Low-cost 240V EVSE upgrade

For the EVSE upgrade, yes.

 

You must mean two phases, not two circuits. Also, the power you take off the panel would need to use a set of 'ganged' 15 A breakers. They need to be side-by-side, so they would take power off the "red" and the "black" phases - check your panel. With the exception of the stove, dryer, Air-Con, perhaps electric heaters, the rest of the existing power lines in the house are wired with 14-2 wires (usually white). The max current rating is 15A on these circuits. To see how it is done for other 240V circuits check the wiring of your 240V dryer (30A) or stove circuits (40A) in the panel. Than there is also the question of the power rating of your panel ... as you can see this can get quite complex.

The bottom line is this: if you spend $25-30K on the car you surely can afford the fix/upgrade described here. Moreover, based on your question I would recommend you NOT to attempt 'fiddling' around yourself. Find a friend who understands how things are done to meet local code. If you make a mistake you my be facing a mucho dollar bill and may loose the warranty on your car.

Sorry to be blunt - but better be safe than sorry.

 

but, generally speaking, two 110 outlets in the same area tend to be on the same breaker.

 

Somewhere I read that either someone was selling theses or is planing on making them. I cant find the link now. If I find it I will post it.

 

Yes - and if I remember right, if you hook up your meter, or home brew (or quick 240) device onto the same phase - all that happens is "nothing" ... no 240 ... no 120 ... nothing.

 

Re. your statement "residential power in the US is almost always single-phase." You are right I stand corrected.

 

UPS should be dropping our J-1772 plug off at pEEf's place today. I wonder ... how many have been mod'ed so far?

 

Thanks! One someone confirms it DOES exist ... I WILL find it.
. . . and here it is .



and here it is actually in use ... paddle charger, to J1772


. . . . but as pEEf already said, quite pricy

http://www.avconev.com/artwork/avcon-flyer-09.pdf
Avcon Corporation
Kind of makes me wonder how long it'll be untill the public paddle chargers are all pulled out. If it's still going to be another year or two or longer, it might just be worth it to use these, along with the pEEf mod.

 

all i can say is Wth??

 

Hill - I couldn't figure out what the heck you were talking about until you provided the pictures. When we speak of "paddles" in the EV world, we are talking about inductive chargers (large or small paddle). The Avcon that you are talking about we call a "claw" - mostly because we couldn't come up with a better term. And guess what? I've got your adapter right here! (Yes, I'm selling mine) - it takes the Avcon claw and converts to a 14-50 receptacle. You then plug in your 240V EVSE and you're off to the races.

Avcon adapter

 

The upgrade project has begun, but it will be MANY years before it is completed. As it stands now, there isn't even enough money in the program to convert even a large percentage of them over to J1772.

And again - this is the Avcon convert program. We are NOT converting paddle chargers yet since there are so many cars still using them :wave:

 

I was actually thinking of the inductive chargers. What cars use the inductive charger and what ones use the "claw"? I kind of thought all the old EVs used the inductive charger.

 

Currently, the only cars using the inductive paddle are the Chevy S10 EV (just like the EV1 but with truck body - designed for large paddle, but will work with the newer small paddle just as well), the Nissan Hypermini (there are a couple here still) and by far the most popular: Rav4EV.

The Avcons are used for the few Ford Ranger EVs, and a untold number of conversions running around. As of right now, there are more "production" EVs using J1772 than anything else. And that basically happened overnight with the introduction of the Leaf and Volt.

 

And I should add that there has never been (and I have confidence that there never will be) a way to convert the inductive paddle current for use with the new cars. Just wouldn't be prudent! That's one of the beauties of conductive cars. We can convert anything to anything else with the proper connector and a length of wire (and a pilot signal, but that's easy). Cost is really the only big hurdle now. These dang connectors are crazy expensive.

 

Thanks for straitening me out. Seems like I knew that once upon a time. Avcon is conductive, right? Now the challenge will be to remember ...
Hypermini ... wasn't that the same thing as the NEV gem?

 

Yup, the only inductive we had were the large and small paddles. LPI and SPI for short. The main reason they were made inductive is so they'd be natively proprietary. When you go conductive... why you can just plug into anything!

but anyway... The Hypermini is WAY beyond a GEM. The GEM is literally a converted golf cart.

hypermini