[tsomca]

Any experience with this? I just picked one up at Home Depot, ( $399 in store or online) Hardwired 30 amp, they recommend a 40 amp breaker be installed. Very utilitarian plastic box with a GE decal on front, decent 18' non coiled cord & says its made in the good ole' USA. My electrician is installing on the 2/11
Id appreciate any info or comments about this:
GE EV Charger Indoor/Outdoor Level-2 DuraStation Wall Mount with 18 ft. Cord-EVDSWGH-CP01 - The Home Depot

Thanks!

 

[jzchen]

I helped my wife purchase a Leviton unit for her C-MAX Energi, and got an electrician to come out and install the unit. I looked at Leviton's site to see that they sell a newer/smaller version of her 40A unit, but the price point is still quite a bit higher than $399. I'm honestly not sure how many amps the ED uses, but I think that the GE unit has enough to max it out. Looks pretty good from what I can see....

 

[svaraman]

I'm honestly not sure how many amps the ED uses, but I think that the GE unit has enough to max it out.

The model 451 ED has a 3.3KW charger so the maximum amperage is 16A from a 208V source. All of the L2 EVSE's I've seen can supply more than enough current to max out the ED.

 

[svaraman]

Any experience with this? I just picked one up at Home Depot, ( $399 in store or online) Hardwired 30 amp, they recommend a 40 amp breaker be installed. Very utilitarian plastic box with a GE decal on front, decent 18' non coiled cord & says its made in the good ole' USA. My electrician is installing on the 2/11
Id appreciate any info or comments about this:
GE EV Charger Indoor/Outdoor Level-2 DuraStation Wall Mount with 18 ft. Cord-EVDSWGH-CP01 - The Home Depot

Thanks!

$399 is a very good price for a L2 charger. Looks like they just stuffed it into an off-the-shelf plastic enclosure so it's not the prettiest unit around, but that probably isn't an issue for most people. I'd prefer an EVSE with a delayed-charge feature (so I can charge late at night to help level out the load on the grid).

 

[tsomca]

Thanks for the info!, I'm getting solar on the house in February, so I plan to charge up in the afternoon when it's a surplus form my needs, and from what I understand SOCAL Edison is dealing with an oversupply in the sunny & windy afternoons out here in the desert. Yea this box is a bit utilitarian but the price was the ticket here. BUT on the downside, if there is ever a fault I'll need to brush up on their "morse code like" blinking codes for fault errors - just 1 green & 1 red LED... LOL

 

[jzchen]

I've seen this unit, or this type, talked about somewhere...

https://store.openevse.com

No experience personally though...

 

[jzchen]

Sorry. Updated the link to a more appropriate part of the store.

 

[mattwithcats]

Have your electrician run 6 gauge 4 conductor wire, along with a 10 gauge 3 conductor, to your fuse box.
You will need three spaces total, two for the 220 volt breaker, one space for the 110 breaker.
Tandem fuses may be available to make space in the box, or a secondary box can be installed.

Use the 10 gauge wire to run a weather resistant GFCI 20 amp dedicated wall socket, in case you need 120 volt to charge your EV.

Now you have a 220 charging station and a dedicated 20 amp socket to run your 120 volt charger, if needed.

You have a choice of either NEMA 14-50, (50 amp), 14-30 (30 amp) or hardwiring the charger.
If you use a NEMA socket, you can undersized the breaker (40, 30, or 25 amp), but mark the socket as "40, 30, or 20 amp service/breaker.
Don't undersized the wire!

 

[tsomca]

Have your electrician run 6 gauge 4 conductor wire, along with a 10 gauge 3 conductor, to your fuse box.
You will need three spaces total, two for the 220 volt breaker, one space for the 110 breaker.
Tandem fuses may be available to make space in the box, or a secondary box can be installed.

Use the 10 gauge wire to run a weather resistant GFCI 20 amp dedicated wall socket, in case you need 120 volt to charge your EV.

