1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:03,485 “Need” can be a funny word. 2 00:00:03,485 --> 00:00:06,794 If you’re in the US and are considering an electric car, 3 00:00:06,794 --> 00:00:13,585 at some point someone is likely to tell you that if you want to  charge it at home you’re gonna need one of these in your garage: 4 00:00:13,585 --> 00:00:16,643 a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. 5 00:00:16,643 --> 00:00:26,203 Over time this has become almost the defacto-standard for electric car charging, as it can provide a healthy 9.6 kilowatts of power. 6 00:00:26,203 --> 00:00:34,160 But unless your household drives a TON - I’m talking 200 miles  each and every day - 7 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:36,180 you don’t need this. 8 00:00:36,180 --> 00:00:42,137 Having this much power available is nice to have, and if you can swing it by all means go ahead! 9 00:00:42,137 --> 00:00:44,962 But installing one of these isn’t always feasible. 10 00:00:44,962 --> 00:00:47,363 Maybe you’re limited by your home’s electrical service, 11 00:00:47,363 --> 00:00:52,134 or maybe you don’t have a garage and you want something a little more waterproof. 12 00:00:52,134 --> 00:00:56,074 The good news is that electricity is incredibly versatile, 13 00:00:56,074 --> 00:01:01,727 and in that same vein electric vehicle charging is incredibly flexible. 14 00:01:01,727 --> 00:01:05,254 However, based on conversations I keep having, 15 00:01:05,254 --> 00:01:12,143 way too many electricians don’t quite understand  just how flexible electric car charging is. 16 00:01:12,143 --> 00:01:17,349 Now, to be clear, it's not my intention to throw electricians under the bus here. 17 00:01:17,349 --> 00:01:21,182 I don’t have to deal with running a business which interacts with the public - 18 00:01:21,182 --> 00:01:22,840 I just make YouTube videos! 19 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:31,443 And it makes perfect sense to offer what is generally a  one-size-fits-all solution to “I want a charging station.” 20 00:01:31,443 --> 00:01:39,380 But since I often answer questions people have about electric cars and what’s needed to charge them… 21 00:01:39,380 --> 00:01:45,526 well I just can’t shake the feeling that not enough folks - and this includes both professionals and clients 22 00:01:45,526 --> 00:01:52,584 - are aware that charging stations can be installed on a branch circuit of any size. 23 00:01:52,584 --> 00:01:57,657 And many models available can be field-commissioned for the installed circuit capacity. 24 00:01:57,657 --> 00:02:02,098 This means there are countless options for running power to charge a car, 25 00:02:02,098 --> 00:02:09,110 and many of them are much easier and cheaper  than what an electric car enthusiast is likely to promote. 26 00:02:09,110 --> 00:02:14,967 Especially when more modest charging avoids a costly electrical service upgrade. 27 00:02:14,967 --> 00:02:20,574 For an example of a less-intensive option, let’s go on a little field trip to my parents’ house. 28 00:02:20,574 --> 00:02:24,737 My folks moved last year and this house didn’t  have a charging station, 29 00:02:24,737 --> 00:02:28,058 but they did have their Chevy Bolt to charge. 30 00:02:28,058 --> 00:02:34,224 Now, like all electric vehicles the Chevy Bolt can be charged with a standard household outlet like this one. 31 00:02:35,394 --> 00:02:39,836 A startling number of people aren’t aware of that so I’m gonna repeat that: 32 00:02:39,836 --> 00:02:45,245 ALL electric cars can be charged from a standard household outlet, 33 00:02:45,245 --> 00:02:49,046 and many of them come with the cable you need to do that. 34 00:02:49,046 --> 00:02:52,778 And if it didn’t come with this, you can get them inexpensively. 35 00:02:52,778 --> 00:02:57,064 It’s very slow, but a lot more useful than many people think: 36 00:02:57,064 --> 00:03:05,861 if you drive 40 miles a day and have a small to midsized car,  this outlet will probably take care of your needs overnight. 37 00:03:05,861 --> 00:03:13,561 But having a faster charging station is useful and has other benefits, too, especially when you have variable electric rates. 38 00:03:13,561 --> 00:03:18,322 So, my parents wanted to go for a 240V charging station. 39 00:03:18,322 --> 00:03:24,948 While their new home didn’t have a charging station yet, its layout was quite fortuitous for adding one. 40 00:03:24,948 --> 00:03:28,762 The attached garage is adjacent to the electrical room in the basement, 41 00:03:28,762 --> 00:03:34,057 and the breaker panel itself is less than 25 feet away from the shared wall. 42 00:03:34,057 --> 00:03:37,661 Now, of course, not everybody has such an easy situation, 43 00:03:37,661 --> 00:03:44,429 but in this case the work and materials required for the installation of a charging station were pretty trivial. 44 00:03:44,429 --> 00:03:51,649 I’m not afraid of a little electrical work and I’ve installed several charging stations at this point, so I offered to help. 45 00:03:51,649 --> 00:03:56,586 However, this house happens to be in Chicagoland where the outlets are sideways 46 00:03:56,586 --> 00:04:01,667 and all electrical work has to go in conduit like you see here. 47 00:04:01,667 --> 00:04:05,392 Which is, uh, annoying! 48 00:04:05,392 --> 00:04:10,156 However, we do get to use MC cable in certain situations. 