240v Home Charger

agreed, i can't think of a handfull of times i would go out, use up the battery, come home and want a quick charge to go out again. it just doesn't happen that way.

 

That's why I lock my portable EVSE. At about $700 w/ tax, that's a lot of motivation for dishonesty.

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$1000 for a charger?? Just what goes on here? I can't imagine what the expense is here. I think we are being taken for a ride.
Since there are public charging stations, are all the charger connections standardized?

 

the need to use the portable EVSE is rare in public. i have only used it for things like camping or visiting friends. sure friends house runs a bit of a risk since we are not outside in front of the car like when camping but as Hill said. the EVSE is lockable and its pretty cheap insurance against "honest" people. a lock never stopped a determined thief.

 

Small reboot to this older thread.

With a PiP, the cost of a charging station isn't warranted at this point; convenience of have a cable hang on the wall while a backup remains in the trunk would be great, just not worth the $500+.

There is the one company (maybe others) who will upgrade the Toyota cable to take both a 240 and 120 volt charge. The cost with shipping and the 120 adapter seems to round up to about $275.00.

Though some mods are needed for the cable to handle the duel voltage, it seems like a rather simple process (looking in from the outside.)

Has anyone posted instructions or info on such a cable upgrade? Would this really cost upwards of $200 for the upgrade?

 

i haven't seen anything, the parts are probably 5 bucks. the parts to build your own L2, (open evse) are $450. half of which is the j1772 plug and 25' of cable. that was 3 years ago, so it's probably cheaper. and that comes with instructions.

 

Phil - the PC member up in the bay area that does the mod not only has to break open the adhesive (labor intensive) it has to get a new (switching) power supply that supports 208v, 120v & 240v. He also puts in a new board, so you're paying for that bit of custom hardware as well. That's a good amount of labor. If you think you can find some equally qualified, yet minimum wage person willing to take on that kind of laborious project, AND actually warranty the work ... please, post who that is, and I'll bet folks will be all over it. Otherwise, yes, it's well worth the money.

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Thx guys.

 

I just ordered a Clipper Creek 32 Amp EVSE to plug into the new NEMA 14-50 outlet being installed for my soon-to-be Tesla. I figured rather than directly plugging in to the outlet (which Teslas can do), a generic 1772 charger would be future proof and manufacturer agnostic. Plus, I can always take the EVSE with us, if we ever move. (Though I am firmly committed to staying here long enough to see the Solar PV system pay for itself.)

Plus, while I'm waiting for the Tesla, the PiP gets force fed much more quickly than from the supplied 100V EVSE.

 

See this thread.

While it certainly is possible to modify the PiP EVSE for 240v charging, I have yet to find instructions on how to do so, and haven't bothered to figure it out myself.

That said, a Leaf EVSE can be had for about $200 and instructions for modifying those are on instructables.com. I choose to go this route so that I can leave my 240v EVSE permanently mounted to the ceiling where I installed a 240v outlet. Now my charging time is cut to 90min while efficiency is greatly increased, and my stock PiP EVSE is stored in the car for when I visit my parents or friends.

This was the best solution for my situation since I don't own any other EVs and can't utilize a more powerful EVSE. When I do get a vehicle that can utilize a faster EVSE, I'm guessing the units should be more affordable by then. After all, the EVSE is merely a switch with a meager amount of intelligence built in.

 

I got the Clipper Creek charger for $379 and it gets a LOT of use. Both my wife and I have plug-ins and her's gets charged at least twice a day. When I'm working mine might go several days or more without being used (I drive a large Sprinter van to work out of) but when I'm not working it can get a couple of charges per day. Personally I don't see a use for the 120v cord. A dedicated 240v charger is much more convenient and faster. Of coarse I ran a dedicated circuit for it myself so all I paid for was material.

 

Do not know what you exactly mean by this, but the PiP cannot be force fed beyond the charger rating. At 240 V the on board charger is rated at 10 Amps and that is the max current you can feed it.

 

perhaps he's been using the supplied oem 120v evse.

 

Yes, in this case it will charge quicker.

 

In fact, my reply did not aim to the poster directly but to someone else reading it and may jump into conclusion that the PiP can be force fed at 32 Amps

 

Sorry, that wasn't the intent - merely representing the "universal donor" nature of a high-amperage EVSE. Indeed, till I installed this, I was on the 110V EVSE.