Just a follow-up. I got the Clipper Creek EVSE last week. It's physically larger than I expected but not overly obnoxious. The case itself is molded plastic and also serves as a cord hanger. It seems to have a fairly substantial relay or contactor in it because it goes on with a noticable 'clunk' when the car is plugged in. It was easy to install, came with everything, and is working fine.
--Rick On 02/02/2014 11:22 PM, Rick Beebe wrote: > I built a 30-amp OpenEVSE last April. I used all pre-built parts (no > soldering) and the $85 enclosure they were offering. It still took me a > couple hours to put it together and my final cost was $540. I plug it > into a 30amp twist-lock so it's considered "portable." $175 of that was > a 25 foot J1772 cable & connector from Leviton. > > I'm building a second one and to save money I bought their > "mostly-built" version. That's meant a couple hours of soldering and now > I'm trying to debug why it doesn't work. (The savings over fully-built > was $35. I'm an idiot.) But since I built the first one, Chris at > OpenEVSE has put together a kit with all the pieces that I previously > had to source myself. That saved a lot of time and money. Sadly, the > enclosure is no longer available so I bought an off-the-shelf Hammond > NEMA 4 box (this unit was destined for outside). I haven't added > everything up but I think it will be about $475 complete. If you buy a > second cord from Leviton you get a discount. > > I unexpectedly acquired a third EV last week and ya know what? I found > that Clipper Creek has a 30 amp, indoor/outdoor, made-in-the-USA, > certified EVSE with a 25 foot cord for "only" $590. Bosch has one for > $593 but it only has an 18 foot cord and I need the extra length. I > ordered the Clipper Creek one to go outside. The one I'm building will > go inside the garage. I decided my time was worth the extra $50-100 for > the Clipper Creek one. If I had to pay $800 I probably would have built > the third one too. But having done two and seeing how expensive the bits > really are I've become more sympathetic to $600 EVSEs. > > --Rick > > On 1/31/2014 6:46 PM, David Rees wrote: > [... some deleted...] >> >> The cheapest OpenEVSE kit is $169 and you still have to do some >> soldering. >> >> And you still don't have an enclosure for it all + misc wire cost and >> you've already spent $350 if you don't value your time. >> >> Pretty easy to see how these are getting marked up to $600 once you >> factor in some profit on a low-volume product. >> >> Expect prices to drop as volumes go up - eventually these will cost >> around $200, but the volume just isn't there yet. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
