Portable Charge Cable for 2018 LEAF?

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One of the reasons it's hard to find good information on wiring here is we have no shortage of backyard electricians posting bad and/or dangerous info on wiring. We do have two or three actual electricians, but they are vastly outnumbered by the 'Sparklers.'
 
LeftieBiker said:
One of the reasons it's hard to find good information on wiring here is we have no shortage of backyard electricians posting bad and/or dangerous info on wiring. We do have two or three actual electricians, but they are vastly outnumbered by the 'Sparkies.'
I find the above speculative comment insulting. :x
I am a master electrician 30 years experience ( aka "sparky") and to categorize like that speaks of your level of intelligence.
 
If "Sparky" denotes a Master Electrician then I'll change the comment. Not knowing a professional slang term isn't the same as being stupid, BTW. I won't try to correlate intelligence with duplicate posting. ;-)
 
ElectricEddy said:
LeftieBiker said:
One of the reasons it's hard to find good information on wiring here is we have no shortage of backyard electricians posting bad and/or dangerous info on wiring. We do have two or three actual electricians, but they are vastly outnumbered by the 'Sparkies.'
I find the above speculative comment insulting. :x
I am a master electrician 30 years experience ( aka "sparky") and to categorize like that speaks of your level of intelligence.


There both good and "not so good" electricians, I wonk on residential projects with major electrical outfits and some are really good and some seasoned people look at you like you are crazy when you quote a NEMA outlet designation. Really depends on what type of work they do. I work with those "experts" that know LED lighting yet they have no idea about the various load types, ballasts, etc. My favorite is when they ask "how many amps is that outlet"? One of the issues is big firms assigning work to new employees. This does apply to many trades however.

This is why I say hire someone "qualified" and experienced with 240V systems. Electricity is not something good to practice DIY, better to mess up your sheetrock or something else .
 
LeftieBiker said:
If "Sparky" denotes a Master Electrician then I'll change the comment. Not knowing a professional slang term isn't the same as being stupid, BTW. I won't try to correlate intelligence with duplicate posting. ;-)
My mistake on the double post, sometimes this forum does that.
 
EVDRIVER said:
mike99ca said:
A quick question.
Does anyone knows how long the overall 2018 EVSE is?
I'm trying to figure out where to install the power outlet so I have enough distance to my car.
My car usually parks second in driveway behind my wife's van so I'm not sure it will be long enough.

Also I can't find any useful information on 14-50 outlet wiring on this board and a lot of the information on here is misleading too so here is little information for people who wants to install it themselves.

If you are looking for an outdoor outlet you can buy RV outdoor outlet box like this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000BQWP56/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521821349&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=RV+50+box&dpPl=1&dpID=41kaWrlXp9L&ref=plSrch
(not an affiliate link) and install it outside of your house.
For 2018 Leaf you need to bring 3x 8awg copper wires. 2 are for power and one green for grounding though that one can be smaller 10awg. 4th white wire (middle one) is not needed if you use it only for charging the Car. It's not used. This set up requires 2 pole 40A breaker since any residential breakers can continuously only run on maximum 80% of rated capacity.
Alternatively you can run 6awg wires and install 50A breaker to future proof your installation if you ever buy car that charges at up to 40 amps.

One more thing I would like to point out.
If you live in north America you don't have 240V in your residence as I see referenced to all the time on this board.
What you have is 120V/208V
There's no such thing as 230V or 240V. Industrial plants or some businesses may have transformers installed for that voltage as it may be required by certain equipment.

Also I just registered to write this but will be more active in future. I ordered my Leaf 2 days ago and can't wait to bring it home :cool:

Mike



You have 120/240V in a residence NOT 208, 240V is two opposite legs of 120V. 208 is commercial power not residential , you have two separate legs of 120V to your home. You don't need a neutral and you need wire for a 50A circuit based on your run length and a 50A breaker to have a 50A outlet by code. This is a 20% derate for the 50A outlet to a 40A continuous load.

This illustrates why people should hire a licensed and qualified electrician as there is so much poor information even with some in the trade. Additionally your panel does not just have to have two breaker slots for the load it needs to be rated for the full outlet load based on the other loads in the panel, etc, etc, etc.

Hire a professional:)
+1 :)
And yes, "sparky" is a common trades term for an electrician.
 
EVDRIVER said:
You don't need a neutral and you need wire for a 50A circuit based on your run length and a 50A breaker to have a 50A outlet by code.

If the Nissan adapter is a 30A device, it could be installed with a 40A breaker. There is no 14-40 Receptacle/Plug.

ClipperCreek, for instance, shows the HCS40P installed with a 14-50 Receptacle on a 40 or 50A breaker.
 
ClarD said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don't need a neutral and you need wire for a 50A circuit based on your run length and a 50A breaker to have a 50A outlet by code.

If the Nissan adapter is a 30A device, it could be installed with a 40A breaker. There is no 14-40 Receptacle/Plug.

ClipperCreek, for instance, shows the HCS40P installed with a 14-50 Receptacle on a 40 or 50A breaker.
Yeah, EVDriver is always more interested in sounding holier than thou than he is in being accurate or helpful. In this case, you certainly can install a 40a circuit with a 14-50, and you certainly DO need to run the neutral (because it's a 14-50). You could install a 6-50 and skip the neutral, but then you'd need an third party adapter since I don't think Nissan sells a 6-50 adapter for their EVSE.

I do agree that most people should be using an electrician for this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to learn about their options first.
 
davewill said:
ClarD said:
EVDRIVER said:
You don't need a neutral and you need wire for a 50A circuit based on your run length and a 50A breaker to have a 50A outlet by code.

If the Nissan adapter is a 30A device, it could be installed with a 40A breaker. There is no 14-40 Receptacle/Plug.

ClipperCreek, for instance, shows the HCS40P installed with a 14-50 Receptacle on a 40 or 50A breaker.
Yeah, EVDriver is always more interested in sounding holier than thou than he is in being accurate or helpful. In this case, you certainly can install a 40a circuit with a 14-50, and you certainly DO need to run the neutral (because it's a 14-50). You could install a 6-50 and skip the neutral, but then you'd need an third party adapter since I don't think Nissan sells a 6-50 adapter for their EVSE.

I do agree that most people should be using an electrician for this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to learn about their options first.

Codes vary in different areas relating to circuit requirements for 14-50 outlets however you technically do not need a neutral to operate the EVSE but it is required for inspection for that outlet in most cases which is why I stated earlier to use an electrician. If you have a 40A breaker on a 14-50 and there is a 40A load which is allowed by code on that 50A outlet you would be exceeding the 80% rating of the breaker unless it is a specialized continuous load breaker which is very rare and also subject to approval. The device being plugged in does not determine the breaker rating for the outlet, the outlet rating determines the breaker and circuit rating.
 
By all means hire an electrician. Request a 14-50 outlet for your big RV. They know how to do this, Do not confuse him by referring to an electric car's EVSE.
 
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