Just joined the club

[Tee2]

Hello all,

I just picked up my brand new 2014 Silver Rav4 EV from Hamer Toyota of Mission Hills. Painless experience. Was in and out in about two hours. I've been a BMW guy for the past 20+ years, cars that I've loved from my first 3 series to M Class to my most recent 650i. Having come to the conclusion that the 650i is a terrible commuter car, I decided on the Rav4 EV after a friend recommended it. He's a Porsche guy himself but was amazed when he drove a friend's Rav4 EV.

I decided to get the Leviton 40 amp wall charger. I found one on Amazon at a discount. Having an electrician pull a 50 amp circuit this coming weekend that I'll plug the wall charger into.

My daily commute is relatively short, less than 50 miles round trip, so keeping it charged won't be an issue.

Other than that, what else would anyone recommend doing? I'm considering rooftop solar at this time as well. LADWP is my power company so I'd appreciate any input from anyone who's already done this with them. I do see that they offer a $750 rebate for the wall charge unit that I plan on applying for.

 

[Dsinned]

CONGRATS!!!

 

[DevinL]

Other than that, what else would anyone recommend doing? I'm considering rooftop solar at this time as well. LADWP is my power company so I'd appreciate any input from anyone who's already done this with them. I do see that they offer a $750 rebate for the wall charge unit that I plan on applying for.

I'm an LADWP customer, I was the 7th person to install an EVSE under their rebate program in 2011 (back then it was $2000!). The only issue was that at the time they required a separate meter, and I had to wait almost two months for said meter to get to them. The inspector just put shims in the meter box and sealed it off so I could charge without a meter until then.

I got my solar panels through Solar City in 2012. I paid $4,080 total for a 20 year lease of a 4.32kW system. They dealt with LADWP since it was a lease and as far as I'm aware there were no issues. Turned out to be a really good way to get solar since the inverter failed last year and Solar City replaced it for free with no trouble and wrote me a cheque for the power I had to buy from LADWP while awaiting the new inverter.

 

[TonyWilliams]

8k (solar) is a fairly large system, no?...
I'm thinking with regards to charging solitons maybe I should return the 40 amp Leviton wall unit and get the portable JESLA unit instead. They're basically the same thing, right?

Both JESLA and the Leviton 40 amp charge station are EXACTLY the same power to your car at 40 amps, however there's not much the same otherwise. The Leviton is a heavy wall mount and JESLA is a light weight portable that you can take with you, should you desire.

In addition, JESLA can be adjusted to 12, 16, 24 or 40 amps based on an assortment of plugs. Leviton can't do that.

Finally, JESLA is 100-250 volt capable, and the Leviton will only work on 240 volts.

******

Yes, 8kW solar is big, but I have big power needs. I'm adding the Solar City (Tesla) 10kWh battery pack so that I can operate off-grid, plus I'll probably upsize the system to about 12-14kW.

I'm now 100% EV and I don't intend to look back.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I wanner know how much it will cost and what's the strengths of it?

Of what? Solar, JESLA, or Leviton ?