[ForensicBimmer]

On Monday I made a handshake deal for a new 530e. The thing is beautiful, at least on video, because they have to bring it down from another city up north. So the deal is contingent on me seeing and driving the car, but I digress.

My question is about the charging at home. I've watched some videos on it, but there's no real good information about plugging it into my garage's wall socket. There are apparently three charge settings, Max, Reduced, and Low.
If I plug it into the Max setting and into my three pronged wall is that something I need to worry about fire or fuses? I have 2 A/C units, a pool heater(which is only used occasionally), and the standard home electronics, TVs, appliances, etc...

Also, how long does it take to get to full charge on those settings?

[ted99]

If you are referring to the "convenience" charger that comes with the car and plugs into a standard 110v outlet, it draws a maximum of 10 amps, which is no danger or challenge to any home electrical system dating from the past 50 years.

It will recharge your battery from 10% overnight--it's very slow. Using a Level 2 EVSE will take about 4 hours at the 15 amp 220v rate and 2 1/2 hours at a 30 amp rate. The onboard charging system will not allow charging rates greater than 30 amp at 220v.

For info, the "charger" is part of the car. The box you plug into your house is an "EVSE" or "electric vehicle supply equipment". It's just a smart relay that interfaces between your car and the electric supply to confirm that the two are compatible.

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by ForensicBimmer

On Monday I made a handshake deal for a new 530e. The thing is beautiful, at least on video, because they have to bring it down from another city up north. So the deal is contingent on me seeing and driving the car, but I digress.

My question is about the charging at home. I've watched some videos on it, but there's no real good information about plugging it into my garage's wall socket. There are apparently three charge settings, Max, Reduced, and Low.
If I plug it into the Max setting and into my three pronged wall is that something I need to worry about fire or fuses? I have 2 A/C units, a pool heater(which is only used occasionally), and the standard home electronics, TVs, appliances, etc...

Also, how long does it take to get to full charge on those settings?

Charging at home should be a breeze. Depending on your use case you may be fine with Level 1 (standard wall outlet) charging or you may benefit a lot from Level 2. It will depend on things such as your driving pattern (purely a commuter car, for instance) as well a climate (will you end up using preconditioning a lot like I am right now that it is 99F outside). Deciding between those two will take a bit of evaluation on your part, but you can always start with Level 1 and upgrade to Level 2 if you feel it is worth it.

Just so you know, the Low/Med/High charging current option only impacts Level 1 charging. For Level 2 charging the car can communicate with the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment colloquially people call this the charger, but the actual charger is inside the car itself) and negotiate a current up to the max of 16A @ 240V.

Charge times will vary at Level 1, but I'd ballpark it at 10-12 hours depending on ambient temperature from empty. That's what I remember getting before I installed my Level 2 EVSE. Not an issue if you're charging the car overnight for work since it can sit there for many hours without issue. If you activate preconditioning though the car will need to draw from the battery to do this so you'll lose 20% of your charge or so due to this on a Level 1 charger. Level 2 is under 3 hours on MY2020 or MY2021 with the larger battery capacity and on the most extreme days (like 100F outside or 10F outside) you'll lose ~1% of the charge preconditioning as the car will need to pull some power from the battery if the AC or heat needs to run at max to arrest the cabin temperature.

Let us know if you have any other questions or peek through my post history. I'm often talking at length about the 530e

[SteveinArizona]

If you leave in the AM and return in the PM and don't do much driving otherwise, then using the convenience 110 cable will work. If, on the other hand, you have the ability to plug in during the day, then installing a 240 box would make sense.

Having had a BMW plug-in for the last 4+ years, I can safely predict that you will love the car. I see you are from Florida -- one feature that you will likely love is the ability to turn on the AC remotely using the phone app and run the AC without starting the car. Just make sure you leave some battery capacity to do that. I do that in the summer in Arizona after the 17th hole while playing golf.

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by ted99

If you are referring to the "convenience" charger that comes with the car and plugs into a standard 110v outlet, it draws a maximum of 10 amps, which is no danger or challenge to any home electrical system dating from the past 50 years.

