Adventures having an L2 charger installed

[ripperAZ]

I posted this on my build week forum but thought a few more people might find this as hilarious as I did. I thought y'all would appreciate this story about getting my L2 charger installed. Ford recommended Qmerit for setting up the install - they take your details and put it out for bid from local contractors. Well they come back at $1750 to run a conduit across my 3-car garage (w/ permits) so I ask the sales rep for the local electrical contractor to at least use #4 wire instead of #6 at that price. I expect the next generation of EV's will (and some of the current ones already do) support higher charging rates and I may as well have it wired to support it now.

Anyway, the electrician comes in and he was something. First thing he did was complain about using #4 wire because it's harder to work with (no kidding, I'd do it myself if this was simple). So he gets to work and it was just one comedy after another. Some of the things that happened:

• He used a folding ladder but refused to unfold it fully and lock the arms. He'd either use it partially folder or completely folded and lean it against a workbench. Twice the ladder collapsed and I come over to find him sprawled on the ground with the ladder on top of him.
• He forgot he was doing a NEMA 14-50 outlet and only ran 3 wires instead of 4. Then decided to repurpose the ground wire as neutral and connected ground to the conduit. Not sure this will actually pass inspection which may force them back out here.
• Pulled the anchor holding the conduit out of the ceiling trying to fish the wire through it.
• Went on a wild rant that his supplier gave him 110' of #4 wire instead of the 120' he requested. The job only needed 100' - but he told me he sells the remnants for scrap.
  • He actually had 120', he measured out a 55' segment, cut it and then another and had 10' left over but insisted he measured out only 50'. He used arm lengths of wire to measure the length and counted it out loud, measuring out 55'.
• Didn't turn off power to the panel when installing the breaker - shocked himself twice.
• Forgot which slots on the breaker panel he installed the breaker, then punched out the wrong ones on the panel cover. Couldn't find blanks and it's against code to leave them open, so he installed 2 extra 15A breakers and labelled them as spares to meet code.
• After he left, I open the panel and am shocked to see a 40A breaker in the panel instead of a 50A. Call the company and they send him back out. He tells me he couldn't find a 50A breaker in his truck and thought a 40A would be enough. I pointed out it's a 40A charger and he admitted it'd definitely pop the breaker the first time I connected it to the car. He found a 50A breaker to install.
• Best part was - after he came back to install the proper breaker - he handed me a business card in case I needed more electrical work and he freelances on the side.

LOL
It must be a supply chain issue
His brain is in transit
I don’t know I would’ve let him continue after the ladder scenario…..
I only carry 100 K liability on my house
LOL
Jes sayin

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[KevinS]

Sheesh. If he asked to use your bathroom, check the medicine cabinet for missing prescriptions...

 

[Logal727]

Took 2 guys to run mine to my garage, electrical panel is of course on the other side of the house, cost $1300, which I thought was fair for the amount of work and cost of the supplies and PITA it was. The electrician usually designs smart homes, so he was more on the technical side so I recommend finding someone like that.

 

[ZuleMME]

Sheesh. If he asked to use your bathroom, check the medicine cabinet for missing prescriptions...

Been there and done that with a plumber. Sucks that is a big enough issue to need to check!

 

[Maquis]

He did indeed use green wire for neutral. I also only had a brief look as he was installing the outlet in the box but I'm pretty sure he tied the neutral and ground connections together at the outlet. Opening it up this weekend to actually take a better look at the install.

Both of those should cause failure at inspection.

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

I would be there when the inspector comes out and ask a question to the inspector about using the green wire as a neutral. Most residential inspectors zoom in and zoom out of inspections since they are overloaded with too many inspections in a day. If he is doing a typical inspection, he will see the green wire and assume it is a ground wire and not a neutral. Of course, this will irritate your contractor. Hope you did not pay him yet, because if you did, he will probably not want to come back out to fix what is obviously a code violation.

 

[buffasnow]

Of all the things in the story, that's what you took away? I got thicker wire for free, even if I'm wrong there's zero downside to the #4 wire.

I went with 4ga to my 14-50 as well, my feeling was that it was worth the minimal extra cost for potential future flexibility, as well as hopefully minimizing any temperature issues when charging for long periods. 4ga was the largest wire size my 14-50 connector could use.

The only downside I saw was that my Chargepoint Flex accepts a max of 6ga wire if hardwired. I would expect that any future EVSE I might get using >48A would accept a thicker wire, though, so I'm not really worried about it.

If people don't want to use #4, that's ok with me. I'm not trying to convert anyone.

 

[A-A-Ron]

I went with 4ga to my 14-50 as well, my feeling was that it was worth the minimal extra cost for potential future flexibility, as well as hopefully minimizing any temperature issues when charging for long periods. 4ga was the largest wire size my 14-50 connector could use.

The only downside I saw was that my Chargepoint Flex accepts a max of 6ga wire if hardwired. I would expect that any future EVSE I might get using >48A would accept a thicker wire, though, so I'm not really worried about it.

If people don't want to use #4, that's ok with me. I'm not trying to convert anyone.

If you wanted to hardwire something that required a smaller wire, you can always connect a #6 to the #4 and connect that into the EVSE. It's a lot easier to go to a smaller wire than need a larger one - which is why I asked for the larger wire to be installed.

 

[A-A-Ron]

So it gets better.

Yes, that is ground and neutral tied together behind the outlet.

Let’s see how Qmerit handles this. One thing I guarantee, I’m not letting this guy anywhere near my house.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Ouch. I also do not see a red wire in there for the second live wire. Looks like homie used black for both L1 and L2. ??

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

 

[Jon]

Ouch. I also do not see a red wire in there for the second live wire. Looks like homie used black for both L1 and L2. ??

I'm a licensed master electrician and an electrical engineer, the NEC doesn't dictate wire colors.

 

[Maquis]

I'm a licensed master electrician and an electrical engineer, the NEC doesn't dictate wire colors.

There are some restrictions about ground & grounded conductors.
There are also some oddball exceptions, such as a high-leg delta.

 

[dbsb3233]

I don't agree with this sentiment. As EVs become more efficient in the future, the batteries will typically become smaller and therefore need *less* current in a home setting.

I think it's going to be just the opposite. From what I read, electric motors are about as efficient as they're ever going to get (just slight improvement left). Most of the efficiency difference comes from aerodynamic body shapes, and weight. Right now most EVs are smaller/lower aero designs. What's missing are the bigger/taller (thus heavier) SUVs that so much of the public wants. Those will be less efficient than current EVs, not more. We're already starting to see that with EV pickups now being introduced.

Yes, some weight will be saved as battery energy density improves, and that will help efficiency some. But I really think that will manifest as allowing the body styles and sizes the public actually wants. And the longer range they want.

That means more kWh. I think 100-150 kWh battery packs will be quite common later in the decade. And 400 mile range.

 

[wombats3]

The biggest struggle for me was actually finding an electrician to come out. I called/messaged five companies to request a quote, only three scheduled a time to come out and take a look. Of the three, only ONE actually showed up. The others no-showed. So I was fortunate that the one that actually did show up was really professional and fair in pricing.

They put in about 75-100 feet from panel in basement to the far corner of our garage where the outlet would be within 10 feet of both cars. I showed them the specs of the charger to make sure they installed the right outlet and wire. Up and working now and no problems.?

I’m looking to do pretty much the same thing. What did they charge you for this?

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