Safety certification is important, and having an established entity like the Underwriters Laboratory thoroughly test and list the unit means it's passed their high standards for safety. "To check my account balance.” ChargePoint NewsĪll ChargePoint products including the new Home Flex are UL listed. "How much I spent on charging last month.” You do so by saying: “Alexa, ask ChargePoint…” It's also Amazon Alexa compatible, allowing you to access and control the charging of your car from your couch. With the ChargePoint app, you know exactly how much you use and how much it costs you so you know exactly how much you're saving as compared to buying gasoline.Īlso, like the basic ChargePoint Home, the new Flex allows you to set the car's charging to coincide with a Time Of Use electricity plan that you may be using to take advantage of lower off-peak electricity rates. Many people who have an EV just estimate the cost of the electricity their car uses. This is a great tool for calculating exactly how much your EV costs you to charge. You can even set your cost per kWh (this varies greatly from utility to utility around the country so check your electricity bill) in the app and it will tell you how much each charging session costs. Users can set reminders so they don't forget to plug in, the app also allows you to see how much energy your EV takes with every charging session. The app for the ChargePoint Home Flex has all the features we've come to love from ChargePoint. Instead of shiny black, the ChargePoint Home Flex has a sleek matte gray finish. The ChargePoint Home Flex looks exactly the same as the regular ChargePoint Home with the exception of the color of the outer casing. On the left is the shiny black outer casing used on the regular ChargePoint Home units. The ChargePoint Home Flex (right) has a matte-gray finish. This will limit the power delivery to match what your circuit can safely supply. While setting up the charger, you're asked what size circuit it's connected to. After installing the unit, the owner pairs it with their ChargePoint account through the app. In that case, they can de-rate the Home Flex unit to limit its power delivery to the maximum the circuit can supply. They may not currently have enough spare power in their service panel to add a 60-amp circuit for the full power of the unit. This can be especially troublesome for EV owners who have a supply issue at their home. Most other home chargers need to be installed on a circuit that can deliver the maximum the charger can deliver because the unit cannot be de-rated to match the circuit. So even if you have a plug-in-hybrid now that can only accept 16-amps, the ChargePoint Home Flex will charge that car without any issue and still have more power available if your next EV can charge at a higher rate.Īnother great feature of the ChargePoint Home Flex is its ability to work on various sized electrical circuits. This means if you purchase a ChargePoint Home Flex today, you'll most likely have more than enough power to charge any EV you have now, and also for any EV you buy in the future.Īlso notable is that if you have an EV that charges at a lower rate, you don't need to be concerned about having too much power, because the car always dictates how much power it receives. Charging at 48-amps would prove more than fast enough, even for the larger-sized battery EVs. Secondly, home charging simply doesn't need to be that fast, as the cars are parked there for many hours every day. Tesla use to offer dual 40-amp chargers on the Model S and Model X, but they discontinued that offering for a couple of reasons.įirst, it became clear that the electrical service on most residences, even newer construction, couldn't supply a dedicated 100-amp circuit necessary for the 80-amp charger without a very expensive upgrade. This will likely remain the case for the foreseeable future, as most OEMs are signaling that they won't offer AC charging at a rate higher than 40 to 48-amps. With the ability to deliver a full 50-amps, the ChargePoint Home Flex can charge any EV sold in the US today at its maximum AC charging rate. For a fair apples-to-apples comparison, the ChargePoint Home Flex is better compared to another WiFi-connected smart-charger, like the JuiceBox Pro 40. ClipperCreek also has higher-powered units, like the HCS-50, which can deliver 40-amps of power, but it's not a smart-charger. I use the term "smart-charging" because the JuiceBox and Home Flex units are both WiFi-connected smart-chargers. However, with the new Home Flex, ChargePoint is upping the EV smart-charging arms race with the ability to deliver up to 50-amps of power to an EV. The ChargePoint Home Flex charging my Tesla Model 3 at the maximum 48-amps that the car can accept.
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