2019 SV - Charging at 1.4 kW on 220V outlet

[rbcam]

Hi, all

I just had a 220V outlet installed at home today, and hooked up my 2019 Leaf SV with the standard cable. The Leaf has previously charged at public level 2 stations at over 5 kW, but when connected to my 220V outlet it reports on the in-car display that it's charging at 1.4 kW.

Is there a setting in the car that I should try tweaking? Or is it more likely that my electrician made a mistake when installing the 220V outlet?

Thanks

- richard

 

[LeftieBiker]

First, it's likely a 240 volt outlet - 220 and 115 volts are from the last century. If the outlet is a NEMA-compliant 240 volt outlet, then it likely was mis-wired as 120 volts, or the wiring has an open circuit in one of the two "hot" wires. Still the charging cable also could be defective - assuming that it is the dual-voltage 120/240 volt unit. That unit, BTW, requires a 40 amp or greater circuit, as a 30 amp dryer circuit would be drawing too much amperage (27.5) for its rating for continuous use.

I haven't seen this particular problem before. Please let us know what it turns out to be!

 

[rbcam]

Thanks for the extremely prompt reply!

I will test the voltage between the two hot slots and the neutral slot.

Do you know whether all 4 terminals of the NEMA 14-50 outlet need to be connected? I imagine both hot terminals are needed to provide 220/240V, and presumably the ground terminal is needed for safety. But does the EVSE rely on the neutral terminal being connected?

Thanks!

- richard

 

[LeftieBiker]

You don't need the Neutral connection. In fact, most EVSE installations don't use a Neutral wire, although a range type outlet usually has one even though not all appliances that use them require it.

You want to test between the two Hot slots (one at a time) and the ground hole. You will likely find that one Hot wires isn't connected properly. I'm surprised that the EVSE will charge at 120 volts this way...

 

[jjeff]

1.4kw would indeed be 12a @ 120v so it sounds like your 240v outlet has an issue. You'll want to measure the voltage between the 2 outermost sockets of your outlet, it should be close to 240v, for sure not 120v. You could also measure between either of the outermost sockets and either the round ground or other middle socket the neutral.
While an L2 EVSE doesn't need a neutral I wouldn't expect an electrician to not hook it up, it could be downright dangerous if something like a RV plugged in and didn't have a neutral.
I'm going to attach a link showing the pinout of a 14-50 outlet, on the right side a few pages down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector

 

[Flyct]

Thanks for the extremely prompt reply!

I will test the voltage between the two hot slots and the neutral slot.

Do you know whether all 4 terminals of the NEMA 14-50 outlet need to be connected? I imagine both hot terminals are needed to provide 220/240V, and presumably the ground terminal is needed for safety. But does the EVSE rely on the neutral terminal being connected?

Thanks!

- richard

Richard,

A properly wired 14-50R receptacle always should have neutral, ground and 2 hot legs wired by code. I’m not sure if the Nissan 120/240v charger requires a neutral or not.

Where are you located? If you post your location perhaps someone here can have you plug into their receptacle to verify your EVSE is working properly.

Here’s a picture of my Nissan EVSE plugged into a 14-50R for my 2019 SL that I wired in my barn at my cabin.

 

[goldbrick]

Are you sure you have a 240V EVSE cable? What kind of plug is on the end of the cable and what does the EVSE say on the brick part?

 

[LeftieBiker]

Are you sure you have a 240V EVSE cable? What kind of plug is on the end of the cable and what does the EVSE say on the brick part?

I was assuming that if it plugs into a NEMA 14-50 outlet, that it's a 240 volt EVSE...

 

[jjeff]

Are you sure you have a 240V EVSE cable? What kind of plug is on the end of the cable and what does the EVSE say on the brick part?

I was assuming that if it plugs into a 14-50 outlet, that it's a 240 volt EVSE...

14-50 outlet and yes, thats what I was thinking too

 

[LeftieBiker]

Typo fixed.

OK, that's odd! I changed what I wrote, and your post changed as well. I swear I didn't edit your post...

