I bought an Audi e-Tron which is an all electric suv. It has CCS charging so it can be charged with DC or AC. The DC fast charging supports 150 kWh charging. The model I bought has charging ports on both sides which I didn’t realize how handy that would be. I bought this car around 4 hours away and the dealer didn’t have it fully charged before I got there. I live in WV which doesn’t have much of a charging infrastructure. I stopped at a 24kWh ChargePoint on my way home for about 40 mins but I did make it back. The city I work for has around 30 free level 2 AC charging stations around town. (South Charleston WV). One of my friends tell me that the new Tesla charges have the j1772 adapters right at the stations. Anyone know this?
My e-Tron also came with a home charger that you can change the end out from standard 120v plug where it charges at 900w or change the end out to a 14-50 (240v) outlet where you can select 100% (9600w) or 50% (4800w). I finished wiring it up this evening using standing copper 6/3 with ground and it looks like I’m probably making someone happy at my power company. None the less… what wattage are people charging their EV’s with?
Nice new ride ! AFAIK, Tesla is adding CCS plugs / protocols to the Supercharger network. I haven’t seen the new Supercharger “hoses” yet, so I can’t say for sure, firsthand. We haven’t visited a Supercharger in quite some time, even though we have the free-for-life Supercharging on one of our Teslas, because home charging is just so convenient. We charge at 80A/240V/19kW on the Model S, and 48A/240V/12kW on the Model 3.
What is supplied with EV’s for AC home charging is technically an EVSE.
An EVSE is nothing more than an intelligent extension cord.
You can set/program it to allow the onboard charger in the EV to charge with a certain amount of amps from the grid/or EVSE equipment.
The J1772 standard allows (at 240 volt) 6-80 amps.
At 120 volt it is different. One of my previous EV’s (toyota rav4ev, made with tesla parts) was able to charge at 30 amps @ 120 volt.
I modulate my openevse through wifi depending of the amount of amps I would normally export to the grid to let my EV charge with the same amount. That way I am charging my EV on pure sunshine power and my utility company does not charge me for storing the energy in the grid (currently 2.5 cent/kWh).
My current chevy bolt has a 30 amp == 7200 watt charger built in.
My soon to come chevy bolt EUV has a 48 amp = 11,520 watt charger built in.
So your EVSE needs to be able to supply the maximum amount of amps that the internal charger can handle. If your EVSE is limited by eg the cable and/or J1772 connector it will not allow to draw more current than the EVSE is able to provide.
Eg: my current EVSE has a cable that is limited to only 40 amps so 9600 watt.
I am building one that has an 80 amp rated cable/connector that will be able to charge my EUV with 48 amps in the future.
In your case:
14-50 outlet on a 50 amp breaker.
NEC for longer periods allows only 80% to be used = 40 amps
40 amps x 240 volt = 9600 watt of AC capable charging power from the wall.
I used 6/3 -4 conductor wire. The charger I have was included with the car. All the electric Audis come with the same 9600w/ 40amp @ 240 / 208v. The v.1 of the charger has the 3 wire version (6-50r) and the v.2 newer ones have the 4 wire 14-50. I have a friend who is an electrical engineer for AEP (our power company) who I asked him if he had any 50amp square D QO breakers since everywhere here are out of them … I tell him what I’m doing and he brings be a 40amp QO I tell him, this thing will actually pull 40A for hours and my understanding is that the breaker is rated at 80% for 3 hours and I though 3-1/2 hours at 80% it would flip the breaker or 85% for 3 hours it would overheat and flip the breaker. It was also my understanding you could run 100% for a some time period that less than 3 hours and I thought this was true for all residential breakers.
None the less he tells me that QO breakers are 100% rated breakers and then tells me you can run 125% of the rated power continuelessly. He bet me a lunch it wouldn’t flip the breaker if I ran it for 7-8 hours at 40amps as well as he would bring me a 50a breaker. He also said it’s more important not to oversized my breaker than undersizing. Sense shows it being the car did pull 9600+ for the first 5 hours then it dropped down to 7200w for the last hour and a half. The breaker did get warm for sure. So I’m still not sure if I should have a 40 or a 50a breaker. 40 didn’t flip. The manual also says 50amp breaker but he says that’s a 80% rated breaker. He is an engineer but he also can’t stop calling 240, “ 208.”
the bandwidth is anywhere from 100-125% of the rating.
Which is impressive.
The only thing that I would still see as a (deal) breaker [pun intended] is temperature rating.
According to the datasheet: To meet the requirements of Underwriters Laboratories Standard 489, molded case circuit breakers are designed, built, and calibrated for us on 60 Hz ac systems in 40°C (104°F) ambient temperature. When applied at ambient temperatures other than 40°C, the current-carrying capacity and/or trip charasteristics of the circuit breaker may vary.
So depending if the breaker box is in hot environment and maybe even has sun shining on it, it might get de-rated to 30 amps at 60C/140F.
The photo you posted shows breaker box inside a building, so you might get away with it.
In general I like what NEC says about only pushing something to 80% of it’s rating to have some reserves.
Did he tell you why ?
Imo a breaker protects the wiring in case a short circuit occurs.
You can easily pull 200 amps through a #6 (for a short while)
But it is all about safety/longevity. so you don’t want to wires to heat up hence limit the current.
Didn’t flip with the current ambient temperatures.
