One thing I often see online is that whenever people talk about the prices of electricity for EVs vs gas for ICE vehicles, the comparison is often Level 3 chargers vs gas. Why is that the case though? The biggest immediate selling point of EV charging is how much cheaper it is than gas, and Level 2 charging is usually MUCH cheaper than Level 3 charging. I get that Level 2 charging takes several hours to fully charge a vehicle, however the difference between Level 2 chargers and gas pumps/Level 3 chargers is that they can be installed basically anywhere. Homes, street parking, you name it. Even for people living in apartments, you can install a Level 2 charger on the street. Level 3 charging just feels like an electric gas pump.

And of course, that's not even mentioning how Level 3 charging degrades your battery quicker. I use Level 2 charging almost exclusively for my car battery's health.

Our townhouse has the breaker box on the second floor. We have a crawl space but really just for ventilation, so I haven’t been under there. Saying all that to ask, is there normally some run that an electrician would be able to run a line off of down to my parking space?

Also our lot has a conduit run from my house side to the other where my truck’s spot is for my main power, could we use that conduit run to get under the lot without tearing it up?

I recently noticed that I see 3 different rates reported by the various devices involved when I plug in at home. I’m guessing these are all down to the losses involved with charging hardware but wanted to solicit some feedback. My guess is the car (‘26 IONIQ 5 limited AWD) is pulling 11.6kW from the Tesla Wall Connector, the ODB2 adapter sees 11.5kW coming in via the EV Dashboard app, and the car battery is receiving 11.4kW? Thanks for any insight!

Here's my situation.

1977 home at 100A.

5kW Enphase solar system installed 2022.

Retired so no daily commute.

I'm buying a Rivian R2 within a year (I've already been invited to order but I'm holding off for now).

I've been looking at the new Enphase 2 vehicle chargers that have load balancing considering my 100A home.

I'm looking for suggestions and tips on how to handle all of this being the newbie that I am.

I will contact my seller installer when I get ready to do this.

Thanks

I currently have a full EV and a Plug-in Hybrid. We usually use our level 2 charger on the EV and a level 1 charger on the Plug-in Hybrid, but occasionally switch it around depending on who parked on the driveway first.

I need a new Level 1 charger and was going to go with Lectron. I noticed they have a 120V 15 AMP one and a 120V 12 Amp one. I'm guessing there is absolutely no need to buy the 15 Amp one if the normal breaker its on is a 15 Amp Breaker since it can't use the full power?

Holy shit. With all the news about gas prices and whatnot, I was already paying a fraction for charging my car, but my local public charger recently upgraded their chargers and installed brand new ones. They're a bit nicer, but the REALLY nice part is that they went from 22 cents a KwH to completely free! I know free chargers are becoming increasingly rare especially after Shell recharge went out of business, so I feel so lucky.

I will never get a gas car ever again, even after the strait reopens.

And the best part? I'm in California, where everything is expensive af, so.....yeah. It feels nice.

Received a quote to install 50 amp outlet, 6/3 copper home run to panel to a 50 amp breaker for $800. Is this sufficient for overnight charging needs. I'm planning to plug the charger my car car with into the garage.

Folks, looking for opinions & advice about the most suitable cable run. I've highlighted potential routes from the left external wall (meter) to right external wall (drive).

I did contemplate trenching and ducting under the slabs but it only really solves around the doorway so might just deal with a visible cable.

My fuse box is also located in the bathroom - small room left of front door.

Advice, suggestions, insults, have at it.

Good morning all. I have all three running. Anyone else have these to charge on solar only? I’m trying to figure it out. Do you need to use EmonCMS or just home assistant to charge on solar only. I have 12 kWh batteries but it’s a hassle to change the amperage on my old Tesla when it’s cloudy. I’d like it to use as minimal off grid battery as possible. I’ve seen multiple YouTube videos but still struggling. Any tips?

Never has to charge

I got my level 2 charger installed on the back wall of my garage this past week. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

[Edit: The install was performed by a licensed electrician, not by me]

I’ve seen people claiming that they can charge their EVs for free or pay around $10 for a full charge, and some even claim they can start charging stations remotely.

The interesting part is that they seem to be doing this across multiple charging networks, including:
⚡ ChargePoint
⚡ EVgo
⚡ IONNA
⚡ Synergy
⚡ EV Connect
⚡ Mercedes-Benz
⚡ Blink
How is this even possible?

If someone were doing this on just one network, I could understand how a compromised account, a stolen RFID charging card, a promotional credit, or some kind of membership benefit might be involved.

But how would the same method work across so many different charging networks? And what do people mean when they say they can remotely start a charging session?
Are they exploiting a vulnerability in the charging stations, using some kind of third-party platform, taking advantage of roaming agreements between networks, or is there a legitimate explanation behind these claims?

I’m genuinely curious about the technical side of this and how it works across different providers. Has anyone here worked with EV charging infrastructure or come across something like this?

Can you recommend some simple L1 or L2 charger models that can be activated with employees badges?

