Charging at 80a

[Mike G]

What scenario would require 80 amp service at your home?

Ummm using your Lightning as a Door Dash delivery vehicle and putting 500 miles a day on it I guess? Might need the faster charging rate under those conditions.

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[johnnycombo]

ChargePoint homeflex hard wired, thhn copper wire only in conduit, breaker size multiplied by .8 equals the maximum charging current, I use Noalox anti oxidant on my connections and torque to specification . Maintenance would include, inspection of all connections and torquing. I also clean my J1772 and apply Deoxit D100L.

 

[Mach-Lee]

From an engineering standpoint, the included 48A on-board charger more than covers the needs of most Mach-E owners. The car can be recharged overnight from empty to full.

An 80A charger is really only necessary for larger EVs such as trucks that have worse efficiency. Or on luxury EVs with huge battery packs. Or in commercial settings where the truck/van is used for two shifts a day and has to be recharged in 8 hours or less.

In the future, EVs will likely be more efficient, so the need for huge on-board chargers will decline. Just like newer HVAC units take less power and require smaller circuits than older units.

I think a 50/60A circuit is sort of the butter zone for EV charging. If anything, houses will need a second outlet for multiple EVs to charge each night rather than larger and larger circuits.

80A on-board chargers are also currently very expensive, so manufacturers don't want to include them because of how few people actually install the 100A circuit for it. Tesla used to have an optional dual charger for 80A, but almost nobody used it, so they stopped offering it. It seems like there's no option between 48A and 80A currently, which is unfortunate. I think somebody should make a 64A on-board charger as an intermediate, that would be perfect for most EV trucks and would be a lot easier to install than a circuit for an 80A charger.

If I were building a brand new house, it would get dual #6 AWG circuits to the garage, in conduit, with boxes in front of each stall. That should be the ideal outlet spot for wireless charging in the future. Conduit also allows new wires to be pulled if necessary.

If somebody really needs much faster than 64A, I think they will be wanting to invest in a small 25 kW DC charger instead. Costs on those will come down.

 

[ponEpwr]

For future proofing I’d rather plan for two chargers capable of running at 50 amps rather than an 80 amp charger.

For me that was adding a 100amp sub panel into my garage rather than just an EV charger circuit. Main panel is in my basement. If I need to run a second charger I’ve got plenty of room for the breaker and I’ll install it at that time.

 

[Zardoz]

Adding an 80 A circuit would require soe electrician work to look at what you have installed. Your panel and/or service from the utility might need upgrading depending on what is installed and what else you have hooked up to it.

 

[Maquis]

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If somebody really needs much faster than 64A, I think they will be wanting to invest in a small 25 kW DC charger instead. Costs on those will come down.

The caveat to that is that presently, 25+ KW chargers are all 3 phase. That, too, may change going forward.

 

[eponey]

? I charge at a flat rate of .11 per Kw.

The 48A Wallbox directly replaced my 14-50 outlet (that was on the same 60a breaker) that used to be used with the craptastic Webasco-produced Ford portable charger(s). I've had 4 of those. 3 of them got to the point where they just would rather overheat than do much charging. That's why I went with the Wallbox Plus.

But I'm still trying to figure out how your statement that it "gets costly pretty fast". Are you saying that the necessary wiring size and the need for a 100a breaker are the additional factors?

I don't know if simply changing the charge port to a NACs receptacle would change the car's ability to accept anything more than the 11kw it charges at now. That's a function of the onboard charging module.

Yeah the wire and conduit are bigger for the 100amp circuit for the 80amp charger vs a dryer plug va probably incremental from the 48amp setup, depends.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The caveat to that is that presently, 25+ KW chargers are all 3 phase. That, too, may change going forward.

They make single phase versions if you read specs. Requires a 165A breaker which is pretty esoteric though.

 

[Maquis]

They make single phase versions if you read specs. Requires a 165A breaker which is pretty esoteric though.

I haven’t seen those, thanks!

 

[MachEMaster]

The purpose of the 80A Lightning charger, was to provide Vehicle to Home battery backup capability.

 

[Sikkun]

Ummm using your Lightning as a Door Dash delivery vehicle and putting 500 miles a day on it I guess? Might need the faster charging rate under those conditions.

You’d have to be pumping a lot of orders per hour to be hitting 500 miles a day.

 

[johnnycombo]

I second the idea of future proofing for two chargers, you could put a 100 amp sub-panel close to where you plan to have your charger, then add another when needed!

 

[ChasingCoral]

For future proofing I’d rather plan for two chargers capable of running at 50 amps rather than an 80 amp charger.

For me that was adding a 100amp sub panel into my garage rather than just an EV charger circuit. Main panel is in my basement. If I need to run a second charger I’ve got plenty of room for the breaker and I’ll install it at that time.

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Or a pair of 60A circuits for two 48A chargers.

 

[hack-e]

With EV’s being around for over a decade, lessons have been learned through experience. Such as, a standard, $15 14-50 outlet providing power to a household appliance for an hour or two is no issue but supplying 40a to an EV for 6-8 hours has caused many to fail. As I consider adding a 100a circuit and installing an 80a EVSE for future proofing, are there other weak links in home systems, like circuit breakers or breaker box buses, that could be an issue as we draw higher amperage for extended periods?

A friend has the Tesla 48A charger hardwired, professionally installed on 60A breaker. He's had a junction box where it enters the attic fail twice: once due to water intrusive and again when it overheated and melted and charred. And then his breaker became flakey he found it super hot then he replaced that. He is lucky a fire didn't start with any of these.

I've had a SolarEdge 40A charger hardwired, professionally installed and haven't had any issues. I have an Emporia 48A charger hardwired at my company office and have had no problems.

Any conductor junction point is more likely to fail. I think its smart to use thermal cameras to check breakers and junction points to see if something is getting hotter than expected.

 

[music_cities]

A friend has the Tesla 48A charger hardwired, professionally installed on 60A breaker. He's had a junction box where it enters the attic fail twice: once due to water intrusive and again when it overheated and melted and charred. And then his breaker became flakey he found it super hot then he replaced that. He is lucky a fire didn't start with any of these.

I've had a SolarEdge 40A charger hardwired, professionally installed and haven't had any issues. I have an Emporia 48A charger hardwired at my company office and have had no problems.

Any conductor junction point is more likely to fail. I think its smart to use thermal cameras to check breakers and junction points to see if something is getting hotter than expected.

It also makes sense to charge at the slowest amps you need. Mine is professionally hardwired on a 60 amp breaker, so 48 amp capacity. But I usually keep it set to no higher than 32 amps. I just turned it down to 24amps after reading about your friend.

In the summer I set the emporia to use “excess solar”, and my solar system is 7.7kw so it’s never even going to get to 32 amps if I can help it.

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