I am planning to install a 240V plug into my garage (we are getting a BEV in the summer). I looked at the charger provided to me with my Prime, and it is really weird (see attached pic). It accepts 120V input ONLY, and outputs the same 120V....??? What is the function of this box, if it doesn't do anything to the current/voltage it is provided? Do the chargers you have received with your Prime also have 120V in and 120V out? And, if I install a 240V plug, how do I transfer electricity to the Prime, if the provided charger box doesn't accept 240V?
all the oem chargers are the same. the box is a safety control unit. iirc, you can run the evse on 240v. search around here, there was a thread or two. if i'm wrong, or you are not comfortable with that as some aren't, you have to buy an L2 evse.
@bisco thanks a lot! PS: checked the manual, (should have done earlier before posting...) and there is a full description of what the cable does. It converts from a 110V plug, to a L1/L2 plug, and the CCID (Charge Circuit Interrupting Device), i.e., "the box", does a bit more than expected:
I see they have a 16A and 40A version... It all depends then on how much our Electric Utility company will allow to our home and what we can have installed by the electrician....
Or you can use OEM L1 EVSE with a homemade adaptor. Using the Primes 120v Charger at 240 Volts, Cost $20 !!! | PriusChat
An AC charge station at your house or the supplied Prius cable is not a charger. The charger is in the vehicle. What most people call a "charging station" is an EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) power point. Its primary purpose is to let a car's onboard charger know how many amps the ac wiring is capable of supplying. It does add ground fault protection and the vehicle knows not to drive when its connected. It typically does these things through a simple communication protocol to the car. In a Level 1 or 2 "charging station" the ac to dc conversion and charge control is done in the vehicle. So if the connected wiring is 240 vac 30 amp the car's on board charger can limit its draw. 50 amps allows the onboard chargers to draw more. Some bigger EVs will accept high kw DC but the "charging station" requires high power three phase typically from commercial locations. Tesla calls these Superchargers. The vehicle still regulates the charge.
depends on if you want to future proof. the prime doesn't draw much, 16a? so you can go cheap, or plan for bigger and better.
At this point it depends on how much our electricity provider will allow to be delivered to the house. The reality is that we are going to all have BEVs in the (near) future, so putting the most a 240V plug can get from the energy provider is the plan. So even if we sell the house in 10 years, the new owners can attached whatever the energy provider can support on 240V. I sent an email to the energy provider to see what they answer. It is funny that they have a page on their website about EVs, not a word about how to charge them at home and what you can get in terms of Amps @ 240V in the house, if you need a permit, etc. etc....
Any electrician can do this, usually from your existing breaker panel. It is not any different than adding a receptacle for a built in electric range, a welding rig or if you were adding 15 kw of electric heat to your heat pump. Technically most cities or counties will require a permit but its not the power company making the call. In the majority of cases, a 30-50 amp receptacle can be handled by your current breaker panel. If the house is really old or you wanted two 50 amp receptacles, the electrician might have to upgrade your panel to run the necessary conductors. He would add the garage receptacles and wire them to the panel. After he did that he would call the power company who would upgrade the transformer and conductors to the meter. If needed. For free.
I am so looking forward to never have to go to a gas station and worry about gas prices... And I hope our electricity provider will move more and more to renewables. They have a decent percentage of solar power (I mean, in Colorado it never rains), but they still have a contract that some idiot made a few years back to use a coal power plant... Hoping the plant is modern and has good filters. It is surely producing less CO2/kW power produced, than any of the SUVs and big trucks doing 10MPG.
