Installing 110v outlet for home charging

[agraves]

Hi all,

We just brought our e-Golf home today and need to get an outlet installed on the outside of our house ASAP. Several people at our dealership recommended using the charger that comes with the car and plugging in to a 110v outlet every night.

Our electrician asked these questions:

1) What kind of breaker does he need to get? He was referring to the numbers on the breakers themselves. Does anyone know what he's talking about? I asked the service department at the dealer, and they don't know.

2) What kind of outlet? Is there anything special he needs to consider about the outlet? I believe the answer to this is a 110v outlet with a dedicated ground.

Is there anything I'm missing here? It seems that the VW experts at the dealership aren't quite caught up when it comes to these technicalities. I've gotten different answers from different people. Any and all advice would be great.

Thank you!

 

[oregongolfer]

Answer number one: 20 amp breaker

Answer number two : 20 amp Gfci outlet For external use.

And if he starts asking which size wire to use then fire him and look for another electrician....

Just tell him it's a standard 110 volt plug and to run a 20 amp circuit for you meeting code for Outdoor use. outdoor use typically requires gfci protect ed outlets.

If it were me I would spend the money to have a 220 volt line run and "Hard wire" a siemens charge unit.

How far do you plan to travel each day?

Jeff

 

[tom]

I agree with oregongolfer, you really should install a 220v charger.

The reason is it takes a lot longer to charge at 110v than 220v.

To go from empty to full, 220v takes 3.5 hours, 110v takes approximately 17 hours

http://insideevs.com/volkswagen-releases-details-2015-e-golf/

It's true you usually don't start from empty, but you will often find 110v is just too slow.

I am pretty sure you can buy a 220v charger from HomeDepot for under $400

Ask the electrician to get a permit from your city this way it's inspected and done right. This is not complicated stuff but you still want to do it correctly.

In the meantime you can simply use a long extension cable (plug it to the cable that came with your car) to charge your car from any 110v outlet from your garage/house. Use a beefier extension cable rather than the very thin ones.

 

[ckthorp]

If you're using extension cables, make sure you check the temperature of the wire/plugs with your hand at each connection (ie, house-to-extension and extension-to-charger). Probably do this a few times over the first couple hours of charging.

I was using a brand new 25 ft 14AWG extension cable that seemed to have a poor connection between the wire and the plug. It got so warm after about 30-60 minutes that I could barely touch it. Suffice to say that I don't use that one anymore.

 

[BarryMW]

I replaced an aging (37year old) 110v receptacle in my garage for the same reason.
After an hour of charging it was comfortable to touch, but a good deal hotter than I would expect.
Put in a nice new 110v GFCI outlet, problem solved. I should have been using a GFCI in the first place... but it never rains here anyway...
I also made sure to use the screws to trap the wires. I really don't like the push the wire in the hole type connections.

Barry

 

[agraves]

Thanks everyone for the info - this is extremely helpful. It sounds like we should go ahead and get a 220v charger installed. I was under the impression they would be super expensive (in the thousands) but now I'm realizing that's not the case. I drive about 20 miles a day on a typical day, but on occasion I'll have errands and much more driving.

And thank you for the extension cord tip - for some reason I thought that wouldn't be ok, but we plugged in to a heavy-duty extension cord and it is working well (no heat). That's what we're doing now until we get the 220v installed.

Thanks again!
Angie

 

[tom]

Keep in mind not all 220v chargers charge at the same speed. Look for what its rated for. The onboard charger in the car is 7.2 kW, the battery is 24 kWh, so it takes 24/7.2, or 3.33 hours to charge provided the 220v charger you bought is good for 7.2 kW or better.

For example, AV now has two 220v product lines, see table on this link:

http://www.evsolutions.com/ev-charging-products-for-home

Note AV's newer TurboCord product line is much slower than its legacy charger. Both are 220v.