49 00:04:10,156 --> 00:04:16,633 I am glossing over which situations because codes are highly local and very annoying to parse but the important thing is 50 00:04:16,633 --> 00:04:23,938 it’s the closest thing we get to Romex and the  largest wire size it comes in is 10 gauge. 51 00:04:23,938 --> 00:04:26,540 That would limit us to a 30 amp circuit, 52 00:04:26,540 --> 00:04:33,849 and thanks to the 80% rule a car charging on that circuit would be limited to 24 amps of charging current. 53 00:04:33,849 --> 00:04:40,598 But, at 240 volts, that’s 5.8 kilowatts which is a lot of power! 54 00:04:40,598 --> 00:04:45,721 and since everyone in my family actually  knows what living with an electric car is like, 55 00:04:45,721 --> 00:04:50,081 we all agreed that would be much more than fine. 56 00:04:50,081 --> 00:04:53,725 So, we opted for cheap and easy. 57 00:04:53,725 --> 00:04:57,977 Now, I’m about to show you everything we did to install the charging station. 58 00:04:57,977 --> 00:05:03,217 But I want to be clear here that the purpose of this is for illustration only. 59 00:05:03,217 --> 00:05:08,010 Doing electrical work yourself is very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, 60 00:05:08,010 --> 00:05:11,251 and in many locations it’s flat out illegal. 61 00:05:11,251 --> 00:05:14,529 So, do not take this as a guide. 62 00:05:14,529 --> 00:05:22,799 I just want to illustrate the scope of work here because it’s a lot simpler than I think many people understand. 63 00:05:22,799 --> 00:05:30,687 On that note, before I continue I want to repeat that charging stations can be installed on a branch circuit of any size - 64 00:05:30,687 --> 00:05:37,132 meaning cars can charge from 20A and even piddly little 15A circuits, too. 65 00:05:37,132 --> 00:05:41,136 Of course that limits power and slows down charging speeds, 66 00:05:41,136 --> 00:05:47,747 but it means if you’re in a situation where you’ve only got 100A service or maybe even just 60A service, 67 00:05:47,747 --> 00:05:53,275 you can almost certainly still have a pretty capable 240V charging station. 68 00:05:53,275 --> 00:05:58,923 If load calculations reveal you’ve only got the wiggle room to add just a 16A load, 69 00:05:58,923 --> 00:06:09,089 you can have a 3.8 kilowatt charging station that will add about 70 or 80 miles of driving range every day with a 10 hour overnight charging session. 70 00:06:09,089 --> 00:06:15,589 And that’s a conservative estimate based on winter driving efficiency and a midsize car like mine. 71 00:06:15,589 --> 00:06:18,570 If you’re worried about the unpredictable nature of life, 72 00:06:18,570 --> 00:06:23,631 I would encourage you to look into the rapid charging options that are available in your area. 73 00:06:23,631 --> 00:06:26,560 Those fast charging networks are growing quickly 74 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:32,139 and they can be your backup in emergencies and on the odd days you have extra errands to run. 75 00:06:32,139 --> 00:06:38,080 So try to stick to just your typical daily needs when thinking about installing a charging station. 76 00:06:38,533 --> 00:06:47,387 I promise a "slow" one at home that’s just for you is so much nicer than a fast one which is down the street. 77 00:06:47,534 --> 00:06:54,254 So, to run a new 240V circuit you need to have two free slots in your breaker panel. 78 00:06:54,254 --> 00:07:01,419 If yours is full there’s a pretty good chance you can consolidate existing circuits and free up space, 79 00:07:01,419 --> 00:07:06,400 but you’re gonna need to consult a professional to find out  whether or not that’s possible in your situation.   80 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:13,476 Luckily for us, the previous owner of this home had installed this 100A sub-panel, likely when they finished the basement, 81 00:07:13,476 --> 00:07:17,478 and there were tons of open slots in here. 82 00:07:17,478 --> 00:07:19,996 Plus there was plenty of capacity. 83 00:07:19,996 --> 00:07:26,052 These 20 amp breakers feed baseboard heaters that all told only draw about 12 amps 84 00:07:26,052 --> 00:07:31,336 so it would be no problem at all to add another 24 amp load to this panel. 85 00:07:31,980 --> 00:07:37,431 So, a quick trip to the hardware store to pick up 25 feet of 10 gauge MC cable, 86 00:07:37,431 --> 00:07:42,773 a 30A Square D Homeline circuit breaker, a junction box, and a few fittings 87 00:07:42,773 --> 00:07:44,751 and we were off to the races. 88 00:07:44,751 --> 00:07:49,351 All told the materials cost for this job was about $200, 89 00:07:49,351 --> 00:07:58,344 and that includes a set of spade bits which we absolutely knew we were going to need before we got started, he said sarcastically. 90 00:07:58,344 --> 00:08:05,916 In the span of an hour or two we had power out to this junction box which we tucked underneath the stairs that lead into the house. 91 00:08:05,916 --> 00:08:09,356 But of course we’d also need a charging station. 92 00:08:09,356 --> 00:08:18,244 I’m of the mind that electric car charging stations for the home should be as simple as possible so we elected to go with the Grizzl-E classic. 93 00:08:18,244 --> 00:08:21,003 I will withhold my rant which explains why until later. 