Tesla Charging Station...huh, yeah! What is it good for?*

Interest Groups
#1

*sung to the tune of “War”

Continuing the discussion from Anyone interested in High Performance Driving Basics class?:

I stand corrected on the “large” qualifier, although if it were to turn out that this was happening 5+ times a day, every day, (which I assume is not the case or you would have mentioned) then I’d like to be able to add it back into the overall point being made, which is how does providing this progress or further the DMS mission.

I think I am going to start a gasoline powered internal combustion car meetup group…

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#2

That occurs every weekday between 5 and 7 PM on 635 between 35 & Midway.

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#3

Lots of those already exist :wink:

#4

Actually it’s bidaily since it happens between 6:30 and 9AM as well…

#5

Yes, but mine will have a free gas pump station!!!

#6

Well, it may not cost that much, but a ‘fill up’ for a Tesla battery is roughly on par with the quantity of electricity provided to an average household in Texas on a daily basis.

Now Stan, has told me that we expect a donation of $2-$3 dollars per fill up, but I don’t know if that actually happens or even if there is a means for a non-member to do so.

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#7

I call BS on Tesla batteries using the same as the average Texas household. I can’t remember when I’ve seen a house with less than 100A service, with many newer homes having 200A service. A typical Tesla will pull 40A, while a dual charger (rare) Tesla will pull 80A… and ONLY when they are in the first portion of the charge cycle. As the batteries fill, they take less and less power, with the charger disconnecting automatically when the rate of charge hits 5% and the batteries are effectively full.

There are now posters up at the charging stations with PayPal links that allow anyone to donate to the General fund. In the past many people who used the chargers put money in the snack fund box, but that is no longer an option.

I’ve seen several Tesla owners charge for an hour or two and put a $20 in the snack fund, so I’m not worried about them taking a free ride. Having a standard charger here has prompted at least one of the NTEAA.org group to join… I’ve only seen him here for NTEAA meetings, so he certainly isn’t charging more than his $50/mo dues. :wink:

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#8

The average household uses approximately 1000 KWh - 1200 KWh per month, which equates to about 34 KWh - 40KWh of electricity per day. That is in the ball park of a recharge of a Tesla motor battery, which is either 56KWh or 75 KWh capacity depending upon model.

I wasn’t really talking about whether the folks are getting a ‘free’ ride, but how does a non-DMS member place any money in donation? My understanding is that Tesla lists this ‘pump’ so that any Tesla owner knows about it and can find it?

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#9

I have a volt and charge when I go to DMS. I usually use about 5 kWh each time which is around $0.50 worth of electricity each time.

I do pay DMS at least $1 for each time I charge.

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#10

There are some laminated signs up at each of the charging stations that have a QR-Code for donations to the General Fund. We decided a cash box outside would not be a great idea.

Our Tesla station isn’t on the official list that shows up in the cars display yet, but it will be soon. Tesla support has directed a few cars to us by phone… One of which had only 3 miles left when he got to us. I saw him put a $20 in the snack fund box before he left.

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#11

It is on plugshare though:

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#12

Steering (pun intended!) back to the topic header … what is the charging station good for? Could we make an Electric Car, say a Tesla Model DMS, that could charge off the Tesla Charging station? We could use it to shuttle people around the area to Dart rail, The Waffle House, Pizza, etc.

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#13

Most Tesla owners don’t “fill up” every day. With a realistic range of 250 miles per fill up, I suspect that most Texas Tesla drivers only actually have to fill up every few days… even if they plug in every night, they don’t typically use the full charge.

I think there would be a huge “hew and cry” if every Tesla owners electric bill doubled when they bought their car. The reports I’ve seen on the Tesla owners forums indicates that the typical electric bill in CA goes up about $35/mo while the typical fuel cost in CA goes down $250/mo for a new Tesla owner… so Tesla cars do NOT use the same amount of power that a typical house uses, even if the Tesla can store that power, it isn’t typically using it.

#14

That’s a great idea. We should have (many) more of these types of things around the 'Space at other consumable use points, e.g. logistics/storage, woodshop, machine shop, foundry(?), wherever consumables are supplied by DMS. Especially if the QR codes (or whatever final mechanism is used) could be ‘tuned’ to a specific committee, as well as made specific for a given use case, i.e. could track payment stream from specific QR code/station.

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#15

We could easily make a vehicle that uses the standard J1772 charger… We could make one that uses the Tesla connector, but the Tesla charge port is more difficult to make, and very difficult to purchase.

#16

My original point was that a typical Tesla fill-up at the space (the $1-$3 that Robert indicated) was roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity used by a typical Texas household in a day, which it is. The cost difference is because the space receives business rates as opposed to residential rates.

As to how much it costs the owners, my understanding of the demographics are such that $100-$200 extra per month on the electric bill would likely not be noticed, and is certainly comparable to what many people spend on gasoline each month.

#17

Our very overworked Treasurer, @BenjaminGroves, has asked that we see how well the current QR-Code posters work before we go crazy adding more fund donation links.

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#18

I give up… keep on thinking that a Tesla uses as much power as a home if you wish. When I was living in a house, I would have loved to be able to only spend $1-3/day for electricity.

#19

Stan, how much power one uses isn’t the same as how much that costs. Again the average household in Texas uses about 1000 KWh per month. Divide that by an average of 30 days yields a daily consumption of about 34KWh of electricity. The Tesla’s have batteries with capacities between 56KWh and 75KWh, so assuming the ‘tank’ is only partially empty they need about the same quantity of electricity to recharge as a typical house in Texas uses each day. In other words 34KWh is either a 60% fill up or a 45% fill up depending upon which battery pack the Tesla has.

The difference in cost is related to the way utilities bill for electricity.

#20

I’ve been informed that we ARE on the Tesla in car displays now in some cars.

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