. I will buy another; in fact there is no other car I am interested in.

Thanks AMIRZA786 for a great thread!

 

If that's an actual occurrence in your neighborhood, then it's a much more pressing security issue with your neighborhood than the EV's.

 

Like was said, yes they are weatherproof. Nothing can stop someone from coming onto your property and messing with any of your property. I have a hot tub, whats to stop someone from walking into my backyard and having a soak? Would the fear of doing that stop you from getting a hot tub? If you are concerned about things like that, I would suggest smart cameras. I have one pointed right at my driveway, here is the live shot:




As was also said the charging can be app controlled, and if you're really concerned you could always just shut off the breaker if youre going to be away for a longer period, it will be on its own circuit.

 

It's actually not that expensive compared to cars that it competes with. My brother in law crossed shopped it with several cars including a few hybrids and prices were all similar

 

Well, there is no real dollar value in "stealing" a soak in someone's hot tub. But charging up a car, that's real money. I've had a set of tires stolen from my back yard in years past, etc. I've got my BBQ grill chained to the side of the house. My panel is in the basement, so at my age I could do without going up and down the stairs to control the outdoor charger. But the answer provided above that it can be controlled through an app (which I imagine was securely paired with your charger?), was really the answer I was looking for - that makes the most sense. Thanks.

 

Charging a car is actually very inexpensive.

Lets put it this way, a tank of gas is expensive right? Every car parked everywhere has a tank full of gas that can be siphoned into someone else's car for free. Where is the rash of gas siphoning theft? It happens, but its not a common thing.

I highly doubt there are a ton of people running around who have paid for EVs that are trying to steal charging from people.

 

I was just trying to cover all my bases. Yes, it's securely paired with the app and the serial number of the charger is added to your account. If someone were to actually steal it they wouldn't be able to use it if I enabled Remote access unless they had access to my account. Even if they factory reset it, once you report it stolen, it can't be used because when they try to set it up the serial number would not be valid.

Glad to have answered your question. I'm open to answering any other questions you may have

 

Just to add to this, they would be stealing no more than $3 to $5. I wouldn't even notice that

 

And if you live in a place where you have to chain your grill up in your backyard, you are just in a very different situation than most of us...I have a friend who owns an apartment building in Baltimore and people continually rip the power meters off the back and steal them, they steal trash cans anything that isn't chained down.

I would be way more worried about somebody stealing the charger itself in a place like that vs plugging their EV up and charging off my power. What you would need is something like this: