The Tightwad's Level 2 Solution

An interesting solution that may work for many.

 

When it comes time to charge at home (I am not in a hurry since I have free charging at work), I will probably look into this. I have a water heater in the garage. My induction cooktop uses a 50A circuit and it is right behind the wall from the water heater.


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Be careful. Extension cords are for temporary use and never may be ran in the walls. Misused extension cords are a common cause for home fires.

 

I went without the 240V for 2 years after getting quotes around $2,000 for rewiring and installation here in NJ. Recently I had an electrician here for other work and due to state rebate programs the electrician told me about, he was able to get the charger and do the installation at a cost that was covered almost entirely by the rebate. A knowledgeable electrician is your friend.

 

I was fortunate enough to have a breaker panel in my garage. It was a simple matter to install the 50 amp breaker (for a 40 amp load), pull 10/3 wire to an outlet, and wire it. I had to get a county electrical permit, and had to have it inspected but did not have to hire an electrician. I spent more money on the charger itself - bought a ChargePoint. Don’t forget that there is a 30% tax credit for charger installation

 

You guys are all handier than I am, and I'm not sure why you would need a dedicated charger.
When we had solar panels installed, in 2019, the city required all of our wiring to be upgraded, so it was fairly simple to have a 240V 50A cable run to a NEMA 14-50 plug. PG&E wouldn't allow it to be installed where I wanted it (too close to gas line, OK), so I paid the electrical contractor an extra $600 to install a second one on the other side of the garage. I hang the cable from a simple hanger in the garage.
There's no dedicated charging appliance, just the cord that came with the car. If necessary, I can charge both cars at once. I woke up this morning to find that the Model Y has 294 miles of charge, meaning I accidentally raised the charge level on my phone.
YMMV, but this has worked fine for me for the last three years. Be sure to check for local/state incentives.

 

This is great information I was thinking of future installation for my cars still waiting for my I5. I was going to install two plugs for chargers. Or looking at a charger for with two two EVs but this seams like it will be the solution. Even the extension cord tip would solve the problem of which side of the garage to put the original plug I can use the extension cord to go over the garage door so I don’t have a cord being driven over. We have a basement suite with an EV owner so we would have three cars needing to be plugged in once my wife get her next car as well.


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I saw a splitter that I researched and it was not UL Certified. A dedicated line is much safer. The dryer is a 30 amp circuit so you are not comparing apples to apples. The 50 amp circuit can draw 40 amps which is about 30 miles per hour or 10% SOC every hour. The dryer outlet can get you 24 amps. You do the math

 

I bought a charger on line then had an electrician run the line for me. He was here to update my panel as I had a fuse panel and upgraded to a breaker one. He told me that he could have gotten a charger that would handle a higher current from his wholesaler than the one I got.

Somehow I think running an extension through a wall is and excuse to deny insurance claims if any thing happens.

 

Planning on getting an Ioniq 5 and looking at the different charging options. I like the idea of using of a splitter since my dryer is in the basement and the car would be in the detached garage about 25 feet away and adding a dedicated line here in NYC would be expensive. But I start to wonder if 1-it is really worth it and just do a dedicate line way, or 2-go the splitter extension plug way. Going by what you are saying is it safe to assume that would mean it would take about 10 hours to reach 300 miles of range on a 50 amp circuit while a 24 amp circuit like the dryer/splitter would be half (150 miles of range) or am I reading/misunderstanding it.

 

I'm even tighter! I bought the A/C works manually operated splitter on Amazon for $175 and a 25 ft extension cord for about $100. Found one that you could easily open up and remove the metal box with the plug in it so that all I had to drill was about a 3/4" hole in 1 wall. I also placed a piece of pvc pipe over the section that's in the wall. I have it up on the ceiling in the center of my garage so that on the future, I can charge either car. Right now, I'm enjoying my Mini Cooper SE while my wife still buys gas for her suv.

 

Here's what I used. My dryer is on a 30 amp circuit so I bought a 24 amp charger. The Mini's battery is small so I can charge it in about 5 or 6 hours.

 

Regarding the OP and the possibility of sharing a 240V circuit, why haven’t Level2 charger manufacturers adding this capability to their smart chargers? I initially believed surely this is what “smart” means, but I contacted a Canadian manufacturer… and nada…

Surely there are thousands (millions?) of homes that cannot afford to update their power panel but can do without their water heater for 6hrs late at night(?)

 

. This looks pretty legitimate and safe to use for a two car solution.


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You're absolutely right. Typo on my part - it was 6/3 90 degree wire. The stuff is hard to work with.

 

Another note - we have fairly strong thunderstorms in Virginia (though in my area Tornados are rare) - so I also installed a breaker box surge protector. My panel was able to accept a Siemens Boltshield - specs:

• 65kA Surge Current Rating

• 200kA Short Circuit Current Rating

• 20kA I-nominal Rating

• Audible alarm and visual indicator notifying home owner that the SPD needs to be replaced

• Fits most Siemens panels

Not cheap but I was worried about what a lightning strike might do to my car.

I initially tried using an RV surge protector but it would not work with the car.

Also, in reply to the "dedicated charger" comment, my Kia Niro only came with a 110-volt level 1 charger. Thus, if I went on a trip, it would take something like 2 days to fully charge. For daily commute I was able to charge every night and be OK with that. With the ChargePoint, I am able to fully recharge from empty overnight (~260 miles of range, 64KWH battery). I was sweating bad one time when I arrived at home with EIGHT miles left on the car - GPS had routed me the wrong way, and then I had an unexpected side-trip to handle something. Even then the car charged completely overnight.

 

If you use an extension cord that is too long for a tool or other item it is attached to, such as a heater, it will overheat and usually throw the breaker. Many extension cords or the item itself (the heater again) will tell you not to use a cord over XXXX Feet Long.