2 EV Households and Charging

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bpschroder

bpschroder

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Hi- Looking for anyone's experience with having 2 EVs at home and what solutions you have used for EV charging.

Does anyone have 2 dedicated 50AMP 240 breakers or do you load share?
Slow Level 1 charge one vehicle and Level 2 the other vehicle?

I looking to purchase a home right now so I am trying to consider panel upgrades/service upgrades, detached vs attached garage scenarios and/or tandem driveway parking.

Going All EV with a Mini Cooper SE on order and VW AWD ID4 on order as well.
 
bpschroder said:
Hi- Looking for anyone's experience with having 2 EVs at home and what solutions you have used for EV charging.

Does anyone have 2 dedicated 50AMP 240 breakers or do you load share?
Slow Level 1 charge one vehicle and Level 2 the other vehicle?

I looking to purchase a home right now so I am trying to consider panel upgrades/service upgrades, detached vs attached garage scenarios and/or tandem driveway parking.

Going All EV with a Mini Cooper SE on order and VW AWD ID4 on order as well.
Click to expand...
Two loadsharng EVSEs would easily accomodate 100 daily miles on each vehicle during off peak hours.
L1 may offer enough overnight for one of the vehicles, and possible (but a bit inconvenient?) to alternate L1 and L2 between the vehicles. The ID.4 (or Mini for that matter) might not need daily charging. If the L2 could reach both parking spots it would help. A front wall mount could accomplish this but the cable could be a trip hazard. Think about cable management when locating the EVSE(s) and outlets. I've seen a few ceiling mount solutions.
Two 50a circuits will offer the most flexibility and cheaper L2 EVSE options.

Tandem driveway parking would be the least desirable situation, detached/attached is irrelevant (the panel/power/wiring in the garage is the critical factor)
 
There are dual-charging EVSEs (which you'll often see in public), with two cables and a single EVSE. Clipper Creek HCS-D50P is an example.

There are also some EVSEs that negotiate with each other for load sharing on the same circuit, like the Clipper Creek Share2 Enabled HCS-50. Something like this would be good for an EVSE on separate walls in a two-car garage.

Clipper Creek is just an example, other brands offer similar products. With the Clipper Creek examples the price difference is minor.

I can say from experience L1 charging on the MINI Cooper SE is workable, unless you're driving 100 miles per day. It takes about 20 hours to get a full charge with the 10 Amp L1 cable provided with the SE.
 
I have two NEMA 14-50 outlets on my property. I have a Kona and a friend who store his RV at my place also has a Kona. The house has a 200am service. There is also a 14-30 plug for the dryer in the guest house and the main house. Each house (main and guest) have 100amp sub panels. All panels are properly permitted and signed off by the county inspector.

I don’t have any large loads like central ac. But the guest house has a small heat pump and is all electric.

I would recommend a 200 amp minimum service if you want to charge two EV’s simultaneously. Also consider other large loads like central air, electric range and dryer.

Any reputable electrician should be able to do a load clalculation with all the electrical appliances and tell you the required service amperage
 
I have two NEMA 14-50 outlets in my new garage. I have one centered on the back wall and another on the front left wall. It pretty much gives me coverage to park front or back in either spot to charge.

Garage Charging x2.webp
 
DucRider said:
Two loadsharng EVSEs would easily accomodate 100 daily miles on each vehicle during off peak hours.
L1 may offer enough overnight for one of the vehicles, and possible (but a bit inconvenient?) to alternate L1 and L2 between the vehicles. The ID.4 (or Mini for that matter) might not need daily charging. If the L2 could reach both parking spots it would help. A front wall mount could accomplish this but the cable could be a trip hazard. Think about cable management when locating the EVSE(s) and outlets. I've seen a few ceiling mount solutions.
Two 50a circuits will offer the most flexibility and cheaper L2 EVSE options.

Tandem driveway parking would be the least desirable situation, detached/attached is irrelevant (the panel/power/wiring in the garage is the critical factor)
Click to expand...
Certainly agree tandem driveway parking would be least desirable, but if I can save 50k-100k on older home in Denver, that only has a 1 car garage or carport that might be my only choice.

Also some of the older homes I have looked at would need a service panel upgrade to 200 amps and then I would need to consider the cost of upgrading the service to a detached 2 car garage as well. Not many homes in Denver have an attached garage and the older detached ones only have 120V 30 amp service.
 
bpschroder said:
Certainly agree tandem driveway parking would be least desirable, but if I can save 50k-100k on older home in Denver, that only has a 1 car garage or carport that might be my only choice.

Also some of the older homes I have looked at would need a service panel upgrade to 200 amps and then I would need to consider the cost of upgrading the service to a detached 2 car garage as well. Not many homes in Denver have an attached garage and the older detached ones only have 120V 30 amp service.
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Lots of moving parts (wants/needs) to piece together when home shopping, and adding EV charging to the mix certainly doesn't simplify things.

I would likely factor in the cost of a 200A upgrade on most homes that don't have it if you are planning on charging EVs. Depends on what the home uses for appliances (gas vs electric), water heater, heat source and if A/C is in the picture, but it is likely a worthwhile upgrade.

