10 weeks on the job

[csp ev1]

The CFO of our company, 100% employee owned headquartered in Greater Cincinnati, wandered into my cubicle in early June to announce that I needed to go ahead and get an electric vehicle to be the guinea pig for our fleet of 30 or so cars. I had been asking for this for awhile, but as recently as April had been told that it wasn't going to happen. After the initial shock wore off, I got busy. Ordering a new ev of any brand was going to take a long time to start this experiment, so I found this used 2021 MachE 4x with 2796 miles on the odometer 444 miles away in Buffalo, NY.

My wife and I drove the old company vehicle on a Friday to pick it up, stayed at a B&B near Lake Chautauqua where Salman Rushdie recently was assaulted, and drove it home the next day. Charging was a challenge since we kept changing our plans as we traveled south, but I rolled in with about 10 miles of range remaining. That Sunday I finalized the installation of the 240V outlet in the garage, or so I thought, and got charged back up for the work week. Everybody at work, and everywhere else, loves it. I still get stopped all the time. Seems we don't have many in the Mideast, still a novelty.

So I want to thank everybody on the Forum for helping me with the normal issues. I upgraded my 240V socket, since I was having some amber alerts on the Ford charger. I switched to a JuiceBox 40 to track electrical usage for our grand experiment, and to get reimbursed. The first one tripped my breaker, so tech support sent out another, which did the same thing. They then asked me to change the breaker, which seemed like a reasonable request.

Much to my surprise and chagrin, the counter guy at the electrical supply house told me what I brought in was only a 30 amp breaker, and oh by the way there is a supply chain issue with circuit breakers so we don't have the one you need. When I pulled out the breaker, I had noticed a few spare breakers on the shelf near the box. I went home and found a 60 amp breaker, bigger than the 50 amp tech support wants me to use, but in hand. Once installed, problem solved. Now I wait for the backordered breaker to finalize my 240V garage outlet. JuiceBox was kind enough to take the original one back for full credit, even paid the shipping.

In the mean time, this guinea pig still enjoys the MachE experience as a go to jobsites in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. I think the experiment is going to work.

Sponsored

 

[Maquis]

Hopefully the wiring is sufficient for the larger breaker.

 

[Logal727]

Hopefully the wiring is sufficient for the larger breaker.

He also has to hardwire it at that size.

 

[ponEpwr]

Yikes!

Just putting in a larger breaker may not be the move here. You need to identify what size wire you have. The breaker is there to protect the wire, not there just to be sized to the load on the other end.

You may burn your house down. I would not use your charger until you've confirmed wire size.

I'm a bit miffed that juicebox would direct you to change out the breaker.

 

[Blue highway]

advice above is all good.

A bit more specific, if the wire gauge from the breaker box to charger is 6 Gauge, then the max current of the breaker is 50A, and the max setting of the juice box is 40A.

If you have smaller than 6 gauge wire (say 12 gauge wire, the max current is 20A Breaker, 15A continuous) Not to be dramatic, but If you run 12 gauge wire at 40+ A, it will burn your house down, so please don't guess on this. The forums will help, as will a local electrical contractor.

 

[Maquis]

advice above is all good.

A bit more specific, if the wire gauge from the breaker box to charger is 6 Gauge, then the max current of the breaker is 50A, and the max setting of the juice box is 40A.

If you have smaller than 6 gauge wire (say 12 gauge wire, the max current is 20A Breaker, 15A continuous) Not to be dramatic, but If you run 12 gauge wire at 40+ A, it will burn your house down, so please don't guess on this. The forums will help, as will a local electrical contractor.

That’s true for NM (Romex). #6 THHN in conduit is rated at 65A.

 

[RickMachE]

Much to my surprise and chagrin, the counter guy at the electrical supply house told me what I brought in was only a 30 amp breaker, and oh by the way there is a supply chain issue with circuit breakers so we don't have the one you need. When I pulled out the breaker, I had noticed a few spare breakers on the shelf near the box. I went home and found a 60 amp breaker, bigger than the 50 amp tech support wants me to use, but in hand. Once installed, problem solved. Now I wait for the backordered breaker to finalize my 240V garage outlet. JuiceBox was kind enough to take the original one back for full credit, even paid the shipping.

OMG!

The breaker says "30" right on it.

DO NOT DO THIS. YOU MIGHT BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN!

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

The CFO of our company, 100% employee owned headquartered in Greater Cincinnati, wandered into my cubicle in early June to announce that I needed to go ahead and get an electric vehicle to be the guinea pig for our fleet of 30 or so cars. I had been asking for this for awhile, but as recently as April had been told that it wasn't going to happen. After the initial shock wore off, I got busy. Ordering a new ev of any brand was going to take a long time to start this experiment, so I found this used 2021 MachE 4x with 2796 miles on the odometer 444 miles away in Buffalo, NY.

