Are you using a Residential-rated receptacle Then an EV Industrial Rated receptacle to charge?

[JBee]

There's really no reason to push 220/240V to common receptacles around a house. The only reason for 220/240V outlets is for dryers and ovens. Electric water heaters and HVAC systems don't use plugs. We have too many kids electrocuting themselves on 120V outlets, we'd have many more with 220/240V outlets. The crazy thing is many appliances, TVs, computers and just about everything else in houses nowadays step down the 120V to 12V and 5V. Why even provide 120V in the living room or bedrooms when LEDs don't take that much power nor do clocks, TVs or phone chargers.

Although I agree that we now need less power for some household appliances, many others still have high outputs, especially kitchen appliances, or electric space heaters, hairdryers etc.

The other point is that running long lengths of low voltage cables also results in higher cable losses, so unless you want your electrical system to have lots of copper, which is not cheap, it's actually better to have a higher 230V system anyway to reduce costs, even from a network perspective.

BTW we have much fewer household electrical fires in Australia mostly because of our 240V circuit voltage and because we don't build nearly everything out of timber. 120V and timber construction is just a poor mix, especially considering that USA households use 60% more electricity than an Australian one.

In my off-grid passive home I have actually "compromised" in that at every room a 240V outlet it also has a dedicated 12V circuit to run battery buffered USB-PD chargers in each room. That way I can feed a smaller current with a smaller cable to the USB socket, but the USB socket can handle higher outputs because it is buffered by a local battery. Also all my lighting is running off a dedicated 12V battery and circuit that is independent from the 240V side. This is mostly for redundancy in that the lights, USB sockets and wifi/lan network are "always on" as they use little power and there is always enough to charge it from solar during the day. Whereas the 240V side have four levels of availability depending on battery state, with superfluous generation of the solar being load dumped into the electric HWS, instead of curtailing it.

Funnily enough we barely use more than 8-10kWh of battery capacity overnight, even with air-conditioning for heating and cooling running, so we never need the generator anyway (I've had to empty the fuel for storage purposes). So I've never actually used my cascading load shedding feature yet.

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[Crissa]

I’ve read enough threads on TMC to be able to ask intelligent questions. If the installer wants to use Romex or 6ga I’ll know it’s time to take more bids.

Depends on the run and what sort of rats you have.

Don't need armored cable here.

-Crissa

 

[Bill906]

Why even provide 120V in the living room or bedrooms when LEDs don't take that much power nor do clocks, TVs or phone chargers.

Fans, space heaters, vacuum cleaners, electric blankets, window air conditioners, charging my drone batteries, aquarium heater… We still have devices needing more power than low power/low voltage circuits provide.

As far as 120VAC vs 240VAC, the decision of what voltage-current levels to use for a given power requirement is a balancing act. I’d argue 240VAC would be a better and safer choice for high power devices like space heaters and window air conditioners. Less current means less heat. Less heat means less likely to have failures like the ones exposed in this Munro video. As far as shock hazard, 120VAC and 240VAC have the same safety rule. Don’t touch it. I’m not sure the risk of injury from 240VAC shock is much more than 120VAC.

 

[happy intruder]

I do not have an electric dryer, however the electrical run is there with an outlet just in case we would ever get an electric dryer....(wont ever happen though)....I updated my panel from 100a to 200a.....dropped in a Hubble receptacle for the EV's and put it on a 60a breaker......it is stand alone.....I now can use the 32a mobile cable if I need to charge my model s and the model 3 at the same time.....the 3 would use the Tesla wall connector and I would use the Nema outlet......with free lifetime supercharging, I only supercharge about once a month.....when I need other charging, I use either the wall charger and if the wife is home using it, I will use the Nema......

The Munro video scared the be-jesus out of me......I sincerely hope people will check what they have and make sure it is adequate for the application and double check material when "professional installers" do the work......I agree that we should educate ourselves in order to supervise the pros...

 

[JBee]

I do not have an electric dryer, however the electrical run is there with an outlet just in case we would ever get an electric dryer....(wont ever happen though)....I updated my panel from 100a to 200a.....dropped in a Hubble receptacle for the EV's and put it on a 60a breaker......it is stand alone.....I now can use the 32a mobile cable if I need to charge my model s and the model 3 at the same time.....the 3 would use the Tesla wall connector and I would use the Nema outlet......with free lifetime supercharging, I only supercharge about once a month.....when I need other charging, I use either the wall charger and if the wife is home using it, I will use the Nema......

The Munro video scared the be-jesus out of me......I sincerely hope people will check what they have and make sure it is adequate for the application and double check material when "professional installers" do the work......I agree that we should educate ourselves in order to supervise the pros...

Get a condenser dryer instead, much better for the clothes, and your power bill.

