r/BoltEV • u/lostspartan034 • 1d ago
Creative charging solutions
Hi everyone I’m the proud owner of 27 Bolt LT and unfortunately quickly came to a realization that home lvl 2 charging was going to be difficult due to needing my entire electrical panel upgraded .
My house is a 2007 build and unfortunately wasn’t future proofed and corners where cut in sizing the capacity of my main panel to grow any further .
I had an electrician come out and I was informed I had no room to expand and a sub panel wasn’t going to cut it . I initially didn’t believe him until I tried to wire a mini split in one of my back rooms and had zero breaker room in the panel to expand !! I ended getting several quotes that ranged from 6-8 grand !!! Since we paid cash for the Bolt my funds are in the process of getting replenished lol!
Luckily with a little research I was able to cobble a work around with my 10-30 dryer outlet and I’d like to share it with you .
I was able to find a variable amp adjustable EVSE and a grounded 10/30 to 14/50 dryer Y splitter with ground . My work commute is 94 miles round trip and I’m getting 23 miles range per hour at 24 amps well below the 10-30 plugs max capacity and that’s only 4 hours of charge time to get back up to 100% nullifying my need to supercharge daily !! The short charge time also didn’t generate any excessive heat at all the outlet was as cool as the ambient air temp .
The entire set up ran me less than $230 bucks and I only charge for a max duration of 4-6 hours while supervising it for any electrical anomalies.
So far I am very pleased with the systems performance and I plan a full 14-50 EV system conversion in the future as funds become available .
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u/galvana 1d ago
We’ve been charging on a similar setup, splitter on the dryer outlet, for over three years now. All good!
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u/lostspartan034 1d ago
That is so comforting to know thank you , everyone demonizes every work around not understanding that some houses don’t have the electrical infrastructure to handle a nema 14-50 upgrade . I’m happy that this is a viable option and it works !!
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u/Malforus 2023 Bolt EUV 1d ago
I would heavily recommend looking into a smart splitter over a simple physical y but lower kilowatt am charging setups have been proven for more than a decade.
Just be sure you check your connections quarterly for if the plug faces show signs of heat damage.
There are people who charged the gen 1 bolts on 110 for their entire lifespan and with 150kw fast charging if something goes wrong you can always top up at a supercharger or other level three charger.
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u/theotherharper 10h ago
A 14-50 isn't the only other option. There are many options. The electrician lied to you.
Post pixels of panels to r/evcharging.
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u/jango-lionheart 22h ago
Regarding “a sub panel wasn’t going to cut it”:
Our house only had 100 amp service when we bought it. We had it upgraded to 200A and added a new main panel with a 100A breaker to the original panel, effectively making the old panel the sub panel. Our charger has a 40A breaker in the new main panel.
Hopefully this is useful to you.
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u/Mayneminu 1d ago
You did swap/upgrade the outlet right?
There a LOTS of failures and fires from cheap outlets used to charge EVs.
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u/cadecunningjam 1d ago
I didn’t have room on my panel, so I had an electrician install a new meter and run a line to a new outlet. The new meter allowed me to go on the discounted overnight charging rate, which makes charging so damn cheap.
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u/flaaaacid 21h ago
Odd that a 2007 house would have a 10-30 outlet which became against electrical code in 1996 revision.
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u/Levorotatory 10h ago
It is also odd that they were permitted that recently. In Canada, dryer outlets have been 14-30 since the 1960s.
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u/lostspartan034 7h ago
Yeah we purchased in Salton city Ca , the builders where initially creating a HOA community but money ran out , construction became sketchy , houses where built on sand foundations , electrical wasn’t up to code , lack of quality control and fraud was rampant blah, blah, blah etc etc etc . Then you find out your required 200 amp breaker panel is only 100 amp 17 years later when you purchase your first EV and tried to install a 240 outlet and where quoted 6-8 grand for a rewire.
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u/robporter 22h ago
Y-splitters for 240v aren’t legal here so no… generally they’re considered unsafe. Wouldn’t want to lose house insurance over that.
