Question: I’m looking at new cars and I love the idea of an electric vehicle. But my car needs to work well as a family car. Is Tesla a good family car?
Answer: That’s exciting to hear that you’re thinking of going electric. Tesla is the best known and top selling electric car in the US for a good reason. It’s an awesome car.
So you own a Tesla or maybe more than one electric car, and you’re wondering which high speed home charger you should purchase – the ChargePoint Home Flex or the Tesla Wall Connector generation 3. Let’s compare the options, and then I’ll show you why I ended up buying the ChargePoint Home Flex.
Here’s the quick summary, if you don’t want to read all the details.
Both chargers are Level 2 240 volt high speed charging stations that can charge your Tesla at the fastest rate it can currently accept from a home charger, assuming you have it wired at maximum capacity (which is based on installation and your breaker box).
When test driving a Tesla a few weeks ago, I was able to try out several different driving settings during my test drive. One of the settings that I tested out was called Chill Mode.
What is Tesla’s chill mode, exactly? Well, if you’ve driven or ridden in a Tesla, you’re probably aware that the electric motors (often dual motor in many models) are incredibly powerful and provide instant torque and crazy fast acceleration. The zero to 60 times vary between models, but really all of the Tesla models including the S, X and Model 3 at every performance level are very fast cars.
Teslas can accelerate so quickly that it can be alarming for passengers in the car. The incredible acceleration potential also tends to fuel impatience in traffic if you have a tendency toward road rage and you’re stuck behind a slow driver.
Chill mode basically reduces the amount of acceleration that the car gives you when you hit the accelerator pedal. It makes the car drive much more like a regular fast sedan and not so much like a powerful supercar. This means you can drive your friends and family around without scaring them to death, and also keep your own acceleration to a reasonable level when you’re driving alone.
Chill acceleration in a Tesla definitely does not make the car slow. YouTube videos will show you that a Tesla Model 3 Performance can still hit zero to 60 mph in around 6.6 seconds in Chill Model, versus under 4 seconds with the regular settings.
In general, if you look at the zero to 60 time of your specific Tesla model, you should expect chill mode to approximately double that time. Which is still plenty fast, by the way!
To give you an example, I gunned it from a red light, turning right onto a busier street. Chill mode got me right up to speed in my lane with no problems, but I didn’t feel like I was wearing out the tires by gunning it from a stop into a turn.
Chill mode isn’t designed as a setting to increase range. However, it’s possible that you can use it that way. When you use chill mode in combination with standard “hypermiling” to increase your driving efficiency, you’re certain to extend your range this way.
Many Tesla drivers report that chill mode is very helpful if you are driving in slippery situations such as ice, snow and rain. The reduced acceleration helps prevent your wheels from slipping out when you hit the accelerator pedal.
How do you use chill mode in your Tesla?
The EPA reports that in 2012 Americans disposed of about 251 million tons of solid waste; that’s almost 4.5 pounds per person per day. A little more than a third of this waste was recycled or composted, leaving 164 million tons to go to landfills and incinerators.
All that trash began as life-supporting raw materials. Once it hits the landfill or incinerator most of those resources are no longer useable by us, so we need to mine or harvest more. Disposable plastics require the extraction of ever more petroleum products, at a mounting fiscal and environmental cost. Disposable paper products accelerate the pace of deforestation.
One of the satisfactions of gardening is the ability to work sustainably and close loops. Instead of just buying inputs and discarding wastes, gardeners can reuse discarded materials, reducing both cost and waste.
Compost is the primary example of this recycling. Some household discards also have more specialized uses in the garden. And, some don’t even have to be composted to utilize their thrown away nutrients. Here are five household wastes to recycle in the garden and how to use them:
