120V Portable Charger...

[1793]

I'm an electrician and I have a customer who has purchased a 2012 VOLT. The charging unit has two setting, 12A & 8A. When he sets it to 12A the unit displays the "red" light indicating a Ground Fault. If he uses the 8A setting it is better but still, sometimes, gets the same result, "red" light.

He has used this at other locations and seem to be working just fine on either setting. At his home the electrical source, panel, is ~120' away, 15A #14 wire. Could there be an issue with Voltage Drop causing these results?

Thank you in advance.

1793

[Neromanceres]

I'm an electrician and I have a customer who has purchased a 2012 VOLT. The charging unit has two setting, 12A & 8A. When he sets it to 12A the unit displays the "red" light indicating a Ground Fault. If he uses the 8A setting it is better but still, sometimes, gets the same result, "red" light.

He has used this at other locations and seem to be working just fine on either setting. At his home the electrical source, panel, is ~120' away, 15A #14 wire. Could there be an issue with Voltage Drop causing these results?

Thank you in advance.

1793

It could very well be voltage drop. But it's odd that the unit is indicating a ground fault. I have attached an image of the page from the Volt manual with the two error lights. If it is indicating a ground fault then it is likely something else. Could you disconnect the breaker and check the resistance between the live and ground? If not the Volt 120 EVSE seems to be fairly sensitive to voltage drop and power quality. If the EVSE is indicating a Voltage out of range error it could be contact resistance at the connections (plug or breaker). Or it could be a combination of a long run and so-so power quality. Can you test the voltage under load? One more thing it might be is a high resistance to ground. If the ground is not very good the Volt EVSE is not happy either.

2012_EVSE_Indicators.jpg

[Henry_FL]

It could be both Voltage drop and the similar resistance on the ground. Your looking at over 240ft round trip on the resistance which will be over 8 volts drop, that way to much for reliable operation. At that length, to keep within the NEC 3% rule you would need that length run to be 10AWG, which would still be near a 3.5 volt drop

I would suggest running a 6 position sub panel to the garage using 6AWG, this would allow for upgrading to a 240V charger as well in the future.

[Neromanceres]

It could be both Voltage drop and the similar resistance on the ground. Your looking at over 240ft round trip on the resistance which will be over 18 volts drop, that way to much for reliable operation. At that length, to keep within the NEC 3% rule you would need that length run to be 8AWG, which would still be near a 4.5 volt drop

I would suggest running a 6 position sub panel to the garage using 6AWG, this would allow for upgrading to a 240V charger as well in the future.

Not to argue but #14 wire at 240 feet is 0.61 Ohms. At 12 Amps current the Voltage drop would be ~7.32V (not including contact resistances and assuming 68F temperature). Which is still a little high. #10 wire would get you to within 3% voltage drop (~2.9V @ 12A).

Edit:
Found an online calculator as well with some good tips:
http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm

[jackphillips]

We get that problem always when the extension cord is too small in size. Use heavy duty cord only.. Shorten teh distance as much as possile.

[bonaire]

In my garage (well whole house) it looks like I have 14/2 installed with 20A breakers. That may be to local code but I'm going to have a 12/2 drop pulled to the garage, new high-end 20A plug and 15A breaker. In my case, we have 121V in the house (via kill-a-watt) so there isn't much worry about voltage drop here.

For the OP - I wonder if they used aluminum wiring?

[1793]

In my garage (well whole house) it looks like I have 14/2 installed with 20A breakers. That may be to local code but I'm going to have a 12/2 drop pulled to the garage, new high-end 20A plug and 15A breaker. In my case, we have 121V in the house (via kill-a-watt) so there isn't much worry about voltage drop here.

For the OP - I wonder if they used aluminum wiring?

Wiring is CU.

[banadictaustin]

Wiring is CU.

The Portable Charger can be used in the standard reduced level function, but the charging time is improved. When choosing 12A (1.5kW) charging function, the 12 Amp LED lights up. If 12 Amp LED is not illuminated, charging rate is limited to a default maximum of 7A (.84kW).