First African leafer ask specific questions

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EVDRIVER said:
Your breaker needs to be 25A and have only one breaker unless rated the same.

Wire should be rated for 25A

If your unit is flashing 15 times it may be set for 16A continuous breakers and you could adjust it up assuming it has Euro firmware which is different than US firmware not just for amp setting but ground detection.
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Hi,

I have this 25 A breaker installed already. Is the adjustment to 25 A + important for the charging time?

thanks.
 
I have over 35 years in the electrical trade in the USA . But no experience over seas .

My 2012 Leaf has 3.3 kw charger . ( The charger is built into the car . )

An EVSE is not actually a charger . It us an input cord and an output cord with a " box " in between " .

The box contains some electronics that communicate with the electronics in the car . It also contains a device that turns off or on , stopping or starting the flow of electricity going to the car . In larger Level 2 units , it is a contactor .

My Leaf came with a 120 VAC Level 1 " trickle charger " .

Our older house , built in the 1950's , all the original 120 VAC receptacles are 2 prong wired with 2 wire Romex cable . No earth ground .

My factory EVSE would not work on a receptacle without an earth ground .

I had intended to install a Level 2 240 VAC single phase EVSE . I ran 40 amp Romex cable to a 40 amp 2 pole circuit breaker and installed a NEMA 6-50 R receptacle ( straight blade 50 amp ) . ( Your NEMA 6-30 R receptacle is 30 amp 240 VAC with the 3rd blade being earth ground . )

My EVSE is a GE WattStation & I paid $ 399 + about $ 36 freight , USD . This is over kill for my Leaf with 3.3 kw charger . But should be fine if I trade it in , in the future , for an EV with a " larger " charger . Also , it was about the same price as lower amperage units .

3300 watts / 240 VAC = 13.75 amps

Multiply by 1.25% since this application would fall into the category of continuous duty . 13.75 amps x 1.25% = 17.1875 amps . Since the charger is not 100% efficient , throw in another amp or two & it should be OK on 20 amp wire ( # 12 copper wire , American Wire Gauge ) .

You said your Leaf has the 6.6 kw charger . My EVSE would be OK for your 6.6 kw Leaf . Yours would be OK for my 40 amp wire and 40 amp 2 pole circuit breaker . Should I , one day , buy a newer Leaf .

Now , back to your situation . The EVSE electronics and / or software can communicate with the Leaf , to set it to pull less than the maximum 240 VAC load / current . If you have 25 amp wire and circuit breaker , I suspect your EVSE is set for 20 amps 240 VAC , max .

My Level 2 EVSE has internal jumpers that can be changed to tell the unit to use less than the 32 amp 240 VAC max .

I hope you have all the details worked out & it all works OK , on first try . Please keep us updated .

God bless
Wyr
 
Your charging time depends on the " capacity " of the charger inside the car ( 6.6 kw , in your case ) and the amperage your EVSE can supply .

My leaf typically charges in 2-1/2 - 3 hours on Level 2 , but we normally go not run the battery too low . Ours has the 24 kwh battery .

I am guessing yours should not take any longer than that . Does your Leaf have the larger battery ? 30 kwh or something close to that ?

Our Leaf , as soon as we plug it in & start charging , a message comes up on the instrument panel stating the time remaining to 100% charge . I suspect you will see a similar message .

God bless
Wyr
 
Your charging time depends on the " capacity " of the charger inside the car
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The word you are looking for is either "output" or "rating" (or "rated output"). Capacity refers to the storage ability of the battery pack, so using it for charger output would be confusing.

My house had a couple of circuits without grounds, and it's a real PITA to replace old cloth or Romex-covered cables that have been stapled to joists! Sometimes you get lucky and they used armored cable, which grounds the boxes when properly connected.
 
Often easier to just fish new 3 wire Romex to the old receptacles and abandon in place the old Romex . Then install new grounded receptacles .

Run a new 3 wire Romex home run to the loadcenter .

God bless
Wyr
 
Thanks you guys for all wonderful comments. I give an update.

I finally got the car out of customs. Runs 1 kilometer and it stops, the battery being completly dried! So I put the car on a trailer to my house far from 5 kilometers.

Arrived home, I plugged it and it charged automatically! Was so :D First information, from completely dried to 75%, it took 6 hours 30 minutes. IT think it is not bad with a 220 V not 240 V.

Secondly, I noticed no overtension in my house and the EVSE does not present any abnormal heat on it. So I can expect that things are ok for my leaf.

I put some 2 pictures from you guys! :cool:





[IMG=http://www.image-share.com/upload/3298/230m.jpg]
 
Congratulations pape. :D

Are you in the maritime region in an urban area?

Curious about your miles driven daily and annually.

Also curious how your cost driving an EV will compare to ICE vehicle you were driving before in Togo.
 
TimLee said:
Congratulations pape. :D

Are you in the maritime region in an urban area?

Curious about your miles driven daily and annually.

Also curious how your cost driving an EV will compare to ICE vehicle you were driving before in Togo.
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Thanks TimeLee.

Yes it is. I leave 200 meters far from the sea but as I said, I imported this leaf from US. It may justify the mileage you see!

for cost comparison, I used a BMW 530 Diesel V6 consuming around 50 USD a week on fuel usually. With the leaf, for the past two weeks, I charged one time! My daily distance is about 10 kilometers/day. The full charge is sufficient for the full week!

Pape ;)
 

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