So what does this have to do with the installation on an electric car? Well, it has to do with the amount of electrical current a wall connector like the ChargePoint Home Flex can draw. At a full 50 amp setup, the wall connector draws as much electricity as the average electrical range for your kitchen. However, unlike your range, which is only partially used (for example, you can only use one of the burners at a time, or the oven itself without the burner), the EV charger draws its maximum current for hours at a time. For this reason, electricians have to calculate the load placed on the electrical system to allow the high current to be drawn for a prolonged period of the electric vehicle wall conductor. For example, for standard residential electrical load calculations, a 50-amp range might count only as somewhere around 50% of its full load. For ease of math, this means that if you have a 50-amp range, only 25 amps will be counted into the total load placed on your electrical service. This is because you don’t use your scale all the time, and when you are, you are probably only using a fraction of the potential electrical draw. On the other hand, the power conductor of an electric vehicle must be calculated at 125% of its total draw. This means if you have a power connector rated at 40 amps you must enter 50 amps to account for service draw. If you have a new home with gas heating and 200 amp service then that shouldn’t be an issue, but if your home was built in the 1950s with the original 60 Amps service, and central air conditioner installed in the late 1970s. And, besides a remodeled kitchen, the service may not be able to support the power connector load without the need for an upgrade. This means extra costs on top of what you just spent on the car and on installing the circuit and power connector. (Although if you have an old home, a service upgrade is a very good idea for the sake of long-term safety and home value.) So where does all this electric jumbo mumbo come to play when it comes to the ChargePoint Home Flex? Well, let’s say you just signed the lease on a shiny new Audi e-Tron and have Amazon bring a new power connector to your doorstep. Then you call an electrician to give you an estimate for installing a new 50-amp circuit, as well as installing a new wall connector. When it tells you that your service isn’t heavy enough to support a 50-amp load, you still have options to set the wall connector to 32A, 24A, or even 16A, and you still have the option to increase the load to 50A full in the future if you upgrade your service. (Assuming the conductors feeding into the power connector are large enough to support a 50-amp wall connector.) Another advantage of having the option to choose the current drawing of the wall connector is that you can choose how you want the wall connector to connect to your electrical system. If you want the maximum draw current at 48 or 50 amps for the fastest charging time, you can choose to have the ChargePoint Home Flex wired. However, if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of charging speed (limiting you to 40 amps or less) in order to be able to install more advanced power connectors in the future, you can ask your electrician to install a NEMA 14-50R or 6- port. 50R, which will work with nearly every mobile phone wall connector or connector. If you are planning to sell your home in the near future, installing a 14-50R outlet or 6-50R outlet is a smart choice, as it will allow the next homeowner to install a power connector of their choice to power their own electric vehicle, which adds value to your home at the time of sale. If your head isn’t spinning now, we hope you now have a better understanding of the technical reasons why the ChargePoint Home Flex is an excellent choice for a home charging power connector. If you have an old home with a small electrical service, or even a new home with heavy duty service, ChargePoint Home Flex will give you options to safely charge your electric vehicle. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to set it up for the fastest charging time or maximum flexibility and future upgradeability. There are many power connectors on the market, and while I do not endorse or promote the ChargePoint Home Flex in any way, I would say it would be worth researching your electric vehicle’s charging needs.
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