My DIY L6-30R 240v 30 AMP home install

[Andrei]

If you knew you were doing everything half-assed and had no intention of making it right, why did you bother to ask for input?

P.S. I hope you're not expecting to plug a 30a EVSE into that circuit on top of all the other mistakes.

It would be very daunting to find out that the chance of failure between what I did and what an electrician would have done is probably less than 1% in reality. With the exception of the stranded wire which doesn't seem to cause a problem, there are no other reasons why it should fail.

And the reality is that I saved hundreds and most of you spent thousands. The point of buying the car is that it doesn't cost anything to run, including setup and charging.

Questions?

Why would you do it is so incorrectly :shock:
Even if it is "temporary" and you are renting, the code violation errors put you and others lives in danger.
If anything bad happens and you have managed to survive, the owner and the fire department will sue you and win.
And you have now published on the Internet forever how you have done this wrong and refuse to correct anything about it.
You really need several different kinds of help.

I wouldn't be so melodramatic because I already said that it works fine. And I don't need an electrician who can match colors to code for $100 or $1000. I wouldn't have done this unless I did it before and had it working.

 

[GlennD]

The amazing thing is that the topic maker was proud of his work and included photos of the work!

You can use a color other than green for ground but it must be taped green. In no case can the wire be run through the panel without a strain relief.

 

[wwhitney]

You can use a color other than green for ground but it must be taped green.

That is only true for conductors larger than #6 AWG (2011 NEC 250.119(A)). For #6 and smaller, you have to use bare or green.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[cwerdna]

FWIW, there is a comment from http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15764#p15764" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; on the OP's work.

 

[davewill]

It would be very daunting to find out that the chance of failure between what I did and what an electrician would have done is probably less than 1% in reality. With the exception of the stranded wire which doesn't seem to cause a problem, there are no other reasons why it should fail.

And the reality is that I saved hundreds and most of you spent thousands. The point of buying the car is that it doesn't cost anything to run, including setup and charging.

You have a funny idea of the costs. I spent $700 on my installation, and that was from the builder of the house who doubled the price of EVERYTHING (they did do a very pretty in wall installation with perfect drywall repairs, though). If I had hired my own electrician, and let him mount conduit on the garage wall, I'd have probably spent no more than $200-300. I hung the EVSE on the wall myself. But that isn't even the point.

There's nothing wrong with DIY, and you could easily have followed proper practices on your install just by spending a few bucks on proper wire and other small parts, and doing a modicum of research. It would have been no more effort. You are obviously proud of your funky install and I just hope you never have to regret it.

 

[fooljoe]

And the reality is that I saved hundreds and most of you spent thousands. The point of buying the car is that it doesn't cost anything to run, including setup and charging.

There's nothing wrong with DIY to save some bucks, but what everyone here is trying to tell you is you can do it right for the same or even less than you spent! Someone else pointed out that 10/2 romex is actually cheaper than the stuff you used! Switching the green and white wires costs you nothing, and adding a wire clamp bushing to the panel exit might cost 50 cents. There's really no reason at all not to do it right.

 

[QueenBee]

If fire insurance investigators find your addition, with no permit or record
of inspection of the new wiring, the insurance might not pay.

Gary, please don't keep spreading this myth. Sure it's a nice line to use when you are trying to scare someone who is doing something which is really unsafe and is outside their abilities but it just isn't true.

If Wayne's excellent posts didn't persuade the OP I doubt this myth is going to either.

 

[QueenBee]

I can't help but think we are all just being trolled. I don't think anyone would actually do work like this, it's just a elaborate prank to give us a chuckle.

 

[kubel]

Hmm... Lots of gasoline and a match might do the job a little quicker and more efficiently. But if you're going for a some-time-in-the-not-too-distant-future-silent-and-completely-unexpected-burn-you-your-wife-and-your-kids-alive-in-their-sleep approach, this should work out nicely.

On the other hand, if you live alone and own the house and there's sufficient buffer between you and your neighbors property, I don't care if you wire that outlet with 500 wire ties wrapped in gasoline soaked cotton balls. You are aware of the risks, you aren't hurting anyone else, it's your property. You own yourself and you own the fruit of your labor. Freedom is an awesome thing.

 

[Andrei]

The stranded wire can actually hold more heat and amps than solid wire. Just checked with a seasoned electrician at work. I agreed to move green to ground and white to hot, even if it's temp until I move.

I might get a conduit and bushing in this weekend since I'm taking the install with me when I move.

That should stop all the whining and bickering.

 

[QueenBee]

The stranded wire can actually hold more heat and amps than solid wire. Just checked with a seasoned electrician at work. I agreed to move green to ground and white to hot, even if it's temp until I move.

