What size Breaker at the Box should i use for a Plus Model Leaf?

I have A Nissan Charger 220 volts that the dealers used to sell
I have had it for 5 years and use a dedicated 220 line from the Circut breaker box
with a 30 amp Breaker it worked Fine on my 2015 leaf
Now that i have a Leaf Plus should i Install a 50 amp breaker
To speed up the charging??

First, 240 volts is now the grid standard for home wiring, along with 120 volts.

Second, you need to find out how many amps your existing charger can use. If it is already "maxed out" then there is not a lot of point in upgrading the wiring unless you also buy a new charging station. (The actual charger is in the car.)

Third, while a higher output charging station will charge the ePlus faster (as long as your old station isn't already giving the car all the amperage it can handle), do you need faster charging? If you have, say, a 24 amp charging station, you can only go up to 27.5 amps charging rate anyway - that's the maximum the car can use.

I don't have any information on the charger no paperwork came with it
I bought it used on e bay its the round charger and says Nissan on it its white
Its the Charger Nissan dealers used to sell for $1000.00 in fact when
I bought the S Model the Dealership had the same charger on the wall
for display purposes it worked well with the 2015 model
But seems slower on the S plus model must be because the battery is twice the size I'm guessing
It works ok its just slower with this newer car plus it has been very cold and i know that affects it

The breaker needs to be sized to protect the wires of the circuit it is connected to. Period. A 30A breaker will probably be using 10 AWG wire. Connecting 10 AWG wire to a 50A breaker is against any and all electrical codes and could potentially cause a fire. If you don't understand this, I'd hire an electrician to take a look at your setup before doing anything.

Are you sure the EVSE is 240V? I didn't know Nissan supplied anything but 120V EVSE's until the 2018 model year.

The plus models have a battery that is more than twice the size of the 2015 Leafs. If the EVSE is supplying the same power (most likely case) then the SOC % will increase at less than half the rate on the plus car as on the 2015. Eg, if the EVSE supplied 3 kW then in 1 hour the SOC would (nominally) change by 3/24 = 12.5% on the 2015 but only 3/62 = 4.8% on the plus. The battery is bigger on the plus so it will take longer to fully charge than the 2015, assuming the same rate of charge from the EVSE.

I believe that there is a Nissan-branded L-2 charging station that was sold by Nissan dealers. I don't know the amp rating for it. I just did a quick search and can't find a listing for it.

My Charging unit did not come with the car
Its a Unit sold By Nissan Dealers Separately i bought it used and have no Paperwork for it
I ran 220-240 Line For It From The 200 Amp Service In The Basement
To the charging unit It with the Proper wire i bought at an electrical supply outlet
The wire alone was over $200.00 to buy in 2015 Its Orange My Charger
Is outside the Next to the Back Door Of My walk in Basement Mounted On the House
I have used it for 5 years with No Problems i was just asking a simple question about
Breaker size and thought the Plus Models needed a bigger Breaker Thats all
I'm not an electrician but have done a lot of wiring in my Homes
Previous and Current Homes that i have lived in no worries i will figure it out
Thanks all

radiotron said:

I have A Nissan Charger 220 volts that the dealers used to sell
I have had it for 5 years and use a dedicated 220 line from the Circut breaker box
with a 30 amp Breaker it worked Fine on my 2015 leaf
Now that i have a Leaf Plus should i Install a 50 amp breaker
To speed up the charging??

Click to expand...

A larger breaker will do nothing to increase the charge rate between your EVSE and your 2015 LEAF. Charge rate is determined by the maximum rate of the EVSE, or that of the car's on-board charger, whichever is lower.

To make it more clear: the charging station amperage determines the wire gauge and breaker required, not the car. The requirements of the car usually determine the 'size' of the charging station. A smaller amperage station will still charge an ePlus Leaf. The 'biggest' setup that you can make full use of to charge any Leaf is a 30 amp charging station with a 40 or 50 amp rated circuit. In either case you'd want a 40 amp breaker, although a 50 amp would likely be ok. If you want to keep the existing charging station you must keep the existing breaker as well.

One slip ahead of me.

I installed a NEMA 14-50 plug with a 50 amp breaker and 6 guage wire between the breaker and plug receptacle. Seems to work fine. I just use the provided nissan cable. I know I'm not using nearly 50 amps but the plug is there for something higher later if I wish. My leaf will never pull more than 6 6 kW if I remember correctly. Which is what, about 28 amps?

27.5 amps. There could, possibly, be an issue with a 30A EVSE on a 50A breaker, in that if the EVSE is faulty and starts to overheat, the breaker might not trip soon enough to prevent a fire.

LeftieBiker said:

27.5 amps. There could, possibly, be an issue with a 30A EVSE on a 50A breaker, in that if the EVSE is faulty and starts to overheat, the breaker might not trip soon enough to prevent a fire.

Click to expand...

I was having a discussion the other day with a coworker about how code now requires AFCI breakers in many areas INSIDE the house. In theory AFCI will detect something like this because of the frequency shift of a short or arc as opposed to a standard breaker which wouldn't notice a problem. I have not heard that AFCI's are required for EV chargers but it might not be a bad idea?

For a Nissan Leaf EVSE dedicated circuit, a 40 amp breaker is the right solution. It's large enough to prevent nuisance trips but low enough to trip if there's a problem. If you wire it to a 14-50 outlet, use 6g wire just in case somebody decides to replace the 40 amp breaker with a 50 amp breaker. You could use 8g THHN at 50 amps by code although some inspectors would call you on it. Use the 6g and spend a couple of more bucks just for safety's sake.

