We are looking at electrifying, either via plug in hybrid or pure EV, and one of the things is considering what sort of charging station is best for the garage. If you have one, or experience with one, would you mind detailing it and explaining why you chose it.
I would assume that different cars might require somewhat different set ups, but ignoring that, how about a mention of “brand name” and experiences. Thanks.
You first need to determine which car you are going to purchase. The type of wall outlet you have installed will depend on it.
Here is a primer:
Also, your car may come with its own wall charger so don’t rush out to buy one without asking your dealer first. My EV was going to come with one, my wife’s plug in hybrid was not - but we verified that her plug in could use my same charger.
Yeah, I probably should have said. One will be the Ionic6, and the other, hers, will either be a Kia or Hyundai plug in hybrid. The Ionic comes with nothing extra, the Hyundai likewise, the Kia has “an allowance” but no hardware.
First off, they are all very similar to each other. Some have more bells and whistles, some have fewer.
Some of the bells and whistles include Wi-FI connectivity, selectable specific car charging (the Tesla wall charger is big on this), displays and fancy lights, and some other stuff. Any good charger will have temperature detectors in various places to let the device know it has to reduce the current if something gets too hot. A properly installed device will very rarely get hot enough to have to reduce current (normally that would only happen on the hottest of hot days in the summer, if at all). Keep in mind, the charger or car may reduce current for other reasons as well, so it isn’t always due to heat. Some chargers have connected apps and the like. Some have programmable time of day charging, which is useful for those with tiered electric rates. Of course, some vehicles (Tesla, for example) have the time of day charging built-in, so no need for the charger to do it. And there are probably some other features that I can’t recall right now.
In our case, with 2 EVs, and having an existing NEMA 6-50 outlet, I decided to not get a wall charger at all. Instead I use the simple Tesla Mobile Charging adapter that came with my car. I purchased a NACS-to-J1772 adapter to charge the Leaf with the same charger, but we rarely (only once or twice in 2+ years) charge the Leaf at home because it’s a commuter car and charges in the parking lot at the office where it is parked all day. Also, other than road trips, I don’t drive much, so a lot of my charging gets done while at the supermarket or at the movie theater, or during some other errand. On road trips, of course, most charging is done by supercharger (DCFC - DC Fast Charging).
Goofy I have been driving electric cars since 2014. There are multiple standards and plug types today. I am assuming you are not going to get an older used EV – and if you are, that is something I suggest you reconsider.
The most important first step is the electrical system in your residence. Yes you can plug a charger into a normal 15 amp wall plug. That is not a good idea except a one off situations such as you happen to be staying at an AirBnB for a few days. First off, the maximum charging rate from a normal wall plug will be from 2.5 to maybe 4.0 miles per hour of charging. (heavier cars need more power per mile. Different cars conversion from 110 AC to DC have different efficiencies.)
For most people the best approach is a dedicated 240 volt circuit. Different cars (Tesla, GM, Audi, Ford, Porsche, etc.) all offer different “chargers” you can use on their cars. You would be wiser to pick a system that is independent of car brand. As of 2024 - but probably late 2024 - two such standard plugs exist. One exists today & things are different in Japan and Europe.
One system is the J1772 plug and the other is the Tesla plug. J1772 systems can be purchased from dozens of suppliers - much like iPhone chargers can be purchased from dozens of suppliers. Do not purchase these based on price - beyond quality and durability, unless you speak electricity, you will find lots of stuff that is limited to a few miles per hour of charging. If you do go this way, you will get good quality by getting your J1772 adaptors/plugs for your XYZ car from an XYZ dealer.
As of yesterday virtually all car brands sold in the USA have announced support of the Tesla charger in 2024 (with adaptors that go between their cars and Tesla charging plugs) and for 2025 models by using a socket in their cars.
So to future proof yourself, I suggest a Tesla charger in your garage. It will work with a Tesla, if you pick that brand and it will work with any other EV you buy model year 2025 or later. Some 2024 cars will require an adaptor.
Note: I know nothing about the connections of plug in hybrids.
One thing lots of Tesla owners have learned over the years is wall plugs come in more than 1 quality level. If you go with installation of a NEMA 1450 plug make darn sure you get a commercial level outlet - not the stuff you find at Home Depot or Lowes. Two problems happen over time with the lower cost electrical plugs. #1. The contacts do corrode resulting in resistive heating which causes more corrosion. Eventually the system get really hot and does result in exciting, smoky failures. #2. Less likely today, but possible. If people decide to unplug their charging cable so it is in the car if needed, after some number of pluging/unplugging cycles the outlet connection just get loose - with the 40 Amp 240 loads this also generate excessive heat and eventually destroys the plug – like fire and smoke when it happens.
