WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:03.485 “Need” can be a funny word. 00:00:03.485 --> 00:00:06.794 If you’re in the US and are considering an electric car, 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: 00:00:13.585 --> 00:00:16.643 a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. 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. 00:00:26.203 --> 00:00:34.160 But unless your household drives a TON - I’m talking 200 miles  each and every day - 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:36.180 you don’t need this. 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! 00:00:42.137 --> 00:00:44.962 But installing one of these isn’t always feasible. 00:00:44.962 --> 00:00:47.363 Maybe you’re limited by your home’s electrical service, 00:00:47.363 --> 00:00:52.134 or maybe you don’t have a garage and you want something a little more waterproof. 00:00:52.134 --> 00:00:56.074 The good news is that electricity is incredibly versatile, 00:00:56.074 --> 00:01:01.727 and in that same vein electric vehicle charging is incredibly flexible. 00:01:01.727 --> 00:01:05.254 However, based on conversations I keep having, 00:01:05.254 --> 00:01:12.143 way too many electricians don’t quite understand  just how flexible electric car charging is. 00:01:12.143 --> 00:01:17.349 Now, to be clear, it's not my intention to throw electricians under the bus here. 00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:21.182 I don’t have to deal with running a business which interacts with the public - 00:01:21.182 --> 00:01:22.840 I just make YouTube videos! 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.” 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… 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 00:01:45.526 --> 00:01:52.584 - are aware that charging stations can be installed on a branch circuit of any size. 00:01:52.584 --> 00:01:57.657 And many models available can be field-commissioned for the installed circuit capacity. 00:01:57.657 --> 00:02:02.098 This means there are countless options for running power to charge a car, 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. 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:14.967 Especially when more modest charging avoids a costly electrical service upgrade. 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. 00:02:20.574 --> 00:02:24.737 My folks moved last year and this house didn’t  have a charging station, 00:02:24.737 --> 00:02:28.058 but they did have their Chevy Bolt to charge. 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. 00:02:35.394 --> 00:02:39.836 A startling number of people aren’t aware of that so I’m gonna repeat that: 00:02:39.836 --> 00:02:45.245 ALL electric cars can be charged from a standard household outlet, 00:02:45.245 --> 00:02:49.046 and many of them come with the cable you need to do that. 00:02:49.046 --> 00:02:52.778 And if it didn’t come with this, you can get them inexpensively. 00:02:52.778 --> 00:02:57.064 It’s very slow, but a lot more useful than many people think: 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. 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. 00:03:13.561 --> 00:03:18.322 So, my parents wanted to go for a 240V charging station. 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. 00:03:24.948 --> 00:03:28.762 The attached garage is adjacent to the electrical room in the basement, 00:03:28.762 --> 00:03:34.057 and the breaker panel itself is less than 25 feet away from the shared wall. 00:03:34.057 --> 00:03:37.661 Now, of course, not everybody has such an easy situation, 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. 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. 00:03:51.649 --> 00:03:56.586 However, this house happens to be in Chicagoland where the outlets are sideways 00:03:56.586 --> 00:04:01.667 and all electrical work has to go in conduit like you see here. 00:04:01.667 --> 00:04:05.392 Which is, uh, annoying! 00:04:05.392 --> 00:04:10.156 However, we do get to use MC cable in certain situations. 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 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. 00:04:23.938 --> 00:04:26.540 That would limit us to a 30 amp circuit, 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. 00:04:33.849 --> 00:04:40.598 But, at 240 volts, that’s 5.8 kilowatts which is a lot of power! 00:04:40.598 --> 00:04:45.721 and since everyone in my family actually  knows what living with an electric car is like, 00:04:45.721 --> 00:04:50.081 we all agreed that would be much more than fine. 00:04:50.081 --> 00:04:53.725 So, we opted for cheap and easy. 00:04:53.725 --> 00:04:57.977 Now, I’m about to show you everything we did to install the charging station. 00:04:57.977 --> 00:05:03.217 But I want to be clear here that the purpose of this is for illustration only. 00:05:03.217 --> 00:05:08.010 Doing electrical work yourself is very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, 00:05:08.010 --> 00:05:11.251 and in many locations it’s flat out illegal. 00:05:11.251 --> 00:05:14.529 So, do not take this as a guide. 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. 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 - 00:05:30.687 --> 00:05:37.132 meaning cars can charge from 20A and even piddly little 15A circuits, too. 00:05:37.132 --> 00:05:41.136 Of course that limits power and slows down charging speeds, 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, 00:05:47.747 --> 00:05:53.275 you can almost certainly still have a pretty capable 240V charging station. 