94 00:08:21,003 --> 00:08:27,737 Anyway, when you buy a Grizzle-E Classic, it’s going to come with a NEMA 14-50 or 6-50 plug on it 95 00:08:27,737 --> 00:08:32,370 because this charging station can supply up to 40 amps of charging current. 96 00:08:33,218 --> 00:08:36,391 But, we only installed a 30 amp circuit. 97 00:08:36,391 --> 00:08:39,121 Oh no! What a blunder! 98 00:08:39,121 --> 00:08:48,060 Except no mistake was made, folks, because the Grizzl-E Classic has this little bit of high technology inside of there called DIP switches. 99 00:08:48,060 --> 00:08:52,316 And when you put them in the correct positions as  outlined in the installation instructions, 100 00:08:52,316 --> 00:08:58,294 you can lower the charging current to match the capacity of the circuit it will be connected to. 101 00:08:58,294 --> 00:09:02,500 By default it’s set for installation on 50A circuits, 102 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:08,148 but there’s a setting for 40 amp circuits, 30 amp circuits, and 20 amp circuits. 103 00:09:08,148 --> 00:09:17,599 Since we’re going with a 30A circuit, I configured it for 24A of charging current, the maximum allowed continuous load thanks to the 80% rule, 104 00:09:17,599 --> 00:09:19,111 and that was that. 105 00:09:19,111 --> 00:09:24,931 Are you wondering how DIP switches are all that’s needed for this charging station to match the circuit? 106 00:09:24,931 --> 00:09:28,719 Well, if you’ve seen some of my earlier videos you probably already know 107 00:09:28,719 --> 00:09:33,233 but for those who haven’t, here’s the thing about AC car charging: 108 00:09:33,233 --> 00:09:36,620 this device is not a battery charger. 109 00:09:36,620 --> 00:09:44,830 It is simply a power supply, in fact the proper term for this is electric vehicle supply equipment or EVSE. 110 00:09:44,830 --> 00:09:53,118 All these things do is send a signal to the car which says “hey, I’m a charging station, here’s how many amps I can supply.” 111 00:09:53,118 --> 00:09:58,587 The DIP switches on the Grizzl-E's circuit board simply change the signal. 112 00:09:58,587 --> 00:10:05,512 By adjusting their positions, this charging station will now announce that it’s capable of delivering 24 amps. 113 00:10:05,512 --> 00:10:08,696 And once connected a car will send a signal back which says 114 00:10:08,696 --> 00:10:11,498 “Hi, I’m a car, please give me power.” 115 00:10:11,498 --> 00:10:14,654 And then the charging station will close this large relay 116 00:10:14,654 --> 00:10:18,308 [click] which simply sends the incoming AC line voltage 117 00:10:18,308 --> 00:10:21,582 right down the charging cable and to the car. 118 00:10:21,582 --> 00:10:25,246 That’s how all AC charging stations work. 119 00:10:25,246 --> 00:10:29,697 All this device does is connect these wires to those wires, 120 00:10:29,697 --> 00:10:35,126 delivering the same AC power that’s coming into the unit directly to the car. 121 00:10:35,126 --> 00:10:45,018 Then, the car will use its own onboard battery charger to convert AC line voltage to the proper DC voltages it needs to charge its battery pack. 122 00:10:45,018 --> 00:10:55,388 That’s why the charging station needs to tell the car how many amps it can pull: the car is the electrical load on the circuit, not the charging station. 123 00:10:55,388 --> 00:11:00,335 And a car like mine, a Hyundai Ioniq 5, can draw up to 48 amps 124 00:11:00,335 --> 00:11:05,022 which would very much overload this circuit and trip the breaker quite quickly. 125 00:11:05,022 --> 00:11:11,221 But so long as the charging station is putting out that signal which says “you can only take 24 amps”, 126 00:11:11,221 --> 00:11:13,852 well that’s all the current my car's gonna take. 127 00:11:13,852 --> 00:11:23,030 Every electric car that’s been sold since the J1772 standard was released in 2009 understands the signals that come from these charging stations, 128 00:11:23,030 --> 00:11:29,079 and so even though plenty of cars can charge at a higher power level than this circuit can safely provide, 129 00:11:29,079 --> 00:11:36,317 they’ll all know when they’re connected to this charging station that they are only allowed to pull 24 amps. 130 00:11:36,317 --> 00:11:41,820 That will keep the circuit within safe operating limits and will prevent the circuit breaker from tripping. 131 00:11:41,820 --> 00:11:47,141 And for those asking “well what if the car ignores the signal and pulls too much current?” 132 00:11:47,141 --> 00:11:53,412 Well should that happen the charging station's gonna notice, de-energize the cable, and enter a fault condition. 133 00:11:53,851 --> 00:11:56,597 And if for some reason that doesn’t happen… 134 00:11:56,597 --> 00:11:58,970 that’s what the circuit breaker is for. 135 00:11:58,970 --> 00:12:00,805 Don’t overthink this. 136 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:05,775 So, with this charging station now configured to send the 24A signal, 137 00:12:05,775 --> 00:12:12,480 all that was left to complete the installation was to remove the NEMA plug from the charging station and attach a wire whip,   138 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,176 the sort often used for air conditioners. 139 00:12:15,176 --> 00:12:17,673 Then I connected the wire whip to the junction box, 140 00:12:17,673 --> 00:12:20,833 connected the wires together using the appropriate wire nuts 141 00:12:20,833 --> 00:12:23,969 (yes I used wire nuts please enjoy the show in the comments) 142 00:12:23,969 --> 00:12:28,274 and finally I closed the breaker in to actually energize the circuit. 