Hey guys, anyone buy and use a chargepoint home charger?
I'm looking at getting one for my Volt when it comes in. It looks like it has a nice combo of smart features and good power for the price.
Any experience out there with this unit they care to share?
I was planning on it until I found Plugless. I have one of those ordered. Until that comes in, I made an adapter to use with the charger that comes with the car. That will allow me to charge at L2 speeds.
I’m very happy with mine. I originally had a Chargepoint CT5000 provided to me for free with installation by the State of California as an early adopter of a plug-in car. I had that one replaced twice under warranty as the early units failed. The final CT5000 unit did work for over three years but had a very noisy transformer buzz when charging and occasionally would balk at charging my Volt or terminate before the car was fully charged.
When Chargepoint offered me a $250 rebate (check sent as soon as I activated the unit) I somewhat hesitantly opted to try out their new Home unit (32-amp version with 18 ft cable, hardwired). What a difference! This unit is very compact and stylish, makes absolutely no noise when charging, and has worked flawlessly since November.
It has no readouts on the unit other than a light showing it is activated and a lighted ring around the unit plug receptacle that is solid green when the car isn’t plugged in, solid blue when it is fully charged and blue constantly dimming and brightening when charging.
It needs your wireless Internet signal to set up (via a smart phone app) and to send charging data to Chargepoint. I was worried that the signal in my garage would not be strong enough, since my iPhone showed marginal wireless signal at the installation point, but there is no problem – I guess the unit has a larger antenna than my phone. Both the hardwire installation (simply disconnecting the wires on my old CT5000 unit and putting them on the new Home unit in my case) and the setup are very easy to do. I can now monitor my home charging history (and at any Chargepoint commercial station) easily on the Chargepoint website. The app also allows you to a set up a charging timetable based on utility rates, if for some reason you don’t want to use the system in your car. You can also set up warnings that are texted to you if, say, you forget to plug in your car by a certain time in the day.
My unit cost me $399 - $649 minus $250 rebate from Chargepoint (now expired, I believe). You may also be eligible for a tax refund on part of the purchase.
So, from my experience since last November, I would fully recommend the Home unit.
For what "smart features" are you looking? Your car is pretty "smart" as far as scheduling and negotiating with any EVSE. What is the price and does it include a charge cord? Chargepoint is usually quite expensive once you add in the required cord.
Well it helps manage electricity usage in the home which is nice. But you do make a good point that the car will manage scheduling for me. For the price it does include a fairly long charge cord. With options in 18' and 25'. A hardwired 32A 18' model goes for 649 in the US.
My SPX Voltec charger is still going strong from when I had my 2011 Chevrolet Volt. I now have a 2016 Chevrolet Volt and while the charger is still doing well I have been looking into different types of chargers as I cannot get replacement parts for mine. I will buy a "Clipper Creek" unit when mine dies. They are rebuildable and seem to be very reliable.
My plan was to purchase one. In fact I postponed the purchase of a Level 2 EVSE as I was waiting on the chargepoint units to hit the market. Then they hit the market and I saw the prices. Overpriced in my book.
I just got a ChargePoint Home installed. It's only been one day, but I think it's a great unit, and priced well considering its technology. There are very few network compatible units available at the moment, and the Home is pretty inexpensive comparatively.
I live in a condo and needed a way to track my usage since I'm using the buildings breaker panel. I will be tracking usage and providing a print-out along with a check to the HOA every month. The Home unit has WI-FI and its location is a couple dozen feet from our router inside, so it can connect to our network. Setting it up only took a few moments using the Charge Point app on my phone. The unit connected to my phone using Bluetooth, I selected the WI-FI network, entered the password and it added itself to the ChargePoint network, but only I can see its location.
The app has a "Home Charger" section where the info resides. You can schedule charge times and receive notices if you choose. You can also view your charging status in real time. The app uses your billing address and knew what utility I was on, calculating the charging cost in real time as well. You can also use the Charge Point website to track usage and it has the ability to export data for the month so I can easily calculate and pay for my usage.
Here are some pics of the app during charging
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