Peter Eckhoff via EV wrote:
I found this link yesterday (Sandy Munro's channel):
https://youtu.be/tDp9PhPJhUI
It shows what can happen with a Level 2 installation and voices
concerns for the need for better standards of home installations of
EVSEs.
It's a good video showing what can go wrong. But it's worth noting that
even these drastic failures did NOT cause a fire or shock hazard. The
safety standards did what they are supposed to do.
The examples all appeared to use aluminum wire. It's much harder to make
a reliable connection with it. Aluminum wire should only be used with
connectors explicitly rated for it. Aluminum is also less conductive
than copper, so you have to de-rate the devices accordingly.
Another aspect is the duty cycle. When UL rates something as "60 amps",
that's the maximum current; not the average current rating. Electrical
items should not be used continuously at more than 80% of its max rating.
Finally, there was no failure analysis as to whether these items were
actually UL listed, and installed correctly in the first place. I've
seen a lot of things that claim to be UL listed but are in fact cheap
offshore junk with fake UL markings. And I've often found electrical
installations with undersized wire or connectors, or where the screws
were never fully tightened, etc. I think these are the real problems.
(It also irked me that they continuously referred to the EVSE
connections as the "charger". But that's just me.)
Lee Hart
--
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what CAD tools he used to design the Cray I supercomputer
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
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