Our Charging Station was installed today

It seems like those who know how this process works, properly condemn the high price, I do too. Unfortunately there are going to be folk that buy O2 free speaker cable, 200 buck HDMI Cables etc, and not care. Fine that's their choice. What about Joe Average who is technically challenged and yet buys a PiP and unwittingly pays through the nose for the magic of 240v! Sadly you can't watch out for everyone!
Hey, I had 240 in my garage 15 years ago, took a afternoon of conduit bending and 8 gauge cable, Neutral and a ground! To those who know it's nothing, to those who don't, it's magic!

 

Do you know who will sell them to me for $100 in China? I'll buy a few dozen, add the electronics and cables, and sell them here.

 

i know what it would cost me to run 240 to the garage. the question is, how much for a plug n play 240 charger?

 

Here is the "Open EVSE" webpage, this is being done by some members of the MNL (MyNissanLeaf) forum, there are several sources of the J-1772 cables, here are some links:

Bisco, to answer your question, the OpenEVSE board costs $80 for the GFI model (availble from ChrisHowell who designed it, and is taking orders for them assembled with all components, this is what generates the Pilot signal and controls the relay/reads the current for the GFI via the CT, etc), the other components needed (30A relay, 12V power supply, CT transformer for the GFI) are about $50 from digikey, you also need some gland nuts, a plastic case, some 10/3 type SO cable & a 30A connector), so about $175 + the cost of the J-1772 connector & cable, figure its still going to cost you nearly $300 to put one together, assuming you can get the J-1772 connector & cable for $125.00, You can build one that is only good for 20Amps, but the common J-1772 cable assemblys are comming as 30A, so you might as well just build it to handle 30A, you won't save much building a "less capable" EVSE

Cost summary:

$80 open EVSE board
$51 Digikey parts (30A relay, Current Transformer, 12V PS)
$10 CG-16 Gland Nut
$29 L6-30 Plug to L6-30 connector, 6'
$7 4x4x2 32cu plastic junction box (Home Depot)
$125 DOSTAR J-1772 30A cable w/20' wire

$302 Total

open-evse - Open Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) - Google Project Hosting Open EVSE project

J1772CableSources - open-evse - Cables available in low quantity - Open Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) - Google Project Hosting J-1772 cable sources

My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Open EVSE Open EVSE thread on MNL

My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Leviton Evr-Green EVSE Info/Pics Entire thread on the Leviton unit...

Dostar makes a cable set for $94.89 from China (shipping extra, minimum order qty ~10-20), from this thread: My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - ITT J1772 Plug/Cable Set

Full Dostar EV catalog (PDF)

 

To be clear, level 2 (240 volt) charging is NOT considered quick charging.

Quick charging is generally considered to be 480 volt DC charging at high amperage (e.g. CHAdeMO Association).

A Leaf using L2 (240 volts) w/the charger that's built into the current ones takes 7 hours to charge to full from empty. If you use CHAdeMO (via the optional quick charge port), it gets you from 0 to 80% in 30 minutes.

 

gotcha. i was just using the phrase as it applies to 3 vs 1 1/2 hours. hardly seems quick, but it is twice as fast.

 

Semantics, my good friend. Here in Plug-in Prius Land, 240V gets you fully charged in 90 minutes and that's as "quick" as it gets. There is no CHAdeMO in Plug-in Prius Land.

 

Yep.

I'm trying to avoid confusion here. I've never heard of L2 charging (at least at 3.3 kw at 240 volts) being referred to as "quick charging".

At Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center: Alternative Fueling Station Locator, they list choices of level 1, level 2 and DC fast.

 

Maybe not for you, but, for me (and I suspect others), the ability to charge quickly makes the PiP much more valuable: For example, I can get home from work and be ready to go (using the full charge capacity) in a little over an hour for my evening activities (or even going out to eat).

Though it may still be hard to justify the cost right now, there is no doubt in my mind that I will definitely burn more gas without it. I can wait around for 1.5 hour charges in the same day, but waiting 3 hours is a lot longer when you are charging to do additional evening driving.

 

Much better than Leviton but still, I will build my own Level 2 supply with a J1772.

 

Toyota says they have no intention to use Quick Charge technology on the PiP ... rationalizing the size of the battery doesn't warrant it. I sure hope they use it on their EV, as both the Leaf AND the Imiev have it.

If the J1772 PiP charge cable that comes with the PiP is anything like the one on the Leaf, I'd hold off. pEEf (Engineer on the Leaf forum) mod's the Leaf cable, using a switching power supply, so that your vehicle can charge off the car's charge cable on either 208v, 120v, or 240v. That's as low as you can go. I'd bet dollars to donuts that he'll be adding that to the business model shortly.

EVSE Upgrade - Products
The mod costs only $239 bucks !

Hardwired EVSE? You don't need to have an electrical contractor come in and stick you with a $1,000+ bill for installing a 40 amp circuit breaker, either. If you have a 30amp dryer outlet in a garage, you're good to go, as was said above. Open EVSE? That's still more pricy than the EVSE upgrade. But it gets BETTER (saving the best for last ... drum roll) ... lastly - you got no 240v outlet? No problemo!
Voltage Converter: 220 Volt from 110 Volt Outlets
Find 2 120v plugs that come off the opposite legs of your homes 240v panel sources, and this box will re-assemble the 2 120v legs back into 240v. The quick220 box is completely safe, as well as idiot proof. (don't ask me how I know ... but I did take mine apart)
There ... I just save you several hundred more dollars.
:thumb:

.

 

I agree about the PiP. Ditto, hopefully they will use CHAdeMO on their EVs.

 

Open EVSE is about the same cost as having evseupgrade modify the Nissan (Panasonic) unit that comes with the Leaf($300 to build a 30A 240V EVSE assuming we can get the Dostar cables from China for $125).

Building a separate EVSE for similar money is better in 2 ways:
You have the original, unmodified unit to return if you are leasing, you also have a 2nd physical 120V unit as well.

Thirdly, you are building a 30A 240V EVSE that will be capable of supporting the next generation of EVs that can be charged at 6.6KW

 

Lowe's offers a GE charging station at just under $1000.

Sorry, as PriusChat newbie I cannot insert a hyperlink to it.

The reviews section includes some fair comments that PriusChat folks might find interesting. This item would be overkill for my PIP, and if my PIP runs as great after 11 years as my classic does, I may not need to worry about future capacity.

Oh, and the reviewers complain that the charging unit makes noise. But the car does not. Ironic.

Mark

 

The noise is likely from the contactor coil (60hz hum, as it doesn't know the words ), I would hope that in 11 years most of us are driving pure EVs with much a larger electric range (no engine or gas used at all), with 6.6KW onboard chargers (or larger), and as such, a larger EVSE will charge the battery pack up FASTER, that is the point of a larger EVSE/onboard charger.

gasoline will likely be so expensive in 11 years, only rich people will be using it by then.

 

I bet that was probably also said 10 years ago, and 15 years ago, and 20 years ago...

(but let's hope that someday it will be true!)

 

When I started driving in 1978, gasoline was still under $1/gallon. Of course that means nothing, since the dollar has also been so devalued quite a lot since then as well, hard to figure out.

What's different now, and has not been a factor until recently is other developing countries, such as China and India, who have an up and comming middle class, who will be willing to outbid us for the remaining oil, we have nothing like this in the past to compare to, this is one reason gasoline is going to keep rising...

 

1 1978 dollars in current dollars - Wolfram|Alpha

Agreed on that latter point about China and India. They have over a billion people each w/more people in both being able to afford cars. Supposedly China has 300+ million middle class while the US only has 313 million people in total.