I need help figuring out my home charging situation

[millieraider]

I'm considered getting one of these trucks and I need help figuring out my home charging situation. I have a 240v outlet in my garage thats on a 40 Amp breaker thats shared with my dryer(different outlet - same circuit). I was planning to use this for home charging but discovered the the outlet is a NEMA 10-30. How straight forward is it to update to a NEMA 14-50? Is it just plug and play like a typical 110v outlet? Can I just use an adapter? This outlet claims its rated up to 50 amps.. (pic attached)

My other option is, I have a another 40amp breaker for a 240v outlet in my kitchen thats not currently used. My stove is gas. I could potentially have a charger hard wired to this circuit. Adding a new circuit is not possible for me.

Second question, total house amps is 90 Amps. I know low, but has been sufficient for me since Heating/Water/Stove are gas. Will charging on 32amps draw to much power?

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[flyct]

You can repurpose the 40 amp unused kitchen range breaker and wire it to a 14-50 outlet. Then use a Ford mobile "charger" that has a 50 amp plug that will only draw 30 amps.

It's legal to ie a 14-50 to a 40 amp circuit since there is no 40 amp 240v outlet. Just label it as a 40 amp outlet.

I use a 14-50 outlet wired to a 40 amp circuit at the shed at my remote cabin. The breaker is wired to a 60 amp subpanel. Originally it was used to power my RV but now it is used as a backup charger for my EVs The sub panel also had 2 - 240 volt well pumps, a window AC unit and several lighting circuits.

 

[millieraider]

You can repurpose the 40 amp unused kitchen range breaker and wire it to a 14-50 outlet. Then use a Ford mobile "charger" that has a 50 amp plug that will only draw 30 amps.

It's legal to ie a 14-50 to a 40 amp circuit since there is no 40 amp 240v outlet. Just label it as a 40 amp outlet.

I use a 14-50 outlet wired to a 40 amp circuit at the shed at my remote cabin. The breaker is wired to a 60 amp subpanel. Originally it was used to power my RV but now it is used as a backup charger for my EVs The sub panel also had 2 - 240 volt well pumps, a window AC unit and several lighting circuits.

How about using the adapter on the current plug?

 

[Firn]

A 50a plug has to have 50a wiring and a 50a circuit behind it, unfortunately (fortunately?) you cannot just put a 50a outlet on that existing circuit.

Your best bet may be that hardwired 240v circuit but same as the dryer you cannot have both devices on it.

Trying to charge at any high rate with only 90a service will be tough. Just charging plus the HVAC fan would leave you little room for other loads, and that's assuming you have gas for heat and the water heater.

You will want to go with a hardwired charger set to a low level, possible even going with a house monitoring system to tailor charging. There are also devices that can be attached to the meter that could help in this situation.

 

[RocketGhost]

If you use the receptacle on the same circuit as the dryer I would put an interlock of some sort to prevent both the dryer and charger to run at the same time. If they do it will overload the circuit. I believe there are devices specifically for this purpose.

Best would be to use the unused circuit in the kitchen.

With only 90a service, get a charger with adjustable amps and turn it down. And remember that you can't charge at an amperage more than 80% of the circuit capacity.

 

[pullinggs]

Like you, I have very limited power available in my panel (only about 60A).

My advice would be to hard wire a charger on your unused circuit (I use an EVSE from Emporia; there are many threads on this topic) and set the amperage to "something lower" than max. The preferences for my system are set to 24A, half of what it's rated for. That's typically plenty of power to have the truck charged and ready to go when I wake up every morning.

YMMV

 

[millieraider]

If you use the receptacle on the same circuit as the dryer I would put an interlock of some sort to prevent both the dryer and charger to run at the same time. If they do it will overload the circuit. I believe there are devices specifically for this purpose.

Best would be to use the unused circuit in the kitchen.

With only 90a service, get a charger with adjustable amps and turn it down. And remember that you can't charge at an amperage more than 80% of the circuit capacity.

Definitely do not plan on running both at the same time! My ideal scenario is to charge at 32 Amps with a mobile charger. Which is very sufficient for my driving. Now is it okay to run this with a NEMA 10-30 to NEMA 14-50 converter? OR is the swap from a NEMA 10-30 outlet to a NEMA 14-50 outlet just the change of an outlet?

 

[FloridaMan655321]

Sounds like you have an old house, as do I. I actually utilized this to have an excuse to upgrade my panel and then add a 50amp circuit where I have a Tesla universal charger set to 40amps. I also installed an inlet so I can charge my home if there is an outage.

I know this isn't a direct answer, but just throwing it out there. I wanted to upgrade my panel anyways, and this was a good excuse, and a good excuse to install a generator inlet.

 

[millieraider]

Sounds like you have an old house, as do I. I actually utilized this to have an excuse to upgrade my panel and then add a 50amp circuit where I have a Tesla universal charger set to 40amps. I also installed an inlet so I can charge my home if there is an outage.

I know this isn't a direct answer, but just throwing it out there. I wanted to upgrade my panel anyways, and this was a good excuse, and a good excuse to install a generator inlet.

Yep built in the 60s

 

[RocketGhost]

Definitely do not plan on running both at the same time! My ideal scenario is to charge at 32 Amps with a mobile charger. Which is very sufficient for my driving. Now is it okay to run this with a NEMA 10-30 to NEMA 14-50 converter? OR is the swap from a NEMA 10-30 outlet to a NEMA 14-50 outlet just the change of an outlet?

You will want a commercial grade outlet (Hubbell brand is what most recommend); cheap ones aren't meant for continuous use (charging for hours). I'd get a Hubbell 14-50 and set your charger to a max of 32amps. You may want one that's adjustable so you can lower it more if you run into problems with only having 90a service. Avoid the Ford mobile charger, it's been known to fail if used often.

 

[millieraider]

You will want a commercial grade outlet (Hubbell brand is what most recommend); cheap ones aren't meant for continuous use (charging for hours). I'd get a Hubbell 14-50 and set your charger to a max of 32amps. You may want one that's adjustable so you can lower it more if you run into problems with only having 90a service. Avoid the Ford mobile charger, it's been known to fail if used often.

And I would just swap this out with the current outlet? Just plug and play? No modifications to the breaker, electrical panel or wiring?

 

[mr.Magoo]

I have a 240v outlet in my garage thats on a 40 Amp breaker thats shared with my dryer(different outlet - same circuit).

https://www.emporiaenergy.com/emporia-ev-charger-with-load-management/

I'd probably get something like this (link above)
Please DO check up the wireing and make sure it's OK, people do stupid s-t all the time and just because your breaker is 40A and your outlet is 30A (sketchy right there) doesn't mean the wireing is 12AWG or something like that.

BUT - assuming everything is OK, then having the charger with load balancer means it'll sense if someone "accidentally" starts the dryer and at that point it'll downrate the charger to only allow for whats "left".

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I should have also mentioned, with the Tesla charger you can use the Tesla app to only use a certain amount of amps, lets say 20amps to be safe. So might be worth connecting that to your extra circuit
https://shop.tesla.com/product/universal-wall-connector

 

[Maquis]

Please don’t take offense, but the questions you’re asking tells me that you need to consult an electrician.

 

[Athrun88]

I'm with Maquis, call up an electrician and get some quotes/opinions on how things could/should be done. I recently did a service upgrade for my place going from 100A to 200A while installing my EVSE and got quotes/opinions from 4 electricians. I'm all for DYI, but when it comes to electricity, best to spend a few more dollars and get a professional to do it. Also, depending on some jursdictions, you may be required to get a licensed electrician to make these types of changes. For example, in my area, I'm required to hire an electrician to even install an EVSE assuming my existing circuits could support one.

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