Now you have a 220 charging station and a dedicated 20 amp socket to run your 120 volt charger, if needed.

You have a choice of either NEMA 14-50, (50 amp), 14-30 (30 amp) or hardwiring the charger.
If you use a NEMA socket, you can undersized the breaker (40, 30, or 25 amp), but mark the socket as "40, 30, or 20 amp service/breaker.
Don't undersized the wire!

Thanks for the detailed info!! fortunately the breaker box is on outside wall of the garage and the evse just needs to be the opposite - inside wall. so a very very short run short run . I m thinking just hardwire for this install, if I do ever move then its a plus for the new owner.

 

[SuperSmartie]

Have your electrician run 6 gauge 4 conductor wire, along with a 10 gauge 3 conductor, to your fuse box.

Keep in ind that the 451ED only draws 16A single phase, so 12 AWG 3-conductor is sufficient, unless you have a lot of spare money to dispose of... You should use a 16A EVSE in that case, to avoid someone coming by and tripping the breaker with their higher-current EV.

Some people think installing extra/bigger wires allows them to easier upgrade for some other EV in the future, but that will likely have completely different requirements. So spending money now on guessing what might be needed later seems pretty silly IMHO.

 

[mattwithcats]

First, he is installing a 30 amp, 220 volt charger.
Minimum wire gauge is 8, and you might be able to use 3 conductor.

Major cost here (aside from the charger and the car), is the electricians house call...

Even if you had a 3.3 kw charger, I would run 6 gauge 4 conductor.
Then you don't have to run new wires to upgrade to a 7.2 kw charger....

Difference is around 50 cents a foot, so a 20 foot run would cost you an extra $10.00...

 

[freeewilly]

Thanks for the info!, I'm getting solar on the house in February, so I plan to charge up in the afternoon when it's a surplus form my needs, and from what I understand SOCAL Edison is dealing with an oversupply in the sunny & windy afternoons out here in the desert. Yea this box is a bit utilitarian but the price was the ticket here. BUT on the downside, if there is ever a fault I'll need to brush up on their "morse code like" blinking codes for fault errors - just 1 green & 1 red LED... LOL

Charging during sunny time makes "environmental" sense when there is a huge surplus on solar energy.

But charging during super off peak hours (10pm - 8am) makes the best "financial" sense. After you installed solar and using SCE, you will have NEM and TOU rate, each kWh of energy you sell back to SCE during day time is equivalent to ~2-3 kWh during super off peak hours.

 

[tsomca]

Charging during sunny time makes "environmental" sense when there is a huge surplus on solar energy.

But charging during super off peak hours (10pm - 8am) makes the best "financial" sense. After you installed solar and using SCE, you will have NEM and TOU rate, each kWh of energy you sell back to SCE during day time is equivalent to ~2-3 kWh during super off peak hours.

Yea I'm wondering what SCE's paperwork will look like. ( installation later this month ). Im going to be zero'd out plus, so much so that is why I got my cute little "ED". I have heard over & over that selling extra credit to SCE is a waste of time so Im in the use it or loose it territory....
Thanks for the info everyone!
Tim

 

[jzchen]

I think TOU "time of use" if I'm correct, is optional. It doesn't seem to be on my parents' electricity bill....

Look for it, or ask for it, if you want. I've been hesitant, but I'm not sure why....

 

[rfernatt]

Yea I'm wondering what SCE's paperwork will look like. ( installation later this month ). Im going to be zero'd out plus, so much so that is why I got my cute little "ED". I have heard over & over that selling extra credit to SCE is a waste of time so Im in the use it or loose it territory....
Thanks for the info everyone!
Tim

If you've got the spare cash and you're doing a solar install, you could get Tesla Powerwall and store the excess energy. Plus you'd have backup power in case of power outage. As I understand it, energy storage is also eligible for the 30% tax credit if it's fed by a solar system. Just another thought...