Level 2 charger at home, anybody? What are your thought?

[yevetz]

Hi Colleagues

Anybody has a level 2 charger at home? Are you happy with it? What is the brand/model?

Or maybe you considered getting one, then decided not to. If so, why?

I am thinking to get one, but it's weird that my manual says 15A max, while all the Level 2 chargers I find says it's 16A.

Thanks a million for your input.

 

[AndyInOz]

I guess I've never seen the need.

I suppose that the Use Case is where you need the vehicle to be operating as much as possible, with quick turn around charging. (Like a taxi that is driven by three drivers)

Mine charges overnight, and the battery still seems to be in pretty good nick.

(I noticed the other morning that the guess-ometer was showing 45km of expected range.)

 

[Rockwallrick]

I have a GrizzleE, works for me!

 

[BobK]

Hi Colleagues

Anybody has a level 2 charger at home? Are you happy with it? What is the brand/model?

Or maybe you considered getting one, then decided not to. If so, why?

I am thinking to get one, but it's weird that my manual says 15A max, while all the Level 2 chargers I find says it's 16A.

Thanks a million for your input.

I bought the ChargePoint Home Flex Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger, 16 to 50 Amp, 240V, Level 2 WiFi Enabled EVSE from Amazon before I took delivery of my car. I hired an electrician to hard wire it in to my outside wall, but you can make the unit plugable as well. I'm very happy with it and it is working well, but I now realize it was overkill because I thought I would need the charger to program time of day charging, but the Outlander does it and I use the Mitsubishi app over the Chargepoint app to monitor charging.
The electrician had to modify the maximum charging rate from 50 to 35 amps because that is all that was left of the capacity of my home power. That doesn't seem to have affected the charging time too much - it takes about 6 1/2 hours from zero charge. If you can put the charger in an enclosed (and possibly heated) garage I would because of the cold weather starting issues the car has at -25C - and you get better range with a warmer battery. However I have yet to experience any issues with cold starting in my driveway here in Nova Scotia.
We use the car a lot and frequently pass the EV range, so the level 2 charger's ability to top up the charge much faster at any time is important to us. Until the utility switches to smartmeters and the electrical cost varies with time of day (maybe a year away?), we ignore any programming of charge times.
Once I run out of juice away from home, I try to use the Chademo fast charging whenever I can (which isn't often) even though there is no economical justification for it, I just hate burning fossil fuels more than necessary and can't afford the time for level 2 charging when I'm mid-route on business trips. Because I sometimes travel to remote areas far from chargers, a full fledged EV is impractical.

 

[KYBruce]

Hi Colleagues

Anybody has a level 2 charger at home? Are you happy with it? What is the brand/model?

Or maybe you considered getting one, then decided not to. If so, why?

I am thinking to get one, but it's weird that my manual says 15A max, while all the Level 2 chargers I find says it's 16A.

Thanks a million for your input.

I installed one and use it daily. We usually drive 30 to 50 miles a day so use almost no gas. We do drive to Lexington often which is about 200 miles round trip. Love the level 2 charger. Takes 5 to 6 hours for full charge. Cost me about $350 total for Amazon charger and electrical supplies. Installed myself

 

[Tomappel]

I've had a Clipper Creek for 6 years now. No garage so it's out in the Vermont elements 24/7. No problems to date. I have also installed a dozen or so on projectsI have managed.

 

[michael8554]

BobK:

My 2014 Owner's Manual says "230V/16A - about 3.5hours" for the Type 1 input.

If your charging takes 6.5 hours, then it sounds like you're charger is only on a 120V supply.

"The electrician had to modify the maximum charging rate from 50 to 35 amps because that is all that was left of the capacity of my home power."

Sounds like a sensible thing if you every use that charger wired to 240V on a 32A EV, the PHEV can only ever draw 16A max.

 

[MNJ23PHEV]

We also have the ChargePoint+ Level 2 charger charging our 2023 with the 20kW hour battery. Like others have said, full charge in less than about 6 hours. Love it and have not looked back. For our use, the Level 1 that came with the vehicle was way to slow.