Here is the background:
My employer provides free EV charging at my workplace limited to a maximum of 3 hours at a 6kW rate.
However, if he number of charging stations is insufficient and you need to:
1. Enroll through some online forms
2. Once approved, you can charge through the ChargePoint app, but you need to get in line early in the morning, go do your job, wait for an unknown number of hours, go move the car to the assigned charger, go back to do your job, then after 3 hours go back and move the car again when may be in a meeting. This is so time consuming.
3. The app is very buggy, the stations are not maintained well and many time I an unable to charge.

Overall, we waste too much time dealing with all these issues. It turns out to be more of a hassle and a productivity sinker.

I want to propose my employer a simpler system that will save them money and it will save us time.

As it is now it is causing us a lot of wasted work time, besides moving the car in a busy parking lot and risking an accident.

I would be happier to have just L1 chargers where we can leave the car for the whole work day. No queuing, no moving cars, no wasted time. You just plug in and you are done till you leave. Charging at 1.5kW rate for 8 hours means 12kWh, and would be better than what we have now.
Or they could be L2 charging at 6kW but with a 3 hours limit, without having to move the car.

More chargers are needed, they would be lower cost to install, simpler to operate, more reliable since we do not have all this crazy dancing around. Chargers utilization would be higher with less wasted idle times.

Can you recommend some L1 or L2 charger models that can be activated with employees badges? We need a simpler hardware, without bells and whistles, a simple app, no queuing, no cellular network and its monthly fees, robust and reliable for outdoor use.
Thank you!

Like most of you I had a Grizzl-e charger and was working on the $0.03 rebate until the next tier

When switch announced their $0.11 after $1,500 KW I was disappointed that Grizzl-e wouldn't match it or do anything to help out current owners.

So I ordered a swtch charger but the installation wouldn't be one for one because swtch has a pigtail coming out of it and the Grizzl-e you wire your incoming feed directly inside the box

So I bought a 60 amp disconnect and managed to fit it in where the Grizzl-e was and it turned out pretty good

Getting those pigtail wires into the breaker of the disconnect was definitely tricky because it's such a short distance from the base of a disconnect to the breaker.

But after wrestling it with it for a little while I managed to get it in.

I've attached some photos

I’m looking for a second opinion on a residential service calculation, particularly the CEC demand factors and whether an EV charger can be added to an existing 100A service.

Existing service and house:
100A, 120/240V single-phase service

Approximately 180 m² living area

One electric range (nameplate lists 7.50 kW and
10.10 kW)

Electric dryer (nameplate: 115/230V, 24A)

Central AC (208/230V, compressor RLA 11.7A, fan FLA 0.7A)

Natural gas furnace

Natural gas water heater

Proposed EV charger:
Grizzl-E Classic Connect
Configured for 32A charging at 240V
32A × 240V = 7,680W

Preliminary calculation:
Basic living-area load: 6,000W
One electric range: 6,000W demand allowance
AC: approximately 2,852VA using (11.7A + 0.7A) × 230V
Dryer: 5,520VA based on 230V × 24A; using a 25% demand factor gives 1,380VA
EV charger: 7,680W

Furnace and water heater are gas-fired
This gives a preliminary subtotal of approximately 23,912VA. My understanding is that the applicable dwelling calculation may require a minimum calculated load of 24,000W for a dwelling of this size, which would put it right at 100A… Should I worry how close this calculation ends up?

Optional method from 220.82 gives me 94A out of my 100A service is used. Basically no room for anything.
Actual Maximum Demand Method gives me 25A of my 100A service is used.

For actual maximum demand I downloaded hourly (yea, still not 15 minutes resolution as NEC mandates) usage data for a year from electric company website, found absolutely highest usage hour and multiplied by 1.25

Anyone has same experience?

We’ve had the EV chargers at our office building vandalized, with the charging cords cut off—presumably for a minimal amount of scrap metal. Is there a way to design or protect the cords so they can’t be easily cut off?

I have previously posted here about getting an EV charger installed in our condominium and the challenges with City of Palo Alto fire department required EPO.
Since a commercial EPO system for this environment is not available, the City officials are now open to allow us to install a 120V outlet for charging without an EPO for all EV chargers. Hoping that eventually we will find a way to install Level 2 charger, I’m requesting your advice about a future ready installation.

We could have an electrical contractor submit a permit application for a 120V 20A outlet in a locked box (to discourage theft), running two #8 HTTN and a #10 HTTN for ground through a 3/4” EMT conduit from the meter bank to our parking spot. It would go through some off the shelf small enclosure using pass through lugs/tap downstream of our dual pole main breaker. Not sure which would be the best breaker to install in that enclosure and if it is required, which durable 120V 20A outlet to install and how to connect our Tesla Mobile Connector to charge our car. Not sure what else is required by code.
We would leave it plugged in there all the time and plug in the car when we’re at home. It will hopefully get us 4-5 miles of driving range per hour for our 2024 Tesla model 4.

I hope most of it can be salvaged when it comes time for transition to a 208V 24A continuous level 2 charger with EPO control and whatever else is required by code.

Thoughts, ideas?