 

[flowerlandfilms]

Once the Automotive switch to 48v instead of 12v happens there are going to be a lot more components out there capable of running at that. Would be quite cool to have dedicated 5v, 12v, and 48v rails all through a house, but I guess cool for tinkerers is un-necessary complication for regular folk.

One benefit of American outlets though is that they don't make your house look like it's haunted by sad ghosts.

 

[happy intruder]

Get a condenser dryer instead, much better for the clothes, and your power bill.

we use gas.......very happy with it...when we another I will look at all options

 

[JBee]

we use gas.......very happy with it...when we another I will look at all options

Gas? Do you only have black charred clothes?

 

[JBee]

Once the Automotive switch to 48v instead of 12v happens there are going to be a lot more components out there capable of running at that. Would be quite cool to have dedicated 5v, 12v, and 48v rails all through a house, but I guess cool for tinkerers is un-necessary complication for regular folk.

One benefit of American outlets though is that they don't make your house look like it's haunted by sad ghosts.

Well...I've actually been working on a low voltage DC grid for developing nations for the last few years.

With the advent of cheap, high enough energy and power density battery storage, many appliances, especially handheld ones, can now operate "wirelessly". No cables required at all. This will only improve with storage becoming more accessible and cost effective, so that at some point we can cut the cord on many of the things we use. Just look at power tools now.

In our version we take this to the max where we embed CAN comms over small DC wiring, but then have battery buffer at the point of load which then can support peak loads. So in a house/hut we end up with the absolute minimal safe DIY wiring for lighting, that also is the backbone to charge devices, and that can be scaled from a hut to a village by controlling both load and supply in real time, resulting in a high utilization rate.

This comes back to the general observation that nobody uses electricity directly. It doesn't digest, breathe, feel, taste, look, smell, or sound good by itself without prior conversion into something useful. So as soon as you take a holistic approach to energy system use in a household, you end up with rooms that do everything you need them to do natively, without having to plug in devices to the wall outlet, that adds a desired function, that it doesn't already have.

All the big energy consumers can be designed out of the house electrical distribution system, so what remains is a limited amount of low powered devices that can be battery powered, and fast charged as required. This also reduces the demand on central storage solutions, either on the house or grid level, and allows adoption of nations with poor energy infrastructure due to financial constraints, as storage and generation can be deployed incrementally.

It's essentially a shortcut from the old centralised network generation model, to a new distributed generation and storage model.

P.S This is overlaid with a embedded IoT wifi mesh network also for internet connectivity.

 

[happy intruder]

Gas? Do you only have black charred clothes?

yea...that way there is no problem picking out what I want to wear tomorrow....its all the same

 

[android04]

Some people are recommending

$60 Hubbell / BRYANT Receptacle Model# 9450FR
Single, Flush Mount, 50 A, 125/250V AC, NEMA 14-50R, Black

Be careful about exact model# when buying.
I think their data sheet lists Model# 9450FR as industrial grade.
Based on construction, the Hubbell branded part# HBL9450A still looks to be a more robust design (ie. terminals) but BRYANT Receptacle Model# 9450FR should be much better than Leviton residential.

Other Bryant model#s are residential grade
RR450F
RR450FW
RR450
RR450PM


Bryant Catalog A27 CatPage
Straight Blade Devices
50 Amp Industrial Grade Plugs, Connectors and Receptacles
https://hubbellcdn.com/catalogpage/Bryant_Catalog_A27_CatPage.pdf

Another benefit to using these heavier duty receptacles is that they need an Allen (hex) bit to tighten the lugs, which allows for better torque without slipping. Cheaper ones use Phillips (cross) or flat blade and your screwdriver or bit will slip.

These two industrial duty receptacles are also specifically called out and recommended in Tesla's mobile charge connector manuals.

 

[hridge2020]

EV Charging Disasters

 

[SwampNut]

I used an IR heat reading gun to check mine after I installed it. Basically no heat over ambient (negligible) in about an hour. It's only a 30a outlet though.

 

[SgtSweatySac]

I installed a 6-20 locking outlet using 12-2 Romex from the garage back to the electrical box myself, worked perfectly for my Volt, and does fine with the SR+. Made an adapter for L6-20P to 6-20P using 10-gauge cord I had in the garage. No heat issues anywhere in the line or outlet, even after charging for 8 hours straight.

Going to put in a proper 100-amp panel out in the garage when the truck finally occupies its spot. 15 miles of range on a 20A circuit per hour is fine with the SR+, have a gut feeling it'll be half that with the truck.

 

[Cybertruck Hawaii]

Bullshit! I left my clothes in the car all night, and they’re still not dry

Funny thing is that Speedo dry very fast. It’s too hot in Hawaii to wear any clothes.

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