I might get a conduit and bushing in this weekend since I'm taking the install with me when I move.

That should stop all the whining and bickering.

Nope, still shouldn't be done by someone who has no skill and doesn't care about learning how to do things properly.

Can't wait to see how you install this bushing and conduit, please take more pictures!

 

[johnrhansen]

Tough crowd. But they are right. I still applaud you for trying and being proud of your work. Most problems in this world come from those folks who are not. No need to repeat anything said previously. One addition though. I was building a combiner box when I needed to put that finely stranded wire on a screw type terminal. When you tighten the screw, most of the strands spread way out and the screw only makes contact with half of them, most of which are crushed or pulled to the near breaking point by the rotation of the screw as you tighten it. Not a connection that will last. Trouble is on the breaker, its hidden by the plastic case and you cant see that. If you want to see the hard life of a wire on a breaker connection, put the proper solid wire in there, tighten the screw, then loosen it again, pull the wire out and look at the huge dent the screw put in that thick 10 gauge wire. Imagine what its doing to those angel hair strands of the so cord you put in there. The only type of connection that will work with that fineky stranded cord is one that has a metal plate that the screw bears down on instead of the wire, like the system used in the connectors listed for that purpose. What I did in my situation was crimp a copper splice cap over the stranded wires, then put the whole thing under the screw and let the screw bear down on that copper splice instead of the wires. I had no choice. It was a portable thing I was building to use just once or twice, and the wires couldn't be solid because it cord that was going to be flexed. I would never have done that inside a breaker panel though, especially if all I needed to do was to buy 6 feet of 10/2 and cut a bit of the wall out to put a proper fitting on the breaker panel. You dont even need to patch it. Just glue a stic on fiberglass repair patch there.

I've been on this forum awhile. These guys know what they are doing. It would be a good idea to listen to them.

Good luck and thanks for sharing.

 

[QueenBee]

especially if all I needed to do was to buy 6 feet of 10/2 and cut a bit of the wall out to put a proper fitting on the breaker panel. You dont even need to patch it. Just glue a stic on fiberglass repair patch there.

I was recently cleaning up a mess from previous "real" electricians where they just used a big knock out and then drilled into the crawl space from above and had the wires going through the big knockout leaving a giant hole in the bottom of the panel. To clean it up I just installed the metal clamps upside down so the nut was in the wall and the screws were in the panel using properly sized knockouts and then put a knockout cover over the big one they had used. That way no drywall repairs were needed. No idea if that would past muster of a pro but didn't seem like a horrible idea to me.

 

[Nubo]

Probably not worth mentioning the exposed bus bar in the panel.

 

[Nubo]

Your circuit breaker is most likely not listed to accept the fine stranding of the SJO cable, and therefore the termination can get hot as a result of the improper termination.

That is a proper concern to have, but I used the same specs with a TIG welder on 20 amps without heat issues.

Not sure that's valid to extrapolate from, unless you welded non-stop for 4 hours a couple hundred times a year?

 

[johnrhansen]

Probably not worth mentioning the exposed bus bar in the panel.

that's normal. It gets covered up by the knockouts in the box cover

 

[QueenBee]

Probably not worth mentioning the exposed bus bar in the panel.

that's normal. It gets covered up by the knockouts in the box cover

I think he was referring to where you can see the actual bus bar itself and not just the connection points. WHere it looks like the plastic over for that part is bent up exposing the bar itself.

 

[johnrhansen]

oh yeah, I see that now. might make it hard to put a breaker there.

 

[Andrei]

I finished it up today. I guided the conduit by putting 2 double coat hangers through it. I did not find any broken strands of wire when I removed them from the breaker or ground and I torqued them down tight. The only problem with this whole install was the drywall which is really soft and old. And I also don't like the Murray box.

 

[johnrhansen]

Once you leave the safe harbor of doing the work according to the code, you need to monitor your installation more frequently. I suggest that you check things every charge for awhile, then less frequently as you find no problems. But keep inspecting it regularly, and remove it when you move out.

I work in aviation. There's lots of codes, processes and procedures, and I follow them all. There's a saying amongst pilots that the rules were written in blood, meaning they all were a reaction to an accident of some kind. The same goes for the processes we mainenance technicians need to follow, and for electricians too!. Yes some of the processes seem
like an over reaction to me, but the idea is that if everyone followes the process, flying becomes quite safe, and indeed it has. The same thing can be said in following the electrical codes. Many hours of thought and testing went into that thick book, and going against it cannot be taken lightly. Thanks for sharing.