Adding EV charging is relatively easy and a very small percentage of a homes cost. Location and the house itself are the real driving factors. Sounds like you are aware of charging needs/options.
 
What is your daily mileage?
A pair of 20 amp outlets, or a 20 amp and a 40 amp should suffice in many situations.
With my Niro EV I ran it down till it warned me and the 20 amp 240 still had it over 80 percent by the next morning at 7:30
So unless both cars are always doing over 100 miles a day, I think you are overpowering your charging setup
 
ENirogus said:
What is your daily mileage?
A pair of 20 amp outlets, or a 20 amp and a 40 amp should suffice in many situations.
With my Niro EV I ran it down till it warned me and the 20 amp 240 still had it over 80 percent by the next morning at 7:30
So unless both cars are always doing over 100 miles a day, I think you are overpowering your charging setup
Click to expand...

Agreed that trying to install two independent 60 AMP breakers would probably be overkill, but I want to make sure that everything is setup for higher charging loads in the future. Also I would never hear the end of it if for some reason my wife wouldn't be able to charge her vehicle to full because both vehicles were at 10% SOC at the same time.
 
It would seem that one high amp charger would still do the job. While there is no reason to charge to 100 percent if you are not driving that far, having one big and one normal ought to take care of most eventualities. Hell, most of the time a 125 volt charger would do for me. Also as mentioned above, total load is a consideration. Two chargers peaking at the same time with an electric oven and a couple minisplits......not a normal load consideration, make sure your panel is set up for it.
 
May 20, 2021#1

bpschroderNew Member
Hi- Looking for anyone's experience with having 2 EVs at home and what solutions you have used for EV charging.

My setup is quite basic and it functions well. The two EVs are in a two car car-port, side by side. The supply is mounted on the back wall, between the cars. It is a "Wallbox Pulsar" and is set to 20 Amps because of the capacity of the panel in the carport. The cord to the car is coiled on a holder below when not in use.

Clearly only one car can be charged at a time but that is not a problem. Being Konas the car on the right is easiest to charge so we change places most times. They charge at a rate of 4.4 kW/hour and usually get charged at off peak rates at the weekends. The original set-up was in 2018, and then I envisaged one day having two EVs (though not quite so soon!).

Best wishes for your search for a home for you and your cars.
 
bpschroder said:
Agreed that trying to install two independent 60 AMP breakers would probably be overkill, but I want to make sure that everything is setup for higher charging loads in the future. Also I would never hear the end of it if for some reason my wife wouldn't be able to charge her vehicle to full because both vehicles were at 10% SOC at the same time.
Click to expand...

This post is so real, it hurts.
 
bpschroder said:
Hi- Looking for anyone's experience with having 2 EVs at home and what solutions you have used for EV charging.

Does anyone have 2 dedicated 50AMP 240 breakers or do you load share?
Slow Level 1 charge one vehicle and Level 2 the other vehicle?

I looking to purchase a home right now so I am trying to consider panel upgrades/service upgrades, detached vs attached garage scenarios and/or tandem driveway parking.

Going All EV with a Mini Cooper SE on order and VW AWD ID4 on order as well.
Click to expand...

When we had our house built we had 320a service installed. This future proofs is for charging several EVs at the same time. Charging two EVs at a time could prove problematic for people with 100 or 200a service


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
The amount of use each vehicle will get will be the deciding factor. I rarely have to charge daily, if ever. As long as you can at least alternate overnight charging days you should have no problem on a single Level 2 EVSE. Try to locate it centrally and choose a unit with a long cord for maximum flexibility.
 
The MINI will need a nightly charge weekdays and ID.4 will need to be fully charged by the weekend. Most weekends we take a trip to the mountains, roundtrip around or over 200 miles. There won't be charging available during the day at an office for either vehicle. I suppose it's possible to go with just one charger, but would be tricky sometimes before or after the weekend if both vehicle are depleted. Trying to avoid going out of the way to find a DC fast charger in a pinch. There are none within a 10 mile drive. Also would like to precondition both vehicles in the mornings in the winter and afternoons in the summer, the garage is not climate controlled.
 
With an 80-mile daily commute I have to charge my MINI every day. The nice thing about having shorter range is the smaller battery charges relatively quickly, less than three hours on Level 2 to go from about 45-50% SoC to 100%. I would think with a shared circuit EVSE setup an overnight window would be plenty of time to charge two vehicles.
 
bpschroder said:
The MINI will need a nightly charge weekdays and ID.4 will need to be fully charged by the weekend. Most weekends we take a trip to the mountains, roundtrip around or over 200 miles. There won't be charging available during the day at an office for either vehicle. I suppose it's possible to go with just one charger, but would be tricky sometimes before or after the weekend if both vehicle are depleted. Trying to avoid going out of the way to find a DC fast charger in a pinch. There are none within a 10 mile drive. Also would like to precondition both vehicles in the mornings in the winter and afternoons in the summer, the garage is not climate controlled.
Click to expand...
You could charge the ID4 on 120V during the week when the MINI is on EVSE to slowly help it gain some charge level.
 
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