240v Home Charger

i elected not to buy a "hang on the wall" EVSE although mine is. i got the modded EVSE for 240 charging from Phil (peef here) and it says plugged in all the time pretty much. i have taken it with me about 7 times. used it 4 times (went camping so packing the cable was just 3 minutes added to 90 minutes of packing the car anyway...)

if i do anything, i will simply buy another EVSE that is portable. but that is waaaay down the line (and waaay lower in price than the current options) and i am predicting that in a year, public charging options will be plentiful.

Ecotality has already announced that free charging will end Spring 2012. they have a bundle of charging places here and i expect that many more will be added now that they will cost something to use.


the other thing is simply planning. other than camping, 120 volt charging is so slow to be useless for really anything. i am thinking about the options for a Xmas party at my sister in laws house which is 65 miles one way. will need several hours to recharge and am thinking about plugging into charger at Ferry terminal and having someone pick us up (only like 4 miles away) as the 120 volt might not give me enough to get back home. i figure i would need a minimum 5+ hours to recharge and not sure i want to stay that long especially when 240 volts only needs a few hours which is more likely for me to be there.

 

i am pretty sure your PIP Pri should last more than a year a half

 

Vehicle charging consumes considerably more current, and for longer, than other electric devices in your home. 120V 15 Amp or 240V 15 Amp continuous is a lot. You really need to pay attention to the cables and connectors. If a plug is loose, the current will flow across less metal, which may exceed the metal's heat dissipation capabilities, which can melt the plug or even start a fire.

Worse, if you use an extension cord that's too thin, you also risk a fire. The safety features can't detect a thin extension cord. There's no rocket science here, but you aren't plugging in a 60 watt lamp, just something that draws a lot more current.

 

The PIP will connect to a 220V charger and will pull about the same sort of current as a typical dryer. At 120 it will pull about the same as a space heater. On a 120V 15A connection you can pull about 1.6KW - hardly going to dim the lights.

Noel

 

I'm going to stick with what I said. Just take a look at how thick the power cords are on electric clothes dryers and electric stoves, and bear in mind that an extension cord or socket used with an EVSE needs to be similarly beefy. I'm not trying to frighten anyone or make a big deal about it, just use care when selecting an extension cord and don't use a loose-fitting outlet. Common sense, that's all.

 

For a 25' extension cord, you should go with a
12AWG, for 50' or more, then 10AWG would work. There is not only current carrying capacity to consider, but also voltage drop.

Ideally you should use no extension cord at all, before the EVSE control box, that short cord is not GFI protected, neither would an extension cord connected to it.

 

Thank you, you summed it up succinctly! The thickness of the cord does not matter, it's the Gauge of the wire inside that counts. I would not use ANYTHING smaller than 12 Ga. and 10 would really be better. The smaller Gauge number of the wire, the larger the wire will be and the more current carrying capibility it has!

 

Looking at this picture suggests that Toyota has chosen the worst place to place the charging port. The charging port is diagonally across the car to the charging station. Considering the cable length, I doubt the cable can even reach the PiP's charging port in this instance.

Backing up the car is also difficult here because the parking spot is slanted (not perpendicular to the road).

 

Cable length is 25 feet which is way too long in my opinion. Although long enough to accommodate any vehicle these types of chargers have already experienced reliability problems because people are not rolling the hose back up causing damage to the connector.

Charge point connectors have a socket the plug sits on and a much skitter cables that could introduce problems with someone not parking conveniently

 

There must be different cable length configurations. For those I have seen, the cable is not long enough to go around to the back of the passenger side of the car.

 

ya they are different. i swung by the one pictured and cable is actually only about 20 feet. had a security officer standing out there when i first arrived so did not think stringing the cable out to the street was a good idea



but then he left after a while so took plug i was using laid out against car to get an idea of length. if plug is on passenger side it would definitely be a struggle to reach. now i could pull in a few more feet



keep in mind, car is 14½ feet

P.S. the Volt in the background is plugged in there EVERY single day i drive by there and i swing by there to see if any Leafs are there 3-4 times a week

 

Great pictures! It doesn't look like the cable can reach the outlet on the back of car even if you move forward a bit more.

In my opinion, Nissan got it right by placing the outlet in front.

Great LEAF. Mine is blue too.

