Newbie needs help with outlet placement

[Rktennis]

Hi,
I am awaiting a 2011 Black SL/QC Leaf and I'm trying to get my ducks in a row before it arrives in terms of charging...

I am pretty sure that I will try what other members are doing and go with trickle charging as my main mode of "getting juice". I have an outlet in my garage already (120v 15amp) but I have a fridge plugged into that one. I have an electrician coming out to install another 120v outlet, but don't know best placement. I have read complaints that the EVSE box is very close to the end and it dangles/strains the cord if the outlet is up too high (more than a foot off the ground).

So should I have the new outlet placed nearer the floor or am I asking for trouble due to possible water issues (I'm guessing that is why garage outlets are placed 4 feet up on the wall)? I read others placing hooks/stands to hold the box, but if there are no issues with placing the outlet low, I will go for that.

Also, is it better to have the outlet in front of the car or to the side of the car? I am parking in the garage bay closest to the house entrance and if side placement is ok, then it would be less likely to trip my wife.

TIA!

 

[davewill]

The EVSE has holes you can use to hang it. I personally vote for keeping it off the ground (just seems neater), so I'd just screw a hook into the wall below the outlet and use a bungee cord or some such to hang it.

The cable is approx 18 ft. long (?? not positive about that number, but it's not shorter than that). Use a tape measure and be sure it will reach from where you put the outlet. I put mine at the front of the garage between the two cars so that a car that pulls in forward has the nose close to the EVSE, and the cable can reach either parking spot, but every garage is a little different.

P.S. If you're paying an electrician anyway, have him run a 240v circuit alongside the new 120v one. You will then be ready to upgrade your EVSE (http://www.evseupgrade.com) or buy some other EVSE for L2 charging later.

Details for the 240v circuit: Have him size the wire for 40amps. If you have the capacity in your panel, have a 40amp breaker and a NEMA 6-50 outlet installed, if not, use an L6-20 outlet and a 20amp breaker.

 

[Volusiano]

If you prefer to place the outlet on the side, I would suggest you have the electrician place 2 outlets one on each side of the garage anyway so you have the flexibility of parking on either side of the garage if you want. It should not be that much more to add a second outlet if the electrician's already out there on the same job. It'll also give you an option to have a second electric car a few years from now if you choose to. I would second Davewill's recommendation to wire for 40amps NEMA 6-50 as well. Eventually home EVSE will be cheap enough for you to get one so you can keep your portable EVSE in the car for mobile application.

 

[CJF]

Consider the possibility of putting the outlet overhead.

I installed the SPX Power Express EVSE on a beam that runs through the garage and is located over the area that the cars hood is when the vehicle is parked in the garage. When the EVSE is plugged into the car there is no cord to trip over, it drops down from the ceiling. When we unplug the EVSE we just pull the cord to the side of the car and place it on two hooks on the overhead beam in the garage (directly adjacent to the drivers door of the Leaf) and it's now out of the way.

It works for us.

Cheers,

Corey

 

[davewill]

Consider the possibility of putting the outlet overhead.

Love to see pics of that one. Might not work out if using the Nissan L1 since you'd want to unplug it and take it with you, but otherwise sounds very cool.

 

[thankyouOB]

You would do well to get the EVSE upgrade from Ingineer. Click on the add right at the center of the top of the page with url
evseupgrade.com.

get that and install a 220 volt outlet.

If I did not have the free evproject install, I would have done that.

 

[Rktennis]

Thank you everyone. Great suggestions. I will actually place the new outlet next to the existing one. It is right in between where we park the cars and I'll keep it at the same height and use the hook technique to support the evse box.

A question about the 240v outlet. I was thinking of getting one installed if it's not too much extra. However, I was going to ask for the L6-20 that evseupgrade.com recommends. What is the benefit of the 40amp...is that the future of charging, or does some of the permanent chargers pull that much amperage? I checked out my electric panel. There are no empty spots, but I remember when I was looking into putting an HVAC unit in my basement, the electrician told me I had some room (I guess they remove some 120v 15amp and put in those smaller ones?) and they wouldn't have to put in a new panel...so I'm hoping for the best with that.

 

[smkettner]

My outlet is a bit to the side. I use a 6' appliance extension cord (#14 wire) with 90 degree plug that hangs straight down. The L1 brick sits under the workbench out of the way. J connector either sits on the bench or is in the front port. Works for me until next year I will probably get a wall unit.

 

[davewill]

...A question about the 240v outlet. I was thinking of getting one installed if it's not too much extra. However, I was going to ask for the L6-20 that evseupgrade.com recommends. What is the benefit of the 40amp...is that the future of charging, or does some of the permanent chargers pull that much amperage?