My wife and I drove the old company vehicle on a Friday to pick it up, stayed at a B&B near Lake Chautauqua where Salman Rushdie recently was assaulted, and drove it home the next day. Charging was a challenge since we kept changing our plans as we traveled south, but I rolled in with about 10 miles of range remaining. That Sunday I finalized the installation of the 240V outlet in the garage, or so I thought, and got charged back up for the work week. Everybody at work, and everywhere else, loves it. I still get stopped all the time. Seems we don't have many in the Mideast, still a novelty.

So I want to thank everybody on the Forum for helping me with the normal issues. I upgraded my 240V socket, since I was having some amber alerts on the Ford charger. I switched to a JuiceBox 40 to track electrical usage for our grand experiment, and to get reimbursed. The first one tripped my breaker, so tech support sent out another, which did the same thing. They then asked me to change the breaker, which seemed like a reasonable request.

Much to my surprise and chagrin, the counter guy at the electrical supply house told me what I brought in was only a 30 amp breaker, and oh by the way there is a supply chain issue with circuit breakers so we don't have the one you need. When I pulled out the breaker, I had noticed a few spare breakers on the shelf near the box. I went home and found a 60 amp breaker, bigger than the 50 amp tech support wants me to use, but in hand. Once installed, problem solved. Now I wait for the backordered breaker to finalize my 240V garage outlet. JuiceBox was kind enough to take the original one back for full credit, even paid the shipping.

In the mean time, this guinea pig still enjoys the MachE experience as a go to jobsites in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. I think the experiment is going to work.

You've gotten lots of correct advice regarding the breaker and protecting your house, so I'll not pile on. But what I will say is how cool it is that the company is testing out going to EVs and that you get to be the guinea pig! Congratulations!!

Now, please heed the advice and ideally get an electrician to verify your breaker/wiring. Good luck.

 

[jay1122]

Something just does not sound right to me. Is the existing 240V wall socket NEMA 14-50? if it is, it should not have 30Amp breaker but a matching 50A. if it is not NEMA 14-50, the plug from the juice box should not fit. Each different rated socket has different design. And I doubt anyone would just remove a 30Amp NEMA socket and replaced it with NEMA 14-50 socket without upgrading wiring and breaker.

 

[Bikespace]

Post a picture of the inside of your load panel so all of the well-meaning folks on the Forum can second-guess you correctly. If you have 10 AWG wire coming out of a 60 A breaker, you could have a BIG problem.

Also, congrats on the Mach-E!

 

[adamtbest]

Hi Pat. Fellow Cincinnatian here. I hope to see you around town. I'm still waiting on my Mach E to be delivered to Beechmont Ford.

 

[csp ev1]

Hopefully the wiring is sufficient for the larger breaker.

Hi Pat. Fellow Cincinnatian here. I hope to see you around town. I'm still waiting on my Mach E to be delivered to Beechmont Ford.

Didn’t mean to stir up the crowd, just show how easy it is to get off track. My handyman, over the phone without checking, thought it was the right breaker from having his hand in the breaker box many times, but not recently. He couldn't come to do the hookup, so I stepped in.

Yes, the wire is #6, the socket an upgraded NEMA 15-40, $120 at the electric supply house. I used the socket rather than the hard wire so I can use the Ford charger if something happens to the JuiceBox. Totally my fault about the breaker.

Hopefully the wiring is sufficient for the larger breaker.

 

[csp ev1]

Hi Pat. Fellow Cincinnatian here. I hope to see you around town. I'm still waiting on my Mach E to be delivered to Beechmont Ford.

What color are you ordering? Who Dey!

 

[EELinneman]

Pat,

I have the Juicebox 40 at my house. Our electrician wired it in, so I could run 50 amps through the circuit and run the juicebox at 40 amps. You are supposed to derate the usage by 20%, so 50 amp breaker means a 40 amp EVSE. Because of the current load on our circuit and the shitty utility I have, I am running a 40 amp breaker and the Juicebox is set to 32 amp for charging. It has worked great so far, no errors other than when the large transformer between our house and the neighbor took a dirt nap. I ended up having to do a couple of resets on the main breaker to get everything stable.

The Juicebox is a good choice. Their phone app is stable and informative. Enjoy your new ride!

 

[timbop]

1. The capacity of the plug and wire must be equal to or exceed what the breaker can do. Bigger wire than you need is technically a waste, but perfectly safe
2. The breaker must be equal to or exceed 1.25 times the current that the EVSE will draw. Again, a bigger breaker than needed is safe as long as #1 also holds true

Given those 2 rules, your best option is to get a 40A or 30A breaker for now and set the power level of the EVSE accordingly (32A or 24A) based on the 80% rule mentioned above. You'll charge more slowly but you won't potentially overload anything. Eventually when you are able to get a 50A breaker then you can replace the original breaker and change the EVSE to 40A to charge faster. You could also leave the EVSE set to charge at a lower power level to keep the battery and the utility happier if you get hit with peak demand charges.

And that's pretty cool about your company.

Sponsored