143 00:12:28,274 --> 00:12:33,479 And, aside from securing the cables and wire whip, we were finished! 144 00:12:33,479 --> 00:12:37,364 This was just an afternoon project knocked out by a couple of knuckleheads, 145 00:12:37,364 --> 00:12:44,076 and by far the most time consuming part was figuring out a mounting solution for the charging station itself. 146 00:12:44,726 --> 00:12:50,764 But I am a knucklehead with a thermal imaging  camera and just to be sure everything was copacetic, 147 00:12:50,764 --> 00:13:00,544 before we buttoned it all up I let my car charge for a half-hour and then took a thermal peek at every connection point to see if anything was getting too hot. 148 00:13:00,544 --> 00:13:07,760 Every connection was just a bit above ambient temperature, and essentially the exact same temperature as the wires themselves.   149 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:14,728 In fact the warmest thing was the circuit breaker itself, which illustrates why the 80% rule exists. 150 00:13:14,728 --> 00:13:21,060 So, with everything hunky-dory,  I closed it all up and it was happily ever after. 151 00:13:21,060 --> 00:13:26,850 Now, I want to touch on the fact that we  hard-wired this installation and explain why. 152 00:13:26,850 --> 00:13:33,517 In the wonderful world of NEMA connectors,  there does exist a 30A, 240V receptacle and plug. 153 00:13:33,517 --> 00:13:38,799 Electric clothes dryers use them, and actually there are few varieties out there. 154 00:13:38,799 --> 00:13:46,803 In theory we could have installed one of those receptacles  under the stairs and either replaced the cord on the charger with a dryer cord 155 00:13:46,803 --> 00:13:52,810 or purchased a 24A charger which was equipped with a dryer plug, which are readily available. 156 00:13:52,810 --> 00:13:59,404 And, side-note, if you’ve got an electric dryer and it’s in or close to your garage - 157 00:13:59,404 --> 00:14:03,222 you’re already completely set for electric car charging! 158 00:14:03,222 --> 00:14:10,996 There are intelligent splitter boxes available which will allow you to plug in a car charger and the dryer into the same receptacle 159 00:14:10,996 --> 00:14:14,030 and it will prevent them from operating at the same time. 160 00:14:14,030 --> 00:14:19,992 I would highly recommend looking into that  if you’re in that lucky but fairly common boat. 161 00:14:19,992 --> 00:14:28,695 But, for new installations there’s some potential code weirdness regarding the need for ground fault protection in garages. 162 00:14:28,695 --> 00:14:39,206 In some jurisdictions all receptacles in a garage need to be GFCI protected, which can be very annoying to make work with high-power receptacles. 163 00:14:39,206 --> 00:14:43,347 Truthfully I don’t know whether that’s required in their area yet, 164 00:14:43,347 --> 00:14:50,089 but EVSEs have their own built-in ground fault detection and will de-energize the cable in the case of a fault, 165 00:14:50,089 --> 00:14:55,127 so hard-wiring it seemed the best way to ensure code was respected. 166 00:14:55,127 --> 00:15:01,808 And it also eliminates the weak point that is the receptacle and plug, though I’m gonna touch on that more in a bit. 167 00:15:01,808 --> 00:15:04,323 It’s, uh, controversial. 168 00:15:04,323 --> 00:15:09,745 Since installation, this charging station’s been  dutifully charging my mom and dad’s Chevy Bolt. 169 00:15:09,745 --> 00:15:18,954 And it has never been “too slow” - my parents haven’t even noticed the downgrade from their old 7.2 kilowatt charging station. 170 00:15:18,954 --> 00:15:26,629 See, if the car were completely dead, it would take about 13 hours to charge back to full rather than 10. 171 00:15:26,629 --> 00:15:33,810 But since that has never once actually happened in the car’s life and it usually gets plugged in around 40% or higher, 172 00:15:33,810 --> 00:15:38,196 the real-world charge time is at most about 8 hours: 173 00:15:38,196 --> 00:15:43,254 an essentially perfect overnight charge taking place when the humans are asleep. 174 00:15:43,254 --> 00:15:47,983 And even still, that only happens once or twice a week for them. 175 00:15:47,983 --> 00:15:54,660 For a different example, my car’s got a slightly bigger battery pack than the Bolt, so it takes a little longer to charge, 176 00:15:54,660 --> 00:15:58,030 but even still on this 24A charging station, 177 00:15:58,030 --> 00:16:06,299 the car reports that it will only need 7 hours and 40 minutes to get back to 80% when I plugged in at 29%. 178 00:16:06,299 --> 00:16:13,827 In other words, on this charging station my car needs about 7.5 hours to recoup half of its battery pack capacity, 179 00:16:13,827 --> 00:16:20,779 which is enough charge to go about 120 miles in the summer and between 80 and 100 in the winter. 180 00:16:20,779 --> 00:16:27,239 This is the main reason I want more people to know about and consider smaller charging circuits. 181 00:16:27,239 --> 00:16:31,837 They are much easier to install yet still extremely capable. 182 00:16:31,837 --> 00:16:36,723 But until people have first-hand experience with an electric car, 183 00:16:36,723 --> 00:16:40,165 range anxiety can be a stubborn mental block. 