Tesla has learned a lot of stuff over the years and their equipment is rock solid. Regardless of car brand, I suggest getting a Tesla charger. Link below. Placement in the garage matters. Tesla ports on on the left rear corner – much like gasoline pipe locations. Porsche has charging ports behind both front fenders. Ford’s Mustang left front corner. Check other brand’s charger location(s). Eventually all the plugs will be similarly located, but not in my lifetime.
This is what I use - it is on a 50 amp 240 volt circuit and if I run it all the max power, is charges my car at a rate of 28 miles per hour. Hence the general EV recommendation - when you park in the garage, plug the car unless you know you will be leaving before you go to bed at night.
You are also going to want to make sure your electrical panel can handle the load. So you can make sure it can handle the extra amperage.
https://www.angi.com/articles/electrical-load-calculation.htm
Andy
I’ve charged all my Teslas, since 2014, from a single NEMA 14-50 outlet I had installed. No special hardware. Well, one thing: I generally use a 15’ 50-amp extension cord as well, since my cars are outside rather than in my garage.
But partly, that’s doable because Tesla cars, paired with their Universal Mobile Connector cable, are very smart about charging, monitoring for anomalies that (if left ignored) might cause damage to the house electrical system.
The cost was pretty much determined by how far the wire had to be run from the breaker box to the outlet.
-IGU-
Yes – and to expand on my previous tomb – This type of wiring is not unlike decided to add an electric water heater or drier. So unless you are sure you know the current NEC and are happy messing inside a hot breaker panel, get a licensed electrician to do the work.
These folks have seen lots of houses. If you get a decent one, they likely will come up with options that not only are better than the home owners idea, but also will cost less. (This latter point is something I have proven to myself more than once – because I am a slow learner.)
As we went to natural gas for our dryer, I at first used a really heavy 220v extension cord for my welder, later added an additional sub panel, 220v 50A outlet for it, handier… Also when I built my 16’x24’ shop, I added another 22v, 50A outlet for the welder, but currently used topper our RV trailer, in case it’s needed for living space due to remodeling or as it was a few years back, a safe space away from the firestorm threats… While I’m not a Licensed electrician, I worked nearly 40 years in AC, DC high current equipment, wiring, firing up, testing, many systems, meeting, exceeding NEC requirements…
We didn’t opt for a plugin hybrid, just didn’t see the range that was useful, so the RAV4 was the end result, and no need for the grade outlet, haven’t done any welding for decades now, but it’s nice to have the option, ability… Miller AC/DC stick welder, and a little MIG welder have done their jobs… But I’ve tossed nearly all the steel, iron I’d collected…
Best be careful, find that local electrician to do the work, I just passed along 3 locals to a friend. needed her rental rewired, in the old days I’d have taken it on, but it’s too much for this 80+ year old to deal with…
I understand. For a person who is “average” in terms of their daily driving there are PIHs that will save a lot of fuel cost. It is easy to get car that will go between 3 and 4 miles on a KWH to juice. That works out to an equivalent cost of 63¢ a gallon gasoline. (assumes 20 mpg and electricity @ 11¢ a KWH.)
Others have given lots of good info I won’t repeat. But as far as the actual charger (actually EVSE since the “charger” is inside each car) you need to decide if you want a dumb charger or a smart one. (The dumb ones aren’t totally dumb, they still have to negotiate how many amps to use before turning on the charging pins).
Smart chargers have WiFi and you can get stats, set timers, get notifications, load balance between multiple chargers and even allow strangers to unlock and use it… and who knows what else.
Dumb chargers are a box that is hardwired or plugs into a 220 14-50 outlet and you plug in and that’s it. These are the cheapest. I got one of these 7 years ago and have moderately abused it by leaving the cord outside most of the time (running under the garage door)…still works great. It is J1772 and I’ve used it on 4 cars. (Prius plug in hybrid, Nissan Leaf, Tesla M3, Bolt)
It is a Clipper Creek brand.
IMO, you probably don’t want a smart one…just more stuff to possibly fail. All cars can set timers internally and collect stats.
You also need to know how many amps you want. I’d get the most your panel can supply. By NEC your charger can only use 80% of the amount the circuit and breaker are rated at.
Mike
I hadn’t dug in to see what my cost/mile is, but looking at my mpg spreadsheet, I see it has it… For the 4 fill-ups I’ve done, the cost/mile is $0.13m so no complaints… Average mpg dropped on my last fillup to 30.9, my lead foot I guess… what this weekend at 6-8,000 feet will do to it, no idea…
J1772 gets attention - today it the closest to universal standard. Here is a Wiki link - worth reading:
You can see in the standard it is possible to support well over 100 amps, but that is only part of the important information. What is the max current the AC to DC converter in your car will support?
Over the years I have seen some J1772 chargers advertised/labeled(?) for my car with different maximum current figures.
