Moore family's simple ceiling mounted charging system for our PICC-converted plug-in Prius. The set-up is admittedly a bit crude, but effective.
Where to Put That Plug?
By Bill Moore
The beauty of charging an 20-mile range plug-in hybrid like the one siting out in my garage at the moment is that it can be charged in about six hours overnight on 110 volts through a 15 amp circuit. In my early 70s era two-car garage there are three outlets: one on the back wall and two, oddly enough, on the ceiling; and as strange as it might sound, it turns out that one of them is perfect for charging the Plug-In Conversions Corporation 6.1 kWh NiMH battery pack bolted into the spare tire well of our car.
One of the first questions you need to ask yourself before you decide to buy that Volt, Leaf, Think or Tesla Roadster is where are you going to plug it in? If you're a home owner with a nice attached garage, then the question is a bit easier to answer. There's probably at least one standard 110V outlet somewhere in the garage, but you'll want to make sure what else is on that circuit. In our case, the ceiling plugs share the circuit with the spare bedroom above the garage. Being your typical empty nest couple, that bedroom is where the occasional extra guest gets assigned. There's a ceiling fan in there, a couple lights, small television set and the ironing board. Below it in the garage is connected the electric garage door opener (yes, we do have it nice compared to many others). That outlet has a spare receptacle and it's here we plug in the bright yellow 12 gauge, 25 feet-long extension cord you see hanging from the ceiling in the above photo.
I had originally worried about stringing the cord from the back of the garage to the rear of the Prius where the plug port is located. I envisioned people tripping over it or running over it as we pulled into and out of the garage. As it turned out, the garage door motor outlet appears to be perfect location for providing power to plug-in cars. At the moment, most Prius PHEV conversions have their charge plugs located on the left side of the rear bumper and since most people don't back into their garages at night, it's about as far as you can get from the typical outlet placed on the garage back wall.
There are, of course, all sorts of places on the car for putting the plug. The charge port of the Tesla Roadster is just behind the driver, while the Volt's is just in front of the driver's front door. The Nissan LEAF's charge point in integrated into the front of the car. So, having the plug mounted on the ceiling at or near the center of the garage turns out to be a pretty versatile location for charging as wide a variety of plug-in electric cars as possible given all the possible charge port permutations on these vehicles. Having it on the ceiling also keeps the cord off the floor. As you can tell from the photo, I've used a couple simple bungee cords to keep the extension cord almost above head level when not in use. I'll refine it when I get some time, but for now it works great. The garage door slides under it, so its out of the way. When the doors down, its easy to grab the plug end. It also helps that the cord I bought has a lighted plug making it easier to plug into the car in a darkened garage.
I've had a couple developers and contractors ask me where I'd recommend putting the outlet for future electric cars and I have to heartily endorse my set up, which is purely fortuitous. If you have the luxury of new construction, I suggest running a separate circuit for that plug and if possible wire it for 3-phase 220V. While my 6.1 pack charges on 110V overnight -- we plug it in just before going to bed at 11 PM and unplug it first thing in the morning about 7 AM -- the bigger packs in the Volt (16kWh), Leaf (24kWh) and other electrics headed our way, could take longer than 6 hours to recharge at 110V; 220V at 30 amps would be much better.
Of course, some day the ideal situation will be charging inductively from beneath the car: no cord needed. Just pull in, watch for a light on the dash to turn green and you can forget about the car until next morning. But how in the world you "plumb" for that, I haven't a clue. Pour the equivalent of a garage sump pump hole?
Published: 01-Nov-2009 | Page Views: 898
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Reader Comments
10 comments so far...
1.
02-Nov-2009
93036
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First,shorten the cord. Cut the cord and splice it back together by soldering it , or spend $4 to buy a good plug.Second, convince yourself that your house doesn't have 3 phase wiring. Except ,perhaps for converted loft buildings, all residential units are wired 230 volt single phase with 120 volts to earth(neutral)
Posted by: carl gabel
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2.
02-Nov-2009
93132
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Same thing I did, a 15ft cord was nearly perfect.
The only challenge I've found is now I want a timer, to charge late at night off peak! I guess the ideal setup would be timer on the wall feeding a overhead outlet, something easy to do in new construction but challenging to retrofit.
Posted by: Dave K.
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3.
