Low-cost 240V EVSE upgrade

How many L1 mod's pEEF, so far ? Maybe like the McDonalds Marquis telling how many burgers sold - you could post 'X' amount of satisfied customer mods so far. Count me in that group!

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You may want to use a TED5000 if you are serious about measuring the power used. I have a plug-in-prius on 240V - and it's used 380 kWh since 3/26/12 ... one of my downsides of moving to 240 V (I'm considering the conversion described above) is loosing the easy measurement.

Measuring Energy used with TED 5000 and Kill-A-Watt « How To Change a Light Bulb

I'm quite happy with my TED 5000 house-wide and the Plug-in-Prius eats up on average about 25% of my daily consumption of 17 kwH/day.

One thing I'm considering is -given these appliances don't draw a TON of power- is to split the 240 line and measure the power used between one phase and neutral, and then do the appropriate power factor conversions to get the true power used across phases. From folks in this forum .... do you think this is an OK idea?

 

Don't do that. Just get an inexpensive 240V kWh meter. Some options depending on how portable you want the meter to be.

My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Portable 120/240V KWH meter for your portable upgraded EVSE
http://www.ekmmetering.com
GE KWHR Meter 240V 100A EZ Read Meter

 

that's interesting, i'm using 20kwh/day when not watering the lawn or using a/c. do you mind sharing some details with me? my power company rated us at 30 out of 100 users in similar size houses in a 3 mile radius. i thought that was quite high considering how frugle we are. we have 3 people in a 2500' house. electric usage includes: boiler, well pump, generator heater in winter and battery charger year round, 37" lcd tv, 36" fridge, electric stove/oven, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, toaster oven, (all less than 5 years old). and , of course, the pip!

 

Maybe better post for separate thread, but a quick rundown here.I have the plug-in prius, and then nat gas heating (normal furnace w electric pumps), and electric stove, electric washer & dryer, a standing fridge & a standing freezer, oven, microwave, media center, workstation (4 monitors, work from home so they are on 8h+ /day). 3000sqft, 2 adults 1 baby. Weather does not help for line drying (Seattle). My biggest tips would be first to switch to a clean power source if your utility offers it (my PiP is mostly getting power from wind, small hydro etc) and then insulate your house, program your thermostat, reduce dryer use and clean the fridge coils, in that order. 100% of my bulbs are efficient (70% LED 30% CFL).
I get the question so much I started posting little things I do in the blog I linked to above. Please leave any questions you have here: About & Ask Me Anything « How To Change a Light Bulb and ill do my best to answer them!

I just found this forum, I'll share some PiP stats (historic MPG, MPGe, etc) when I get the time! Have it since end of march so some interesting averages are shaping up)

 

thanks echo, that's interesting. i've done all the things you recommend and more. i'm going to have to get a meter and see how much each appliance is using. i do have an adult daughter at home, not sure if i can put a meter on her tho.

 

I have purchased a couple of items from here: EKM Metering | Electric Meters | Gas Meters | Water Meters I'll let you know the experience once I have it.

 

that's not a bad price for what it does.

 

Yeah, they don't sell meters for your kind of power struggles yet.

I just posted what I did to measure 240V use here: Measuring power use on 240V appliances « How To Change a Light Bulb

This is useful for the folks wanting to measure their 240V Plug-in Prius converted chargers. For fixed installations I'm sure you could do more elegant things (like metering at the breaker panel if your PiP is charging from a dedicated breaker), but this setup is portable and about $70 in parts + 20min effort - but please don't kill yourselves if you are not handy w electricity.

Unvalidated idea for those doing 240 V charger conversions: You may want to offer meters for purchase or rent. Seems like the plug-in car folks and data-hungry folks intersect at this point in time... but maybe not worth for a business. Cheers!

 

^^^
The cord w/brick and J1772 connector is NOT a charger. It's an EVSE. Charger's inside the car.

 

I wonder how long it will take for the prices of evse's to drop in price. I'm considering either building my own or sending my evse to evseupgrade in order to get the fast charge option.

I have rental properties in Ithaca ny and I'd also like to install 240v chargers at them. I'm hoping prices come down soon. It doesn't make financial sense to install ev stations. I'd be doing it to help support the change, offer an extra perk to my tenants and give me a place to charge when I'm there working.