Charging PIP with less than 15A?

I'm not very electrically inclined, so in the interest of being safe rather than sorry, can someone confirm I'm on the right track here... My situation:

- I have an outdoor outlet that I plan to plug my PIP into
- According to the electrical panel, this outlet is on a 20 amp circuit with two other outdoor outlets and a GFCI outlet in the basement (I still have to verify there is nothing else on the circuit)
- 99% of the time, nothing is ever plugged into any of the outlets
- There's an outside light which comes on automagically at dusk that may or may not be on that circuit (I'll find out when I start flipping breakers). It uses 3 15 watt bulbs so it should be negligible.

To confirm what I think I already know: If nothing else is plugged into that circuit while I'm charging my car, I'm fine. Even if something else is plugged in, as long as I don't exceed 16 amps on the 20 amp circuit, I'm fine.

Anything I haven't thought of yet?

 

If you use the fact that the PiP battery is depleted after using about 3.3kWh and it takes 3 hrs to charge, divide the 3,300 Wh by 3 hrs then divide by 120 volts and you get 9.2 amps. So, your 20 amp circuit should be fine.

 

I just might want to point out, that even if something doesn't trip the breaker, does not mean it isn't causing harm to the electrical system. For example, a few days ago we had to plug in some space-heaters. We're getting our home expanded and there was a huge draft from one of the places where they had joined in the new area but it wasn't completely sealed. So we decided to close all of our bedroom doors and just run space heaters in them. Most of them were around 1,000 watts a piece. My daughter's room ended up having a problem. Her light was off and her sockets would no longer work. The breaker was not tripped. It turned out the electrician had daisy chained the electrical sockets through the light-switch by just poking the wire into the back of the switch (rather than using the screws) Well, apparently the connection in there wasn't so good and it created a lot of heat and melted the light switch.

I replaced the switch and wired it up a little more robustly. Still, that heater was only pulling about 8 amps. It is a 15-amp circuit, so you would think it would be fine. So. That being said, i would suggest at minimum a dedicated 15 or 20-amp outlet wired up with the SCREWS on the outlet, rather than the "easy" way. If you are going to run the wire yourself, might as well use 12-gauge and not the typical 14 gauge.

I think in a year or two the price of a 240V EVSE will probably drop in price. At that point, you may want to re-consider your options.

I think for the PiP, it is not really needed. For my Nissan Leaf, it was quite a hassle trying to live with 120V charging. So 240V is really the best way to go. I think when the price is right, even PiP users will probably want a dedicated EVSE. It is not only more convenient, but will charge faster.

 

DON'T use this method to decide that the circuit will be fine. It doesn't work.

Battery charging is neither 100% efficient, nor constant current for the full cycle, so the initial current in this example will be higher than 9.2 amps. Allow for the full nameplate rating of the charger.

And don't intentionally put 20 amps on a 20 amp circuit. Stacey is right to hold to the NEC limit of 16 amps.

 

I think we are lucky in the UK not using 120v only 230/240v all our outlets are rated at 13amp and they are supplied by a ring main protected by a 32amp breaker. Some circuits electric shower or cooker can be 45amps 10kw and workshop outlets can be 16amp or 32amp. Although not normally used for domestic supplies we also use 415/440v three phase. We do use 110v in industry and construction sites but this is supplied by a step down transformer from 240v for portable power tools.

 

I'll make you a bet, that you won't trip a 20 amp breaker when you plug in your PiP.
When I get my PiP, I will measure the initial current and post it on PriusChat.

 

When I get my pre-production PiP for testing in a month, I will also do all charging measurements (kWh to full charge, max. kW consumption). I have a 230V/25A breaker, 3x5mm2 cord to my garage, where I charge my Vectrix.

 

And your point is???

I'll make you an equally pointless bet: that if you remove the seatbelts and airbags from your car, you won't die in a collision in said car. My parents and grandparents drove for decades without them, and none of them died or was even injured in a car crash.

As for me, I'll keep using the safety features of the car and obeying electric safety rules. Traffic and house fire death rates are both unnecessarily high around here.
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PS - Note for latecomers: Jbrad4's previous post used a calculation that seriously understated the current used by a device, and overstated the current that can safely be placed on a circuit.

I don't dispute that a single such device is safe on the circuit in question and won't cause the circuit breaker to trip. But his post could erroneously lead someone to believe that two such devices could safely be put on that circuit, when in fact that would cause a serious overload. Coming just two days after hearing about an incident in which similar ignorance burned down a house, I couldn't let this error pass.

 

Are you kidding me?! Britain (and all of Europe for that matter) have the worst electrical system possible. 50 Hz - significantly less efficient - and those G-d awfull plugs and light switches... there is no hope or saving grace to that system.

 

Why would a [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko]Schuko[/ame] plug be bad?

 

Andi, There's not a thing wrong with the Schuko plug. I lived in Germany for four years and used them every day I was there. You'll find a lot of "not invented here" syndrome from people from the U.S. who have not lived in other countries. You'll find the same with the metric system here. Why we still use the English system of measurement when the rest of the world has gone metric, I'll never know. The Schuko plug is a lot smaller than the electric plug used in the U.K. and not much bigger than the plugs we use here in the U.S.

 

"schuko plugs are considered a very safe design when used with schuko sockets but they can also mate with other sockets to give an unsafe result"

 

Is that why we have so few electrical fires compared with the US, lower volts per watt equals higher current higher current equals greater losses and lower efficientcey. The plugs are internally fused so that in the event of a fault it does not take out the whole circuit. The fuses can be 2/3/5/7/10/13amps so protecting the flex cable to the appliance and the appliance from excessive current. The plug design also keeps polarity correct.

 

The wall socket in my garage is a regular one, and nothing else plugs in there or runs off it. I'm going to try that to see how long the charge takes me... and then upgrade if it seems a problem. It's quite easy to have my electrician come and do a 15 AMP there if I need.