The Tightwad's Level 2 Solution
- Thread starter CapeCodI5
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You will also be adding an extra connection point. Those are the weak points. I've had to replace my dryer plug before because of the plug melting at the connection.
EVSE's draw power for extended time, your cord being fine for RV use because the large draw is not continuous.
EVSE's draw power for extended time, your cord being fine for RV use because the large draw is not continuous.
A few years ago I was in Kissimmee during August and September and both air conditioners ran non-stop for almost 6 weeks. It was a really old campground with a power post that looked like Walt Disney himself might have installed it. Never a problem.
I don't intend to use my jack leg solution for hours on end. I'm a mile from a free, public charger and I see no need to pay for power when I've got it free (I'm a tightwad, remember?) A quarter mile further down the road is a 10 unit Tesla Supercharger station and I'm pretty sure that Elon will be opening his US network up to all comers within the next year or so.
I started this past week at a 90% charge on Monday morning. Last night I was down to 70%, having driven just over 60 miles, so I drove down to the public charger and walked the dog for an hour while the charge came up to 80%. Tomorrow morning I'll do the same thing. Meanwhile the I5 is plugged into the 110v charger, so tomorrow will probably top me off.
Next week I have to go to York, Maine, a 250 miles round trip. There's an Electrify America DC charger about 5 miles from where my meeting is, so I'll charge before I get back on the road to come home. There's another Electrify America DC station about 20 miles from home and just off of I95, so I'll hit that. I should arrive home with something like 80% SoC so I'll plug in the 110v for overnight.
I could keep going like this for a long time. Having a Level 2 in the garage is a convenience for me, more than anything else. I know that for many folks, it's a necessity, but that's not me. Every individual needs to work out the solution that best serves their needs.
I don't intend to use my jack leg solution for hours on end. I'm a mile from a free, public charger and I see no need to pay for power when I've got it free (I'm a tightwad, remember?) A quarter mile further down the road is a 10 unit Tesla Supercharger station and I'm pretty sure that Elon will be opening his US network up to all comers within the next year or so.
I started this past week at a 90% charge on Monday morning. Last night I was down to 70%, having driven just over 60 miles, so I drove down to the public charger and walked the dog for an hour while the charge came up to 80%. Tomorrow morning I'll do the same thing. Meanwhile the I5 is plugged into the 110v charger, so tomorrow will probably top me off.
Next week I have to go to York, Maine, a 250 miles round trip. There's an Electrify America DC charger about 5 miles from where my meeting is, so I'll charge before I get back on the road to come home. There's another Electrify America DC station about 20 miles from home and just off of I95, so I'll hit that. I should arrive home with something like 80% SoC so I'll plug in the 110v for overnight.
I could keep going like this for a long time. Having a Level 2 in the garage is a convenience for me, more than anything else. I know that for many folks, it's a necessity, but that's not me. Every individual needs to work out the solution that best serves their needs.
Keith Smith
Active Member
***** Danger Will Robinson! *****
So you poked holes in your walls and floors? You sure spent a lot of money for a decidedly sub-optimal DIY solution. You really should not have used "extension cord" but #6 should be fine for 50A that you hopefully are not trying to draw. Most Dryer plugs are 30A in older houses not 40, Range plug might be 40A. Your 30A dryer breaker may allow you to pull as much as 32A for an extended period. This would be bad, and you will fry your breaker over time. It could cause a fire! For anyone who is charging at home and wants simple 240 to improve charge times I would recommend running some ROMEX or something to an outlet. You don't have to run 40 or 50 amps to get reasonable charge times. I highly recommend the clipper creek chargers they just work, and have a 24A (30A Circuit) units that you can plug in a standard NEMA 10-30R receptacle. By running much cheaper #10-3 romex ( < $300 for 100ft Home Depot ) on a fresh 30A breaker from your panel (HD < $20), just run it up thru your attic and drop it down inside a wall near where you want it. ( $15 maybe for a 10-30R and an old work box and cover plate ). You can pick up everything at Home Depot, or your local ACE hardware. Total cost - effort/labor: $325 maybe?
Charging at 5.6KW (~240 x 24A on a 30A breaker) is generally more than adequate for home for a number of reasons.
- Charging slows down at 80% (or should) anyway, and slows down even more at 90%.
- The slower you charge the better it is for the batteries.
- Most EV's will not charge over 7.2KW anyway. (40A / 32A)
- Most people who charge at home never go much below 50% charge.
- The time difference between 5600 and 7200 is not really much longer, like 20%, ie my Niro needs ~8 hours to charge from 20% to 100% at 7.2 and ~10 hours at 5.6. I RARELY get that low so generally my charge times are 5-7 hours, ... While I am in bed using Time Of Use
- Finally you can buy a standard inexpensive 30A HWH timer... ( I might note, this would also be a good place to tap your "shared" electricity from) and program it for your time of use hours, then just leave your car in charge all the time. This is what I do, that way if I get some free leccy from a station somewhere, I don't have to re-program the car every time, or mess with settings.
Pulling a breaker at over 80% of it's max rating for an extended period is a very bad thing.
