I've had great luck charging at 240V with the EVSE that came with my Prius Prime, with an adapter I built myself to interface between it and the NEMA L14-20 plug in my parents' garage. Looking to install something fixed (and to code) at my place though, and wondering whether anyone here has used SimplyWork's 16A EVSE, that is alarmingly cheap at C$189 delivered? Comes with a 25ft cable. I'll be hooking it up to Sinope's 50A load controller (C$120), to give me smart functionality at a fraction of the cost of an EVSE with it built in... as long as cutting off the current to the EVSE wouldn't harm it? 16 AMP Level 2 Electric Vehicle Charger– simplywork Smart electrical load controller 50 A – Zigbee | Sinopé Technologies EN
Alarmingly cheap, indeed. Simplywork may have a prominent Canadian flag on their website, but it doesn’t appear that they’ve obtained a CSA certification, UL Canada listing, or any other safety agency approvals for the product you mentioned, for which—in all probability—they’re merely the importers. They write, “All the key components are UL or CE certified,” but that really isn’t the same as having had the product, as a whole, evaluated to the tri-national Standard for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, published as UL 2594 in the U.S., CSA C22.2 No. 280-16 in Canada, and NMX-J-677-ANCE-2016 in Mexico. (You can view the entire standard at no charge, after registering, on UL’s website.)
That's a really good point, and thanks for the reference to the standard! Got an opinion on putting a load controller ahead of an EVSE?
Using a switch (contactor, timer, load controller, circuit breaker, etc.) is unlikely to damage the EVSE or the car—they have to be designed for power outages, after all—but you might prefer to use the car’s built-in scheduling feature instead. Search PriusChat for Prime timer to see previous discussions. If you do use a switch, be sure it’s rated for the voltage and current, of course, and that it and the EVSE are installed in accordance with their manufacturers’ instructions.
My main issue with the on-board timer is that there's no way to shut off charging at some level like 70% or 80%. I live at the top of the escarpment, and it's a 90m drop to downtown and of course in winter the engine comes on when making the descent if the battery is cold and above those levels.
It's easy if you consistently get home with no EV range left. You know it takes about two hours to charge from zero. You hopefully also know that charging slows as the battery gets close to 100% So, if you want to leave with, say 60%, set the timer to start one hour before departure time. Play with the timing to fine tune it. It'll be no more inaccurate than using a load controller and won't cost a dime. Another more flexible free option is to use your own timer and get up and go out there and unplug it when the timer dings. Very few of us get enough steps as it is. I do that a LOT because sometimes I know I'm just going to run a local errand. The battery has some charge but not enough. If I figure to need about 20 minutes of charge, I plug in the car and then long press the crown on my watch and say, "Start a timer for 20 minutes." And in 20 minutes, my watch dings and I get up off my lazy keister and go unplug my car. (It really is a lazy keister, too, so it needs chores like that. LOL! ) However, if the battery is cold enough, the ICE will come on anyway if it can't take the regeneration from the slope fast enough.
I totally get it! It is a great excuse to get off the couch and I don't mind continuing. The load controller here is a "sunk cost", because I bought it to use for time-of-day pricing with an electric water heater, which we ended up getting rid of, so it'd be nice to deploy it for these purposes. Not only would it allow us to charge during off-peak hours (say, when we're sleeping), it also tracks electricity usage.
Ah! Well, if you already have it and it'll handle water heater current, it should be fine with a Prime.
Hello, please let me know about your experience with the Sinope load controller. I work for a company that is interested in this kind of solution for smart charging. For example, did repeated power cuts lead to an alarm going off?
An alarm where, in the load controller? Nope. I haven't hooked it up to use with an EVSE yet, but I do use the Sinope 240V/50A load controller for a water heater at another location, and power outages have never been an issue with it. It maintains on/off schedules locally, and the clock never seems to lose its time. Had it installed for one year, scheduled to turn off & on five days a week.
