Home charger with only 220V 20amp

[JJR]

I know kW and rate will be slower but can I wire a nema 14-50 receptacle to accept the plug from the Ford charger that comes with the car to a 220 20amp circuit or will the electronics inside the Ford box kill the current/charge? Is there any danger there either? What kind of charge rate would I expect with just 20amp? I was thinking between 3-4 kw/hr?

Also how important is it to purchase some other home charging system, rather then using the cable and box that came from for Ford with my mach e? W

Thanks

I’m not sure how important KwH is but I have a 16A 240V charger in my garage and it charges at a rate of 10.5 miles per hour.

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[HuntingPudel]

I’m not sure how important KwH is but I have a 16A 240V charger in my garage and it charges at a rate of 10.5 miles per hour.

The number of miles per hour it charges at is dependent on the car’s efficiency. 240V @ 16A is roughly 3.8 KW. That’s roughly 2.8 mi/KWh efficiency, which is in the ballpark for moderate freeway speeds. ??

 

[medriver]

Faster you charge up to a point the process from AC-DC is more efficient, not a huge factor here.

You use an EVSE to add back range to the battery, the speed of this endeavor is totally situational to you and your needs, commute, etc.

So your in Chicago, it gets cold.

You also use your EVSE to precondition your car if you so chose, your cars maximum draw depends largely on the size of your cars heater, which maxes out somewhere near 30-32 amps for newer cars, and anything more the car is unlikely to need for this task, giving it full power to precondition will allow the process to happen quicker and more efficiently.

Your car will charge it's 12V battery when its doing ac-dc conversion, but the rate of 12v charge is far slower than the HVB charging, so in theory, it helps to charge as slow as is practical.

So assuming your commute doesn't need more current AND you intend to precondition, make sure your EVSE supplies the maximum current necessary to preform this function, this is fast enough.

I understand you have a 20 amp plug right now, there is no reason that this will not be adequate for you to drive the car (most people can probably get away with just a regular plug) but it will not be able to supply full power when doing preconditioning which as a result will just will take longer (be less efficient).

Problem with the whole endeavor is if you have to spend much money to install a EVSE the ROI on the car quickly goes out the window but your quality of life goes up dramatically.

 

[Machinator]

Welll.... I used the ford recomended vendor, Qmerit, for installing a plug to use the charger that came with the car. It cost $2300.00 to install the plug. No I didn't type that wrong. The electrician thought I should use the charger provided with the car. I understand he might not know jack about EV chargers. I wanted to stay in the Ford ecosystem in case something went wrong. I've been using the provided charger for over 6 months. Can I buy a Ford charger and just mount it and plug it in?

 

[Machinator]

Google Lens says its a NEMA 14-50 plug, and on the breaker box there are two 50 amp breakers. So I’m assuming I could buy a 48 amp charger.

 

[Pioneer74]

Google Lens says its a NEMA 14-50 plug, and on the breaker box there are two 50 amp breakers. So I’m assuming I could buy a 48 amp charger.

40 amp max. You have to derate 20%.

50 amp x 80% = 40 amps

 

[Machinator]

So the Ford vendor, Qmerit, installed a plug that won’t safely take either Ford charge station? How do I call and complain or get some resolution? Ford?

 

[Maquis]

So the Ford vendor, Qmerit, installed a plug that won’t safely take either Ford charge station? How do I call and complain or get some resolution? Ford?

To summarize:

The Ford Charge Station Pro and the Ford Connected Charge Station both require hard-wiring, no plug. It’s spelled out in the installation instructions.

The Ford Mobile Charger is cord and plug connected on a minimum 40A circuit on 240V.

The chargers that came with the Fusion Energi and C-Max were 120V only. Ford has never supplied a 240V, 16A charger that I know of.

 

[jeffMachE]

It sounds like the electrician installed a pretty standard 50-amp circuit and put in a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. That is really all they could do, unless you wanted them to hard-wire a 48 charger for you (which requires a 60 amp circuit). When you refer to the "Ford Charge Station", do you mean the Ford Mobile Charger that comes in a square-ish bag with the car? That mobile charger comes with 2 pigtails, one for 120V and one (a NEMA 14-50 plug) for 220V. While your circuit can supply 40 amps continuous, the Ford Mobile Charger only pulls 32 amps.

So I'm confused when you say you can't plug your "Ford Charge Station" into the new circuit.

 

[Machinator]

Thank you for these replies. I’m using the Ford mobile charger that comes with the car, using the 220 plug. It has worked fine. But, if that is not a good idea for long-term use, it seems like the vendor would’ve advised me of that. I don’t like the idea of paying again for wiring up a home charger.

 

[HuntingPudel]

So the Ford vendor, Qmerit, installed a plug that won’t safely take either Ford charge station? How do I call and complain or get some resolution? Ford?

Do you know for a fact that all they did was install the outlet? A licensed electrician *should* not have done that. He should have replaced the wiring when he installed the outlet unless it was already sufficient to supply a 40A circuit. ??

EDIT: I mean. $2300 is a lot of simoleons to charge for just an outlet. ??

 

[jeffMachE]

If you now have a 50-amp circuit with a NEMA 14-50 plug, then any EVSE that has that plug can be used. No installation necessary. This means you have a choice of dozens of EVSE's, ranging from $300 to $700.

Note that there is zero problem using the Ford Mobile Charger plugged into that circuit, but you shouldn't unplug it every day - leave it plugged in and use it until the charger kicks the bucket. It might be 6 months from now, it might be 5 years from now. Just because it was not necessarily designed to be used every day doesn't mean it won't work. And if you drive a relatively small amount of miles a day (say 50 or under), you could probably expect the mobile charger to work "forever".

 

[Machinator]

Ahhh, ok, these replies help. Yes I only drive 10 to 20 miles a day, I work from home and sometimes don’t drive at all. I’m fine with letting the charger kick the bucket, I don’t need faster charging at this time. And the Mach-e itself has brought joy back to driving, I haven’t had a bit of trouble out of it and every minute in it is a load of fun!

 

[HuntingPudel]

Ahhh, ok, these replies help. Yes I only drive 10 to 20 miles a day, I work from home and sometimes don’t drive at all. I’m fine with letting the charger kick the bucket, I don’t need faster charging at this time. And the Mach-e itself has brought joy back to driving, I haven’t had a bit of trouble out of it and every minute in it is a load of fun!

Right, but you should find out for sure if the contractor replaced the wiring and breaker or not. If they haven’t and it’s still the wiring for the 20A circuit it is not safe. If they did, it’s unicorns and rainbows. ?‍?

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