Charging at home on 240v

[Bilmat]

I've had my Spark EV for less than a week and am loving it. Since I have been driving it less than 40 miles a day, I have had no problem with the 120v charger topping off the battery overnight. But I'm thinking of moving up to 240v since Bosch is offering a $500 discount on its chargers. The Bosch FAQs estimate that installation by one of their certified electricians normally runs over $1000.

Here's my question: I have a dedicated 240v outlet in my garage that was designed to power an electric clothes dryer, but it is unused because I have a gas dryer that is plugged into a 120v outlet to turn the drum when the dryer is being used. Can I plug the Bosch charger into the 240v outlet, or will it require modifications by an electrician?

As tempting as it is to purchase a heavily discounted 240v Bosch charger, paying a certified electrician more than a couple of hundred dollars to modify my existing unused 240v outlet -- if it is necessary -- would be a deal breaker since I can live with the standard 120v charger.

 

[Electricbowtie]

I just ran a dedicated 220 outlet to the garage yesterday in anticipation for my Bosch charger in the mail. Buy a dryer cord and wire that into the charger and plug it in. Many Volt owners have been doing this for years. Now my Volt and Spark can charge fast! Can't wait for the package.

 

[fengshui]

I've had my Spark EV for less than a week and am loving it. Since I have been driving it less than 40 miles a day, I have had no problem with the 120v charger topping off the battery overnight. But I'm thinking of moving up to 240v since Bosch is offering a $500 discount on its chargers. The Bosch FAQs estimate that installation by one of their certified electricians normally runs over $1000.

Here's my question: I have a dedicated 240v outlet in my garage that was designed to power an electric clothes dryer, but it is unused because I have a gas dryer that is plugged into a 120v outlet to turn the drum when the dryer is being used. Can I plug the Bosch charger into the 240v outlet, or will it require modifications by an electrician?

As tempting as it is to purchase a heavily discounted 240v Bosch charger, paying a certified electrician more than a couple of hundred dollars to modify my existing unused 240v outlet -- if it is necessary -- would be a deal breaker since I can live with the standard 120v charger.

As long as it's indoors, you should have no problem plugging the bosch charger into your 240V receptacle. You'll want to make sure the breaker and wires for that 240V circuit are of sufficient size for the bosch charger, but that's not too expensive to upgrade if you need to replace the breaker.

 

[Bilmat]

Thanks for the info, guys. I contacted Bosch and they are going to send one of their certified electricians out to the house and provide me with a free evaluation. There is no obligation to buy the charger or for an installation so I thought why not? But there is a hitch. I learned that the $490 Voltec charger that is virtually free with the $500 credit has to be hard-wired, not plugged into the 240v outlet. According to the Bosch "adviser" I spoke with, the cost of the same or a similar charger that can be plugged into the outlet is about twice the cost ($940 or thereabouts). Unless the electrician can hard-wire the virtually free Voltec charger for $200 or under, I'm inclined to make do with the standard 120v charger that came with the Spark since I don't see that I'll be driving it more than 40-50 miles a day.

 

[rbroders]

The GM Voltec charge station uses 15A and requires a 20A circuit breaker (which implies 12GA wires). You definitely don't want to put a bigger circuit breaker in your panel without verifying the wires are big enough to handle the extra current.

Wiring a dryer cord and plugging it in sounds like a pretty good way to go. There is a threaded knock-out on the bottom which makes this very easy. Just make sure the outlet you are using is rated for 15A continuous duty. Some cheap outlets can't handle high currents for long periods of time (especially 110V outlets - which is why the default charge rate for 120V is only 8A). Buying a more expensive charger won't solve your outlet problem, that is for sure. Frankly the only thing the charge station does is check for wiring faults and ground faults. Not very much for 500 clams if you ask me. The real charger is in the car.

I just had mine installed by an electrician (counduit to the site, but no wires; I had them pull 10GA in case I get a car with 6.6KW charger in the future). It is interesting that the coiled cord from the charge station to the car gets warm during charging. Seems like GM should have used thicker wire for the final connection. Not too warm though, so its okay.

--Bob

P.S. When mounting ignore the drilling template in the back of the manual - it must have been scaled during printing because it is way off.

 

[Electricbowtie]

I would recommend against the Voltec charger. There are tons of Volt owner that call them crap and die just beyond the 1 year warranty. May as well spend another $100 and buy the Power Max that gives you 30A in case you get a faster charging EV in he future. I just installed my 220v outlet last night using 8ga wire and 40A breakers to a dryer outlet and will be hardwiring a dryer cord to the Power Max when it arrives next week.

 

[rickp]

If the dryer outlet is a NEMA 14-30 which most newer dryers use, then you can wire the EVSE with a corresponding cable and plug. They are relatively inexpensive from Amazon. The Voltec will use the two hot leads (generally blue, black or red in color) and the ground lead (green). The white grounded ('neutral') lead is not used and needs to be covered up with a wire nut and tape or heat shrink tubing.

Some older dryers use the NEMA 10-30 which has two hot leads and a neutral lead but no ground. I don't recommend trying to use this as you need a ground for the EVSE to function properly, especially the ground-fault protection. NEMA 10-30 hasn't been a code-approved dryer receptacle type for 15 - 20 years so if your outlet was installed more recently, it should be a NEMA 14-30. You can google the NEMA receptacles to see what the plug need to mate with.

Most electric dryer circuits are 30 amps/240volts so that is more than adequate for the Voltec. You can confirm this at the panel as it will have a ganged breaker (two breaker handles coupled together) with the current rating displayed. The Voltec, as noted in the earlier post from Bob can be wired with a plug and as long as it's kept under cover need not be GFGI protected at the breaker or require a weather proof outlet box.

I use an RV outlet on a 40 amp circuit to plug in my self-built EVSE based on the OpenEVSE project. My city requires this external outlet to be in a weatherproof box. The receptacle is a NEMA 14-50 which is also used with electric ranges. It's overkill for now but in the future I can provide additional amps for the higher capacity chargers which will be prevalent.