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u/SoCalMotoVirg 20h ago
Work with what u got...
Our electricity utility had. $4200 upgrade program if you had an ev
Free 200 amp panel and a 50.amp plug.
They make it back on additional usage...
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u/Wheat_Mustang 21h ago
I’d personally limit my charge to 16 amps with that setup. 24 amps is not well below the 30 amp circuit’s capacity, it is at capacity. With all the newly introduced failure points thanks to the adapter, plus the fact that that receptacle wasn’t meant to pull max load for hours on end, I’d want a bigger safety margin than the standard 80% rule.
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u/ArtichokeDifferent10 15h ago
This was what jumped out at me. It's important OP knows that 24 amps is THE limit for a continuous load. You're not "well below". You're right on the bleeding edge. Consider 16A if that gets you enough range.
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u/Natural_Psychology_5 18h ago
Your cord length is probably technically beyond code,(not something I would put on the internet) and make sure all plugs EV RATED (continuous use)
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u/Proper_UNC_Chap 17h ago
You are the best kind of person. I had to find a DIY solution too. 100% worth it. My set up is different but still solid after a year. I saw how insane the installation price was and had to just make it work. Good job, we need more people like you.👍🏻
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u/lostspartan034 15h ago
Thanks for the kind words it’s much appreciated, now if only my wife wasn’t dead set on the expensive route, she also didn’t think buying an EV was a good idea due range anxiety but didn’t mind the $600 dollars of gas savings in the first 30 days of ownership lol!
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u/lostspartan034 1d ago
The outlet is a standard 10-30 not a nema 14-50 there was no upgrade that’s what the grounded y splitter is for .
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u/JK-Photo 17h ago
Are sure there was no ground wire hiding in the junction box? My home was built in the early 1990's and had a NEMA 10-30, but turned out to be wired wired with 10/3 romex with a ground.
Since the 10-30 outlet did not have a ground terminal, the original electricians just wrapped the ground wire around one of the screws securing the outlet to the junction box. However this enabled the installation of an ev rated nema 14-30 with a proper ground.
If you stick with this I woukd suggest lowering the max amp pull to 16 Amps (or perhaps 20 if you can set thst in the car). While the 10ga wire that should be there for the 30A dryer circuit should allow for 24A continous charging load, I'd be concerned with using a standard outlet. Typically a dryer will only pull 24-28amps for a few minutes to heat up, then cycke on & off. Those old outlets were never designed for the hours that an EV will be pulling and you dont want to risk the outlet melting and causing a fire.
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u/kdawgud 11h ago
How many amps is your main panel? I just discovered that in addition to the old way, the latest electric code let's you gauge household capacity by downloading the last 12 months usage from your utility and finding the peak usage and using that. I was very surprised to find my 12 month peak was only 9KW despite having 2.5 ton AC, electric dryer, electric range, and a 16 amp EVSE. You might find you aren't as close to the limit as expected.
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u/lostspartan034 11h ago
It’s a 100 amp panel it’s totally undersized for my houses square footage .
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u/kdawgud 10h ago
With the 25% margin rule, that's still 19.2 KW of use. If your utility collects that data it might be worth checking what your peak is. If you don't already have a heat pump dryer and heat pump water heater, those are other ways to increase head room.
But I don't see why your current solution won't work, especially if you decrease it to 16A like others suggested.
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u/lostspartan034 7h ago
I’ve got it set at 24 amps and it’s barely generating any heat at all the plug is virtually cool to the touch after 4-5 hours of charging , which is what I’m limiting it to .
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u/elementarydeardata 1d ago
I did this for a while. The catch is that we have a heat pump dryer that only pulls about 3 amps at 240v, so there was a ton of headroom on the circuit. We also limited the EV charger (smart charger) to only charge at 16 amps. Way better than level 1 but still not even close to overloading the circuit.
Make sure you know how much current your dryer and your EV charger and dryer use combined, or just never use them at the same time.