L1 Charging

[GlennD]

As an experiment I decided to see what the maximum 120V current is when charging my SEL. I set the pilot to 30A and it charged at 30A. This means you could have something like an OpenEVSE unit with a plug to match a 120V only RV park and charge at 30A. This is like the enhanced Nissan Leaf. Both will charge at the car's charger full rate. You can force the EVSE to L2 or edit the L1 table. Forcing L2 is merely cosmetic since the pilot has no voltage indication. That is what I did for my experiment.

For example on a 20A circuit you could charge at 16A instead of the 12A of the supplied L1 EVSE. For safety and to obey NEC rules you are limited to 80%. That is why the L1 EVSE is limited to 12A (80% of 15A)For those of you living where 208 or 240V is not available but you have a dedicated 20A circuit this would charge 25% faster. 30A circuits are usually only found at RV parks or truck stops. Many offer a 14-50 with 208V or 240V at more current than the car needs in addition.

 

[JoulesThief]

As an experiment I decided to see what the maximum 120V current is when charging my SEL. I set the pilot to 30A and it charged at 30A. This means you could have something like an OpenEVSE unit with a plug to match a 120V only RV park and charge at 30A. This is like the enhanced Nissan Leaf. Both will charge at the car's charger full rate. You can force the EVSE to L2 or edit the L1 table. Forcing L2 is merely cosmetic since the pilot has no voltage indication. That is what I did for my experiment.

For example on a 20A circuit you could charge at 16A instead of the 12A of the supplied L1 EVSE. For safety and to obey NEC rules you are limited to 80%. That is why the L1 EVSE is limited to 12A (80% of 15A)For those of you living where 208 or 240V is not available but you have a dedicated 20A circuit this would charge 25% faster. 30A circuits are usually only found at RV parks or truck stops. Many offer a 14-50 with 208V or 240V at more current than the car needs in addition.

Almost all RV parks with NEMA 14-50 outlets run on 240V. This is because RV's run AC units that need 240V, not commercial 208V. Also because some of the electrical runs in RV parks are quite long and the voltage sags at the end of the run, so they try to keep the voltage at 240+ at the circuit panel. I always measure voltage at the outlet at an RV park, low voltage will destroy AC units, microwaves, refrigerators, a whole bunch of things.

 

[GlennD]

As an experiment I decided to see what the maximum 120V current is when charging my SEL. I set the pilot to 30A and it charged at 30A. This means you could have something like an OpenEVSE unit with a plug to match a 120V only RV park and charge at 30A. This is like the enhanced Nissan Leaf. Both will charge at the car's charger full rate. You can force the EVSE to L2 or edit the L1 table. Forcing L2 is merely cosmetic since the pilot has no voltage indication. That is what I did for my experiment.

For example on a 20A circuit you could charge at 16A instead of the 12A of the supplied L1 EVSE. For safety and to obey NEC rules you are limited to 80%. That is why the L1 EVSE is limited to 12A (80% of 15A)For those of you living where 208 or 240V is not available but you have a dedicated 20A circuit this would charge 25% faster. 30A circuits are usually only found at RV parks or truck stops. Many offer a 14-50 with 208V or 240V at more current than the car needs in addition.

Almost all RV parks with NEMA 14-50 outlets run on 240V. This is because RV's run AC units that need 240V, not commercial 208V. Also because some of the electrical runs in RV parks are quite long and the voltage sags at the end of the run, so they try to keep the voltage at 240+ at the circuit panel. I always measure voltage at the outlet at an RV park, low voltage will destroy AC units, microwaves, refrigerators, a whole bunch of things.

I will take your word for it. I have never charged at other than my garage or work. The shop in Long Beach that I retired from had 240V (only used for the roof air units) and 208/120V's. In a previous life it was a propane tank mfg so there was enough energy available to run a small city. My free charging was on the 208V panel. There was several unused 240V panels in the service bay that were unused. That was so they could use a TED at 120V to meter it so the city could get brownie points for being green. I could have cared less, it was free energy!

 

[GlennD]

Free electricity did not even come close to being on call. I am glad I retired. NO MORE ON CALL!