Passing Charge Cord from inside Garage to Outside

We decided to give the indoor garage space to our Mini Cooper convertible and leave the Leaf outside (hey it's a lease). I've been passing the charge cord for our 240v charger under to the door but am worried about it crimping the cord (I do have a small block of wood next to to cord to help prevent this). I want to create a pass through from the charge through the wall of the garage to the outside and the Leaf.

Anybody done this? Any smart DIY people out there? I've been thinking I could probably modify a dryer vent (I think the whole would be big enough) and the louvers would keep it closed when not in use. Any other ideas?

That is my exact scenario. The Leaf is leased, so it goes outside. It also serves to the advantage of my car since my garage does not cool off at night, so the battery would subject to more heat if it were stored inside.

In any event, the j1172 cable leaves the garage through an LB-fitting:


There's another LB fitting on the outside wall and the two are connected together by regular electrical conduit. You can barely see the outside LB fitting behind the water faucet in this pic:


The length of the cord means I can charge on either side of my driveway or from either space within the garage.

I cut a groove in the concrete slab so the EVSE cord does not get crimped.

You can see pics here: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?147882-Bought-a-New-Car!&p=1921410&viewfull=1#post1921410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I do this every night in summer time. Keep the Leaf outside the garage, very close to the garage door and have the chord go under the door. I am not concerned about getting the chord crimped or crushed. There is a rubber cushion at the bottom of the garage door which helps.

I will post pictures.

I cut a 12x2x4 so there was a gap just large enough for the cord, with the two pieces of lumber fitting into the door slide channels on either side of it. Worked fine. I couldn't lock the garage door like that, but cutting a hole in the channel for a padlock would have allowed locking as well.

On my garage door there is a safety feature that won't allow me to put a 2x4. As soon as it hits the 2x4 the garage opens up all the way.

I experimented with adjusting the door so the 1.5" of the side edge of the 2x4 would not force the door back up but it didn't look nice. The top panel of the door would sit at a slight angle and from down the street you could see it which didn't sit well with the WAF.

Also as soon as anybody would take the 2x4 out the door would close and then the safety feature would activate and the door would open all the way. Perfect for would be thieves. In my case the cut in the concrete was the best move. YMMV

This URL shows how I mounted the EVSE cord outside:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=15077" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hi,

While researching a similar set of questions for our L2 EVSE install in the garage, I saw a clever setup posted by tps that might address your needs:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=822&hilit=garage&start=370#p159479

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=822&hilit=garage&start=380#p176842

http://www.amazon.com/JR-Products-5...-20&/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326653951&sr=8-1


The discussion in that thread may also help answer some of your other questions as well - it helped me quite a bit!

These are all excellent ideas and examples. The right way to do it is probably with the junction box but I I liked the pass through in the last message. I wish I put this question up sooner and could have saved all that searching time.

One consideration you should have is making sure you use a drip loop so water does not follow the cord down and drip inside the wall.



I was looking for an elegant solution but settled with the LB fitting (which points down), and is as legitimate of an electrical pass-through as I could come up with.

FWIW:

I had jumped on the NRG deal for the Level 2 Charger. The deal is $29.99/month for 36 months. They furnish you a Level 2 installer (30 Amp, 240 Volt, 7.2KW Eaton, I believe) with 20 ft. cord. If, after 36 months, you want to keep the charger, you can make a one-time payment of $150.00, and the charger is yours. During the 36 month payment period, the charger is under service by NRG.

I asked the NRG rep that was assessing my garage for installation if we should knock through the garage wall to place the unit outside the garage. He said that would be about $150.00 extra. He felt that was not necessary, however, since we could just run the cable under the garage door, and simply close the garage door on it.

The NRG rep told me that he has a LEAF as well, and like me, parks the car in his driveway. I asked if there is any chance this could cause damage to the charger cable. The NRG rep felt it was hardly likely, since he's owned his LEAF for several years now, and has been using this configuration, and he noticed no problems with the charger cord.

I figure if the rep recommends doing this, and in fact does this himself with the company's equipment, I won't need to worry much about any possible questions if a service issue arises.

I added another extra protective feature to prevent any possibility at all of abrasion due to the repeated garage door contact with the cable. I took a swimming pool floatation noodle, and cut off a 36 inch length. Since the middle of a swimming pool noodle is hollow, and the hole is almost exactly the size of the charger cable, I simply slit the 36-inch piece long the length axis. This allows you to push the cable into the noodle. Since the fit is nearly exact, the noodle will remain on that part of the cable without any additional taping or fixing. I put the noodle on the part of the cable that normally goes underneath the garage door.

This works real well or me.

BTW, the NRG deal is listed on their website. I wouldn't have been able to save much by buying separate parts, and finding an electrician, paying permits, etc. The price of $29.99/month for 36 months includes the charger plus all fees, permits, installation, etc. I thought it was worthwhile, but that's for any of you to decide individually.

Keep in mind that garage doors vary in construction and weight. Mine is wood and would definitely crush an EVSE cable in pretty short order. Hopefully yours is aluminum.

I leave my car outside in the summer. I back my car into the garage in the winter, and nose into the door in the summer. The EVSE is on the post between the man door and the garage door in the front. I just open the door a crack and leave it that way, then pass the cord through. For your situation, I'm assuming that you want to do this in the winter as well, and that gap will not do. The door is locked wherever it stops, and you can adjust where it stops by the switches on the opener. Set your door switch so that it stops about an inch away from closed, then attach soft foam weather stripping to the underside of the door. it will flex a bit where it goes over the cord, but it should not crush it. You can test it with something of similar size and fragility before you do it with the cord.

you might need to put some on the top of the door too to seal the gap since its not completely closed.