 

[yevetz]

I installed one and use it daily. We usually drive 30 to 50 miles a day so use almost no gas. We do drive to Lexington often which is about 200 miles round trip. Love the level 2 charger. Takes 5 to 6 hours for full charge. Cost me about $350 total for Amazon charger and electrical supplies. Installed myself

How long does it take to charge to full?

 

[yevetz]

I bought the ChargePoint Home Flex Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger, 16 to 50 Amp, 240V, Level 2 WiFi Enabled EVSE from Amazon before I took delivery of my car. I hired an electrician to hard wire it in to my outside wall, but you can make the unit plugable as well. I'm very happy with it and it is working well, but I now realize it was overkill because I thought I would need the charger to program time of day charging, but the Outlander does it and I use the Mitsubishi app over the Chargepoint app to monitor charging.
The electrician had to modify the maximum charging rate from 50 to 35 amps because that is all that was left of the capacity of my home power. That doesn't seem to have affected the charging time too much - it takes about 6 1/2 hours from zero charge. If you can put the charger in an enclosed (and possibly heated) garage I would because of the cold weather starting issues the car has at -25C - and you get better range with a warmer battery. However I have yet to experience any issues with cold starting in my driveway here in Nova Scotia.
We use the car a lot and frequently pass the EV range, so the level 2 charger's ability to top up the charge much faster at any time is important to us. Until the utility switches to smartmeters and the electrical cost varies with time of day (maybe a year away?), we ignore any programming of charge times.
Once I run out of juice away from home, I try to use the Chademo fast charging whenever I can (which isn't often) even though there is no economical justification for it, I just hate burning fossil fuels more than necessary and can't afford the time for level 2 charging when I'm mid-route on business trips. Because I sometimes travel to remote areas far from chargers, a full fledged EV is impractical.

We also have the ChargePoint+ Level 2 charger charging our 2023 with the 20kW hour battery. Like others have said, full charge in less than about 6 hours. Love it and have not looked back. For our use, the Level 1 that came with the vehicle was way to slow.

My battery health shows 27.7 Ah right now and it takes me 6.5 hours from zero to full battery with the charger that was included with the vehicle. It has 8A and 12A options and I use 12A. (In garage, but I never heat it)

Trying to wrap my head around how you guys are getting the same charging time with level 2.

 

[themaiz]

Last year when our new 2023 Outlander was on the water from Japan I had many discussions about chargers with the dealer. Their lack of advice went beyond clueless - there was no product that they could or would sell, despite having a massive Kia charger on display. I did a lot of negotiating with one supplier who refused to sell me or consider implementation of a V2H solution, even though I'm highly technical and desperately want to be able to run the house overnight on the car's battery (would use roughly half). So...

Eventually we decided to use a Fronius WattPilot, which tightly integrates with our Fronius solar inverter. The WattPilot is a three-phase device, so capable of delivering 32A/phase (at 240V each) which is enough to fast-charge a small ship. Sadly, the Outlander is a single-phase, and the most it can take is 16A at 240V. Unlike the supplied level 1 charger which can pull 10A from an outlet (2.4kw) and takes 9 hours from empty, the WattPilot does report delivering 16A to the car and takes around 6 hours to fully charge.

However there are two REALLY useful features of the WattPilot:
1. it's set up to only use available solar - it talks to the inverter and feeds the car with whatever is left when there's adequate sun and the house isn't consuming all the capacity. That is just brilliant. When the sun is blocked by transient cloud, the car stops charging, and automagically picks up again when there's energy available. So our car really IS mostly solar operated. With that strategy, the car never pulls (way more expensive) electricity from the grid unless we tell it to do that (simple setting in the app).

2. the WattPilot is quite small and can be taken off the wall in a few seconds. Via an adaptor it could run on pretty much any other source of power, so when the place you're staying only has 32A single phase, it would use that.

