Aerovironment EVSE install information

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Hi everyone,

Wish I had read this thread before I was scammed out of the $100 estimate fee. This is my gouging in Stoughton, WI.

Shipping and Delivery 1 49.95

Charging Dock, Wall Mount 25' Cable 1 721.12

Installation Permit and Processing 1 120.00

Custom Installation 1 1,606

Total(before tax) $ 2,497.08

Sales Tax $ 119.49 Total US $ 2,616.57

This is very distasteful in what has been otherwise a great experience. I will attempt purchasing the charger separately and finding an independent electrician that can do the install.
 
Had a second estimate by a local electrician. The cost of the work will be 395. If I purchase the Leviton charger from amazon the total cost will be around 1400. Compare to 2600!

I have been thinking about this and I think Nissan bears some responsibility. After all, they are the ones that recommend Aeroenvironment and should work with us in attempting to get a refund for the estimate. I did contact Nissan but they were unwilling to discuss offering or help with a refund for the estimate. Not a good start for the EV purchasing experience.
 
It is about time for Nissan to change that arrangement. It is a very different story for Volt buyers, they have discounted price for Voltec evse -$490 https://homecharging.spx.com/volt/Display.aspx?id=7&menu=14. Wonder why Nissan can't offer something like that. I guess they want to sell more Leaf and in the future ev. Least Nissan can do is to drop requirement for home inspection without asking for waver and provide information what are the options. IMHO 240V evse should be part of the deal. Alric I feel your pain
 
I don't know the final details as I only ordered on Sunday but the Nissan dealer here said they have a recommended installer that will do the installation for $1295. Since I don't know one end of a hammer from a screwdriver, that seems reasonable given some of the other prices posted in the forum. I'll let you know the final details when I get them.
 
It would be interesting to know if the dealer is recommending an installer that is not AV.
 
The dealer in KC is partnering with LillyPad (http://www.lilypadev.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I'll know more on Monday when they arrive for the assessment.
 
Local electrician did install of a Leviton for $395 as opposed to the $1600 labor quoted by AV. To be fair the Leviton install was for a 16A line while the AV EVSE requires 40A (I believe).

Would this affect labor costs much? Thanks.
 
Hello All, I Can not find my Aerovironment EVSE owner's manual anywhere after I finished installation. does anyone have a pdf copy or extra paper copy or if you are in the Sacramento/Davis area if you wouldn't mind if I borrow it for a few hours to make a copy of the manual?
If you can help please e-mail me at [email protected]
Thanks
Venk
 
Alric said:
Local electrician did install of a Leviton for $395 as opposed to the $1600 labor quoted by AV. To be fair the Leviton install was for a 16A line while the AV EVSE requires 40A (I believe).

Would this affect labor costs much? Thanks.
Very little extra labor or materials to go 40 amps unless new main panel is required.
 
Putting a comment here in hope of reaching new Leaf purchasers. Please consider adding an inexpensive power monitor such as the EKM25-IDS on the EVSE charger circuit when it is installed. It is the *only* way you will be able to quantifiably establish your battery capacity and any degradation you may encounter later. There are so many of us who wish we had...
 
Alric said:
Local electrician did install of a Leviton for $395 as opposed to the $1600 labor quoted by AV. To be fair the Leviton install was for a 16A line while the AV EVSE requires 40A (I believe).

Would this affect labor costs much? Thanks.

No, not at all. Assuming that you have space for the breakers and enough capacity in your electrical panel (if not that's a separate problem), then the process is identical for a 40A circuit vs anything lower... the only difference is that for a higher amp circuit they have to use a thicker wire. I'm guessing here, but the wire for the circuit itself is MAYBE 80 cents or a dollar more per foot.. so if you have an 80 foot run from the panel to the outlet or EVSE, you're talking about an incremental difference of something like $75 in materials.

The installation at the panel is identical... a 40A 240v two-pole circuit breaker isn't significantly more expensive than a 15A or 20A breaker... I think a 40A 2-pole breaker is like 20 bucks.

