How do you charge at home in the US? What charging station?

[chrisch70]

Apologies if that has been discussed in earlier posts, but a quick search did not seem to bring up the relevant topic.

We bought a REX, but have not used it much yet, since we had another months on another lease, which will be returned next week.

I was wondering how everybody is charging at home in the US. So far, we used the occasional cable, but charging time seems excessive.

What recommendation do you have for a charging station? I am looking at a plug in one such as the GE or Siemens one.

Or can one recharge the battery via a regular household plug in in 10 hours? Is there a cable that would allow a faster transfer from a household plug in than the occasional one?

If you know of an earlier post, please point me to it!

Cheers
Christian

 

[Tomasz]

Let me start with saying that you probably will never need to charge all 100% of the battery capacity, so charging times won't be that long. But since your hunger will grow while you eat you may as well look into options right away.

Household plug (110V) is rated 15A which limits what you can draw to 12A for charging ('constant use' devices are limited to 80% of circuit rating) and that is how much your car is drawing when using occasional charger. In case you had a 20A circuit in your garage you could get yourself a charging station with which your car could draw 16A and with that you can charge if from 0 to 100% in about 14h. The problem is there are very few L1 (110V) 20A units on the market. You can get CliperCreek unit, but it's hardwired, which in my opinion defeats the purpose (since you'll need to run new circuit you may as well do it the right way). The only solution long term IMHO is hardwired 40A 240V unit installed on dedicated 50A circuit. Some may say, that it's overkill since i3 never draws more than 30A, but since running a dedicated circuit will cost you the same money in labor no matter if it's 40A or 50A I'd run the 50A in case you get yourself a new EV in 2 years that will be capable of drawing more than i3.

There are plenty of charging stations on the market, CliperCreek is popular because it's cheap and reliable, but you can select pretty much whatever you want, there isn't much magic inside and all of them run well.

Note: Ask your utility company, some of them offer special plans and even subsidize charging stations a little.

 

[DAZ]

Hi Christian, plenty of topics on i3 charging here and on the internet. Do a Google search and you'll find plenty. I can't imagine having a i3 without home access to Level 2 charging. Plenty of EVSEs (chargers) on the market. Amazon.com has a variety they sell and you can do a comparison on their site. The i3 will charge at a maximum rate of 7.4kW with the updated KLE and software. I would recommend if you go with a Level 2 EVSE, get one that will support that rate. I upgraded my first Leviton Level 2 that was 16a, charge rate of 3.3kW to a Leviton 40a that will charge at 7.4kW. You can get by with less, but EV battery capacity will only increase as well as charge rates. Try to future proof your EV charging needs now to carry you through the near future. Enjoy your i3.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Power=volts*amps, so by going to a 240vac circuit, you do two things: double the power that can be pumped at the same amperage, and, the i3's internal charging circuits are more efficient at higher input voltages.

An EVSE is a fancy on/off switch, so there's no big need to spend lots of money unless you want some extra features or style. Which unit you choose might depend on how big your available power is at your panel...on mine, I have 100A service in my condominium, and dedicating a 50A circuit to just the EVSE would be a stretch, and upgrading my service would be an enormously expensive operation. So, I chose a 32A Clipper Creek unit that, when hard-wired, required a 40A circuit be installed. Now, the cost of the actual wire does go up with the gauge, and you could use 6g to allow a 50A circuit to use their 40A output unit, but in the near term, it won't do anything faster on the i3, but MIGHT be useful longer term if cars get bigger batteries AND bigger charging units inside. Note, one does NOT require the other, so a bigger battery pack may not come with a faster charging unit, and all of them that use the same type EVSE will still work. Using a 32A EVSE, you should be able to recharge a nearly dead battery in 3.5H or so, depending on the temperature (longer at the extremes as then the car will spend some time and energy heating or cooling the battery pack). The Clipper Creek unit is actually made in the USA...most others are not, and that may be a factor to you. Mine's been working fine since installed last June 2014.