184 00:16:40,165 --> 00:16:47,785 I have struggled quite a lot to communicate that  there’s no need to get an empty-to-full charge every single night. 185 00:16:47,785 --> 00:16:52,139 Almost nobody's real-world usage pattern requires that. 186 00:16:52,139 --> 00:16:56,434 I mean, are you topping up your car at a gas station every day? 187 00:16:56,434 --> 00:16:59,980 Unless you’re a professional driver, probably not. 188 00:16:59,980 --> 00:17:07,290 So if you have a charging station like this, it can almost certainly be your exclusive source of energy for day-to-day-driving. 189 00:17:07,290 --> 00:17:12,985 It definitely would be for me, even back when I had a 70 mile daily commute. 190 00:17:12,985 --> 00:17:18,399 And as I said before, thanks to the fact that public fast charging networks are growing rapidly, 191 00:17:18,399 --> 00:17:24,313 if you have a surprise errand pop up you can run over to your local DC fast charging station, 192 00:17:24,313 --> 00:17:27,871 and there’s probably one on the way to wherever you’re going. 193 00:17:27,871 --> 00:17:35,575 The only vehicle class that will truly be  limited by 5.8 kilowatts of charging power is large trucks. 194 00:17:35,575 --> 00:17:41,529 Something like a Silverado EV with its gigantic 210 kilowatt-hour battery pack 195 00:17:41,529 --> 00:17:46,941 would need 36 hours to charge from empty to  full using this charging station. 196 00:17:46,941 --> 00:17:49,225 And that’s assuming perfect efficiency. 197 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:58,560 On the other hand, that truck has a bonkers driving range of about 450 miles so long as it’s not towing anything. 198 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:03,699 So if we go by its energy efficiency, which is reported to be about 2 miles per kilowatt-hour, 199 00:18:03,699 --> 00:18:10,672 well then you can still expect to get at least 10 miles of range per hour it’s plugged into this thing which certainly isn’t nothing. 200 00:18:10,672 --> 00:18:15,090 A 12 hour charging session may only replenish a third of its battery pack charge, 201 00:18:15,090 --> 00:18:20,041 but when that’s still over a hundred miles… is that really so bad? 202 00:18:20,041 --> 00:18:25,217 Only you can answer that question but I want you to ask it and think about it. 203 00:18:25,217 --> 00:18:29,926 I mean, that’s more driving range than lots of early EVs had period. 204 00:18:29,926 --> 00:18:33,617 So, that’s the main mission I had with this video: 205 00:18:33,617 --> 00:18:39,661 increase awareness of smaller charging circuits and how much they can actually do. 206 00:18:39,661 --> 00:18:43,560 The thing is, unless you live and breathe electric car charging, 207 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:49,914 you may not have realized how many charging stations can be field-commissioned to match different circuit sizes. 208 00:18:49,914 --> 00:18:53,707 And now that I’ve gone over that, well feel free to stop watching. 209 00:18:53,707 --> 00:18:54,633 Bye! 210 00:18:54,633 --> 00:18:58,079 And for the rest of you, this is what I love about electricity! 211 00:18:58,079 --> 00:19:00,460 It’s so dang flexible! 212 00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:08,405 There’s wires in them buildings already, and in nearly all  cases there’s at least some spare capacity to go around. 213 00:19:08,405 --> 00:19:10,944 Getting access to it is the main challenge, 214 00:19:10,944 --> 00:19:18,564 but in the end it’s always a simple matter of running wires from the electrical panel to wherever you want a charging station to go. 215 00:19:18,564 --> 00:19:25,706 And when deciding where you want it to go,  keep in mind that one of those places can be outside. 216 00:19:25,706 --> 00:19:32,859 Plenty of inexpensive charging stations - including the Grizzl-E - have enclosures which are rated for outdoor installation. 217 00:19:32,859 --> 00:19:42,267 And that might be a great option for you if you have, say, a detached garage with limited power but your driveway is adjacent to the house. 218 00:19:42,267 --> 00:19:50,729 It’s gonna be way more expensive to trench new power lines out to the garage than it is to install a charging station on the side of the house, 219 00:19:50,729 --> 00:19:56,178 and with today’s EVs that pretty much all have a range of 200 miles at a minimum 220 00:19:56,178 --> 00:20:00,009 (I mean the Chevy Bolt does and it’s an 8 year old car now) 221 00:20:00,009 --> 00:20:03,521 you seriously don’t have to charge it every day. 222 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:09,680 If you’re OK with charging it outside when you need to  and then putting it in the garage the rest of the time,   223 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,893 then I would highly suggest just doing that. 224 00:20:12,893 --> 00:20:17,747 I think a lot of people see so-called “best practices” as rules when 225 00:20:17,747 --> 00:20:19,146 there are no rules! 226 00:20:19,146 --> 00:20:21,399 You can charge an EV however you need to, 227 00:20:21,399 --> 00:20:27,314 and having a charger at home is awesome no matter where exactly it happens to be. 228 00:20:27,314 --> 00:20:33,954 Now, I know that plenty of you are out there  who would love to drive an electric car but can’t install a charger for it 229 00:20:33,954 --> 00:20:38,796 because you live in an apartment building or perhaps a neighborhood with on-street parking. 