# Level 2 Wall Charger with a Level 1 on board



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

jrod84 said:


> I have bought books and read as much online as I could find. I really want to make sure I am not completely off base or out in left field. How does it work if I wanted to do a Level 2 Wall Charger made by name brand companies like GE and others(I dont want to talk about brands of wall chargers) while I have a Level 1 charger in the car in case I needed some juice from a 120 outlet?
> 
> What are the challenges with having this type of set up? I am not an electronics guy so a DIY is out of the question for the time being. When I look at cost it seems to make sense too. A typical wall charger is around $1,000 and some on board chargers are around $1,100. When I compare that to around $3,200 for a decent Level 2 in car charger it seems like the dual charger set up makes sense.
> 
> Any input would be greatly appreciated.


Hi jrod,


This is how I see it from the perspective of an EV user. I recently got a Th!nk City EV. http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/majors-th-nk-76930.html It came with a 110 V AC charge cord which plugged into the usual 15A outlet and then has the SAE J1772 plug which fit into the charge port on the car. This charge cord has a small plastic box incorporated in it which has 3 LEDs and does some supervisory function including ground fault, I think. It will charge at about 12 or 13 amps from the 110 V AC outlet.


I also got a L2 EVSE which I thought was a level 2 wall charger.









So I read up on it and went about installing it in my garage. It turns out that it is not really a charger, but an EVSE or Electric Vehicle Service Equipment, which is a fancy power supply for the vehicle charger. The vehicle charger is on-board the EV.

This particular L2 EVSE is a nice one made to accomondate commercial installations. L2 means Level 2 which is 240V AC up to 32A I think. I had to install a 40 A branch circuit and breaker to my service panel, and #8 3-wire with ground cable (40 ft). So it cost me a few hundred to hang this mother. While I was at it, I installed a dedicated kWh meter. It was $40 off eBay and looked brand new. Now I know exactly the portion of my electric bill which goes into the EV.

The L2 EVSE is not the charger. The charger is in the EV. The EVSE delivers the AC power to the EV thru the J1772 charge plug after it receives the handshake signal from the EV charger. The EVSE has a contactor inside which will turn on the AC to the EV. It also has some sophisticated computer boards inside which can communicate and function to control the vehicle charge. This stuff is not connected to anything in my unit, but I can see where it could be connected to the power company to control the charge window or to perhaps a credit card reader or the like.

Before I got the L2 EVSE installed, I used the 110V charge cord for about 2 weeks. I was looking forward to a much faster charge with the big boy L2. I was disappointed to only see 14A on the 240V circuit when I began using the L2. I expected 25 or 30A. Come to find out that the Think EV has a 3.3 kW charger onboard. So It can only use about 14A from the 240V service. But hey, that's twice as fast as with the 110V cord. So it is working well for me and when using the L2, I get about 11 mph. So even when I use one of the public charge stations in town, I still get charged at 3.3 kW or 11 mph.

I hope my experience sheds some light there for ya 

major


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