One of the considerations is how long is the cable that comes with the unit...the CC unit comes with a 25' cord, some of the other brands are shorter, and that may or may not be an issue. The level 1 unit that BMW includes is about 18', if that's any help...longer gives you a little more leeway on where and how you park, but may not be worthwhile.

 

[websterize]

I bought a http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/hcs-40p-32a-240v-charging-25-cord-nema-14-50-plug/, and the Maryland Energy Administration paid for half of it.

 

[Jeffj]

Just to reiterate what others have said:
- Having a home level 2 EVSE greatly increases flexibility, as you are never more than 3.5 hours from a full charge, and most times far less than that (its pretty rare to pull into your garage with an empty battery)
- The brand of EVSE makes no difference, as long as the unit works. Differences in price tend to come down to features (e.g. the unit may have a delayed charging function, it might have a display readout, it might have wifi capability) or max charging rate, but the basic function of the EVSE is identical across all manufacturers.

To expand on the first point - say run some errands on a Saturday morning and get back home early afternoon. You may have used 30-40% of your battery. If you use the OUC, it'll take 5-8 hours to get back to a full charge, so if you want go out that evening you could run into range issues. With a level 2 EVSE, you'd be back at full charge in maybe 2.5-3 hours (the charging rate slows dramatically after the battery is at 80%).

 

[TonyWilliams]

Our company sells our JESLA to many BMW i3 owners. The JESLA 40 amp (9.6kW) J1772 / Type 1 portable charging cable works at up to full power on every known J1772 equipped vehicle in the world.

JESLA was designed specifically with the unique 40 amp Tesla onboard charger that is in a Mercedes B-Class ED, Toyota RAV4 EV, and of course Tesla cars, but it also works equally fantastic with cars like the BMW i3, Kia Soul EV or Nissan LEAF. It is ultra flexible, light weight (only 8 pounds total!), and portable, PLUS it adjusts from 100 to 250 volts and 12 to 40 amps, automatically. You don't have to know anything about electricity; just plug-n-play!!!

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JESLA-is-THE-40-amp-J1772-portable-charging-solution-JESLA.htm

JELSA ships with NEMA 14-50 and NEMA 5-15 plugs. Additionally, you may want to buy the correct plug for your dryer (handy for visiting friends or relatives at their house) or for motel air conditioners:

......................................................VOLTS / AMPS.......kW
*NEMA 5-15 .......Standard Outlet.. 120 V / 12 A...... 1.4 kW
NEMA 5-20 ...... Motel air conditioner 120/16A....... 1.9 kW
NEMA 10-30......Older Dryers...... 240 V / 24 A...... 5.8 kW
NEMA 14-30......Newer Dryers..... 240 V / 24 A...... 5.8 kW
*NEMA 14-50......RV Parks ........... 240 V / 40 A...... 9.6 kW

*included

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/searchquick-submit.sc?keywords=adapter


Be sure to get a 50 amp circuit installed at your charging location with a NEMA 14-50R receptacle so that you can charge your BMW i3 at the fastest rate. We sell the receptacle here for just $5.99 (cheaper than Home Depot or Lowes):

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/14-50R-Outlet-14-50R.htm

With a plug in portable, you don't have to pay an electrician to install your charge cable.

******

JLong is the perfect compliment for JESLA (or any J1772 charge cable) and can extend the length of the cord by 20 to 60 feet.

It helps when you're at a public charge station and it's blocked (but you can get into a nearby spot) and also for charge stations where the cord won't easily reach the back of the car to plug in. Those visits to Grandma's house to try and reach her dryer outlet are a whole lot easier, and you are fully protected by all the protections of J1772 (proximity disconnect, ground fault, pilot signal, etc).

Fully 40 amp capable, light weight and very portable. One of our top sellers. Patent pending.

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JLONG-40-Amp-J1772-extension-cable-JL40A.htm