230 00:20:38,796 --> 00:20:44,354 When I talk about how easy it is to install one of these, I don’t wish to dismiss your situation. 231 00:20:44,354 --> 00:20:51,609 In fact I am just as frustrated as you are because the simple fact is all you need is wires. 232 00:20:51,609 --> 00:20:56,812 Multifamily housing does have unique challenges, but really there are only two: 233 00:20:56,812 --> 00:20:59,164 who pays for the electricity which is consumed, 234 00:20:59,164 --> 00:21:04,640 and how do you get that power from where it is in the building to the parking lot or garage. 235 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:10,960 I would love for utility companies to start  spinning up programs to solve those problems,   236 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:14,478 especially because right now the answer we seem to be going with is 237 00:21:14,478 --> 00:21:17,062 “well DC fast charging can take care of those folks” 238 00:21:17,062 --> 00:21:18,565 which is just stupid. 239 00:21:18,565 --> 00:21:19,805 It’s very stupid. 240 00:21:19,805 --> 00:21:25,856 It’s not only unfair to expect renters to shoulder the cost  of that ridonkulously expensive infrastructure 241 00:21:25,856 --> 00:21:29,930 which homeowners like me with private chargers rarely use, 242 00:21:29,930 --> 00:21:31,980 but it’s a worse experience! 243 00:21:31,980 --> 00:21:38,621 I never notice the 5 or 6 hours my car spends  charging because I’m sleeping when that happens! 244 00:21:38,621 --> 00:21:44,515 But you will notice how long a fast-charging  session takes because you’re waiting for the car to charge. 245 00:21:44,935 --> 00:21:50,171 Honestly I think that’s what makes electric cars such a contentious issue. 246 00:21:50,171 --> 00:21:55,984 I spend way less time charging my car than I did at gas stations. 247 00:21:55,984 --> 00:21:59,842 I just plug it in when I get home and go inside. 248 00:21:59,842 --> 00:22:06,309 And because that’s such a great experience, I don’t mind that it takes a little longer to go on a road trip. 249 00:22:06,309 --> 00:22:10,269 But if you have to live with an EV as if it is a gas car, 250 00:22:10,269 --> 00:22:16,767 then routine 20 or 30 minute charging sessions suck and are a legitimate downgrade. 251 00:22:16,767 --> 00:22:19,651 While DC fast charging times are improving, 252 00:22:19,651 --> 00:22:24,134 I am very annoyed that we’re spending so much oxygen covering that progress 253 00:22:24,134 --> 00:22:31,498 rather than explaining the simple fact that slow charging when your car is parked and you’re not using it is where it’s at. 254 00:22:31,498 --> 00:22:35,661 Ideally that happens at home, but it could also happen at work. 255 00:22:35,661 --> 00:22:38,756 Electric cars can be used differently from gas cars 256 00:22:38,756 --> 00:22:44,117 and we should be leaning into that difference and not trying to replicate the liquid fueling paradigm. 257 00:22:44,117 --> 00:22:50,261 And as a bonus, the infrastructure for AC charging is orders of magnitude cheaper to deploy. 258 00:22:50,261 --> 00:22:55,286 This whole setup wasn’t even $600 and it’s gonna work for years and years. 259 00:22:55,959 --> 00:23:01,075 It shouldn’t take a Midwesterner to tell  you that our priorities here are just all wrong. 260 00:23:01,075 --> 00:23:02,944 And speaking of weird priorities, 261 00:23:02,944 --> 00:23:07,800 well here comes my deferred rant on smart charging stations. 262 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:13,019 If a charging station requires the use of an app to configure it for a smaller circuit, 263 00:23:13,019 --> 00:23:15,997 my first instinct is to throw it into the ocean. 264 00:23:16,963 --> 00:23:19,314 I mean I wouldn’t really, 265 00:23:19,314 --> 00:23:25,755 but the mere idea of a charging station like this having an app or worse getting software updates 266 00:23:25,755 --> 00:23:27,690 just rubs me the wrong way. 267 00:23:27,690 --> 00:23:33,336 A lot of this is because I understand what these things actually are: power cables. 268 00:23:33,336 --> 00:23:41,931 And because of that fact, many of the smart features more expensive charging equipment can provide can also be handled by the car. 269 00:23:41,931 --> 00:23:45,325 You want scheduled charging? The car can do that. 270 00:23:45,325 --> 00:23:50,140 You want energy reports? Most cars will give them to you in some form or another. 271 00:23:50,140 --> 00:23:53,847 You want to lower charging current even  more for whatever reason? 272 00:23:53,847 --> 00:23:55,794 Lots of cars let you do that. 273 00:23:55,794 --> 00:24:02,795 Even demand-response can be done by the car, though I will say I have privacy and security concerns there. 274 00:24:02,795 --> 00:24:06,743 But I have those same concerns  about internet-connected charging stations. 275 00:24:06,743 --> 00:24:13,260 Look, for a charging station, I desire simplicity and reliability more than anything else. 276 00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:18,110 The more features you try to build into one of these things, the more can go wrong. 277 00:24:18,110 --> 00:24:22,152 Even with relatively simple equipment like this Siemens charger, 278 00:24:22,152 --> 00:24:28,225 I’ve experienced weird bugs where the charging station needs to be power-cycled to work again. 