(note, one suggestion that I have for everyone is if you're going to get a circuit run anywhere in your house for something like this, get the wire itself run at a high current capacity. The labor to run and terminate the circuit is much higher than what you save by getting a smaller/cheaper wire). I think it's quite reasonable to assume that in the future we could see 40A or even 70A charging stations becoming pretty common... although if you're going to start talking about 70A, there are a lot of houses that will need to have their utility service upgraded, or they'll need to have some intelligence added so that the 70A charger in the garage isn't being used at the same time as other high-power devices in the home (dryers, water heaters, heat/AC units, etc)
 
Alric said:
Had a second estimate by a local electrician. The cost of the work will be 395. If I purchase the Leviton charger from amazon the total cost will be around 1400. Compare to 2600!

I have been thinking about this and I think Nissan bears some responsibility. After all, they are the ones that recommend Aeroenvironment and should work with us in attempting to get a refund for the estimate. I did contact Nissan but they were unwilling to discuss offering or help with a refund for the estimate. Not a good start for the EV purchasing experience.

You can install a very basic 20A 240V outlet and get the EVSE in your car upgraded for under $300 form evseupgrade. A 20A 240V outlet is usually very inexpensive.
 
A local electrician quoted me $300 with parts and labor for a 40A 240V outlet in my garage. Fortunately my circuit breaker box is in the garage and he'll only need to run wire/conduit about 10'.

Seems like a plug in EVSE unit is a no brainer!

If you don't have a handy electrician, I suggest checking out yelp.com or angie's list and get other's feedback.
 
I paid the electrician $360 for parts and labor.


my circuit breaker panel is in the basement, and we used 80 feet of 10 gauge wire, to install the EVSE in my car garage.
 
Here is how I installed my EVSE and what it cost as of the end of March, 2013:
Preliminaries:
1. I am not a licensed electrician, but I have worked with and installed household electrical circuits all of my working life, most of which have been state inspected and passed with inspector's comments: "this is better work than we see from licensed contractors".
2. I spend 3 hours researching electrical code and equipment manufacturers' manuals for every 1 hour of actual work. I consult with a friend who is a working licensed electrician to verify all information meets current local code.
3. I own several thousand dollars' worth of professional electricians' tools and manuals.
4. I get a permit from Labor & Industries (L&I) and have the work inspected and passed.
Those who don't have (or want to mess with) the above should retain a professional electrical installer. This is the "overhead cost" that a professional licensed electrician must cover in his bids, so it's understandable that the bids seem excessive to some folks. In my case, the cost would have been $900 for labor.
Installation:
1. Surveyed and inspected proposed cable run, researched NEC requirements, determined wire type and size, breaker type & size, configuration of EVSE (plug-in vs. hard-wired), applied for permit.
2. Selected plug-in Nissan-branded EVSE from Aerovironment (available on Amazon.com for $1,049 with free shipping); ordered same. The plug-in feature allows me to move the charger to another location in the future if I want to.
3. Prepared the cable run: in this case, an open basement ceiling and large crawl space allowed easy access, and engineered floor joists with knock-out holes made it pretty easy to access the garage.
4. Purchased 40-amp Cutler-Hammer circuit breaker, cable clamps and type NM-B (Romex) 6-2/G cable, 60 feet needed
5. Purchased a 50-amp wall receptacle to match the plug on the EVSE and a quad receptacle box & cover for same;
6. Cut a square hole in the sheet rock at the proposed plug location (as large as needed to run the cable)
7. Drill holes as needed, run cable, strip and route cable as needed; call for cover inspection.
8. Connect plug receptacle, secure box to studs, secure plug to box;
9. Kill power to panel, route and install wiring to breaker. Repair sheet rock as needed.
10. Mount EVSE wall bracket per mfg recommendations.
11. Call for final inspection. After passed, energize breaker and verify voltage & grounding (meter required).
12. Plug in EVSE and test (all okay) - DONE!
Total cost = $1,049 EVSE; $160 (Cable, breaker, box, clamps, misc) + Permit $89= $1,298.00.
The next project is more expensive: 10KW of solar panels.
 
