Is there any safe way to attempt to plug in when you're not at a dedicated charging station?

The EVSE already has a built in GFCI as far as I am aware.

 

plug it in. Im sure you will be fine.

 

Perhaps the better way to ask this question is:

Has anyone, in the entire history of all of us PiP owners mooching a $.30 charge (maximum - assuming a 3 hour visit) from a friend, in-law, business, or other aquaintance ever blown a fuse or circuit breaker?

My guess is the answer is a deafeningly silent "No".

One caveat to my most recent post. The Plug-In Prius will only use a maximum of 12 amps of any (typically) 15 amp circuit, meaning that as many as 3 100W light bulbs could be operating on the same circuit at the time you plug in the PiP.

A problem arises should one turn on even a single 100W incandescent bulb while the PiP is charging. Incandescent bulbs can demand nearly 10 times thier operating amperage for a fraction of a second as thier filament heats up - i.e. more than 8 amps, which (unless you have a slow blow fuse, or modern CB) could very well trip a breaker or blow a fuse.

I'll adjust my previous guess to account for one or two instances of heavily loaded circuits, or large upstart loads being introduced after the PiP gets plugged in.

 

I moved into an apartment complex that was built in the 70's. I park my car in a garage there. The garage building has something like 20 private garages in it. Each has one light bulb with an outlet. I was told that the whole building was on one 15 amp breaker. THere are other tenants running chest freezers and I have yet to blow a fuse. I was really worried about it but its not an issue.

 

Dammit, that's three instances, and I only accounted for one or two.

Oh well.

 

wow, never even seen a 10 amp breaker in 40 years of diy electric work.

 

An outside outlet, or garage outlet, for that matter, should be GFCI protected according to US Electrical code. It should also be marked so. But you might want to check to make sure. Given that, it should be as safe as anything else you do with electricity, outside.

[If you are using strange outlets frequently, you could purchase a circuit tester with a GFCI test button (around $5). This will ensure that the outlet is properly wired and protected. Just make sure you know where the reset is first!]

 

"Should be" is the relevant part of that quote. My house was built in 1949 and lacks grounds at all, let alone GFCI. Oddly, I have eight 220 outlets in my garage, two of them 3 phase. It is a crying shame I do not have a plug in car.

 

had same problem here. My house was built in 1950. Upgraded the panel and grounded circuits now. Made the outside gfci much easier.

 

I just installed 4 of them. They are hard to find!

 

You should install GFIs, even if you do not have a ground. A GFI looks for a difference between line current and neutral current. The ground is not involved. It is just there to provicde a connection for safety grounded equipment.

The NEC lists residential safety levels: #1 is a GFI with ground. #2 is a GFI without ground, and #3 is an outlet without GFI but grounded, and #4 is an outlet without GFI or ground.

When a GFI is installed without ground is installed, it must be marked as no ground service. Most GFIs come with a sticker to meet this requirement.

 

I was charging an iMiev on a standard switched socket by my front door, the switch melted in the "on" position, but nothing tripped in my consumer unit. I'd been using the same socket for charging my PHEV for months before that.

 

I plug into a heavy-duty extension cord on a dedicated circuit at home, and into a parking-lot lamp-post outlet (with permission) at work. A couple times a co-worker with an electric Focus plugged into the same lamp-post circuit and popped the breaker inside the facility, but no harm. We just coordinate which posts we plug into!

I time my charge at home (starts at 5am), but I don't bother to set the timer at work, and charge right away. So, I charge fully by noon and don't leave for about 6 hours. Anyone have a take on how much this strains the battery, or whether I will run into warranty problems by doing it?

 

i'm not sure if there is a known answer for this. it's long term debilitation of the battery. how long and how much? if it were me, i would use the timer unless impossible to do so. climate also matters. full charge in hot weather is worse than cool. i don't think it affects warranty, because they are not going to warranty the battery for reduced range.

 

Our house was built in 1963. When we moved in in 1999, it still had the original 60-amp fuse box and no 240V service. We ended up doing a complete panel replacement, adding 240V service, grounding as many outlets as we could, putting in GFCI's where required, and cleaning up the crappy wiring they had run in the garage for various "improvements" they had done.