wiring needs for V2H vs level 2 charger?

[stephane47]

Hi all - I'm about to move my level 2 charger outside, and wiring will be underground in conduit. If I want to be ready for V2H, should I put in different wiring than the default for level 2? I won't be able to re-run conduit later, and I assume fishing new wire through would be near impossible.
Thanks for any help/advice/suggestions!

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[SANZC02]

Hi all - I'm about to move my level 2 charger outside, and wiring will be underground in conduit. If I want to be ready for V2H, should I put in different wiring than the default for level 2? I won't be able to re-run conduit later, and I assume fishing new wire through would be near impossible.
Thanks for any help/advice/suggestions!

I would run oversized conduit now and just use the wire required for your charger. Then if you need larger wire later they can just pull it through the conduit when it is needed.

 

[Nixapatfan]

A lot will depend on what your vehicle and the external inverter will support so highly depends on what you purchase later down the road. Ideally you'd want the highest rating passible to support your whole home. The GM kit is upto 9.6kw.

 

[VSG]

The one thing I would plan for is to use much thicker wire. The R2 supports (I think) 22kW sent back to the house, which is twice what a L2 charger is rated for, so the wiring will have to go up in size to accommodate the higher current. And an L2 charger typically only uses three wires, but I would run 4 in case the V2H charger needs the fourth wire.

It's all a little speculative at this time because the hardware doesn't exist yet.

If you just run a larger conduit like @Nixapatfan suggested, be sure to calculate how much space the above will take and leave yourself plenty of room. But depending on the length of your run, it might be cheaper in total just to run the heavier wire right now so you don't have to pay for pulling the heavier wire in the future, or pay for one cable now and another in the future. Wire is expensive.

 

[justinkitswa]

If it were me, I'd run my existing wire needed for the L2 charger in one conduit and drop another 1-1/2" (inch and a half) PVC conduit in the same trench for the future pull.

By the time you've dug a trench, dropping another conduit in should be pretty cheap.

With the empty 1-1/2" PVC conduit any electrician should be able to pull the correct cable for the future V2H connection alongside any control wiring that would be needed.

I'd not try and guess on adding the additional copper wire as you really don't know the rating of future V2H.

An 1-1/2" conduit would allow you to run up to 2/0 THHN conductors (195 amps at 90 Deg C, or around 45 kW)

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