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Level 2 Charging - 32 vs. 40 vs. 48 AMP - Which makes the most sense?

2391 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  R.I.P.
Hi, first time posting, new lightning owner (SR Lariat in Seattle area).

When I first took delivery I didn't have a dedicated 240v circuit in the garage so just used a 120v outlet, that took a very long time but I lived with it that way for the first three weeks. Now I've installed a setup from the panel to the outlet which (and I don't want to rabbit hole on this so details below) will support 60 amps (with some minimal mods) but I'm using the stock 32 amp charger that came with the truck. The 32 amp does great at charging the truck overnight but usually b/c it really only has to charge it about 1/2 way to get to 90%. I usually don't drop down past 45% battery, its just the nature of my driving circumstances. Although my current circumstances don't require more than the 32 amp charger, I'm still curious about charging faster at home. So, my questions are about 1. calculating charge times between the different chargers, 2. Can the SR battery actually use the 48 amp charger or is it limited by the acceptance rate?

Calculating charge times
Is it as simple as 40/32 = 1.25, so a 40 amp charger is 1.25 times faster at charging the vehicle than the 32 amp? 48/32 = 1.5, so 1.5 times faster?

Acceptance Rate (the rate of current the battery will accept) for SR battery
I tried to find this in the owners manual but couldn't. I was looking for it so that I could make sure before buying a 48 amp charger, that the SR battery charging would make full use out of it.




Charging Setup Details (Not the focus of my question, just adding it for context)
Before I get into the below, the design for the below came from my father who is a retired state electrical inspector.
  • Starting at the panel and working outwards; The panel has a 30amp dual pole breaker - 30 amp breaker will actually allow a bit more than 30 amps before it breaks and Ford's 32amp charger actually runs at 30amps.
  • The cable leaving the panel is a 60 amp cable (6 gauge 3 wire (4 including ground) twisted copper)
  • The cable currently terminates at a Nema 14-50 outlet (max rating of 50 amps)
  • Final leg: Ford's 32 amp charger.
  • The idea being that the cable is the important and expensive part should you want to upgrade later. Should I decide to go to 48amp charger the modifications would be, 1. replace the 30 amp dual pole breaker with a 50 or 60 amp dual pole breaker and 2. remove the Nema 14-50 outlet and wire in the 48 amp charger directly.
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The SR battery maxes out at 11KW (48A). The 80A charger will not make it faster. The ER battery, however, can make good use of the 80A Pro charger and shrink the charging time to 8 hours. That's the best one can get out of an AC charger. And that's why I'm trying to build a DC Fast supercharger at home!
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