Cost about AUD$2400 to supply and install, and we'll never recover that back just from solar, but it's worth the money just for being extremely cute.

 

[cirdan]

Hi Colleagues

Anybody has a level 2 charger at home? Are you happy with it? What is the brand/model?

Or maybe you considered getting one, then decided not to. If so, why?

I am thinking to get one, but it's weird that my manual says 15A max, while all the Level 2 chargers I find says it's 16A.

Thanks a million for your input.

MIDA Adjustable Portable EV Charger | 8A 10A 15A | Type 2 AU Plug​

https://ultipower.com.au/collection...rtable-ev-charger-8a-10a-15a-type-2-au-plug-1
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1507-mida-a-surprisingly-good-quality-cheap-evse/
6hrs and 50 mins to charge from "empty". That's using the 10 mtr, 15 amp rated cable and the MIDA type 2 portable EVSE(electric vehicle supply equiptment) The first hour or two it charged around 14.8 amps and the 10 mtr. cable did get warm. I set the charging delay to commence around midnight. Not bad for $252.50 AUD
With my type 2 portable EVSE I use a 10 mtre. caravan "extra heavy duty" cable. Only plugs into a 15 amp outlet of course.
We have solar panels at the highest tarrif so the cost is minimal.

 

[IllustratedRat]

Our local Public Utility District (PUD) offered their customers Enel JuiceBox level-2 chargers at a steep discount (about $300US off the regular price), plus, if you got them, they'd put you on a special rate-plan that did not penalize you for the extra drain. All this was part of a state-wide effort to get people into EVs about four years ago.

We didn't even have a PHEV yet, but we knew we'd eventually go that direction; plus, we were in the process of adding a garage to our house, so we got two of them (the 2JBO model).

They are rated at max. 40A, 230VAC single-phase, socketed. We had the electrician who worked on our garage put in the circuits and install the boxen.

I love them. Our 2021 Outie GT will charge from flat to 100% in about 2.5 hours. Maximum rate is appx. 3.5kW.

Eventually I will replace my 2005 Ford Excursion with a short-bed-sized EV pickup or full-size SUV; then I can use the second one. For now, it's dormant.

 

[BobK]

BobK:

My 2014 Owner's Manual says "230V/16A - about 3.5hours" for the Type 1 input.

If your charging takes 6.5 hours, then it sounds like you're charger is only on a 120V supply.

"The electrician had to modify the maximum charging rate from 50 to 35 amps because that is all that was left of the capacity of my home power."

Sounds like a sensible thing if you every use that charger wired to 240V on a 32A EV, the PHEV can only ever draw 16A max.

I have a 2023 with a larger battery. It takes me 10-12 hours to charge it on 120V.
I installed the charger before I decided on the vehicle, so I wasn't sure what the maximum charging rate would be at the time. I'm glad I used the electrician to calculate what my home could deliver because he took into account the time of day loading on different appliances etc. I live in a somewhat rural area and increasing the power supply to my home would be very expensive, so I'm happy I was able to squeak through.

 

[themaiz]

I have a 2023 with a larger battery. It takes me 10-12 hours to charge it on 120V.

Wet-finger-in-air-calculations: my 2023 with 20kW battery was taking 9.5 hours to charge from empty on the Level 1 charger, with initial (measured) 2400W (10A) draw. That probably drops a bit as the charge nears completion because, if it were straight-line linear until full, 2400W into a 20kW battery would do the job in 8.3 hours.

Comparing to your 10-12 hours suggests that your charger is only able to pull 1800-2000W from the outlet. Not sure why that would be the case. The outlet can't control power draw, but at 120V you're pulling close to 20A and maybe that's as much as the supply side wants to give you (eg: transformer limitation or resistive losses if you're more rural than "somewhat").

At least you're not popping a fuse or breaker, which would be very annoying.

