How you charge your car?

I installed a Level 2, 25’ (EVduty). Works great


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If you only drive 20 miles/day, have hours to charge it (overnight) and don't have time-of-day, you're unlikely to make back the $$ you pay to upgrade the panel and wire 220. Find a plug on its own 110 circuit in the garage and charge with the included charger.

 

If you have a handy friend its cheap and easy to add a GFI all weather outlet outside. Agree if always charging overnight after 20mi trip dont bother with L2.

To answer other part of your question I got an L2 free with my Fit EV and mounted between my 2 garage doors. That way can charge cars inside or on the driveway outside.

 

My house already had 200amp breaker box, so I had a licensed electrician add a NEMA 14-50 outlet in my garage. It cost me $300 for the installation which included mounting the plug and installing a 50amp circuit breaker in my breaker box. I bought a Chinese brand Level 2 evse from Amazon that will charge at 32 amps for $300.

I also have a custom cord which allows me to use the Honda OEM evse on 240v power. It charges at 11 amps. The Chinese charger will charge a empty battery to full in about 2 hours. The Honda OEM evse on 240v takes about 5.5 hours.

 

I bought cheap 16-amp chargers from Ebay for about $120. I took the power plugs off, and wired them directly to 220v. I installed one in my garage (car cord is long enough to charge in the driveway.) The other got installed at work.

I had trouble when I used the power plug on the charger, the contacts overheated and melted the cord: I prefer wiring them directly.

 

The owners manual warns against using an extension cord. Not everyone abides.

That said, have an outlet installed outside the garage to eliminate the need for an extension cord.

Given your driving habits, you’ll be able to recharge after 20 miles of travel in ~5 hours with a L1 charger.

 

I've been very happy with L2 for preconditioning and greater predictability. L1 sometimes would discontinue early, etc.

 

Same setup as Mowcowbell. The L2 EVDuty I bought was ~750$CAD. 30A to the car. It has remote management from iOS and Android. I wanted to have preconditioning from the wall (especially for our cold winters) which requires L2.


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We probably drive more than 20 mi per day. We use the OEM L1 EVSE at home from an outlet in the garage. My wife gets free L2 charging 2-3 days a week at work. We only charge at home when we have to and only as much as we have to. We do precondition with the L1 EVSE at home and it works fine.

 

Unless you have a need to quickly charge with Level 2, I suggest going a simple, but good way to do it. Have someone help you install an outdoor rated outlet on the garage next to the driveway, wired to its own 15A or 20A breaker at your panel. Then use the cord that came with the car. It will work fine and be safe. Installing a level 2 supply can vary in cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars and if there are questions about the panel at your house, it could be the latter. Don't do that unless you need to charge more quickly than overnight.

 

No, you can't use a regular extension cord safely: You'll want to use one that's 12 AWG.
You can have an outdoor receptacle installed in a weatherproof housing.
The important thing to note is that if you're planning to charge your Clarity from a standard wall outlet that outlet MUST be the only thing on that circuit - in other words, it must have it's own breaker in your electrical service panel. Clarity sucks HARD on the straw and will draw as much power as it can.
I had a Level 2 EVSE installed because I plan to go "full EV" after the Clarity and, as I was already upgrading my service to 200 Amps and rewiring most of the house, it only made sense to have the electrician run a 240V line to the garage. The actual installation of the EVSE (hard-wired, surface-mount) cost $200. A factory-refurbished Siemens Versicharge cost $400 at Home Depot but my electrical utility gave me a $250 rebate.

 

If you do install an outlet or EVSE for home charging, there is a 30% Federal Tax Credit (up to $1,000) thru 12/31/2020. If a panel upgrade is needed, that would be part of the install.

 

Again, per the manual, you can’t “safely” use an extension cord with the OEM L1 cable. This would apply to both the “regular heavy duty” type as well as the “heavy duty” ones. 12/3 usually qualifies for either ranking.

As for having a dedicated circuit for the L1 cable. It may be desirable, but it isn’t necessary.

 

Remember that it's not only that gauge of the cord, it's also the length, and you should consider the length of the run of cable from your circuit panel to your outlet. The longer the run of either the cord or the cable, the more the voltage drop. I would use no smaller than 12 gauge for the extension cord, and I would get the shortest run of it that will work. Don't use a 50' cord is 25' will do, and I wouldn't use 25' if 20' or 15' would do (particularly if there is a long cable run between the circuit panel and the wall outlet).

 

You can certainly take precautions to be as “safe” as possible. But why be concerned with safety once you’ve disregarded the safety warning in the manual regarding extension cord use?

 

It’s just a 12 amp load. So a 12 gauge 3 prong outdoor extension cord in good condition and fully uncoiled is entirely safe for temporary use, despite owners manual warning.

However, as this is a home, the long term use of any extension cord is never suggested. For long term, one should always install a proper outlet close enough to the load to avoid extension cord use. This has nothing to do with electric cars, it’s for everything plugged in.

So for now, go ahead and use a proper extension cord, until you can get an outlet installed.

Indeed, being an electrician I’m ignoring Honda’s recommendation against periodic cord use, as it has zero basis in the electrical theory, which I am rather well versed in.

 

I park my car in a garage. It had 120v close to where I needed it. I did the "level 1" charge for months. In truth, for my usage pattern, I don't need level 2. M-F weekdays the car is home and in the garage with at least 10-12 hours of charging time available before I go out. I never notice any difference level 1 or level 2 in terms of one is not *better*. i.e. if you get say 40 miles of estimated EV range from a level 1 charge, you get 40 miles of estimated EV range with level 2 as well. However, the amount of time to charge is greatly improved with level 2.

With level 2, you really get two nice features.
1) It suddenly becomes worth it to plug the car in even if you have a relatively short time between errands. i.e. 30-60 or more minutes.
2) preconditioning (which I freaking love) works noticeably better with level 2.

[This post assumes I'm actually driving my car, like pre-pandemic. Which now is kind of rare.]