Level 1 vs Level 2 Charging

There is no excuse for that. Speaking up face to face (calling out) goes a long way on that aspect.

I worked in Manhattan and lived in an affluent zip code so I am familiar with the concept. Left that mess for rural country life a few years ago, .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It stinks. When I remodled my kitchen I started going for quotes using the major city and not my small suburban city on the addresses. We had 2 come to our house and do 2-3x more for same brands. If I took a drawing in person we got reasonable quotes. One of the contractors asked why we went elsewhere and I told him. He was surprised to hear I think.

 

I think L1 would work fine, but IMHO go for UL Listed charging stations only if you go the L2 route. Also, at least 3 quotes for the work. It's crazy how different the pricing can be.

Finally, if you use L1 make sure that the circuit has nothing else running on it. An electrician can help with this, and they can also help to ensure that the outlet is safe to use (e.g. the wiring to the receptacle is properly torqued. I had an issue with this a while back).

 

>>UL Listed charging stations only<<

or CE, remember, the car's batteries and electronics are CE compliant, not UL compliant. I would rather have a CE charging station designed in Germany for my German designed onboard electricals, regardless of where they are actually built/assembled.

 

Yup, just as long as it has a recognized certification for your country. Some of the Amazon knockoffs have no certifications whatsoever but will say "made to UL spec." Insurance would decline a claim if they found that was being used.

 

With the potential (remote, but not unheard of) of a BEV battery fire burning down the garage, I was keen to have my charging completely up to code and use a certified EVSE. Saving a few hundred bucks is nothing compared to the loss if your homeowner's insurance finds an excuse not to pay out.

 

I'll chime in and be the voice of convenience. I had my first weekend with our SE this past weekend, and I will say that I had two experiences that made me glad I have L2.

1. Saturday, after driving down to about 60% SOC, I plugged in the car to my L2 charger since my wife was planning a big drive the next day. Well, I thought I had plugged it in, but it turns out I didn't plug it in securely enough. Discovered in the morning that it hadn't charged and got it charging just 2 hours before my wife needed to leave. It reached 100% before she left.
2. Sunday, my wife brought the car back at 18%. My EVSE is a "smart" one so I set it to charge from 12:30am until morning. Woke up this morning to a full charge. No muss no fuss.

During the week, I don't feel the need to plug it in every night. It's just convenient to know that you can charge fast(er) whenever you want.

 

I found getting into the habit of plugging in when I get home has been great, I never forgot. It's become automatic. And MINI encourages it.

Or, to put it more simply: ABC – always be charging

 

I don't think it matters. We have solar panels with no battery and net metering, too. I assume with a battery system like the Tesla powerwall, you'd want to charge at a rate that doesn't deplete your battery.

 

Not one bit. In fact, in many jurisdictions, manual remote adjustment violates local electrical codes. The Grizzl-e sounds perfect for your application. Once you have it in hand, please tell us if the DIP switch in the upper left portion is labeled / defined on the circuit board, or does one need the manual to set it? (Can't find a high resolution photo to see for myself.) I imagine I would lose the manual shortly after it was installed.

 

When you order the GRIZZLE-E, you can select which maximum current level to have the DIP switches pre-set to.

If you want to change the setting, you must refer to the manual for a table showing the DIP switch settings, as this is not marked on the circuit board nor intuitive.

All GRIZZLE-E manuals are available as PDF downloads, so you never have to worry about losing them: https://grizzl-e.com/manuals/

 

Man! I'm certain you never came to school claiming the dog ate your homework! You've been been paying close attention at the school of InsideEVs' MINI Cooper SE forum.

However, you must have missed my story of kilowatt over-exuberance. I had a 60-Amp 240-Volt panel installed in my garage. I was limping along with just a 40-Amp Bosch EVSE for our Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid (which maxes out at less than 30 Amps) until I read in mid-2019 that the MINI Cooper SE I craved would be able to charge at 11 kW.

Out with the measly 40-Amp Bosch and in with an industrial-strength 48-Amp ClipperCreek CS-60 EVSE. I was ready for my MINI! Not long afterwards I discovered the 11 kW charging was only for UK and European wallboxes that were connected to 3-phase AC power, not the single-phase AC homeowners in the US have. So I'm maxed out on the future-proofing, but my SE charges at 7.4 kW just like others with 32-Amp EVSEs.

One benefit of my industrial-strength 48-Amp ClipperCreek CS-60 EVSE is that it has very large relay inside and when I plug in my SE, I hear an enormous and satisfying, THUNK! There is no doubt that the connection has been made.

 

My 40-amp Chargepoint is more of a modest "click", but I still find it satisfying!

 

This is true. Moreover, 48A seems to be the new standard for upcoming models from other makes as well - Ford, VW, GM all seem to be going to 48A.

However, I believe NEC limits circuits above 50A to be hard-wired only. I personally like having a 14-50 outlet that I can plug into for a couple of reasons. And it will provide up to 40A, which is close enough to 48 (83%) that I probably would never notice the difference. For a new install, a compromise would be to install wire that can handle 60A (6 AWG) and then put in a 50A breaker and a 14-50 outlet. To upgrade from there only requires a new breaker and the outlet box to be hardwired to the EVSE. This is what I did.

 

NEC now requires all 240V outlets to be on GFCI. I ran into this because my jurisdiction uses the latest NEC, and I had to hardwire my Grizzl-E. To be honest it's so trivial to do I don't see it as a big issue. But I would like to find an EVSE that didn't have its own GFCI.

 

Just info for anyone else, the wire gauge required by code for a EV charger is larger than for a welder. Anything defined as continuous duty can only use 80% of the rated circuit capacity so a 50A breaker and 50A rated wire (typically 6/3) is required for a 40A charger.

Definitely likely that an EV charger install will be quoted higher but saying it's for a welder could get you the wrong gauge wire installed.

 

The physical connection does have a reasonably satisfying click to it, but what threw me off was the JuiceBox reported it was connected, despite not ultimately charging it. I did what any tech does: unplugged it and plugged it back in.