powagoat
Active member
I'm going to have a dedicated circuit run for charging and I'm trying to decide if I should go in-for-a-penny, in-for-a-pound. The circuit run should be easy - my garage is on basement level so it's just a matter of having an electrician wire into the breaker box (I have a spare 30 amp breaker for an electric range that I replaced with a gas range so I'm not using that circuit) and then just running the cable along the rafters over to the garage and putting an outlet there.
For my needs L1 charging will be completely sufficient. If I ever NEED to drive farther than I can charge up for I can just drive a different car that day. It'd be great to avoid that and to also have more efficient charging. Plus I'd love to keep my L1 charger in the car permanently, so I'm considering getting a L2.
The Siemens Versicharge looks good and has gotten positive reviews from everyone, and it's not too expensive. I have 2 questions:
1) There's an "Indoor Only" model and an outdoor rated model and I can't figure out if that's just referring to the box or also saying that the car needs to be indoors while charging. If it's the box then great - it'll be mounted in my garage. I'd like to charge the car while it's in the driveway, though.
2) This may be a question for the electrician more than anything, but I have 100 amp service to my house and with the AC, dryer, and car charging all at once I'll probably be pulling a fair amount of amps (Something like 60-70?). Of course with an L2 charger it'd be easier for me to simply not charge the car while the dryer's going because I won't need to charge it for as long. I only have a 3.3kw charger on my Leaf so for now I think I should be just fine, but theoretically in the future it could be an issue. For my use I guess as long as I keep in mind that I just need to upgrade the service when I get my next EV (hopefully 10+ years from now) it won't be an issue.
Comments?
For my needs L1 charging will be completely sufficient. If I ever NEED to drive farther than I can charge up for I can just drive a different car that day. It'd be great to avoid that and to also have more efficient charging. Plus I'd love to keep my L1 charger in the car permanently, so I'm considering getting a L2.
The Siemens Versicharge looks good and has gotten positive reviews from everyone, and it's not too expensive. I have 2 questions:
1) There's an "Indoor Only" model and an outdoor rated model and I can't figure out if that's just referring to the box or also saying that the car needs to be indoors while charging. If it's the box then great - it'll be mounted in my garage. I'd like to charge the car while it's in the driveway, though.
2) This may be a question for the electrician more than anything, but I have 100 amp service to my house and with the AC, dryer, and car charging all at once I'll probably be pulling a fair amount of amps (Something like 60-70?). Of course with an L2 charger it'd be easier for me to simply not charge the car while the dryer's going because I won't need to charge it for as long. I only have a 3.3kw charger on my Leaf so for now I think I should be just fine, but theoretically in the future it could be an issue. For my use I guess as long as I keep in mind that I just need to upgrade the service when I get my next EV (hopefully 10+ years from now) it won't be an issue.
Comments?