Kieran973
Well-known member
I recently moved from a multi-unit apartment to a single-family home. I'm wondering if folks on the forum can give me some advice on re-installing my EVSE that I've owned for two years. Here's the situation:
Two years ago, I paid an electrician to install a Clipper Creek LCS-15, which is a hardwired, 15 amp, 240 volt EVSE, at my old apartment. The reason I went with such a low amp option at the time was because there was only one 15 amp breaker free on the electric panel. A month ago, when I moved out of this apartment, I paid the same electrician to come back and uninstall it and it's currently sitting in a closet at my house - I've just been L1 charging on an exterior outlet since we moved in.
So now, I would like to reinstall this same EVSE at my house - it's going to go on an exterior wall of our detached garage. I've already put way too much money into this EVSE, so I would like to keep costs down if I can. The unit was $400 when I bought it new, the installation in 2018 was $800 (it was a complicated job which involved running a pipe from my 3rd floor apartment down the exterior of the building to the driveway), and when the electrician took it out last month, they charged me another $200. So I'm trying to avoid doing an expensive new installation. It seems like the simplest and least expensive option would be to install it as close as possible to the sub-panel in the garage. I have a quote from a different electrician to install it on the exterior wall of the garage very close to the sub-panel for $355. This seems reasonable to me. But I have two questions:
1.) Even though this unit only needs 15 amps, I have 60 amps of free space on the sub-panel in the garage. The electrician will need to run new 240 volt wire anyway from the sub-panel to the unit on the outside of the garage. So should I ask him to run a 40 amp or 50 amp 240 volt wire instead of a 15 amp wire, that way, when I eventually replace this EVSE, the space where the new unit goes will be pre-wired for a higher amperage?
2.) The Clipper Creek is only warrantied for 3 years. How long do EVSE's typically last? When should I expect that I will need to replace mine? Though it's slow for a L2 charger, my current unit is fine for my needs, so I'd like to get as much mileage out of it as I can. But is there a certain average time after which I should expect it to be unreliable and/or unsafe to continue using? A decade? More?
Thanks.
Two years ago, I paid an electrician to install a Clipper Creek LCS-15, which is a hardwired, 15 amp, 240 volt EVSE, at my old apartment. The reason I went with such a low amp option at the time was because there was only one 15 amp breaker free on the electric panel. A month ago, when I moved out of this apartment, I paid the same electrician to come back and uninstall it and it's currently sitting in a closet at my house - I've just been L1 charging on an exterior outlet since we moved in.
So now, I would like to reinstall this same EVSE at my house - it's going to go on an exterior wall of our detached garage. I've already put way too much money into this EVSE, so I would like to keep costs down if I can. The unit was $400 when I bought it new, the installation in 2018 was $800 (it was a complicated job which involved running a pipe from my 3rd floor apartment down the exterior of the building to the driveway), and when the electrician took it out last month, they charged me another $200. So I'm trying to avoid doing an expensive new installation. It seems like the simplest and least expensive option would be to install it as close as possible to the sub-panel in the garage. I have a quote from a different electrician to install it on the exterior wall of the garage very close to the sub-panel for $355. This seems reasonable to me. But I have two questions:
1.) Even though this unit only needs 15 amps, I have 60 amps of free space on the sub-panel in the garage. The electrician will need to run new 240 volt wire anyway from the sub-panel to the unit on the outside of the garage. So should I ask him to run a 40 amp or 50 amp 240 volt wire instead of a 15 amp wire, that way, when I eventually replace this EVSE, the space where the new unit goes will be pre-wired for a higher amperage?
2.) The Clipper Creek is only warrantied for 3 years. How long do EVSE's typically last? When should I expect that I will need to replace mine? Though it's slow for a L2 charger, my current unit is fine for my needs, so I'd like to get as much mileage out of it as I can. But is there a certain average time after which I should expect it to be unreliable and/or unsafe to continue using? A decade? More?
Thanks.