Congratulations Petecomp1 on such a thorough job. I had done likewise. When Nissan first came out they were saying a 30A 240V circuit would be adequate. Then as it got closer to the launch of the LEAF they changed the specs to 40A 240V. I suspect that was in anticipation of the 6.6 kW charger to match Ford's. Luckily, I was building the garage at the time and was able to tear out the 10 ga. wire and put in about 30 feet of 8 ga. and upgraded the breaker to 40A before I put up the drywall. I'm a little concerned that SKY888 used 80 feet of 10 ga wire for his set up. That may be okay if he never opts for the 6.6 kW charger and stays with the 3.3 kW charger, but the extra cost is so little for the heavier wire in relation to the labor that I'm surprised that he didn't go with the 40A set up.
 
Looks like a great product. How do you install this such that the completed installation meets electrical code?

NM I found this: http://www.ekmmetering.com/ekm-metering-products/enclosures-and-mounts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TickTock said:
Putting a comment here in hope of reaching new Leaf purchasers. Please consider adding an inexpensive power monitor such as the EKM25-IDS on the EVSE charger circuit when it is installed. It is the *only* way you will be able to quantifiably establish your battery capacity and any degradation you may encounter later. There are so many of us who wish we had...
 
srl99 said:
... NM I found this: http://www.ekmmetering.com/ekm-metering-products/enclosures-and-mounts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TickTock said:
... Please consider adding an inexpensive power monitor such as the EKM25-IDS on the EVSE charger circuit when it is installed...
I'm scoping an EVSE install. This is a great nugget.

Now a newbie question: how can one obtain a historical log of EVSE usage? It could be a feature of the meter or the EVSE unit. Do existing products include such capability? (How about the Open EVSE platform with, in theory, I could build?)
 
Is it possible to wire the Aerovironment Home EVSE into a "portable" charger? I received a free Aerovironment Home EVSE with the Leaf I leased from Fontana (Thanks Danny!) and I have a 14-30 dryer receptacle that isn't being used (I have a gas dryer that only requires 120v). The dryer circuit is on a 40A breaker. I plan to wire a 14-50 cord (higher amps than 14-30) into the EVSE and cut off the neutral contact on the cord. I will unplug the EVSE when not in use so that I do not run both the dryer and EVSE at the same time. Is there an issue that I am not aware of with my plan? Any suggestions?
 
vsiev said:
Is it possible to wire the Aerovironment Home EVSE into a "portable" charger? I received a free Aerovironment Home EVSE with the Leaf I leased from Fontana (Thanks Danny!) and I have a 14-30 dryer receptacle that isn't being used (I have a gas dryer that only requires 120v). The dryer circuit is on a 40A breaker. I plan to wire a 14-50 cord (higher amps than 14-30) into the EVSE and cut off the neutral contact on the cord. I will unplug the EVSE when not in use so that I do not run both the dryer and EVSE at the same time. Is there an issue that I am not aware of with my plan? Any suggestions?
Putting a cord on the AV isn't difficult, although you should keep in mind that it wasn't designed to be portable and treat it carefully when moving it. But if you're not going to carry it around a lot, and just want to move it occasionally, you'll be fine.

I'm more concerned with your circuit. If the dryer outlet is a 14-30, then it should be on a 30a breaker, not a 40a. In your shoes, I'd take a closer look at the breaker, the outlet, and the wiring to be sure that you really have a properly wired 40a circuit. I'd be afraid you either actually have a 30a breaker, or that some bozo in the past upped the breaker, but NOT the wiring and receptacle. A 30a circuit won't support the AV, unfortunately, and I don't think there's a way to adjust the AV down to the max 24a limit required to use a normal 30a dryer circuit. If the wiring and the breaker are OK, then you should probably change the receptacle to a 14-50.
 
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