02-Nov-2009
93186
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One thing to consider with plugging in vehicles to standard outlets is to identify what else is sharing that circuit. I know most plug in vehicle systems recommend that the circuit is a dedicated line with no other equipment plugged in there (check your documentation with the conversion). The primary reason is that the charging will want to use as much of the energy available at 110V, and that could overload the breaker for that circuit if other things pull a heavy current. The garage door motor will pull a lot of current especially when the outside air temperature is cold. Another reason is that the ground fault protection circuits that should be part of the charging system might trip inadvertently due to a transient line imbalance. The startup pulse of the garage door motor or a refrigerator compressor will likely be enough to trip the GFCI. Once tripped you will not know until you come out in the morning to find that the car didn't charge. I have seen this occur with other plug-ins, and the only way to dependably charge all night is to have the plug in a dedicated outlet. The national electric code will require 230V charging to be on a dedicated circuit. With your setup, I would be worried about abraision of the cord by the door that would eventually lead to a short or shock hazzard. The plug and cord should be drive over safe. Not all standard extension cords are made this way; there is a specific kind of cord that is reliable and made for the purpose of charging vehicles. It is not worth risking a fire in your home, or someone getting electrocuted just to keep cords out of the walkways.
Posted by: Dudley B
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4.
02-Nov-2009
93496
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It's 120 and 240, Glad to hear you charge off peak to help use the excess electric that could be wasted by the utilities if they can't sell it. IF someone is on Time Of Day it's also less costly while helpign the utility and environment.
Another point is to use a large conductor cord like a 12 gauge and not a light thin 18 gauge cord. This keeps it from getting hot and makes it flow more energy.
I have a kill-o-watt meter on my cord so I can see how much/little it takes to charge. It shows the amps , watt and Kwh used along with PF power Factor. Mine only pulls 11 amps and most nights it 4-6 KwH a night for a 10 Kw pack and we go 24 miles all electric each day.
Posted by: jim stACk
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5.
03-Nov-2009
94266
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Yes, we have a 230V service in our garage. However, I think there is some confusion in the reference to 230V 3 phase and 230V single phase. 230V single phase is commonly used for dryers and electric ranges. However, 230V 3 phase is much less common in residential installations. In my experience it is mainly used for industrial electric motors as found on machine tools.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Hatfield
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6.
04-Nov-2009
95100
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Bill; regarding you question about 3 phase power in a home, please note that 3 phase electrical service and 230V electrical service are not the same. 230 V power is not considered 3 phase. Without getting into the details of 3 phase power circuits such as wye and delta connected and such, 3 phase power is not ordinarily available to most home users since it requires additional wiring brought in from your electric utility and another metering system. This is usually only for commercial factory users. Home 230V dryer service is just 230V balanced against neutral ground with the 2 115V legs divided throughout the house circuits. The answer to your question is all 200 amp service homes have 230 V circuits for dryers, stoves, water heaters, etc. but don't confuse this with 3 phase service. Most newer 100 amp service homes will also will have 230V service as well. Regards,
Posted by: Alan Woodman
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7.
04-Nov-2009
95390
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Three phase power requires three transformers on a power pole and will cost about $1000.00 US according to my local utility NV energy. Since the county has my plans for a 10kW wind turbine in plan review, this is a small investment to make toward a fast charging unit.> < My domicile rests on a 5 acre parcel of land with lots of room for parking cars. We plan to purchase two PHEV or full on electric vehicles and save about $6000.00 a year in gas (based on $3.00/gallon). I'll need somewhere to dump excess power as my current monthly power bill averages $100.00/month at 13 cents a kW.
Posted by: Thomas Danzinger
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8.
05-Nov-2009
95805
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the most convenient is to to use fire dept. style ejector plugs that automatically eject the plug when the ignition switch is turned. This is the quickest, surest safest method to assure a disconnect with no chance of forgetting or time loss.
Posted by: Jim Nyman
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9.
05-Nov-2009
96029
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I am in the process of converting my 2001 Prius to a plugin by installing a kit I purchased on E-Bay. It uses LiPo batteries to keep the Prius Nimh batteries
topped off so the engine does not have to use energy recharging them. I decided to install the recharging receptacle on the trunk lid instead of the bumper, because it is plastic and one back up mistake and it is gone. Besides,it is a real pain to install it on the bumper.
Posted by: Ted McNamara
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10.
05-Nov-2009
96115
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When I had my new house built, I considered providing a 240 volt 30 ampere receptacle that could be used in the future to charge an electric car. However, with the breaker box in the garage, that seemed necessary. It will be easy to add a suitable receptacle later.
In any case, when new houses are built, it would be a good idea to consider making it easy to add a 240 volt 30 ampere receptacle at a later date.
For those talking about 110 volts, 115 volts, 120 volts, 220 volts, 230 volts, and 240 volts, please note that for decades the standard has been 120 / 240 volts for residences. The other voltages, at least in the U.S., are obsolete, although in Japan they use 100 volts.
Posted by: Frank Eggers
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