Outside Charger - Ideas?

Hello fellow Leaf owners. I just ordered my 2014 Leaf S with charge package yesterday (6/29/14) and I am hoping it should be here either later on today (6/30) or tomorrow, as the incentives might change.

Well, I have thought about many things, except if I wanted to charge it at work, the 110V is too far away for a level 1. Now, I am seeing several Level 2 - 6.6kWh type out there available from the +$400, but to me they all seem like they are to be installed inside HOME garages, and not outside. Why do I say this, because they seem as if someone that may not have much to do, could cover over and rip it right out of the wall; of course, they are probably going to break it, damage it, or simply electrocute themselves, but I will have a +$400 bust EV charger which is not cover under warranty nor insurance. So, with that said, anyone have any idea on how I could install an external EV charger level 2 that will withstand that crazy person wanting to rip it off the wall outside my building? I am in a first floor, I have the ability and permission to drill a whole in the wall to bring cables out to the box, and I have a 40AMP breaker waiting. I have looked/searched just about every where I can think off, and I am yet to see any kind of installation that is outside on a wall. Of course, I could purchase a $16,500 level 2 and stick it outside, but wasn't the whole point of going EV to save money and gas? So, I am open to suggestions. Unless I am over thinking this and they are not as easy to rip off as I think.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward on future posts!

Wow.

I have had mine mounted outside for 3 years and no one has bothered it.
I guess it could happen though.
I know people have mounted the actual unit inside, and run the J1772 outside in a variety of ways, but usually because of the weather.

Disguise it as something else?
But if it's plugged in, people are going to see what it is.

I have a friend whose wife HATED the thing on the outside of his house, so got one with a 20' cable, then he mounted the EVSE inside the house, drilled a 1" hole low through the outside wall, disconnected the J1772 Cable from the unit, slid a large bore garden hose over it, ran it through the wall, and reconnected it.

He bought a hose caddy at home depot, wraps the hose/cable over that with the plug hanging down, and it's been working for him for a year.
Nobody looks twice.

Lots of people mount them in the garage, but run the cable under the garage door to charge outside.

You know your area better than I do.
I guess you have to use your judgement.

You could go on plugshare.com, and see if there are people around you with EVSE, and you could contact them and see if they have had any problems.

Good Lucj

^ So it looks like a garden hose with a big/funky spray nozzle on it? That's an AWESOME idea! :lol:

mwalsh said:

^ So it looks like a garden hose with a big/funky spray nozzle on it? That's an AWESOME idea! :lol:

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He even sponge painted the J1772 a sort of mottled old greenish brass color.
You would never notice the thing.
:lol:

P.S. His wife is SooOOooo hot.

I mounted it inside the garage and made a box that I mounted outside (on the wood that forms the frame for the garage door). J1772 connector hangs inside the box. No problems.

You can buy a blank J1772 "socket" as a holder for about $20-$25 that you would mount on the wall and your charge cable plugs into it.

If you wanted to go further you could build the box and put a lock on it to keep people from accessing the connector.

KillaWhat said:

Disguise it as something else?
But if it's plugged in, people are going to see what it is.

Lots of people mount them in the garage, but run the cable under the garage door to charge outside.

You know your area better than I do.
I guess you have to use your judgement.

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This is a business location, over 200 parking spaces, and I am on the first floor, as I rented the whole side of the building for my print shop. Where I park my car is where the smokers go and dump all their cigarette butts. There are several offices in my building which are for helping families in trouble and homeless coalition, so not all the people that walk into my building are that clean. We find people going through the dumpsters just about 2-3 times a week, but they are not looking for food, but for computer parts as the other side of the building is a computer/network repair office, so they dump all their damaged goods there, and some homeless will use that for recycling.

I am just being over-cautious since the charger wont be covered under warranty nor insurance, and I would hate for someone to steal those things from me, and the whole deal for me to get this Leaf is to park my 2009 Armada that drinks gas at a rate of 11-12mpg, so I am doing this for savings, since I will be automatically saving $60-90 a month in gas just by simply parking my Armada and driving the Leaf; so imagine if I have to re-invest on the charger, all of a sudden my savings are gone and in the 3yr lease I wouldn't had saved anything, yet had the hassle of dealing with having to charge the Leaf every day since I'll be putting about 40-45 miles a day, Monday-Friday.

At home, the charger will be inside the garage, but I'll be using the Level 1, at work, where my electricity is included with my lease, I wanted to install a Level 2 for daily charging once I got to work.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Sometimes it isn't obvious which team to root for... I suggest you buy a $400 Clipper Creek unit and put a "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE!!!" sign on it.

LeftieBiker said:

Sometimes it isn't obvious which team to root for... I suggest you buy a $400 Clipper Creek unit and put a "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE!!!" sign on it.

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Or "Infectious Waste Clean-out"

Alex32817 said:

This is a business location, over 200 parking spaces, and I am on the first floor, as I rented the whole side of the building for my print shop. ... I am just being over-cautious since the charger wont be covered under warranty nor insurance, ...

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You don't have insurance for damage and theft at your print shop? Anyway, you can always mount it in a lockable box so that it's not exposed when your car's not plugged in. If it safe enough for your car to be out there, it ought to be safe enough for the EVSE.

davewill said:

Alex32817 said:

This is a business location, over 200 parking spaces, and I am on the first floor, as I rented the whole side of the building for my print shop. ... I am just being over-cautious since the charger wont be covered under warranty nor insurance, ...

Click to expand...

You don't have insurance for damage and theft at your print shop? Anyway, you can always mount it in a lockable box so that it's not exposed when your car's not plugged in. If it safe enough for your car to be out there, it ought to be safe enough for the EVSE.

Click to expand...

Of course I have insurance for theft and so on at my print shop, INSIDE the print shop. This is a 3-story building with only 2 suites at the bottom floor as we both rented each wing, but above me there are probably 25-30 suites. This would be outside the building. I have heard of people stealing A/C units, wires, etc., for their copper. I am simply trying to prevent from someone cutting my wire or stealing my charger. I know that even though it is live power, I, personally, could simply remove the 4 screws out of a junction box, remove the cap which attaches the cables, cap them again so I don't get electrocuted, remove the 2 screws that hold the charger against the wall and simply walk away with it. I just saw couple of YouTube videos of external installations and I am amazed how people are just simply mounting them and trusting that no one will come and mess with their +$600 chargers. Don't get me wrong, Orlando Florida is not the capital of crime, but some people are desperate out there, and it was sad when my wife came home one afternoon telling me how they had no A/C at their place of work because someone had stolen the CABLES that plug in the units. And this is for the local county school, public school. So yes, there are crazy people out there. I am just trying to make my next 3 years of my Leaf lease to be what I wanted, which is save on gas as my Armada drinks gas for a living at 11-12mpg and I drive 35-40 miles a day, plus the weekends when I am pulling our boat, and that is coming up to a whooping $320-340 a month, except May that we spent $570 in gas due to driving much farther with the boat, plus running 140 mile trek on the boat as well. So, I am just trying to save money, and hear some ideas on what people have done, if anything.

A service person from one of the charger companies that was mentioned above emailed me back saying that they have sold over 20,000 of their units, and have heard of about 10 units being stolen. But that the most they would hear is people cutting their cables to see it as copper. He suggested a box that was in the $800 range, for a $590 charger. So I am trying to weigh in my options; if any at all.

Thanks!