279 00:24:28,225 --> 00:24:34,946 One thing I love about the Grizzl-E Classic is that it will repeatedly attempt a self-reset if it encounters an error - 280 00:24:34,946 --> 00:24:38,116 a feature I first learned about from my old Clipper Creek install. 281 00:24:38,116 --> 00:24:40,894 That's why those things are so bulletproof! 282 00:24:40,894 --> 00:24:46,870 I consider this a must-have feature because, y’know, you need the car to charge! 283 00:24:46,870 --> 00:24:54,146 But pretty much every other feature that EVSEs try to pack in I consider superfluous in a private setting. 284 00:24:54,146 --> 00:24:59,871 Like, as cool as it is to be able to monitor how much energy your car is pulling from the wall… 285 00:24:59,871 --> 00:25:03,167 there’s not really anything you can do with that information, is there? 286 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:08,238 Your car’s gonna need the same amount of energy  no matter how smart the charging station is. 287 00:25:08,238 --> 00:25:11,406 But that’s just me, feel free to disagree. 288 00:25:11,406 --> 00:25:18,699 And complexity is gonna have to increase assuming vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home technology really takes off. 289 00:25:18,699 --> 00:25:24,044 But for now, keep it simple stupid is a decent principle to live by. 290 00:25:24,044 --> 00:25:27,261 Oh and I should touch on charging connectors. 291 00:25:27,261 --> 00:25:34,727 I’ve not brought up the transition to the NACS connector because, honestly, for Level 2 charging it hardly matters. 292 00:25:34,727 --> 00:25:44,000 You can install a charging station with either a Tesla connector or a J1772 connector and use an inexpensive adapter if your car has the wrong one.   293 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:52,229 The transition does seem to be full-steam-ahead  so I would probably lean towards installing a NACS charging station at this point, 294 00:25:52,229 --> 00:26:01,840 but they’re not as widely available yet so if you see a good deal on a J1772 unit, I would probably go for that and just pop on an adapter. 295 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:04,177 Oh, and remember that thing I said earlier about 296 00:26:04,177 --> 00:26:10,408 hardwiring the charging station and eliminating the weak point that is the receptacle and plug? 297 00:26:10,408 --> 00:26:18,079 Yeah, well by now you’ve probably seen photos of an electric car charging station making its plug all melty-like. 298 00:26:18,079 --> 00:26:24,640 This can happen for several reasons, but the most commonly cited one is a poor-quality receptacle.   299 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:33,659 In fact that is such a widely known issue that my Clipper Creek HCS-40 at home came with a new Hubbell brand 14-50 receptacle 300 00:26:33,659 --> 00:26:40,834 and documentation which all but demanded I replace the one which was already in the wall with the one they gave me. 301 00:26:40,834 --> 00:26:42,026 Which I did. 302 00:26:42,026 --> 00:26:44,780 Honestly I had no idea they came in white. 303 00:26:44,780 --> 00:26:49,476 However, there’s a lot which can go wrong besides quality control. 304 00:26:49,476 --> 00:26:55,213 For a start, none of these receptacles are designed for frequent plug insertion and removal 305 00:26:55,213 --> 00:27:02,600 and they’ll wear out quickly if you, say, use a portable charging cable and take it with you regularly. 306 00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:11,345 Prior to electric cars, these things were mainly known for hooking up a kitchen range which would be plugged in once during installation and then… 307 00:27:11,345 --> 00:27:14,002 left plugged in for years. 308 00:27:14,002 --> 00:27:19,139 This means that essentially no wear happens and so the design never needed to account for that. 309 00:27:19,139 --> 00:27:28,567 The most common high-wear application of the NEMA 14-50 is at campsites, as it’s a common connector for hooking up travel trailers and RVs. 310 00:27:28,567 --> 00:27:34,740 But even if they start getting worn out and can’t safely carry as much current as they used to, 311 00:27:34,740 --> 00:27:39,457 your typical RV isn’t pulling trying to pull 40 amps through it nonstop. 312 00:27:39,457 --> 00:27:45,862 This is a long way of saying if you have one of these and use a car charger with it, leave it plugged in. 313 00:27:45,862 --> 00:27:52,830 And to be safe, I would periodically feel how warm the plug is after your car’s been charging for an hour or so. 314 00:27:52,830 --> 00:27:55,621 If it’s hot, there’s a problem. 315 00:27:55,621 --> 00:28:04,382 But the other thing which can go wrong, which to be honest I think is far more common, is simply improper installation of the receptacle. 316 00:28:04,382 --> 00:28:11,230 A lot of the photos I’ve seen where they get burned up make it clear that they were installed with aluminum wiring. 317 00:28:11,230 --> 00:28:15,486 Which is not quite a big no-no but it is a big yikes. 318 00:28:15,486 --> 00:28:21,674 Aluminum electrical wiring requires  very careful handling and it needs anti-corrosion treatment. 319 00:28:21,674 --> 00:28:29,792 If that’s not done, it can become a big problem and maxing it out as charging a car will do will quickly reveal the problem. 320 00:28:29,792 --> 00:28:35,397 Aluminum loves to oxidize which increases electrical resistance at the points of contact. 