Shopping for a Home Charger

[ChasingCoral]

(It was charging my Focus Electric at the time I took the picture.)

We would have really wondered if you said it was charging your Mach E

Sponsored

 

[JamieGeek]

We would have really wondered if you said it was charging your Mach E

Don't I wish!! It will eventually...

Well it could have been charging a C-Max Energi, or my current EV the Bolt.

 

[dbsb3233]

Yep, I meant auto-detecting the max current for the circuit. Manually setting it is no problem, of course, but I don't know of any way for it to auto-detect.

 

[RonTCat]

My Juicebox can go to a much higher current than the breakers its connected to (almost double). I've had it set for the appropriate level in software and never have the breakers tripped ( :thunk:...what was that noise??)

Here is a "trip curve" for a breaker. So... if you draw 40amps from a 40amp breaker, according to the graph it would trip after 60 seconds. I got 60 from: 40amps/40 breaker = 1, find 1 on the x axis, go up until you hit the "tripping zone", then go left and get the time in seconds. So if you feed it 120amp/40 = 3, you would trip it in about 2 seconds. If you give it 400 amps, it will trip in about .001 seconds (pretty much instantly). Most trip curves don't list anything under 1, as many breakers won't trip in that zone. This one is just less confusing looking than most, and for some reason has an animal in the middle as an added touch (lol).

 

[jhalkias]

Grizzl-E showed up today. Here is the “unboxing”. Only flaw I asked for a black handle and I got white. Not a deal breaker. The cord is 24’. I measured. Well the video kept timing out saying “oops we ran into a problem” after four tries I gave up

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Grizzl-E showed up today. Here is the “unboxing”. Only flaw I asked for a black handle and I got white. Not a deal breaker. The cord is 24’. I measured. Well the video kept timing out saying “oops we ran into a problem” after four tries I gave up

That looks amazingly like my old school first generation JuiceBox, which was an open source design. It would not surprise me to find out it was the same basic device.

 

[jhalkias]

That looks amazingly like my old school first generation JuiceBox, which was an open source design. It would not surprise me to find out it was the same basic device.

Yeah, I thought it did look like the original Juicebox before they went to a plastic enclosure.

 

[DaveQ]

The Juicebox I have doesn't detect any current: It has a remote and you can increase/decrease the amount of current that it indicates to the car (I think its in 2 amp steps--been a few years since I've adjusted it). It stores the value in non-volitale memory so that it survives power cycles.

If I wanted to I could tell it to report 40 amps to the car and the car would happily start charging at 40 amps..my wiring/breakers aren't setup for 40 amps and thus the breakers would trip (hopefully before anything happens to the wiring since that is their function).

My SPX/Bosch EVSE is also adjustable but not via software: It has some DIP switches for 4 different current levels that it can be set to.

Here is the display on the JuiceBox:

Note that it is set for 27 amps: pressing A on the remote increases the current and pressing D on the remote reduces the current. (It was charging my Focus Electric at the time I took the picture.)

Again....video of unboxing And install would be awesome.

Arrived and unboxed. Scheduling electrical install soon.

 

[dbsb3233]

Got a quote for installing the 240v outlet. $900. I was hoping for closer to $500 but was kinda figuring it would be more. My panel is tight. This will fill it up, and they have to rearrange a few breakers to get there. Adds extra.

For another $350 they could add a whole home surge protector, which I wanted anyway. I should probably have gotten multiple quotes but these guys are local and well rated (and already here), so I just bit the bullet and let them do it. Working on it now.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Got a quote for installing the 240v outlet. $900. I was hoping for closer to $500 but was kinda figuring it would be more. My panel is tight. This will fill it up, and they have to rearrange a few breakers to get there. Adds extra.

For another $350 they could add a whole home surge protector, which I wanted anyway. I should probably have gotten multiple quotes but these guys are local and well rated (and already here), so I just bit the bullet and let them do it. Working on it now.

As a point of reference, here is what I paid this week for a new 60 A circuit.

 

[dbsb3233]

As a point of reference, here is what I paid this week for a new 60 A circuit.

Yeah that's more what I hoped for initially. Things are kinda expensive here, so I figured it world run higher. If my panel weren't so full and they could just drop a breaker in, it would be cheaper too.

Oh well, getting a 30% tax break on it all helps.

 

[jhalkias]

As a point of reference, here is what I paid this week for a new 60 A circuit.

Is that labor and materials? How far was the run?

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Is that labor and materials? How far was the run?

Yes, and maybe 45 feet - up from the panel on one side of the garage, across the attic above the 2 car garage, then down the wall.

 

[jhalkias]

Yes, and maybe 45 feet - up from the panel on one side of the garage, across the attic above the 2 car garage, then down the wall.

I’m still awaiting my quote. It is about a 30’ almost straight run from the box in the basement to the spot on the wall in the garage where I want it. Straight across and just up.

 

[dbsb3233]

Took them until almost 9pm to finish, but all done!