It will recharge your battery from 10% overnight--it's very slow. Using a Level 2 EVSE will take about 4 hours at the 15 amp 220v rate and 2 1/2 hours at a 30 amp rate. The onboard charging system will not allow charging rates greater than 30 amp at 220v.

For info, the "charger" is part of the car. The box you plug into your house is an "EVSE" or "electric vehicle supply equipment". It's just a smart relay that interfaces between your car and the electric supply to confirm that the two are compatible.

Just a few corrections:

The Low/Reduced/Max charging setting has a range between 6A and 15A depending on the cable used. 15A can certainly be enough to overload a residential socket (especially a shared one). Considering most residential sockets are 15A...

The car's onboard charger is limited to 16A @ 240V for all 530e cars currently.

[rts2101]

The Occasional Use cord, which comes with all the 530e's, took about 11 hours to charge my 2019 (it has a smaller battery than yours).

The optional 'TurboCord' from BMW claims to be up to 3 times faster. But it's like a $500 option from BMW. For that you can get a decent Level 2 charger (or at least close) which cut my charging time to 2 hours.

BTW....if you (or anyone else) are interested in a BMW TurboCord, I have one new in box never opened. I would let it go for a very reasonable price. I'm in the 'central' part of the state.

[ForensicBimmer]

Thank you all for the information.
I've never had an electric, but because of the amount that I drive I thought it was important that I try to get one. My commute to and from work 3 days a week is 41 miles(total). That doesn't include potentially more miles for kids sports activities that are shared with my wife. Plus the other days I drive at least that much between kids activities and other things.
And after making this deal yesterday, it just hit me on the way to work today that I have to charge this thing in my house and I have minimal knowledge of how it really works. Which, admittedly, is stupid, I should have looked into it sooner, but better late than never.

These questions are going to seem stupid because, like I said, I don't have much knowledge of how electric cars work yet. I'm still just learning.
If the car is fully charged and plugged in over night it can be left plugged in? I assume the car will shut off the charge even with the chord still plugged?

Also, has anyone used an EVgo station to charge?
I'm assuming we can't charge it at a Tesla station?

[nizmugen]

Originally Posted by ForensicBimmer

If the car is fully charged and plugged in over night it can be left plugged in? I assume the car will shut off the charge even with the chord still plugged?

From what I've seen, charging will stop once the battery hits 100%. Keeping the car plugged in before you leave is nice for pre-conditioning, as it will try to stay 100% full until you leave.

Originally Posted by ForensicBimmer

Also, has anyone used an EVgo station to charge?
I'm assuming we can't charge it at a Tesla station?

I've only found the correct socket at Chargepoint stations around here (CA). Tesla's and most other full electric vehicles utilize a different plug.

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by ForensicBimmer

Thank you all for the information.
I've never had an electric, but because of the amount that I drive I thought it was important that I try to get one. My commute to and from work 3 days a week is 41 miles(total). That doesn't include potentially more miles for kids sports activities that are shared with my wife. Plus the other days I drive at least that much between kids activities and other things.
And after making this deal yesterday, it just hit me on the way to work today that I have to charge this thing in my house and I have minimal knowledge of how it really works. Which, admittedly, is stupid, I should have looked into it sooner, but better late than never.

These questions are going to seem stupid because, like I said, I don't have much knowledge of how electric cars work yet. I'm still just learning.
If the car is fully charged and plugged in over night it can be left plugged in? I assume the car will shut off the charge even with the chord still plugged?

Also, has anyone used an EVgo station to charge?
I'm assuming we can't charge it at a Tesla station?

There is no harm in leaving the car plugged in. It will stop charging when it is done and it will resume charging if it ever finds it needs to (like when preconditioning or if left stored for a long time -- a nice bonus as you no longer need a trickle charger for those times). The car does a great job managing the battery

You can use any station that has a J1772 connector (Level 2), but you can't use any that use CHAdeMO or other DC fast chargers (Level 3). Technically you could use a Tesla Destination charger with a Tesla to J1772 adapter, but it isn't worth looking into for a PHEV IMHO.