321 00:28:35,397 --> 00:28:40,631 And that leads to overheating which leads to melting and possibly worse! 322 00:28:40,631 --> 00:28:47,363 Even with copper wiring, though, if the lugs on the receptacle which clamp onto that wire aren’t torqued to spec, 323 00:28:47,363 --> 00:28:51,707 a poor connection can result and the same problems will happen. 324 00:28:51,707 --> 00:28:58,536 If a professional electrician installs a 14-50, I don’t think you’re likely to find improperly torqued lugs. 325 00:28:58,536 --> 00:29:05,481 But do-it-yourselfers or fly-by-night handymen  might not have done such a bang-up job. 326 00:29:05,481 --> 00:29:15,163 I’m bringing this up because a common refrain is that the 14-50 was never designed to have its full current rating drawn through it nonstop. 327 00:29:15,163 --> 00:29:17,705 Which is absolutely correct! 328 00:29:17,705 --> 00:29:24,687 But the thing is - a properly installed and commissioned  electric car charging station will never ever do that. 329 00:29:24,687 --> 00:29:34,287 These are rated for 50 amps, that's why they're called a 14-50, but a continuous load should be limited to 80% or 40 amps. 330 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:44,512 To be honest, I suspect some folks discover that their chosen EVSE can be commissioned as a 48 amp charger meant for installation on a 60 amp circuit - 331 00:29:44,512 --> 00:29:47,773 Tesla’s wall connectors are a great example. 332 00:29:47,773 --> 00:29:57,030 And since 48 is less than 50, people who know enough  to be dangerous might change it to send a 48 amp output signal 333 00:29:57,030 --> 00:29:59,987 not knowing about the importance of the 80% rule. 334 00:29:59,987 --> 00:30:04,409 And then they truly will be pushing this beyond its design limits. 335 00:30:04,409 --> 00:30:10,325 But anyway, this is largely just speculation on my part, and if you’re worried about this, well here's an idea: 336 00:30:10,325 --> 00:30:15,101 do what I did and install a 32 amp charger on your NEMA 14-50. 337 00:30:15,101 --> 00:30:18,858 I’m following the extra safe 64% rule! 338 00:30:19,677 --> 00:30:24,702 To be honest, though, that’s just because I wanted something a little more trustworthy than this Amazon special 339 00:30:24,702 --> 00:30:27,449 and the HCS-40 was on sale. 340 00:30:27,449 --> 00:30:31,818 And now Clipper Creek was gobbled up by Enphase which makes me sad. 341 00:30:31,818 --> 00:30:34,909 OK, well I think that’s everything. 342 00:30:34,909 --> 00:30:42,207 As usual scope creep got the best of me and this video became a lot longer than it probably needed to be. 343 00:30:42,207 --> 00:30:45,072 But, uh, well I got a question for ya: 344 00:30:45,072 --> 00:30:52,987 given how much has changed about the charging landscape and how wrong I was about CCS winning out over the Tesla connector, 345 00:30:52,987 --> 00:30:57,133 I’ve been considering a remake on my older EV charging  guides. 346 00:30:57,133 --> 00:31:00,087 Do you think that’s a good idea? Would you like to see that? 347 00:31:00,087 --> 00:31:02,213 It would be fairly easy to do. 348 00:31:02,213 --> 00:31:06,359 But I wanted this video out there specifically because 349 00:31:06,359 --> 00:31:10,219 a lot more EV nerds need to make friends with Midwesterners. 350 00:31:10,219 --> 00:31:16,384 Do you know how much easier life gets when you reject FOMO and decide to be happy with good enough? 351 00:31:16,384 --> 00:31:18,756 It's pretty awesome, you might wanna try it sometime. 352 00:31:18,756 --> 00:31:20,271 And bring a hotdish! 353 00:31:21,324 --> 00:31:24,048 ♫ modestly smooth jazz ♫ 354 00:31:24,574 --> 00:31:27,569 First take worked without a problem? 355 00:31:27,569 --> 00:31:29,229 Today is goin’ GOOD. 356 00:31:29,229 --> 00:31:31,670 Especially when more modesht - 357 00:31:34,069 --> 00:31:36,109 Well, now we’re havin’ a problem… 358 00:31:36,109 --> 00:31:39,831 This is a long way of saying if you have one of these and you use a char carger wi - 359 00:31:39,831 --> 00:31:42,262 I said char carger. 360 00:31:43,754 --> 00:31:44,846 [exasperated sigh] 361 00:31:44,846 --> 00:31:48,980 My folks moved last year and this house didn't have a charging station, 362 00:31:48,980 --> 00:31:51,032 but they did have… 363 00:31:51,032 --> 00:31:53,138 a U-Haul driving by. 364 00:31:53,138 --> 00:31:56,582 Though I will say I have privacy andk security concerns… 365 00:31:58,689 --> 00:31:59,747 ugh, 366 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,218 consonant jam. 367 00:32:01,218 --> 00:32:03,851 But that’s just me. Feel free to disagree. [joint crack] 368 00:32:03,851 --> 00:32:08,312 And complexity will have to incre - yea, how bad  was that elbow click? 369 00:32:08,312 --> 00:32:09,820 We’ll find out in the edit! 370 00:32:11,512 --> 00:32:14,155 There's no need to get all charged up about this. 371 00:32:14,155 --> 00:32:16,378 Oh wait, yes there is. 372 00:32:16,378 --> 00:32:20,560 But there's no need to get charged up as fast as your car can possibly do it... unless you genuinely need that. 373 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,860 Just think of what it would be like if the gas fairy visited overnight and put a few gallons in the tank whenever you wanted. 374 00:32:23,860 --> 00:32:26,477 And you don't even have to give up your teeth!