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, 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. 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. 00:06:15.589 --> 00:06:18.570 If you’re worried about the unpredictable nature of life, 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. 00:06:23.631 --> 00:06:26.560 Those fast charging networks are growing quickly 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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.   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, 00:07:13.476 --> 00:07:17.478 and there were tons of open slots in here. 00:07:17.478 --> 00:07:19.996 Plus there was plenty of capacity. 00:07:19.996 --> 00:07:26.052 These 20 amp breakers feed baseboard heaters that all told only draw about 12 amps 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. 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, 00:07:37.431 --> 00:07:42.773 a 30A Square D Homeline circuit breaker, a junction box, and a few fittings 00:07:42.773 --> 00:07:44.751 and we were off to the races. 00:07:44.751 --> 00:07:49.351 All told the materials cost for this job was about $200, 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. 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. 00:08:05.916 --> 00:08:09.356 But of course we’d also need a charging station. 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. 00:08:18.244 --> 00:08:21.003 I will withhold my rant which explains why until later. 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 00:08:27.737 --> 00:08:32.370 because this charging station can supply up to 40 amps of charging current. 00:08:33.218 --> 00:08:36.391 But, we only installed a 30 amp circuit. 00:08:36.391 --> 00:08:39.121 Oh no! What a blunder! 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. 00:08:48.060 --> 00:08:52.316 And when you put them in the correct positions as  outlined in the installation instructions, 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. 00:08:58.294 --> 00:09:02.500 By default it’s set for installation on 50A circuits, 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:08.148 but there’s a setting for 40 amp circuits, 30 amp circuits, and 20 amp circuits. 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, 00:09:17.599 --> 00:09:19.111 and that was that. 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? 00:09:24.931 --> 00:09:28.719 Well, if you’ve seen some of my earlier videos you probably already know 00:09:28.719 --> 00:09:33.233 but for those who haven’t, here’s the thing about AC car charging: 00:09:33.233 --> 00:09:36.620 this device is not a battery charger. 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. 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.” 00:09:53.118 --> 00:09:58.587 The DIP switches on the Grizzl-E's circuit board simply change the signal. 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. 00:10:05.512 --> 00:10:08.696 And once connected a car will send a signal back which says 00:10:08.696 --> 00:10:11.498 “Hi, I’m a car, please give me power.” 00:10:11.498 --> 00:10:14.654 And then the charging station will close this large relay 00:10:14.654 --> 00:10:18.308 [click] which simply sends the incoming AC line voltage 00:10:18.308 --> 00:10:21.582 right down the charging cable and to the car. 00:10:21.582 --> 00:10:25.246 That’s how all AC charging stations work. 00:10:25.246 --> 00:10:29.697 All this device does is connect these wires to those wires, 00:10:29.697 --> 00:10:35.126 delivering the same AC power that’s coming into the unit directly to the car. 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. 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. 00:10:55.388 --> 00:11:00.335 And a car like mine, a Hyundai Ioniq 5, can draw up to 48 amps 00:11:00.335 --> 00:11:05.022 which would very much overload this circuit and trip the breaker quite quickly. 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”, 00:11:11.221 --> 00:11:13.852 well that’s all the current my car's gonna take. 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, 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, 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. 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. 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?” 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. 00:11:53.851 --> 00:11:56.597 And if for some reason that doesn’t happen… 00:11:56.597 --> 00:11:58.970 that’s what the circuit breaker is for. 00:11:58.970 --> 00:12:00.805 Don’t overthink this. 00:12:00.880 --> 00:12:05.775 So, with this charging station now configured to send the 24A signal, 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,   00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.176 the sort often used for air conditioners. 00:12:15.176 --> 00:12:17.673 Then I connected the wire whip to the junction box, 00:12:17.673 --> 00:12:20.833 connected the wires together using the appropriate wire nuts 00:12:20.833 --> 00:12:23.969 (yes I used wire nuts please enjoy the show in the comments) 00:12:23.969 --> 00:12:28.274 and finally I closed the breaker in to actually energize the circuit. 00:12:28.274 --> 00:12:33.479 And, aside from securing the cables and wire whip, we were finished! 00:12:33.479 --> 00:12:37.364 This was just an afternoon project knocked out by a couple of knuckleheads, 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. 