You can use PlugShare to take a look at what compatible chargers exist near your home, work, and etc to get an idea on things like pricing, access, compatibility, etc...

I often plug in when going to the grocery store and etc as it is free and I like to minimize my ICE use in the city if I can.

[ForensicBimmer]

Thanks.
That Plugshare app is great. I downloaded it.
Seems like a lot of the stations that cost money charge per kW/hr. So how many kW is a "full" battery on a 530e
What's the minimum kW that I should filter for?

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by ForensicBimmer

Thanks.
That Plugshare app is great. I downloaded it.
Seems like a lot of the stations that cost money charge per kW/hr. So how many kW is a "full" battery on a 530e
What's the minimum kW that I should filter for?

On my MY2020 a full charge is around 10 kWh if I remember correctly. But it can be a bit higher if the car needs to heat or cool the HV battery during charging. I attached a photo of my last charge at home.

At home, I pay about $1 to charge the battery fully. So rarely is charging away from home cheaper unless it is free. I do occasionally pay to charge though as I enjoy the EV part of the car to make it a priority in certain cases (like wanting to precondition without using Battery Control).

[Zereldo]

I charge at home using BMW Turbo cord that is rated for 16 AMP @ 240 V. I had a dedicated circuit installed - 20 AMP 240 V. Most if not all outlets output 80% of their rated amperage. Based in my understanding, all BMW PHEVS (perhaps not the I3 or I8) are rated at a max of 16 AMP @ 240V. A 20 AMP outlet at 80% capacity allows the car to charge at 16 AMP. I am able to go from 1% to 100% is about an hour and 45 minutes. During winter, the time is extended to 2 hours.

[paquet]

You have a pool heater, so guessing you have 200A service.
I'd be thinking of just running a new dedicated circuit (with its own breaker) for your charging needs in the garage

[SteveinArizona]

Originally Posted by packet

You have a pool heater, so guessing you have 200A service.
I'd be thinking of just running a new dedicated circuit (with its own breaker) for your charging needs in the garage

That doesn't mean he has capacity. When my wife wanted to heat the pool, I found that I had to increase my service to 225A. When I installed the charger, my electrician had to rearrange things in the box to get me a dedicated 20A line for the charger for my 530e (yes...when I upgraded I wanted to go to 400A but that would have mean trenching my lawn and I didn't want to do that).

[ted99]

Originally Posted by LogicalApex

Just a few corrections:

The Low/Reduced/Max charging setting has a range between 6A and 15A depending on the cable used. 15A can certainly be enough to overload a residential socket (especially a shared one). Considering most residential sockets are 15A...

The car's onboard charger is limited to 16A @ 240V for all 530e cars currently.

Attachment 2622561

My "Convenience" charger (EVSE) that came standard with the car supplies a max 10 amps at 110v. It's marked on the label. It's an early 2020. Did later cars come standard with a larger/220v EVSE? Or, are you referring to the optional 110v/220v EVSE?

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by ted99

My "Convenience" charger (EVSE) that came standard with the car supplies a max 10 amps at 110v. It's marked on the label. It's an early 2020. Did later cars come standard with a larger/220v EVSE? Or, are you referring to the optional 110v/220v EVSE?

Odd mine is higher than that. I believe it is 16A as I had purchased a 10A one here on the forums to go even lower when I was initially charging due to it being a heavily shared circuit. I'll check it in my car later to confirm.

My car is a 9/2019 build so pretty early, but may be later than yours and they changed it then.

[paquet]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

That doesn't mean he has capacity. When my wife wanted to heat the pool, I found that I had to increase my service to 225A. When I installed the charger, my electrician had to rearrange things in the box to get me a dedicated 20A line for the charger for my 530e (yes...when I upgraded I wanted to go to 400A but that would have mean trenching my lawn and I didn't want to do that).

I stand corrected. I didn't even know there was more than 200A service