 

probably a bad angle but the cable will reach even the passenger side of the back bumper but that is all. i checked the Charge point. it only has a cable that is 10 feet long at most. it is "just" long enough to comfortably reach the Volt socket. most of them are positioned at the front of the parking spot too making it just a bit longer of a reach.

more than a few commented that if the charge point was centered between two parking spots with a slightly longer cable it could service two spots

 

actually backing in is easier. the easiest access to this place is the roundabout in the background. the spaces are slanted in opposite direction. for me to park i have to do 3 pt turn into the space if there is cars parked in adjacent spots (8 charging units, other than the Volt i have only seen one other Leaf there)

load Google Maps. search for "Capital Gateway Park" in Olympia WA. there is a great view of the place which was simply an undeveloped lot before the walkway and charging stations were put in.

 

here is a Charge Point Charger with 25 foot cord but in front with a barrier. this allows servicing 3 parking spots for Leafs or Volts since the cable can reach either side




but since these chargers are centered in front of the spot, they should be long enough to reach to the back since they go be routed on either side of the car. most are set up this way. here is one at LOTT Plant (water treatment)




and one at the Dept of Ecology (this is place i took pic that had 114 state vehicles. had 81 Priuses, 9 Escape hybrids and some misc cars). this has the Charger on the FAR side of the walkway so its 25 foot cord has an effective range of about 20 feet.

 

Yep, it's easy if you're in the garage and the breaker panel is in front of you.

If it's an outlet in the house and it's being done solo, it takes longer to go back and forth to turn each/a bunch of circuits on/off to make sure the power's off to that outlet vs. turning off all of them.

And, yes, it's easy but if there's no temperature monitoring in either the outlet or the EVSE's plug and it gets loose, starts overheating and the owner doesn't monitor or do anything about it...

Yep. My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Open EVSE and My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Weekend(s) Project - DIY EVSE talked about the expensive J1772 connector.

 

I am working on installing my own 240v system - a cable with a 240v plug at the source end instead of a 120v. I am having a 240v socket installed in my garage by a certified electrician. If I can not find a SAE J1772-to-NEMA 14-50 cable to purchase, I plan to make my own.
I will feel more sure about this approach if I can certify that I can connect 240v directly to the charger input pins on the PiP socket. I'm trying to get this from Toyota (their announcements indicate this is possible) but they just want to plug (pun intended) the $1,000 commercial installation.
I'm sure the SAE J11772 plugs are expensive, but will cost a LOT less than the $1,000 systems.
I'll be able to make the cable a convenient length.
Many postings talk about using 240v but don't give details of how.
davidahr

 

davidahr, what you didn't talk about in your post is the signalling that goes on before electricity is allowed to flow to the J1772. The [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772"]Wikipedia Entry for SAE_J1772[/ame] entry does talk about the signalling but still not to the detail you would need to build a charging cable. Wikipedia does have links that would get you further down the signalling road, but SAE does not give their information away free. When I searched for just the J1772 connector that goes on the end of the cable, the cheapest I could find was in the $300 price range.

In Europe and the UK, they don't use 120v, only 240v 50Hz. What you are talking about trying to make is the cable they use in Europe or the UK for charging with a 240v Plug on one end of the cable and the J1772 that plugs into the car on the other end.

You may be interested in this site.

 

I plan to have a 240v outlet installed in my garage by a certified electrician. Then I will be able to charge my PiP using a cable with a 240v plug at the one end and a SAE J1772 plug at the other.

The Prius plug-in comes with a charge cable. This cable has a standard, household 120v plug at the source end (for the U.S.) and a SAE J1772 plug at the vehicle end. There is no charger with the cable, from pictures I have seen. The SAE plug delivers the 120v AC, into the vehicle, thru two power pins.
So I conclude that the vehicle has a charger, on board, that connects between the J1772 socket and the battery. (Chargers transform the AC in to DC out.)
Toyota says the vehicle can be charged from a 240v supply. This means that the charger has an input voltage spec range for 120 thru 240v.
So all I need is the cable.
I plan to make my own cable if I can not find one to purchase.
I expect the J1772 plug to be expensive but a lot less than $999.
I will make the cable a convenient length.
It will be great if I can get Toyota to say this is a viable idea. But when I ask them about it they just plug (pun intended) the commercial $999 charger.
davidahr