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, 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. 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.   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. 00:13:14.728 --> 00:13:21.060 So, with everything hunky-dory,  I closed it all up and it was happily ever after. 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. 00:13:26.850 --> 00:13:33.517 In the wonderful world of NEMA connectors,  there does exist a 30A, 240V receptacle and plug. 00:13:33.517 --> 00:13:38.799 Electric clothes dryers use them, and actually there are few varieties out there. 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 00:13:46.803 --> 00:13:52.810 or purchased a 24A charger which was equipped with a dryer plug, which are readily available. 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 - 00:13:59.404 --> 00:14:03.222 you’re already completely set for electric car charging! 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 00:14:10.996 --> 00:14:14.030 and it will prevent them from operating at the same time. 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. 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. 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. 00:14:39.206 --> 00:14:43.347 Truthfully I don’t know whether that’s required in their area yet, 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, 00:14:50.089 --> 00:14:55.127 so hard-wiring it seemed the best way to ensure code was respected. 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. 00:15:01.808 --> 00:15:04.323 It’s, uh, controversial. 00:15:04.323 --> 00:15:09.745 Since installation, this charging station’s been  dutifully charging my mom and dad’s Chevy Bolt. 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. 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. 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, 00:15:33.810 --> 00:15:38.196 the real-world charge time is at most about 8 hours: 00:15:38.196 --> 00:15:43.254 an essentially perfect overnight charge taking place when the humans are asleep. 00:15:43.254 --> 00:15:47.983 And even still, that only happens once or twice a week for them. 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, 00:15:54.660 --> 00:15:58.030 but even still on this 24A charging station, 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%. 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, 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. 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. 00:16:27.239 --> 00:16:31.837 They are much easier to install yet still extremely capable. 00:16:31.837 --> 00:16:36.723 But until people have first-hand experience with an electric car, 00:16:36.723 --> 00:16:40.165 range anxiety can be a stubborn mental block. 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. 00:16:47.785 --> 00:16:52.139 Almost nobody's real-world usage pattern requires that. 00:16:52.139 --> 00:16:56.434 I mean, are you topping up your car at a gas station every day? 00:16:56.434 --> 00:16:59.980 Unless you’re a professional driver, probably not. 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. 00:17:07.290 --> 00:17:12.985 It definitely would be for me, even back when I had a 70 mile daily commute. 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, 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, 00:17:24.313 --> 00:17:27.871 and there’s probably one on the way to wherever you’re going. 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. 00:17:35.575 --> 00:17:41.529 Something like a Silverado EV with its gigantic 210 kilowatt-hour battery pack 00:17:41.529 --> 00:17:46.941 would need 36 hours to charge from empty to  full using this charging station. 00:17:46.941 --> 00:17:49.225 And that’s assuming perfect efficiency. 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. 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, 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. 00:18:10.672 --> 00:18:15.090 A 12 hour charging session may only replenish a third of its battery pack charge, 00:18:15.090 --> 00:18:20.041 but when that’s still over a hundred miles… is that really so bad? 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. 00:18:25.217 --> 00:18:29.926 I mean, that’s more driving range than lots of early EVs had period. 00:18:29.926 --> 00:18:33.617 So, that’s the main mission I had with this video: 00:18:33.617 --> 00:18:39.661 increase awareness of smaller charging circuits and how much they can actually do. 00:18:39.661 --> 00:18:43.560 The thing is, unless you live and breathe electric car charging, 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. 00:18:49.914 --> 00:18:53.707 And now that I’ve gone over that, well feel free to stop watching. 00:18:53.707 --> 00:18:54.633 Bye! 00:18:54.633 --> 00:18:58.079 And for the rest of you, this is what I love about electricity! 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.460 It’s so dang flexible! 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. 00:19:08.405 --> 00:19:10.944 Getting access to it is the main challenge, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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 00:19:56.178 --> 00:20:00.009 (I mean the Chevy Bolt does and it’s an 8 year old car now) 00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:03.521 you seriously don’t have to charge it every day. 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,   00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.893 then I would highly suggest just doing that. 00:20:12.893 --> 00:20:17.747 I think a lot of people see so-called “best practices” as rules when 00:20:17.747 --> 00:20:19.146 there are no rules! 