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EV Chargers: How to Choose the Right One for Your Home

ajdelange

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That's OK if a hard wired solution is acceptable, which it may or may not be in courtier's case. This thread is broader than his particular case, though. In No. 2 I point out that the Rivian (and CT) will consume more energy than any BEV currently on the road or planned to be on the road soon (tractors like the Semi excluded, of course). The implication for owners is that they will want to install every bit of charging capacity they can which means 48 A as that is the capacity of the R1T and RIS rectifier/converter assembles. If you have a garage in which you can (and wish to) install permanent EVSE, the answer is simple: hard wired 60 A circuit. But suppose you have a summer place and a winter place. If you have plugs at both you can take the EVSE with you for the summer and return it when you go back south. Or suppose you must charge in a public space and don't wish to leave your charging gear unattended and exposed. The plug-in solution neatly fits both those situations. The fact that plug in units are sold says that there is demand for them. But there is this paradox. I, for one, want to see it resolved.
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DucRider

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Unless you consistently drive north of 200 miles a day on multiple days back-to-back, a 40A EVSE (on a 50A circuit with a 14-50) will be more than enough to fully charge overnight.

And as to finding a public 14-60 plug and taking your EVSE with you? Never, ever going to happen. 14-50? Yes (common at RV parks/campgrounds).
If you do have a summer and winter place and absolutely must add the extra 17 kWh overnight (10 hours @ 8A on 240V * ~90% efficiency), you'll need to spring for a hardwired EVSE at both ends to satisfy code requirements. For the vast majority of people, this will not be an issue.

Installing a hardwired 48A EVSE in both locations would be less than $500 more than having plugs at both ends and hauling a 14-60 unit it back and forth.

Faulty outlets are also the leading cause of electrical fires - they have 3x the connections points as compared to a hardwired solution (wire to plug, plug to outlet, outlet to wire vs wire to wire)
 

ajdelange

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I got some feedback from Wattzilla. They ignored my messages through their support page but responded to questions posted on their Amazon product page for the 48 A Black Mamba. Their response is that this product is compliant with NEC 625 because it is UL listed. This is clearly BS. The UL is a testing laboratory that in response to a manufacturers request and the payment of a fee will test a product to see if it meets various standards for personal safety etc. The NEC is concerned with connecting various types of equipment to the power mains. Often it requires that the connected equipment be "listed" (EVSE must be) which means that it has been approved by a recognized testing lab such as UL. The situation with the Wattzilla 48 A EVSE is that while they are UL listed they cannot be connected to premises wiring in compliance with NEC becuase they use a plug which NEC does not allow for EVSE. Wattzilla says that the UL listing over rides the NEC requirement. Whether that is true or not is up to the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction). UL considers many standards in granting approval and NEC is one of them. I don't believe that they would list a product that cannot be legally installed IOW I think they acted in error and I believe that if this were called to their attention they would rescind the listing.

The significance of all this is that if you want to use a 48 A plugged EVSE you would be well advised to run it by the county or at least an electrician who has done lots of EVSE in your jurisdiction first. Or you could try the argument that a 14-60R is a 50A receptacle on them.

[EDIT]In fact they did not ignore my support page messages. They actually called but I did not get the voice mail until after I posted this. The voice mail said the same thing as the Amzon responses i.e. that it is compliant because it is UL listed. Now that I have a phone number I'll call them back when I get a chance and see if I an get them to clarify,
 
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ajdelange

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I spoke with a gentleman named Frank at Wattzilla and the conversation did not reveal much that I hadn't already surmised and reported on previously. The 60P Wattzilla are Canadian UL certified. The 50P units are US certified. Thus to install a 60P unit in the US would violate NEC. If you want to be NEC compliant you will need to stay away from the 60P unit and give up the 2 mi/hr advantage it confers. If you really want those extra 2 miles there are, of course, ways to get them but not within the letter of the code. I'm not going to go into any of the methods because I don't want to be on record as advising anyone to violate code.
 

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All useful info. Appreciate all the input, particularly AJ.
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