There used to be 40a range plugs but I can't find a listing for them anymore, Everything is either 30a or 50a. Go with a 14-50 since it's the most common. A 30a outlet would only work for a 24a draw or less by code unless you can charge for less then 3 hours at a time. Just use the 14-50.

thanks for all the Help From everybody lots of different opinions
If i was to purchase a new charing station what would be recommended
in todays market to buy for a Leaf Plus? Mounted Outside on the House
I do not have a Garage so the car is always outside

radiotron said:

My Charging unit did not come with the car
Its a Unit sold By Nissan Dealers Separately i bought it used and have no Paperwork for it
I ran 220-240 Line For It From The 200 Amp Service In The Basement
To the charging unit It with the Proper wire i bought at an electrical supply outlet
The wire alone was over $200.00 to buy in 2015 Its Orange My Charger
Is outside the Next to the Back Door Of My walk in Basement Mounted On the House
I have used it for 5 years with No Problems i was just asking a simple question about
Breaker size and thought the Plus Models needed a bigger Breaker Thats all
I'm not an electrician but have done a lot of wiring in my Homes
Previous and Current Homes that i have lived in no worries i will figure it out
Thanks all

Click to expand...

If the wire is Orange NM-B “Romex” it’s likely 10-3 NM-B. #10 wire is limited to 30 amps. YOU CAN’T JUST REPLACE THE BREAKER WITH A 50 AMP BREAKER.

I believe that your Nissan wall mounted round EVSE draws 24 amps. It should charge about 19 miles of range for each hour plugged in. You should be fine with it charging a Plus for overnight charging. It would only take one hour extra overnight to fully charge a plus that’s down to 10% charge remaining, compared an EVSE that requires 50 amps.

For a short while I was using a 30 amp Clipper Creek for my plus until the Clipper Creek died. The extra time to fully charge overnight compared to a 50 amp unit was negligible.

Save your money and keep your current Nissan Branded Round White “charger” EVSE.

THHN wire has to be ran in conduit.
It is uncommon to run THHN wire smaller than 4 gauge in residential.

LeftieBiker said:

27.5 amps. There could, possibly, be an issue with a 30A EVSE on a 50A breaker, in that if the EVSE is faulty and starts to overheat, the breaker might not trip soon enough to prevent a fire.

Click to expand...

That's not how it works. The breaker is there to protect the wire not what you plug in.
Furthermore it's against code to put something other than a breaker rated the same as the receptacle on the other end.
The only exceptions are residential branch circuits, welding equipment circuits and a few other very specific listed and limited uses.

Flyct said:

If the wire is Orange NM-B “Romex” it’s likely 10-3 NM-B. #10 wire is limited to 30 amps. YOU CAN’T JUST REPLACE THE BREAKER WITH A 50 AMP BREAKER.

Click to expand...

Yeah you really don't want to do that
I got to rip out all the branch circuits out of a house before when the people living there replaced the 20 amp breakers with 30s I'm assuming it was so they could plug in more space heaters with out tripping breakers as the house had no central heating. They burned up a good portion of the wiring in the walls.
Some how the house didn't burn down.

Oilpan4 said:

THHN wire has to be ran in conduit.
It is uncommon to run THHN wire smaller than 4 gauge in residential.

LeftieBiker said:

27.5 amps. There could, possibly, be an issue with a 30A EVSE on a 50A breaker, in that if the EVSE is faulty and starts to overheat, the breaker might not trip soon enough to prevent a fire.

Click to expand...

That's not how it works. The breaker is there to protect the wire not what you plug in.
Furthermore it's against code to put something other than a breaker rated the same as the receptacle on the other end.
The only exceptions are residential branch circuits, welding equipment circuits and a few other very specific listed and limited uses.

Click to expand...

Either way, as my car sits outside, it makes little difference to me. If the car or charger cord catches fire my house should be fine and I'll get to go shopping for a new EV. I can live with that!

IF and WHEN I move my EV inside my garage and put in a second 14-50 plug INSIDE my garage I'll spend the extra $50 and use a AFCI breaker. That should take care of the arc/fault risk of the charger.

radiotron said:

I have A Nissan Charger 220 volts that the dealers used to sell
I have had it for 5 years and use a dedicated 220 line from the Circut breaker box
with a 30 amp Breaker it worked Fine on my 2015 leaf
Now that i have a Leaf Plus should i Install a 50 amp breaker
To speed up the charging??

Click to expand...

The EVSE unit you have was made for Nissan by AeroVironment. It is rated for 240 volts and 30 amperes. They were rather expensive back in 2011, but they are good UL Listed units that work fine on either 208- or 240-volt circuits. I have been using mine since June 2011. The unit should be supplied from a 40-ampere, non-GFCI, 2-pole circuit breaker with No. 8 AWG or larger copper wire. The unit tests the continuity of the ground conductor by injecting a small current so it will instantly trip a standard GFCI breaker. The pilot signal is not adjustable so there is no reason to use a different breaker size.

My 2019 SL+ charges at slightly higher current than my 2015 SL, but still less than 30 amperes at 240 volts so the AeroVironment unit allows enough current to get maximum charge rate at home. Of course, the 2019 takes longer to charge if it is deeply discharged than the 2015 because it stores a lot more energy.

I noticed his charger is outside his garage. That could be helpful to help an EV user in trouble near by (not common these days inside a city) but I wonder has anyone walked up and simply unplugged and taken (stolen) a charger to go sell on ebay? Maybe I am paranoid.