00:20:19.146 --> 00:20:21.399 You can charge an EV however you need to, 00:20:21.399 --> 00:20:27.314 and having a charger at home is awesome no matter where exactly it happens to be. 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 00:20:33.954 --> 00:20:38.796 because you live in an apartment building or perhaps a neighborhood with on-street parking. 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. 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. 00:20:51.609 --> 00:20:56.812 Multifamily housing does have unique challenges, but really there are only two: 00:20:56.812 --> 00:20:59.164 who pays for the electricity which is consumed, 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. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:10.960 I would love for utility companies to start  spinning up programs to solve those problems,   00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:14.478 especially because right now the answer we seem to be going with is 00:21:14.478 --> 00:21:17.062 “well DC fast charging can take care of those folks” 00:21:17.062 --> 00:21:18.565 which is just stupid. 00:21:18.565 --> 00:21:19.805 It’s very stupid. 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 00:21:25.856 --> 00:21:29.930 which homeowners like me with private chargers rarely use, 00:21:29.930 --> 00:21:31.980 but it’s a worse experience! 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! 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. 00:21:44.935 --> 00:21:50.171 Honestly I think that’s what makes electric cars such a contentious issue. 00:21:50.171 --> 00:21:55.984 I spend way less time charging my car than I did at gas stations. 00:21:55.984 --> 00:21:59.842 I just plug it in when I get home and go inside. 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. 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:10.269 But if you have to live with an EV as if it is a gas car, 00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:16.767 then routine 20 or 30 minute charging sessions suck and are a legitimate downgrade. 00:22:16.767 --> 00:22:19.651 While DC fast charging times are improving, 00:22:19.651 --> 00:22:24.134 I am very annoyed that we’re spending so much oxygen covering that progress 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. 00:22:31.498 --> 00:22:35.661 Ideally that happens at home, but it could also happen at work. 00:22:35.661 --> 00:22:38.756 Electric cars can be used differently from gas cars 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. 00:22:44.117 --> 00:22:50.261 And as a bonus, the infrastructure for AC charging is orders of magnitude cheaper to deploy. 00:22:50.261 --> 00:22:55.286 This whole setup wasn’t even $600 and it’s gonna work for years and years. 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. 00:23:01.075 --> 00:23:02.944 And speaking of weird priorities, 00:23:02.944 --> 00:23:07.800 well here comes my deferred rant on smart charging stations. 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, 00:23:13.019 --> 00:23:15.997 my first instinct is to throw it into the ocean. 00:23:16.963 --> 00:23:19.314 I mean I wouldn’t really, 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 00:23:25.755 --> 00:23:27.690 just rubs me the wrong way. 00:23:27.690 --> 00:23:33.336 A lot of this is because I understand what these things actually are: power cables. 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. 00:23:41.931 --> 00:23:45.325 You want scheduled charging? The car can do that. 00:23:45.325 --> 00:23:50.140 You want energy reports? Most cars will give them to you in some form or another. 00:23:50.140 --> 00:23:53.847 You want to lower charging current even  more for whatever reason? 00:23:53.847 --> 00:23:55.794 Lots of cars let you do that. 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. 00:24:02.795 --> 00:24:06.743 But I have those same concerns  about internet-connected charging stations. 00:24:06.743 --> 00:24:13.260 Look, for a charging station, I desire simplicity and reliability more than anything else. 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. 00:24:18.110 --> 00:24:22.152 Even with relatively simple equipment like this Siemens charger, 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. 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 - 00:24:34.946 --> 00:24:38.116 a feature I first learned about from my old Clipper Creek install. 00:24:38.116 --> 00:24:40.894 That's why those things are so bulletproof! 00:24:40.894 --> 00:24:46.870 I consider this a must-have feature because, y’know, you need the car to charge! 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. 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… 00:24:59.871 --> 00:25:03.167 there’s not really anything you can do with that information, is there? 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. 00:25:08.238 --> 00:25:11.406 But that’s just me, feel free to disagree. 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. 00:25:18.699 --> 00:25:24.044 But for now, keep it simple stupid is a decent principle to live by. 00:25:24.044 --> 00:25:27.261 Oh and I should touch on charging connectors. 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. 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.   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, 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. 