The 80% duty factor is part of the NEC. No continuous power draw exceeding 80% is allowed the applies to circuit breakers, wire/cable plugs/outlets, switches, etc.
There are circumstances which may justify “smart” chargers. A good example can happen when people choose to get EVs in houses whose wiring is nearing capacity. (Note: wiring capacity is only tangentially related to places in the breaker box to add more breakers.) There are wires that connect your house to the power company wires for example.
Maybe your house can easily add one 50 amp service, but not two without say expanding the breaker panel from 200 to 400 amp capacity. Just replacing the 200 amp breaker box is easily over a thousand.
If you want that second EV charging option, here are three options.
#1 Use a single charger for two cars by moving the plug.
#2. Use two chargers to 20 amps max – one for each car. This option would set the max charging rate on my car to about 14 miles an hour. If I drove from my house to the Atlanta airport and returned I would need 10 hours to replace the power used. If I took a 300 mile round trip (May car has 400 mile range) I means over 20 hours to replace charge.
#3. Use Tesla Smart Chargers (other smart chargers likely exist – I just don’t know about them). Tesla Generation 3 chargers “talk” to each other and will happily optimally charge cars with as much current as the house power can supply. Assume you have two cars like my Model S. If both cars have a low state of charge, functionally the system will not be any faster than two 20 amp chargers. But if one is at 20% and the other is at 65% you will be able to have both at 80% in less than 11 hours with a total current draw of 40 amps. To 90% in less than 13 hours.
Keep in mind that having multiple 50 outlet/breakers does not mean the house load is the max of all of them, one might be fully loaded, but odds are the others are not, to total load os often way below the available 200A service…
Like now, lights, outlets were on 15A or 20A breakers, and with a lot of incandescent lamps it may have nudged the limits… But today, near everything here is LEDs, no waffle irons, space heaters, so the overall load is pretty low… Even our computers, TVs are more efficient, lower loads…
Changing times…
Some changes are not progress.
True, as a pre-diabetic, attempting to avoid carbs, our waffle irons are lost in the back of a shelf somewhere, one was really old, my Mom’s, and we’d figure out the best mix… Holidays, birthdays this time of year ar ought on my numbers I bet. Supposed to do a blood test for my new Doc, not happening until after the new year…
Onward!
As a kid we had a local buckwheat pancake mix. Famo was the brand name. Couldn’t find it back in the 90s. But located a near duplicate. New Hope Mills Old Fashioned mix. You can get it on Amazon. It is Amish or Mennonite from upstate NY. You might get it cheaper by ordering from the manufacturer’s website. But UPS shipping to CA isn’t cheap.
Some folks don’t like buckwheat, so if don’t know the taste you might want to try a smaller package from Amazon first.
Thread Wrap up:
Mine is an Ionic6, sitting in the garage. Dealer gave it to me with 32% charge, which I b!tched about since I don’t have a home charger (I have a trickle charger, but that’s a joke.) Mrs. Goofy’s new car turned out to be a Hyundai also, because the Kia dealer couldn’t find a PHEV hybrid with anything but black interior. And frankly I don’t think they tried very hard, since there was one about 200 miles away that she found, but her dealer said “We don’t have a relationship with them”, whatever that means. Anyway they followed up 2 days later saying “Have you gotten used to the idea of a black interior” when she had clearly told them “That’s a deal breaker, period.” So it became “Ooh, so sorry, already bought a Hyundai. Told you I was ready to buy a car.” So it’s a Hyundai Tucson, which doesn’t need a charger as it’s a traditional hybrid.
Anyway, I have ordered (and already had delivered) a JuiceBox, (j1772) ordered primarily because it could be delivered fast and has good reviews, including Consumer Reports. And my utility has a $400 rebate but the thing must be installed and operational by 12/31. Electricians come on the 26th. Monstrously expensive, mostly because the garage is at one end, the charger has to go on the far side of the garage, up a wall, across and back down, and the panel box is at the other end of the house, so I’m buying a ton of copper. Maybe 2 tons.
I went to WalMart and used an Electrify America charger to get to 100%, so I’m good. Really fast, that puppy.
Happy, expensive Christmas this year.
Happy for you!
Thanks for letting us know what you did.
Anything, literally anything, a dealer tells you means one thing, and one thing only, it means “we won’t make as much money”.
Copper wire is quite expensive lately, maybe a little less than 2 years ago, but still quite expensive. It’s also why I’ve been slowly adding shares to my COPX position over the last few years. Electrification (of everything) will require more and more copper. I was lucky, had an existing 50A outlet in roughly the right spot, so the copper wires were already installed.
Check if your manufacturer (Hyundai) recommends 100% for daily driving or something lower than that. Some battery chemistries do better at 80% or 85% for daily use, reserving 100% charging mainly for just before leaving on a long trip.
Enjoy your new vehicles!
