Are we crazy? No EVSE, nor even...

[johnrhansen]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

 

[MikeinDenver]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

For most people it shouldn't be. I myself just ran the wire and put in the breaker. Electrician wanted over $400, I did it for less than $75 in parts. The biggest cost is the wire depending on how many feet you need.

 

[maini]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

There are really cool you tube videos which show you how to put a breaker in.. where the phases are and how to wire 2 live phases, Neutral and Ground etc. Very cool. luckily my Breaker box is in the garage so I just wired it right there.. made a new hole at the bottom and fed the wires out and surface mounted my 240V socket. I think that whole project costed me under $50 including surface mount Gang Box, a L14-30 socket, safety cover for it, Wire just 3 feet and Quad 30AMP breakers.
As for EVSE... I did this which is under $25 in cost to get a 12A L2 charger from the existing EVSE
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=16948" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So complete solution under $75.

 

[davewill]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

Usually it is, but sometimes people have either a long wiring run, or a substandard service or panel that needs to be upgraded...and, of course, you have to get a permit and have it inspected. That said, I think most EV owners should simply plan on doing it right and not try to cheap their way through.

 

[johnrhansen]

Even at the most expensive price, your fuel savings for 1 year will pay for the evse install.

 

[kieranmullen]

Some states also offer incentives for hard wired units by an electrician.

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

 

[pkulak]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

It only takes me a few hours doing what I'm good at to pay an electrician to come over to my house and do what she's good at. If I had to do the electrical myself, if would probably take me all day and I'd be scared shitless the whole time. Not worth it.

 

[cwerdna]

I wonder what's the big deal about putting L2 charging in? Go down to your local home depot (or equivalent) buy a basic wiring book, study it, spend a little on an upgraded evse some wire a plug and a breaker and you are done. You don't need to pay an electrician thousands of dollars to do the job. It's a simple project.

Usually it is, but sometimes people have either a long wiring run, or a substandard service or panel that needs to be upgraded...and, of course, you have to get a permit and have it inspected. That said, I think most EV owners should simply plan on doing it right and not try to cheap their way through.

Yep on the bolded part for some people, like me.

Even at the most expensive price, your fuel savings for 1 year will pay for the evse install.

Yeah, right, not mine (see http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8264&sid=3040b5624c9daaa13d183126a11ace83#p8264" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false. $5K to install a free L2 EVSE (from now defunct http://evsolutions.avinc.com/products/cec/cec_program_overview" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false for a 2-year leased Leaf when my "range extender" is a Prius AND I get free L2 charging at work? My commute's only about 12 miles each way. And... at the time, it was uncertain how long I'd be living at this house.

No thanks.

 

[johnrhansen]

I've always figured trying to do something new was a new adventure, and when I was done, I'd have gained a new skill I could use next time. My comments were meant to be encouraging , not disparaging, sorry if it came out that way.

 

[MikeinDenver]

I've always figured trying to do something new was a new adventure, and when I was done, I'd have gained a new skill I could use next time. My comments were meant to be encouraging , not disparaging, sorry if it came out that way.

That was my reason behind doing it. Well that and saving hundreds of dollars. Now I know how to do something else and I wouldn't have a problem doing it again.

 

[garygid]

Although one can get by on 120v (12 amp) charging of the LEAF, a full
charge (very rare, since the car is rarely totally empty) takes about 20
hours. A 240v (16 amp) charge (the max rate for the 3.3 kW models),
only takes acout 8 hours, which is typically achievable overnight.

I had my stock EVSE modified by http://www.evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and it
now charges at 240v (or 120v) at 12 amps, and I plug it into
a double duplex wall socket in the laundry room, using a very
simple three-wire 2 x 120v to 240v adapter cable.
I have been using that for 3 years now.

With other adapters, I can plug in almost anywhere that there is
accessible electricity that I get permission to use.

 

[dgpcolorado]

That was my reason behind doing it. Well that and saving hundreds of dollars. Now I know how to do something else and I wouldn't have a problem doing it again.

Same with me. Installing the 240 V outlet (and my refurb utility meter to monitor power usage) was an interesting learning experience. It helped that my house electrical panel was in the garage, which made it very easy. And I've long had a basic electrical wiring book to refer to (one of the old Time-Life series of books; I bought the plumbing and electrical ones, very useful).

 

[RVD]

I can get by with L1 charging. I have a shared charger available at work so I rarely need to charge at home anyway (usually just on weekends).

It turned out that my garage had a 240v 20amp outlet already installed in there by the previous owner so I just did an EVSE upgrade on my charger and use that for 3kw charging at home. I debated even doing this because I didn't need it but figured what the heck...the outlet is already there and at the end of my lease I can probably trade + sell my upgraded charger to recoup most of the cost of the upgrade anyway.

But with a lease, we need to drive about 1000 miles/month to take advantage of the lease miles and I actually find it hard to drive that much when my daily commute is only 20 miles RT daily. We do drive the Leaf for most of our driving but even so, I've barely been able to get around 800 miles/month of usage. If I L1 charged at home, I would probably get even less miles (although 100+ miles/day is rare...I don't think I've ever done it).

In short, L1 is nice and adequate for many people if your daily commute is pretty short.

 

[LeftieBiker]

You can also take advantage of the mileage allowance by extending your lease by six months.