00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:04.177 Oh, and remember that thing I said earlier about 00:26:04.177 --> 00:26:10.408 hardwiring the charging station and eliminating the weak point that is the receptacle and plug? 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. 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.   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 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. 00:26:40.834 --> 00:26:42.026 Which I did. 00:26:42.026 --> 00:26:44.780 Honestly I had no idea they came in white. 00:26:44.780 --> 00:26:49.476 However, there’s a lot which can go wrong besides quality control. 00:26:49.476 --> 00:26:55.213 For a start, none of these receptacles are designed for frequent plug insertion and removal 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. 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… 00:27:11.345 --> 00:27:14.002 left plugged in for years. 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. 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. 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, 00:27:34.740 --> 00:27:39.457 your typical RV isn’t pulling trying to pull 40 amps through it nonstop. 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. 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. 00:27:52.830 --> 00:27:55.621 If it’s hot, there’s a problem. 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. 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. 00:28:11.230 --> 00:28:15.486 Which is not quite a big no-no but it is a big yikes. 00:28:15.486 --> 00:28:21.674 Aluminum electrical wiring requires  very careful handling and it needs anti-corrosion treatment. 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. 00:28:29.792 --> 00:28:35.397 Aluminum loves to oxidize which increases electrical resistance at the points of contact. 00:28:35.397 --> 00:28:40.631 And that leads to overheating which leads to melting and possibly worse! 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, 00:28:47.363 --> 00:28:51.707 a poor connection can result and the same problems will happen. 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. 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. 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. 00:29:15.163 --> 00:29:17.705 Which is absolutely correct! 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. 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. 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 - 00:29:44.512 --> 00:29:47.773 Tesla’s wall connectors are a great example. 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 00:29:57.030 --> 00:29:59.987 not knowing about the importance of the 80% rule. 00:29:59.987 --> 00:30:04.409 And then they truly will be pushing this beyond its design limits. 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: 00:30:10.325 --> 00:30:15.101 do what I did and install a 32 amp charger on your NEMA 14-50. 00:30:15.101 --> 00:30:18.858 I’m following the extra safe 64% rule! 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 00:30:24.702 --> 00:30:27.449 and the HCS-40 was on sale. 00:30:27.449 --> 00:30:31.818 And now Clipper Creek was gobbled up by Enphase which makes me sad. 00:30:31.818 --> 00:30:34.909 OK, well I think that’s everything. 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. 00:30:42.207 --> 00:30:45.072 But, uh, well I got a question for ya: 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, 00:30:52.987 --> 00:30:57.133 I’ve been considering a remake on my older EV charging  guides. 00:30:57.133 --> 00:31:00.087 Do you think that’s a good idea? Would you like to see that? 00:31:00.087 --> 00:31:02.213 It would be fairly easy to do. 00:31:02.213 --> 00:31:06.359 But I wanted this video out there specifically because 00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:10.219 a lot more EV nerds need to make friends with Midwesterners. 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? 00:31:16.384 --> 00:31:18.756 It's pretty awesome, you might wanna try it sometime. 00:31:18.756 --> 00:31:20.271 And bring a hotdish! 00:31:21.324 --> 00:31:24.048 ♫ modestly smooth jazz ♫ 00:31:24.574 --> 00:31:27.569 First take worked without a problem? 00:31:27.569 --> 00:31:29.229 Today is goin’ GOOD. 00:31:29.229 --> 00:31:31.670 Especially when more modesht - 00:31:34.069 --> 00:31:36.109 Well, now we’re havin’ a problem… 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 - 00:31:39.831 --> 00:31:42.262 I said char carger. 00:31:43.754 --> 00:31:44.846 [exasperated sigh] 00:31:44.846 --> 00:31:48.980 My folks moved last year and this house didn't have a charging station, 00:31:48.980 --> 00:31:51.032 but they did have… 00:31:51.032 --> 00:31:53.138 a U-Haul driving by. 00:31:53.138 --> 00:31:56.582 Though I will say I have privacy andk security concerns… 00:31:58.689 --> 00:31:59.747 ugh, 00:31:59.840 --> 00:32:01.218 consonant jam. 00:32:01.218 --> 00:32:03.851 But that’s just me. Feel free to disagree. [joint crack] 00:32:03.851 --> 00:32:08.312 And complexity will have to incre - yea, how bad  was that elbow click? 00:32:08.312 --> 00:32:09.820 We’ll find out in the edit! 00:32:11.512 --> 00:32:14.155 There's no need to get all charged up about this. 00:32:14.155 --> 00:32:16.378 Oh wait, yes there is. 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. 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. 00:32:23.860 --> 00:32:26.477 And you don't even have to give up your teeth!