Also, I don't think what I wrote originally was wrong. I typed "14-50", right?

 

[edorfox]

Is the charging menu set to the proper level? I think you hit "OK" when viewing the charging, then arrow down to what you are charging with.
...Or, something's messed up with your new wiring. :shock:

 

[jjeff]

Typo fixed.

OK, that's odd! I changed what I wrote, and your post changed as well. I swear I didn't edit your post...

Also, I don't think what I wrote originally was wrong. I typed "14-50", right?

No originally you typo'd 15-50 and yes normally on forums if you edit your post it wouldn't edit a quote of that post, which is why I'm sometimes reluctant to quote a post with a typo.....odd.

 

[rbcam]

Thanks for all the helpful info and suggestions!

In the end, the problem turned out to be a mistake by the electrician: on the breaker in the panel, he had connected one of the hot wires to the neutral terminal. As soon as he switched it over to the 2nd hot terminal, the outlet tested correctly. The Leaf now happily charges at 6.6 kW.

- richard

 

[Durandal]

Thanks for all the helpful info and suggestions!

In the end, the problem turned out to be a mistake by the electrician: on the breaker in the panel, he had connected one of the hot wires to the neutral terminal. As soon as he switched it over to the 2nd hot terminal, the outlet tested correctly. The Leaf now happily charges at 6.6 kW.

- richard

Good lord, don't use THAT electrician again. He should have verified the voltages at the outlet prior to departure. Laaaaazy.

 

[LeftieBiker]

We once hired a "Master Electrician" who wired a new refrigerator/freezer circuit into a 10 amp lighting circuit, instead of the junction box I'd installed in a new 20 amp circuit. His response was that he'd "forgotten" where it was, even though I'd showed him when I got the estimate. It took me a while to figure out why the refrigerator and freezer only ran when I went down to the cellar - he'd used the basement light circuit.

 

[Nubo]

Thanks for all the helpful info and suggestions!

In the end, the problem turned out to be a mistake by the electrician: on the breaker in the panel, he had connected one of the hot wires to the neutral terminal. As soon as he switched it over to the 2nd hot terminal, the outlet tested correctly. The Leaf now happily charges at 6.6 kW.

- richard

I'm no expert, but I didn't think a 240V breaker even had a neutral terminal. You might want to get a real electrician to look over this work.

 

[jjeff]

Thanks for all the helpful info and suggestions!

In the end, the problem turned out to be a mistake by the electrician: on the breaker in the panel, he had connected one of the hot wires to the neutral terminal. As soon as he switched it over to the 2nd hot terminal, the outlet tested correctly. The Leaf now happily charges at 6.6 kW.

- richard

I'm no expert, but I didn't think a 240V breaker even had a neutral terminal. You might want to get a real electrician to look over this work.

It doesn't(well except maybe a GFI breaker) he must have ran a hot to one side of the breaker and a neutral wire to the other side(which should have been another hot, the opposite phase). I guess if it's working now it's probably OK but let's just hope he fully tightened the screws :?

 

[rbcam]

It is in fact a GFCI breaker. It has three terminals. The instruction sheet for it makes it clear that the outer two terminals are hot and the middle one neutral. As I said, because the electrician mistakenly connected one of the hot wires to the neutral terminal (and the other hot wire to a hot terminal), I was only getting 120V between the "hot" slots in the outlet.

He also mistakenly connected the neutral wire to the neutral bar in the panel, rather than to the neutral terminal. I decided this didn't matter, since apparently the EVSE does not use the neutral connection in the outlet.

 

[goldbrick]

Take this with a grain of salt as I didn't even know there was such a thing as a GFCI 240V phase breaker until I saw this thread, but....after some quick research (Mike Holt forums rule!) it seems as though the most common use of these breakers is in circuits that do not use a neutral at the load. The neutral wire of the breaker does need to be connected to the neutral bus in the panel so the circuitry inside the breaker itself can operate correctly but it seems like in most cases there is no neutral connection at the load end.

Glad you got it figured out and thanks for sharing and educating us (or at least me).