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Extension cord wire gauge for Prime

Discussion in 'Gen 5 Prime Charging' started by Will B, Oct 11, 2023.

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  1. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    I bought a duplex outlet that has 6-20 240 v and 5-20 120 v single outlets in one receptacle. It only requires 12/3 cable and now I have the option to quick or slow charge in one duplex outlet. Tried it with my aftermarket evse, which comes with a 6-20 plug, works as it should, 3.3 kw on 240 v. showing extra on the house smart meter. Can bring the charge from from empty to full in about two hours if the need arises.
     
    #21 Mr.Vanvandenburg, Oct 15, 2023
    RandyPete and vvillovv like this.
  2. Will B

    Will B Active Member

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    vvillovv: Ooh, I like the idea of a protective cover for the brick! If this "charging on road trips" turns out not to be a dud, that sounds like a better solution than my dongle just to protect the plug.

    will
     
    #22 Will B, Oct 15, 2023
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  3. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    plugshare.com is a good resource for charging on trips. But, charging on trips is not something to take fore-granted, there are lots of pitfalls. Do you have access to the network? All I have presently is chargepoint, so unless I can find a chargepoint network charger or a charger that is free, I'm out of luck.
    Other issues you will find are broken chargers and gassers parked in the EV charging parking spaces.

    It's good to get an idea about how to charge at a few locally available chargers, before you venture out along an extended planned route.
     
    #23 vvillovv, Oct 16, 2023
    Will B likes this.
  4. Will B

    Will B Active Member

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    vvilovv: Chargepoint and Plugshare are the two apps recommended to me and they seem to complement each other pretty good. I've practiced few times at some local places now so believe I get it. If in town for only 12 hours, 8 of which are sleeping, the charger has to be at the hotel to make any sense. I can't spend 4 hours somewhere babysitting a charge. After looking at the places I'm staying at for my upcoming 5,000 mile road trip it isn't looking too good alas. My best bet I feel is sweet talking the hotel to letting me "borrow" a 110V outlet.

    Cool par though is I don't care! :) That is the whole reason I got a PHEV! Electric for around the city, gas for the road trips. All this about extension cords is for exactly as you point out, being as ready as possible for opportunistic charging, but if not in the cards, not worried about it at all.

    will
     
    #24 Will B, Oct 17, 2023
    HacksawMark likes this.
  5. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    The one thing that can be annoying on a road trip is forgetting to switch out of EV mode after stopping for a break. At hwy speed it is easy to run out of EV range without noticing and by the time the driver notices there is no electric range left it can be hard to remember where and why.
     
    #25 vvillovv, Oct 18, 2023
  6. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    I turned my microwave on along with the coffee maker. Killawatt is on the coffee maker. Each pulls the voltage down about two volts. So it is in my house wiring, and they are on different circuits going to a small sub panel. So Killawatt isn’t doing anything to the voltage. Microwave goes off, voltage goes up to the coffee maker independent of the killawatt
     
    #26 Mr.Vanvandenburg, Oct 18, 2023
  7. Will B

    Will B Active Member

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    Mr.Vanvandenburg: Yea, I need to re-run the test without the Kill-a-Watt in the path to separate any of it's losses vs the house wiring. I'm pretty sure no other heavy loads were going on/off during this testing (no stoves, microwaves, furnace, dryer, etc.) so hoping that 5V drop is purely related to the car load. The breakers in the electrical panel are all warm-ish too, so bet they are a good part of that 5V drop along with the cable run to the garage. I'm not going to try and separate those two losses! :)

    I did plug in the extension cord in without any load so any temperature rise would be just due to the neon bulb and resistor and I got about a 3 degree C rise. So, looks like about half the temperature rise in the extension cord plug and socket is due to the bulb and the other half is resistive losses in the connector itself. 3C is not too bad.

    will
     
    #27 Will B, Oct 19, 2023
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