Unexpected factor in locating your home EVSE

[cgaydos]

Last week the spring on our garage door broke. It was out of service for 6 days until a repairman was available to fix it. Fortunately no cars were in the garage at the time. Also fortunately, I was able to put the 18' cord on our wall-mounted EVSE under the door (which I crowbarred up for the purpose) and there was just enough length for it to be used to charge the LEAF outside the garage.

I've long planned to move our EVSE forward in the garage for better access, but I've dropped those plans. If you are planning on a garage EVSE you might want to consider, as part of location planning, the need to charge outside the garage in the event of door failure.

 

[TomT]

The Leaf portable EVSE and the outlet next to the garage door...

If you are planning on a garage EVSE you might want to consider, as part of location planning, the need to charge outside the garage in the event of door failure.

 

[jsongster]

I did that. My electrician installer was not sure if I was sane as I had a LEAF and the nose of the car would be deep in the garage... but when I explained that I might want to park the LEAF outside someday... or charge other cars in my driveway he relented.

The Portable EVSE is a great idea also but I got one of California's EV Projects Aerovironment chargers. The terms of which include it being direct wired.

I also have more space on my roof for another 10 solar panels which I will likely add if I can ever afford a Tesla with its monstrously thirsty battery. Thankfully now the 34 panels are enough for the house and the car and then some.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

What kind of door do you have???
When my spring broke I was able to open it with my bare hands. Yea, it's heavy like hell, but not unmanageable... When I was calculating spring replacement it put ~60lbs in down position (without spring), but many humans can lift more At worse you should be able to get your neighbor lift and lock the door in open position (there are holes in a track where you can put a locking pin to prevent door from sliding back down)

 

[smkettner]

I had springs installed same day I called.

 

[cgaydos]

What kind of door do you have???
When my spring broke I was able to open it with my bare hands. Yea, it's heavy like hell, but not unmanageable... When I was calculating spring replacement it put ~60lbs in down position (without spring), but many humans can lift more At worse you should be able to get your neighbor lift and lock the door in open position (there are holes in a track where you can put a locking pin to prevent door from sliding back down)

It's some sort of metal alloy with wood facade, and heavy as hell. Two people can open it if needed to without the spring, and the last time a spring broke we did that to get the cars out. But not something you'd like to do regularly. We do not want to leave our garage door open for days at a time in winter as the garage retains heat from the house, so doing so would result in more heat loss. (In the summer we don't leave it open due to inquisitive bears.)

 

[johnrhansen]

I put my EVSE on the post between the man door and the garage door. I got the Aerovironment one when it was on sale at Amazon. Trouble was it only had a 15 foot cord. I'm really glad I put it there, if I park my car in the garage, I back it in and only have to un coil one coil. If my garage fills up with stuff and I can no longer park in there, I just pull up to the door and the cord easily reaches my car.
The only thing that was difficult was getting the electricity there. I'm pretty good at bending conduit though, and it turned out really nice.

 

[cgaydos]

I had springs installed same day I called.

And you're in warm Orange County.

In the summer we get garage door service the same day. During very cold spells (which here means below 0 F) lots of garage doors fail so everyone is backed up. Kind of like how A/C repair firms are backed up during heat waves.

 

[braineo]

Don't all Garage Door Openers have an “emergency release latch” mechanism that allows you to operate the garage door manually in the event you lose power ?

It is just a pull string to diable the automatic opener rail.

 

[johnrhansen]

Probably was one of those big 2 car doors. Extremely heavy. I let one of those springs get away from me once and it took 2 guys to lift the door up. Those springs aren't too hard to replace. You just have to put the tension in the spring when the door is up, not down. (that's why the spring got away from me).. Pulling the release string will not do it. That's for the opener. If your spring is broke you aren't opening the door unless you are a weightlifting champion.

 

[RonDawg]

Don't all Garage Door Openers have an “emergency release latch” mechanism that allows you to operate the garage door manually in the event you lose power ?

It is just a pull string to diable the automatic opener rail.

Yes but that's not the problem the OP faced. His garage door spring broke, and unlatching the door from the motor won't do any good.

Also, let's not forget different door styles. If you have a rollup 2 car garage door with a single large torsion-style spring, and that breaks, that's going to be much more difficult to lift up than garage doors that use 2, or in my case, 4 smaller springs, but where only one breaks.

In the nearly 15 years I've lived at my current home, I've replaced all 4 springs on my door (plywood faced on a 2x4 frame, "Holmes" type pivoting hardware, very typical SoCal until about the 1990's) as they have broken, but no two have ever broken at once. In fact, each time a spring broke, there was enough counterbalance for the opener to be able to lift the door.

 

[Graffi]

When I had the AV EVSE installed I had it placed in the middle of the right hand side of the 2-car garage, and requested the 25 ft cable. The electrician tried to talk me out of it because the Breaker Box was on the left side of the garage.

I did it this way because we park the Leaf nose in on the right side, and the ICE is backed in on the left side. This way the driver doors are both in the middle with lots of room to open the doors.

We wanted the 25 ft cable so we could plug in to either side, either direction, or also reach the driveway outside the garage to plug in from either position (total of 6 positions to plug in the EV). Glad we did it that way. It was at the max 30 ft of run allowed with the California Energy Commission, CEC, free charger program. We did have to pay for the permit, but out total cost of the 240v EVSE was $206.40. We will have to claim that on our taxes so we can get back 30% of that.

 

[cgaydos]

Probably was one of those big 2 car doors. Extremely heavy. I let one of those springs get away from me once and it took 2 guys to lift the door up. Those springs aren't too hard to replace. You just have to put the tension in the spring when the door is up, not down. (that's why the spring got away from me).. Pulling the release string will not do it. That's for the opener. If your spring is broke you aren't opening the door unless you are a weightlifting champion.

You're exactly right, that's what it is.

 

[cgaydos]

Don't all Garage Door Openers have an “emergency release latch” mechanism that allows you to operate the garage door manually in the event you lose power ?

It is just a pull string to diable the automatic opener rail.

Yes but that's not the problem the OP faced. His garage door spring broke, and unlatching the door from the motor won't do any good.

Also, let's not forget different door styles. If you have a rollup 2 car garage door with a single large torsion-style spring, and that breaks, that's going to be much more difficult to lift up than garage doors that use 2, or in my case, 4 smaller springs, but where only one breaks.

In the nearly 15 years I've lived at my current home, I've replaced all 4 springs on my door (plywood faced on a 2x4 frame, "Holmes" type pivoting hardware, very typical SoCal until about the 1990's) as they have broken, but no two have ever broken at once. In fact, each time a spring broke, there was enough counterbalance for the opener to be able to lift the door.

Yes, that's correct - single spring, rollup-2 car garage door.