 

[mikepotts64]

Last year when our new 2023 Outlander was on the water from Japan I had many discussions about chargers with the dealer. Their lack of advice went beyond clueless - there was no product that they could or would sell, despite having a massive Kia charger on display. I did a lot of negotiating with one supplier who refused to sell me or consider implementation of a V2H solution, even though I'm highly technical and desperately want to be able to run the house overnight on the car's battery (would use roughly half). So...

Eventually we decided to use a Fronius WattPilot, which tightly integrates with our Fronius solar inverter. The WattPilot is a three-phase device, so capable of delivering 32A/phase (at 240V each) which is enough to fast-charge a small ship. Sadly, the Outlander is a single-phase, and the most it can take is 16A at 240V. Unlike the supplied level 1 charger which can pull 10A from an outlet (2.4kw) and takes 9 hours from empty, the WattPilot does report delivering 16A to the car and takes around 6 hours to fully charge.

However there are two REALLY useful features of the WattPilot:
1. it's set up to only use available solar - it talks to the inverter and feeds the car with whatever is left when there's adequate sun and the house isn't consuming all the capacity. That is just brilliant. When the sun is blocked by transient cloud, the car stops charging, and automagically picks up again when there's energy available. So our car really IS mostly solar operated. With that strategy, the car never pulls (way more expensive) electricity from the grid unless we tell it to do that (simple setting in the app).

2. the WattPilot is quite small and can be taken off the wall in a few seconds. Via an adaptor it could run on pretty much any other source of power, so when the place you're staying only has 32A single phase, it would use that.

Cost about AUD$2400 to supply and install, and we'll never recover that back just from solar, but it's worth the money just for being extremely cute.

I concur with TheMaiz on the Mitsubishi support on this topic. Advertising a bi-directional capable vehicle but no clue as to the real world on the topic (bi-directional charging is only available in South Australia. Other states are yet to certify the standards for their grid). Very disappointing that the V2H/G certification approval process is taking years.

Back on topic;
I run an EVSE 6, 10, 15 amp variable charger. Charge times are 6, 4.5, 3 hours respectively.

I use the 15 amp (3.5 kW) rate at home or other 15amp accessible supplies in my travels. Using an RCD protected 10-15amp plug adapter I use the 10 amp at standard outlets. The 6 amp charge rate I use when I want to slow the charge on a low solar production day (10kWh PV with 13.5kW Tesla PW2 battery).

 

[BobK]

Wet-finger-in-air-calculations: my 2023 with 20kW battery was taking 9.5 hours to charge from empty on the Level 1 charger, with initial (measured) 2400W (10A) draw. That probably drops a bit as the charge nears completion because, if it were straight-line linear until full, 2400W into a 20kW battery would do the job in 8.3 hours.

Comparing to your 10-12 hours suggests that your charger is only able to pull 1800-2000W from the outlet. Not sure why that would be the case. The outlet can't control power draw, but at 120V you're pulling close to 20A and maybe that's as much as the supply side wants to give you (eg: transformer limitation or resistive losses if you're more rural than "somewhat").

At least you're not popping a fuse or breaker, which would be very annoying.

it could be temperature related as well. It is hovering around freezing these days.

 

[Panther]

Remember a 240v supply country will always charge quicker than a 120v supply
Power = Volts X Amps

William
2023 phev owner living in Canada

 

[BobK]

it could be temperature related as well. It is hovering around freezing these days.

And using a long extension cord, which would drop the voltage. I only use level 1 when I am away somewhere and generally have to run it quite a distance to find a recepticle.

 

[evman77]

Hi Colleagues

Anybody has a level 2 charger at home? Are you happy with it? What is the brand/model?

Or maybe you considered getting one, then decided not to. If so, why?

I am thinking to get one, but it's weird that my manual says 15A max, while all the Level 2 chargers I find says it's 16A.

Thanks a million for your input.

I bought a level 2 from Amazon for just over $200 cdn. I already had a 220 v plug in the garage for my wife's kiln so was able to plug into it. I have a 2019 so not a big battery. I still get 35-40 KM for a full charge in about 3.5 hours. For me it was worth it because I didn't have to pay to install a 220V plug.