Duosida EVSE Just Arrived.

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
And that worked! Now charging at 240 on both cars! Really....thank you wmcbrine and jjeff!
A quick rewire and things are working as they should. Baffled how they managed to screw that up! And so glad it was an easy fix.
Thank you again very much!
 
Great, congrats! And note if you ever want to make an adapter plug to plug your EVSE into a standard(20a) 120v outlet, you'd need a 120v male plug and 14-50 female plug. Wire the 120v black or hot(smaller blade) to one of the 14-50's hot, and wire the neutral 120v(wider blade) to the other 14-50 hot, finally the green or ground 120v plug to the green or semi-round 14-50s ground. You now know your EVSE is capable of 120v operation :lol: but note it will still be capable of 16a so if your car can draw 16 or more amps on 120v, make sure your outlet/wiring/breaker is capable of 20a use. 16a 120v charging will give you about 33% faster charging than your OEM Leaf EVSE assuming you have a Leaf with the 6.6kw charger and a 20a 120v circuit.
 
I actually have a Volt and 500e. The 120V was never an issue.....there are 2 120v chargers already with the car so I wasnt particularly concerned with getting more 120v charging. 240V was all I wanted and now I finally have it after more than 3 years of having a EV. Cant thank you guys for super quick turn around!
 
Thanks for all the info in this thread, everyone. I've been investigating the same 240v / 16amp Duosida unit that others have. My only issue is around the plug options. At the location where I intend to use this, I have a 240v / 30 amp circuit available (served by two hots, a neutral and a ground). These EVSE units seem to typically come with a 10-30 or 6-20 plug, and I've also been offered a 14-50 plug. But there are issues with all the plug options:

1. 6-20 plug: As far as I understand, code for larger amperage outlets says that a receptacle must match the amperage of the circuit (there are some exceptions for stoves and such). This means that I can't go with the 6-20 plug, as this would require a 20 amp receptacle, which doesn't match my 30 amp breaker (and I don't want to change out the breakers at the box to make them 20 amp).

2. 10-30 plug: As far as I understand, most 240v EVSEs have two hots and a ground - no neutral. 10-30 receptacles have two hots and a neutral. So I don't understand how the 10-30 configuration is electrically sound. Does it bank on the neutral in the 10-30 receptacle being bound to the earth-ground back at the panel? If so, that seems a little risky, as my understanding is that the neutral wire is always capable of back-feeding electricity.

3. 14-30 plug: This would be ideal, as my receptacle box was built to recent code for 240v outlets and has two hots, a neutral and a ground. But nobody seems to offer this plug.

4. 14-50 plug: See #1 (can't have a receptacle that doesn't match the amperage of the circuit). I suppose I could order it in this configuration, and then remove the 14-50 plug and just re-wire a 14-30 plug onto it.

At this point I'm most inclined to go with the 14-50 and swap the plug for a 14-30. But I'd appreciate any other thoughts on the other options.

Thank you!
 
Is the receptacle going to be the only load on that 30 amp circuit? If so, the only NEC rule is that the receptacle rating be no smaller than the breaker rating. So you could install a 14-50 receptacle on a dedicated 30 amp circuit.

Cheers, Wayne
 
If you prefer the 14-30 option, you could just order a 14-30p on Amazon and swap the 14-50 plug out. Or buy an adapter cable:

https://goo.gl/Mhb3fy
 
bigedgar said:
Thanks for all the info in this thread, everyone. I've been investigating the same 240v / 16amp Duosida unit that others have. My only issue is around the plug options. At the location where I intend to use this, I have a 240v / 30 amp circuit available (served by two hots, a neutral and a ground). These EVSE units seem to typically come with a 10-30 or 6-20 plug, and I've also been offered a 14-50 plug. But there are issues with all the plug options:

2. 10-30 plug: As far as I understand, most 240v EVSEs have two hots and a ground - no neutral. 10-30 receptacles have two hots and a neutral. So I don't understand how the 10-30 configuration is electrically sound. Does it bank on the neutral in the 10-30 receptacle being bound to the earth-ground back at the panel? If so, that seems a little risky, as my understanding is that the neutral wire is always capable of back-feeding electricity.

4. 14-50 plug: See #1 (can't have a receptacle that doesn't match the amperage of the circuit). I suppose I could order it in this configuration, and then remove the 14-50 plug and just re-wire a 14-30 plug onto it.
While technically obsolete the 10-30 plug is still in millions of houses and you can still buy them. The ground is shared with the neutral but in your case you won't be using the neutral so that wire/pin will just be used for ground. While ground and neutral are generally separate at the outlet and wiring, they both attach to the same point inside your electrical panel, they are bonded together. If your not comfortable with that then just do as wwhitney said and use a 14-50 plug/outlet. Note if using a 14-50 outlet without a neutral you might also run into code issues. The 14-50 is supposed to have a netural and if you don't wire one and then someone down the line plugs in something requiring a neutral.....A better option for EVSE use is the 6-50 which lacks a neutral, unfortunately, very few EVSEs use that more fitting plug as the 14-50 is more likely to be found in peoples homes.
I'm not sure what kind of Leaf you have but if your Leaf is capable of more than 16a(3.6kw charger) I'd really suggest spending a bit more and getting the Zencar adjustable EVSE. They output up to 30a(27.5a in your case) and would make more use of your 30a service. Just get yours configured for a 24a option, you can pick up to 4 output settings. The Zencar is much nicer than the bare bones simple Duosida EVSE and still <$300.
 