Essentially, yes. Most of the mainstream EVSEs will supply 30a, which means you need a 40a circuit. The LEAF, however, won't pull more than 16a, anyway. The EVSE upgrade and the Leviton only need a 20a circuit, some of the others (SPX, Blink) can be configured for a 20a circuit, and some can only be installed on a 40a circuit (AV, ??). It's strictly future proofing, mainly for a future car at that...so if it's easier/cheaper to just do the 20a circuit, it's not a big deal. I only suggested the 40a because labor is the lion's share of the cost, and it takes no longer to do the 40a circuit.

 

[Volusiano]

I checked out my electric panel. There are no empty spots, but I remember when I was looking into putting an HVAC unit in my basement, the electrician told me I had some room (I guess they remove some 120v 15amp and put in those smaller ones?) and they wouldn't have to put in a new panel...so I'm hoping for the best with that.

If you already ran out of slots in your circuit panel, I think the electrician might have replaced the 1-breaker-in-1-slot type with a 2-breakers-in-1 slot type to save some room.

If you want to install a 240V 40A circuit, most likely this will require two 1" slots. So you need to make sure you have two regular 1" slots available on your panel. There are quad breakers available where you can get 1 240V breaker and 2 120V breakers combined using 2 regular slots. But I don't know if this type of 240V breaker can be rated for 40A or not.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

My plan is to run #8 3 conductor + ground, but only put in a 20A two-pole breaker matched to the L6-20 twistlock for the evseupgrade unit. If I switch to a higher capacity EVSE at some point I can just change the breaker. Yeah I know you don't need the neutral but who knows, a future EVSE might need it. I'm not sure you can even buy 8/2+G romex. (correction, yes you can but not sure it is as readily available at places like home depot)

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

If you already ran out of slots in your circuit panel, I think the electrician might have replaced the 1-breaker-in-1-slot type with a 2-breakers-in-1 slot type to save some room.

I have also theorized at some point it should be possible to combine the lighting circuits onto a single 15A breaker if the bulbs are all changed to CFL or LED.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

One additional note on moving existing circuits around... hopefully any professional electrician will take appropriate care in this, but watch out for circuits that share a common neutral. Make sure you keep them on opposite phases.

 

[ERG4ALL]

The following are my two cents. I would recommend that even if you don't get a 240V wall unit immediately, it might be better to be prepared for a wall unit or the "evseupgrade" unit. Also, when the batteries improve and we get the double range that Mr. Ghosn has promised, the trickle charging may take considerably longer and you will wish for the 240V units.

I've been following the LEAF for about 2 years now. Initially they were recommending 240V 30A circuit for the AeroVironment wall EVSE. I was building the garage at the time so I had the electrician put in #10 wire. As it got closer sometime last year the recommendation changed to 240V 40A so I had to rip out the wire and put in #8 with a 40A breaker. Fortunately that was before we put up the drywall. What I believe happened was that Nissan knew they would eventually go to a 6.6 kW charger (Ford may have tipped their hand) in the car. If the utility is supplying 220V you are at the max. on a 30A circuit, so a 40A is needed.

One other thing I did because of thunder storms is that I put in a 240V surge suppressor because we live in the country and get frequent momentary outages during those storms. As I posted before elsewhere we got some error messages in the LEAF while it was charging during a thunder storm. Fortunately, everything reset itself once it went through a normal charging cycle.

And lastly, I mounted the circuit to the side of the car on the driver's side. It's handy when I get out of the car. The cable is plenty long enough that I have charged the car even when it parked in the other space. Also, I figure, down the road some cars will have the charge port where the traditional gas filler pipe is located so by having the cable in the middle I only have to unhook one loop of cable to reach either charging location. Thus, when I'm not charging it is easy just to have to put one loop on the wall instead of looping the entire cable.

 

[thankyouOB]

my wife solved the which-side-to-install-it-on problem along with the what-if-we-have-two-EVs issue:
she told me it doesnt matter, you can back it in. the back-up camera makes that simple.

 

[aqn]

The EVSE has holes you can use to hang it. I personally vote for keeping it off the ground (just seems neater), so I'd just screw a hook into the wall below the outlet and use a bungee cord or some such to hang it.

That is, something like this:

 

[garygid]

Why is the cover on this box installed with its up-side down and its down-side up?

 

[DaveEV]

Why is the cover on this box installed with its up-side down and its down-side up?

I do believe that there is an echo in here, lol! See Gary's near identical post from May on the same picture.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=94555#p94555

 

[N952JL]

Consider the possibility of putting the outlet overhead.

I installed the SPX Power Express EVSE on a beam that runs through the garage and is located over the area that the cars hood is when the vehicle is parked in the garage. When the EVSE is plugged into the car there is no cord to trip over, it drops down from the ceiling. When we unplug the EVSE we just pull the cord to the side of the car and place it on two hooks on the overhead beam in the garage (directly adjacent to the drivers door of the Leaf) and it's now out of the way.

It works for us.

Cheers,

Corey

I would love to see pictures of this as well. I wonder if there is a way to have the cord retrack up to the ceiling when not in use?

Dec 2011 deliviery date.