Home Charging

For every plug-in vehicle and parking spot there is a charging station solution. Any Level 2 EVSE can handle overnight charging for most vehicles, and most homes have enough electrical capacity to accommodate Level 2 charging. Here’s a great video that goes over charging speeds. Most customers will need far less charging power than they might think before living with an EV. Here’s a great video discussing this topic.

How Many Amps Do You Need For Home EV Charging? – YouTube

EV Support can help you select and install the ideal charging solution for you and your plug-in vehicle’s needs.

Miles of charge per hour

Unfortunately you can’t really say a charger will add a set number of miles an hour. It all depends on the charging speed and how efficient the vehicle is. How many miles can your car drive per kWh? That will dictate how many “miles” per hour you can charge. For example, an efficient EV might average 4.0mi/kWh (miles per kilowatt hour). Your average level 2 (240V) hardwired home charger has been 32A or 7.68kW; 240V x 32A = 7,680Watts or 7.68kW. So if you’re charging at 7.68kW for one hour and your car can drive 4.0mi/kWh, it could charge 30.72miles an hour (7.68×4.0=30.72). 

With minimal planning, you’ll almost never (hopefully!) be charging from 0-100%. If your EV has a 250mile range and you get back with 20%, you’d have 50 miles remaining. 250×0.2=50, 250-50=200miles left to charge. 200÷30.72=6.51hrs to charge from 20%-100%. But this is all stuff you’ll never think about. Just get home, plug in and start the next day with a fully charger vehicle!

240V outlets

EV support does NOT install 240V outlets. Plug-in chargers aren’t a viable option in Washington for a couple reasons. Newer electrical code requires using a GFCI breaker in high moisture locations like a garage or exterior outlets. Any UL listed EV charger will already have GFCI protection built into it. So when you use a GFCI protected charger on a GFCI protected outlet, the breaker can trip shortly after charging begins. So until they change WA electrical code, that’s a no go.

The other general issue is, these outlets were designed decades ago and weren’t intended for the long, sustaining loads that EV chargers will place on them. The industry is seeing high failure rates of 240V outlets when used with EV chargers. Here’s a video from some of the industry experts discussing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDp9PhPJhUI&t=12s

Puget Sound Solar and EV Support will only hardwire EV chargers. We just want to ensure that you have the most reliable home charging experience with your plug-in.

Don’t feel bad if you already have a portable level 2 charger. Best plan is to always charge on a hardwired charger at home. But also have a portable level 1/2 charger in your trunk. It’s quite handy in the summer on road trips and camping. They’re fine to use in this situation for one, they don’t have GFCI breakers. They were installed before that requirement became code. And two, they’ll never see the kind of use they would at home. These camping/RV spots probably won’t have an EV charging on them more than a few times a year! That’s certainly not the hazard that everyday home charging brings.