You can get this for adapter for electric clothes dryers, if the unit has a NEMA L6-20 plug.

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/Go-Cable-Adapter-NEMA-10-30-Older-Electric-Clothes-Dryers-GCADPTR1030.htm
 
TonyWilliams said:
alozzy said:
This one is a universal adapter from 14-50R to 14-xxP, cool!

https://goo.gl/SrffQP

That is dangerous and dumb. So, anybody can easily plug in a 50 amp load into potentially a 15, 20 or 30 amp circuit.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Our motor home had one of those included, pretty easy concept, everything was fine unless you tried to run both air conditioners at the same time then the breaker tripped.

It's not like tripping the breaker because you forgot was some type of life and death experience .

Just reminded you to only run one appliance at a time.
 
Not for this application, you set the charge rate on the EVSE. I wasn't suggesting using it for anything other than charging the EV with the portable EVSE the OP is buying.

Anyways, don't shoot the messenger, the OP wants the 14-30 receptacle, whereas I would just do a 14-50R in the first place.
 
Wow, thanks for all the great comments and suggestions, everyone. To answer a few questions:

wwhitney - yes, this is a dedicated circuit that will only serve the EVSE. The code is a little ambiguous wrt receptacles and CB amperage - it says something to the effect of "outlets shall have an ampere rating of not less than the load to be served" - this indicates that you *could* put an outlet with a higher ampacity than the breaker - but then it goes on to say "and shall comply with 210.21(A) and (B)" - which are tables that basically indicate that only a 30 amp receptacle is acceptable for a 30 amp circuit. So thanks for the clarification on this confusing code.

alozzy - the adapters are a cool idea, but they push this project over the budget line for me. I like the idea of just getting the 14-50 and swapping the plug for a 14-30. That would allow me to wire up the box to code with a 14-30 receptacle.

jjeff - Thanks for the explanation on the 10-30. That's what I figured, but the use of the neutral left me with some doubt. I actually have a Kia Soul, but mynissanleaf is a much better forum for these types of questions than the Soul EV forums because people like you are engaged :D The Soul is capable of 6.6kw charging, so yes, getting the configurable EVSE would be a great choice as I could charge much more quickly and have alot of flexibility, but it's just not in the budget for this project.

I think at this point I'm going to order the 14-50. I'll either wire up a 14-50 receptacle at the box, label it so nobody tries to plug in a 40 amp load, and call it good, or I'll get the 14-50 plug and just buy the 14-30 and swap it.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
rmay635703 said:
TonyWilliams said:
alozzy said:
This one is a universal adapter from 14-50R to 14-xxP, cool!

https://goo.gl/SrffQP

That is dangerous and dumb. So, anybody can easily plug in a 50 amp load into potentially a 15, 20 or 30 amp circuit.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Our motor home had one of those included, pretty easy concept, everything was fine unless you tried to run both air conditioners at the same time then the breaker tripped.

It's not like tripping the breaker because you forgot was some type of life and death experience .

Just reminded you to only run one appliance at a time.

Yes, no circuit breaker every failed and burned down anything. Sounds like a great plan.
 
bigedgar said:
but then it goes on to say "and shall comply with 210.21(A) and (B)" - which are tables that basically indicate that only a 30 amp receptacle is acceptable for a 30 amp circuit.
The table you are referring to is 210.21(B)(3), which only applies to "a branch circuit supplying two or more receptacles or outlets".

For a dedicated circuit, 210.21(B)(1) applies: "A single receptacle installed on an individual branch circuit shall have an ampere rating not less than that of the branch circuit."

Cheers, Wayne
 
Yes, Wayne, you are right. I misread that. Thank you very much for the clarification - that actually simplifies the code for me quite a bit.
 
You could get the evse with the 14-50 plug and cut off the unused neutral pin then it would plug into 14-30 wall outlet just fine. This would be cheaper than swapping plugs and you could still use it on the road with rv outlets.
 
nr427 said:
You could get the evse with the 14-50 plug and cut off the unused neutral pin then it would plug into 14-30 wall outlet just fine. This would be cheaper than swapping plugs and you could still use it on the road with rv outlets.

Yes, the unused neutral pin is "safe" provided you know what the amp rating of the charge cable (EVSE) is.

It would NOT be safe to cut the neutral off of a 40 amp EVSE, since that would obviously overload a 30 amp electric dryer outlet.

It's perfectly safe to make this modification on the NEMA 14-50 adaptor for a Go-Cable, since Go-Cable is only 16 amps, and the odds of finding a NEMA 14-15 outlet to plug into are about slim to none, plus it would likely not overheat the wires (or even trip the circuit breaker) at 1 amp over the rated current of 15 amps.

All the others would be fine:

NEMA 14-20 - stoves
NEMA 14-30 - 1996 and newer electric clothes dryers
NEMA 14-50 - RV parks
NEMA 14-60 - ovens
 
I ordered the 16A 240V duosida from amy at zencar. It works well and I would recommend it. 8 day lead time for custom 35ft cable and 5 days shipping time from China. I'm tempted to get the shake shake 32A adjustable version, but I have what I need for now.
 
Back
Top