EVSE Circuit Sizing, IMO…

I watch a lot of this guy’s videos, he does his homework, and I’ve yet to find something where he’s totally wrong (cough, V2L)… per se… but, I often find myself in the “can do” vs. “should do” place with his conclusions… Sure, that is an approach that will work, for you and people who think like you, but is it an approach that will work for those that don’t think like you, understand how “planning for peak” works, or value convenience more than saving a couple hundred bucks?

If you’re interested in the video I’m talking about, here it is…

The TL;DR is that you don’t need a 40A+ EVSE circuit to charge your EV, most people will be totally fine with a 30A, or potentially less. If you have an EV with a tiny battery, or don’t drive very much, you can even use a standard 15A/120V to get it done. Like I said, that is true. It is totally true…

But, I do it? LLOL, nope…

Would I recommend that someone else do that? That’s crazy talk.

I actually think there’s a danger in promoting solutions that only solve the minimal baseline for getting something done. There is no room for future expansion. There’s no wiggle for situations that don’t fit a prescribed set of use cases. Solving the minimum problem today, often creates new problems for your future self. Which is the point of why I’m spending time writing this up.

If you’re a planner, the kind of person that remembers to plug your phone in every night. You like spreadsheets. You like numbers. You know how to do charging math. You can stop reading now. You don’t need to listen to me. You’ve already figured all this out. Good chance you have an EV and this is a solved problem for you.

But that’s not the audience that is going to find videos like this and make decisions that could lead to anti-EV sentiment either directly with them, or with the people they talk to about the hoops they have to jump through to own an EV. We don’t want EV ownership to feel the same as Veganism. It cannot involve moral signalling.

We want new EV owners to have a good experience. Not think about whether they are allowed to run the HVAC in the car. Whether their car will charge fast enough to deal with days where the temperature high is in the 20Fs. We want it to be convenient. We want the compromises to come when traveling between cities, because for most people that doesn’t happen that often.

I say this having followed a Vegan diet for several years. I’m not doing that anymore, but I understand the compromise, the limitations, the way you have to meticulously plan meals that don’t happen inside your house. The burden it places on the people you spend time with, as your choices impact their options. Not saying that is a bad thing, just that it’s a thing. There are absolutely new hyper-efficiency-focused future EV enthusiasts out there waiting to emerge from their cocoons, but that is not who we should be having these discussions with.

I firmly believe that EVs are a better kind of car. We own three of them. I will never buy another new ICE car. It’s not the right answer for me. But, we have solved home charging. If your living situation is such that you can’t put in at least a 40A circuit (32A EVSE), you want to slow it down, and think about how much you believe. How much you value being able to forget to plug in the car every day. How much you value being able to add kWh to the battery fairly quickly on the days where it’s necessary. How much you value not needing to visit a DCFC on the days where stuff happens, and you regret your choices, even briefly.

If you have a small, very efficient, EV and you don’t drive that much. The minimum I would put in is 30A/24A. But, you have to recognize that on heavy driving periods (e.g. roll in late at 3%, and need to get going again early for another long day), you might need to visit the DCFC. This is a narrow subset of the EV-curious demographic. If you have any doubts, do not do it this way.

If your panel can swing it, put in a 50A/40A or 60A/48A EVSE. This provides plenty of juice for a single car. Works great for multiples, provided they have decent range. And if you get a larger EV (I just picked up a Silverado EV), it will still do the business. You aren’t just solving this problem for today, you want to solve it future you too.

Also, if you are installing an EVSE, don’t use a plug. Hardwire the thing. Don’t use a portable EVSE if you don’t absolutely need to. This reduces the complexity of the installation (hardwired EVSE have GFCI built in, so you don’t need a GFCI breaker) and enhances safety.