[Synovialbasher]

Hey all!

Hopefully this will serve as inspiration or help for anyone else installing a Level 2 charger for the first time. I've had my 2013 Volt for a little over a year, and a few months ago I finally went ahead and purchased a used Clipper Creek LCS-25 from another forum member. In my excitement, I installed it on the railing of the stairs in the garage that leads into the house and used a flexible metal conduit to run the wires over to the 240v NEMA 10-30R welding outlet in the garage. Typically, a NEMA 10-30r shouldn't be used, however for whatever reason when the 240 line was installed, the electrician put in two hot and a ground rather than two hot and a neutral that's typically on a NEMA 10-30R outlet, and so I decided to purchase a plug that I wired up in order to "plug in" the hard-wired charger.

Technically, this setup worked, however I typically park outside of the garage, and because of this I had to run the cable from across the floor and under the garage door to make it to the Volt, and had to pull in nose-first very close to the door in order to reach the plug. I dealt with this for a few months, however this weekend I decided to redo things the right way.

I wanted to put the charger against the wall that the garage door is on so that I could connect to the car regardless of whether or not it's in the garage. In addition, I was sick and tired of having a cable running across the floor, and also parking in very specific spots. I went to home depot and picked up some 1/2" PVC conduit, a suitable amount of 12 gauge wire, a stud finder, some junction boxes, and various adapters and bends for the conduit. It really wasn't a hard job, and anyone with some DIY experience could probably pull it off (disclaimer: mess with electricity at your own risk, I am not responsible for any harm by doing what I did). The hardest part was balancing semi-flexible PVC pipe on the wall while attempting to attach it and get it level.

In the second picture above, the charger used to be located against the wood steps in the lower left corner, and then the cord dragged outside to the car.

At the end of the day I should have done it the right way initially, but overall I am much happier with this configuration, and hopefully it will help someone else looking to install a charger! I also got around to hanging up my new poster. The garage has never felt so home-y!

 

[Don M]

In the second picture above, the charger used to be located against the wood steps in the lower left corner, and then the cord dragged outside to the car.

Actually, the 'charger' is in the car - What you installed is the EVSE which supplies AC power to the charger

Don

 

[Barry]

This is a good example of running conduit on the wall surface, which you can get away with in a garage. Much easier than hiding the wiring inside the wall, which is preferred for finished interior space. Nice job.

I also have my EVSE mounted near the garage door. It is nice that it can easily reach a car parked inside or outside.

 

[Synovialbasher]

Yes. The EVSE is essentially a glorified relay with enough smarts to keep everything safe; the actual AC/DC conversion and charging is managed by the car's charger located behind the bumper. I used the term "charger" since colloquially most people who don't know much about EVs assume that it's a charger like a cell phone charger. I'll add a note though to clarify it.

 

[rslatkin]

Yes, it looks great. But most importantly, where did you get that charge cord artwork?!

 

[Synovialbasher]

Yes, it looks great. But most importantly, where did you get that charge cord artwork?!

I got it from another forum member. The original post is here:

https://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?325187-Volt-stuff-I-drew

However the link to actually purchase the poster was relocated to a different thread and is located here:

https://www.northbynorthstudio.com/collection-2/charge-cord-love

I'm planning buying more art to put up on the garage wall (EV-themed of course), but bills first!