So you poked holes in your walls and floors? You sure spent a lot of money for a decidedly sub-optimal DIY solution. You really should not have used "extension cord" but #6 should be fine for 50A that you hopefully are not trying to draw. Most Dryer plugs are 30A in older houses not 40, Range plug might be 40A. Your 30A dryer breaker may allow you to pull as much as 32A for an extended period. This would be bad, and you will fry your breaker over time. It could cause a fire! For anyone who is charging at home and wants simple 240 to improve charge times I would recommend running some ROMEX or something to an outlet. You don't have to run 40 or 50 amps to get reasonable charge times. I highly recommend the clipper creek chargers they just work, and have a 24A (30A Circuit) units that you can plug in a standard NEMA 10-30R receptacle. By running much cheaper #10-3 romex ( < $300 for 100ft Home Depot ) on a fresh 30A breaker from your panel (HD < $20), just run it up thru your attic and drop it down inside a wall near where you want it. ( $15 maybe for a 10-30R and an old work box and cover plate ). You can pick up everything at Home Depot, or your local ACE hardware. Total cost - effort/labor: $325 maybe?
Charging at 5.6KW (~240 x 24A on a 30A breaker) is generally more than adequate for home for a number of reasons.
- Charging slows down at 80% (or should) anyway, and slows down even more at 90%.
- The slower you charge the better it is for the batteries.
- Most EV's will not charge over 7.2KW anyway. (40A / 32A)
- Most people who charge at home never go much below 50% charge.
- The time difference between 5600 and 7200 is not really much longer, like 20%, ie my Niro needs ~8 hours to charge from 20% to 100% at 7.2 and ~10 hours at 5.6. I RARELY get that low so generally my charge times are 5-7 hours, ... While I am in bed using Time Of Use
- Finally you can buy a standard inexpensive 30A HWH timer... ( I might note, this would also be a good place to tap your "shared" electricity from) and program it for your time of use hours, then just leave your car in charge all the time. This is what I do, that way if I get some free leccy from a station somewhere, I don't have to re-program the car every time, or mess with settings.
Pulling a breaker at over 80% of it's max rating for an extended period is a very bad thing.
I may be dumb but I'm not stupid. Or it to put it another way, I've modified the plan a little. Instead of using the Neocharge Smart Splitter, I've switched to the Split Volt SPS 02-032 splitter. It's a better implementation of the same idea. It has a builtin circuit breaker that trips if the draw from either the dryer or the EV exceeds 24A. It also had an panel that shows the current voltage and amperage being drawn along with some other information.
But maybe most importantly the plug for your current dryer outlet is available as either a 10-30 or 14-30 with the corresponding 1x-30 receptacle and a standard 14-50 receptacle for the EV. If I had gone with the Neocharge I was going to end having to use at two and maybe three different plug adapters and the SplitVolt eliminates all of that.
I've also hired an electrician to run a 6 gauge line from my laundry area to the garage.
Finally, it may not be a standard feature on many EVs but the Ioniq 5 (and I assume the Kia EV6) allows the owner to limit the current draw by the charger as one of the EV's settings. This allows "throttling down" the current draw by the EV so the builtin breaker won't be tripping constantly.
Finally, thanks to everyone for throwing in objections to my original plan. It takes a community.
But maybe most importantly the plug for your current dryer outlet is available as either a 10-30 or 14-30 with the corresponding 1x-30 receptacle and a standard 14-50 receptacle for the EV. If I had gone with the Neocharge I was going to end having to use at two and maybe three different plug adapters and the SplitVolt eliminates all of that.
I've also hired an electrician to run a 6 gauge line from my laundry area to the garage.
Finally, it may not be a standard feature on many EVs but the Ioniq 5 (and I assume the Kia EV6) allows the owner to limit the current draw by the charger as one of the EV's settings. This allows "throttling down" the current draw by the EV so the builtin breaker won't be tripping constantly.
Finally, thanks to everyone for throwing in objections to my original plan. It takes a community.
Keith Smith
Active Member
Please just run #10-3 hard copper from your panel. It can't be that hard to find a path. If you had a dryer or HWH in your garage already, and you could hang your charger next to it and reach a splitter would be an easy choice. The minute you start runing 50A extension cords off it you are just asking for problems.
Find a path from your box to where you want the outlet in the garage. Up thru the attic? Around the eave in conduit? A trench against the house? Pick up some 10-3 romex (if not in conduit) run the wire to your panel, get a wire clip or clamp, run it in the box to a 30A breaker (or swap a pair of 15's for a 15-30-15 cheater). Put a rated 14-30 outlet in an old work box, hang a 24A charger on the wall.
#10 = 30A
#8 = 40A
#6 = 50A
I've never seen #6 de-rated to 30A. I've never seen a 14-50 plug de-rated to 30A. It's not unsafe, but could be confusing.
Find a path from your box to where you want the outlet in the garage. Up thru the attic? Around the eave in conduit? A trench against the house? Pick up some 10-3 romex (if not in conduit) run the wire to your panel, get a wire clip or clamp, run it in the box to a 30A breaker (or swap a pair of 15's for a 15-30-15 cheater). Put a rated 14-30 outlet in an old work box, hang a 24A charger on the wall.
#10 = 30A
#8 = 40A
#6 = 50A
I've never seen #6 de-rated to 30A. I've never seen a 14-50 plug de-rated to 30A. It's not unsafe, but could be confusing.