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Comment by natch | Hacker News Reader

On just one point, you probably don’t need a wall connector. An electrical outlet will do. Unless that’s what you meant with the scary wording?

Obviously 220/240 is faster than 110/120, but whatever you have, adding a fancy wall connector won’t make it faster.

A mobile connector cable 25 feet long and with some high tech circuit protection in it runs $200, and is all you need. No installation. It comes with common plug adapters or if you have a really strange wall outlet you can buy other adapters as a set or on an individual basis.

Only outlet in reach already occupied by something you absolutely can’t unplug? Well then gosh you do have something to figure out. Maybe you do need an electrician in that case. If your 220 is already used by a dryer, don’t overlook nearby 110s.

In short it’s worth mentioning that not everyone is going to need a wall connector installation.

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A proper wall box charges twice as fast as a plug in adapter. For cars with larger range this is likely to be a pretty significant difference (requires a full day to charge vs can charge overnight).

Not true. It all depends on the circuit that backs the plug in adapter or “proper” wall box. A proper slow wall connector or box as you call it can be slower than a high amperage plug. Just slapping a box around the plug won’t make it faster. And if you are going to do upgrades for installing a box, you can just as easily do the same upgrades to the same power for the same charging speed at less cost by simply upgrading the circuit and the plug (not that even that is needed usually). Adding the box after this does not make it faster. Just aesthetically more impressive looking.

Perhaps it depends on region or perhaps you're referring to driving plugs outside of standard? Where I am a normal plug can drive around 3kw while a dedicated circuit drives about 7kw (both for single phase, more for 3 phase). When we had the dedicated circuit fitted it needed to sense the load from the rest of the house so it could dynamically back off to stay within our overall safe limits. Obviously I'm not saying that putting a box around something magically makes it better, I'm saying that something that plugs into a standard domestic plug (which is what I thought you were taking about) will not supply power at the same rate and that difference can be significant for charging times.

it's not scary wording if people _need_ the range to commute or to have peace of mind. there _are_ considerations needed for the EV transition and many people don't know much about voltage at all so it's important to share that.

i just bought an EV and am super keen about it, but it's important to be educated.

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