Home Charging Dilemma

[moosetags]

We are about to have our home charging system installed. We have some questions on how to proceed.

We have had our R1T for about two weeks and are new at this whole EV thing. We took delivery of our Rivian at the Factory in Normal, Illinois. We had traveled to Normal with our Airstream travel trailer pulled by our Silverado Duramax. We camped in Normal for 10 days and toured the area in our new R1T. We got to see most of the towns with 100 miles of Normal and had a great time. We also tried out towing the Airstream with the R1T. The R1T towed the Airstream very well. The only issue was the range.

We found that during our stay in Normal and on the trip back to Florida the R1T charged at a rate of 17 mph when plugged into the 50amp outlet at the campground. this gave us pretty much a full charge overnight.

We are now back at home awaiting the electrician to come and install our Rivian wall charger that we had purchased with the vehicle. Now we are questioning whether we should install the Rivian wall charger or just install a 50amp 14-50 receptacle and call it a day. Or should we install the Rivian wall charger and also install the 50amp outlet?

At what hourly rate does the Rivian wall charger charge the vehicle? Are both the wall charger and the 50amp outlet considered level 2 charging? What is the best way for us to proceed?

Brian

Sponsored

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

When hardwired on a 60A circuit, the Rivian Wall EVSE will support 11.5kW charging, which is ~24 miles of range gained, per hour.

 

[SANZC02]

We are about to have our home charging system installed. We have some questions on how to proceed.

We have had our R1T for about two weeks and are new at this whole EV thing. We took delivery of our Rivian at the Factory in Normal, Illinois. We had traveled to Normal with our Airstream travel trailer pulled by our Silverado Duramax. We camped in Normal for 10 days and toured the area in our new R1T. We got to see most of the towns with 100 miles of Normal and had a great time. We also tried out towing the Airstream with the R1T. The R1T towed the Airstream very well. The only issue was the range.

We found that during our stay in Normal and on the trip back to Florida the R1T charged at a rate of 17 mph when plugged into the 50amp outlet at the campground. this gave us pretty much a full charge overnight.

We are now back at home awaiting the electrician to come and install our Rivian wall charger that we had purchased with the vehicle. Now we are questioning whether we should install the Rivian wall charger or just install a 50amp 14-50 receptacle and call it a day. Or should we install the Rivian wall charger and also install the 50amp outlet?

At what hourly rate does the Rivian wall charger charge the vehicle? Are both the wall charger and the 50amp outlet considered level 2 charging? What is the best way for us to proceed?

Brian

Both the 50 amp plug and the hardwired unit are considered level 2. It is always best to use hardwired as the connection is more resilient. A 50 amp plug will work but not designed to be plugged in and out as the connection will loosen and cause problems down the road.

If there is nothing there already that is being upgraded and you have available capacity I would at a minimum run a 60 amp and hardwire the charger.

 

[evguy]

Both the 50 amp plug and the hardwired unit are considered level 2. It is always best to use hardwired as the connection is more resilient. A 50 amp plug will work but not designed to be plugged in and out as the connection will loosen and cause problems down the road.

If there is nothing there already that is being upgraded and you have available capacity I would at a minimum run a 60 amp and hardwire the charger.

I second this. If for some reason a 60A run is not feasible, I'd do a 50A run and still hardwire for the safety benefit.

 

[seatosummit]

Agreed. Always oversize the conductor you pull to minimize headache in the future when you want to upgrade to something with a higher current rating.

Also be mindful of the requirement to derate your consumption from what is printed on the breaker. You can only draw 80% of the rated breaker current continuously, as is the case with an EVSE during the ~12hr charge cycle.

I bought a house recently in which the previous owner had installed a Tesla EVSE that was happily outputting 50A continuously on a 50A breaker. This is at best not to code and more than likely a safety hazard given the temperature rise of the conductor under continuous load.

Congrats on the truck!

 

[240vPlug]

14-50 adds a failure point and additional complication. Hard wire a charger it will also charge faster hard wired.

 

[Mathme]

We have a 50a breaker and a Wallbox charger plugged into a 14-50 outlet. This works fine for charging the old Tesla and will be used for the Rivian once the options I want are available to order. The Wallbox stays plugged in all the time however, one benefit of this set up is that if you want to use that outlet for something else, you can easily unplug the charger.

That being said, once the Rivian arrives, I'll have to add a charger to our vacation house. In that case, I'll likely go with a 60a breaker for the faster charging as others have said.

Also, just because you have a Rivian, don't feel compelled to stay with the Rivian charger...most any charger will work and there's several threads on here containing recommendations.

 

[mikehmb]

As others have said - go hardwire.

Here’s a picture to give you a good sense of why I’m personally adamant about it (now).

 

[ads75]

My Rivian charger is connected to a 60A circuit, and provides 48amps continuous, so 11kw, which results in 22 miles added an hour. I have the 20" ATs, so I would think the regular 21" wheels would be closer to 25 miles added an hour, since they are more efficient. When I charge at work. its only 6kw, so adds about 10 miles an hour, so my 70 mile round trip commute takes 7 hours to cover my commute for free charging at work.

 

[moosetags]

Thank you everyone for your insight and suggestions.

Brian

 

[hilld]

As others have said - go hardwire.

Here’s a picture to give you a good sense of why I’m personally adamant about it (now).

There is a difference in receptacles. There are the $8 and the $80 ones. The quality differences are night and day. Personally, all I will install are Hubbell receptacles (made in the USA), yes, they cost more, but compare them with the other such as Leviton or the HD/Lowes house brands and you will see the difference.

Making sure the screws are tight is also important. The same can be said about hardwiring them, make sure your connections are tight and if you are using wire nuts make sure those are tight as well. If you are using AL wire, make sure you put Noalox on all of your connections.

Video showing some of the differences.

 

[md2023]

I am plugged into a Nema 14-50 Hubbell outlet on a 50 AMP breaker and am getting ~15 miles added per hour. It has worked well for my previous model 3 and now my R1T. (I don't unplug it often).

 

[opnwide]

I highly recommend watching this video from Tom at State of Charge...and remember, if you go 60amp breaker, 48amp hardwired, you MUST run #6THHN wire, enclosed in a conduit of some type, NOT #6 Romex or NM-B to be up to code.

 

[jjswan33]

I personally have a Nema 14-50 outlet on a 50A circuit and a wall mounted Chargepoint Home Flex plugged into the outlet. I like the flexibility if the charger broke I could still plug a different charger into it. The outlet could still potentially used for other purposes if needed.

As far as speed:

Included Rivian travel charger maxes out at 32A or 7.6kW
A Nema 14-50 outlet with a 40A charger can max out 9.6kW (25% faster than the Rivian Travel charger)
A hardwired charger on a 60A circuit can charge at 48A or 11.5 kW (20% faster than max out from a 14-50 outlet and 50% faster than the Rivian travel charger)

Note: I quote kW instead of miles/hour because the latter is vehicle dependent, in your cast it appears 2.24 mph per kW

 

[Chewy734]

Hardwire 60A. This is the (safe) way.

Sponsored