What’s the best thing about owning an EV? If you answered EV at-home charging, you are correct. The fact that you can charge your car at home is incredible.
Over the past several years, electric cars have become more complicated with larger batteries and greater driving ranges. These are both good things until you try and charge your car using a regular 110-volt power outlet. That could take days with a modern electric vehicle. There has to be a solution to this problem and its with Level 2 charging, but this charging comes with a big catch.
What’s the Catch with Level 2 Charging?
Some companies advertise free Level 2 AC home charging kit when you buy an EV from them, but the don’t tell you what’s in the fine print. This free kit only covers standard installation, which typically means either taking over the plug where your clothes dryer is located, or you need to upgrade the electrical panel in your home. Most homes don’t have multiple 240-volt outlets, but this is what’s necessary for you to operate a Level 2 charger. By the way, this panel upgrade also requires a 40-60 amp circuit.
It Can Cost Thousands to Upgrade Your Electrical Panel
Until recently, the thought of more powerful outlets running off of your electrical panel probably never occurred to you. Depending on where your garage is located and where you intend to power your EV, it could cost both time and money for you to make EV at-home charging a reality. If you’ve got to spend all of this money to put in a charger for your car, why do you have the electric car at all? In the long run, you’ll spend less for an EV than for a gas or diesel vehicle, but the upfront costs are astronomical.
Unless You Know What to Do
There is an inexpensive alternative in the market to help you have the charging you want at home without spending tons of money upgrading your panel and running another 240-volt outlet. You need the 240-volt outlet and the 40-60 amps from the single circuit, but what you don’t need is to change out your electrical panel to get what you’re after. There is a solution that can help you avoid the exorbitant costs of upgrading your electrical connection while delivering the Level 2 charging capabilities you need.
Siemens and ConnectDER have the Answers
Siemens and ConnectDER have partnered up to provide us with an inexpensive alternative to the upgrades that we currently need to experience Level 2 charging. The idea to apply a specific item to EVs is genius and it comes from ConnectDER. This company has developed a collar that goes between the meter box and metering head for home solar installations. These standardized collars make installation easy and straightforward. This is not a brand new concept; the collar is UL-certified and has been installed on 12,000 solar meters to date. That should give anyone the confidence needed to know that ConnectDER knows what they are doing.
These solar collars are tool-free and don’t require any additional wiring, which makes them sound almost too good to be true. The solar versions are capable of parallel power with the utility grid for solar systems with UL 1741 standard inverters. This system works extremely well and helps homeowners that don’t want to change their entire electrical setup to go from regular electricity to solar power with only a small change in the connection at the meter. This application could work for EV at-home charging as well.
The Metered Collar Allows for EV Charging
The same system that connects the solar power to a home can also provide power to electric vehicles. This could be the answer for many homeowners that need to upgrade their electrical system to enjoy Level 2 AC charging power. The ConnectDER meter collar offers a direct connection to a 240-volt line which is necessary for the Level 2 charge. This also takes out the need to upgrade the system to a 40-60 amp system. This change in your home electrical system could make charging your EV much easier than you might have anticipated.
Where Does Siemens Come Into the Conversation?
While the ConnectDER collar is what you need for the electrical conversion, you’ll also need a plug that attaches to the collar and leads to your car’s home charger. This is where Siemens comes in. They will provide the proprietary plug that attaches to this specific collar. With these two items, you can have an electrical system that’s ready to receive that free charging installation offered by the automaker of your electric vehicle. That installation isn’t much more than hanging the charger on the wall and plugging it in, but at least you don’t have to pay for it.
Why is it Important to Have an Easy Conversion System?
Most automakers are committed to selling at least 50 percent electric vehicles by 2030. This means a huge increase in the number of homes that will require an EV at-home charging connection. If an item can be installed in less than 15 minutes, which is the anticipated installation time of the ConnectDER collar, and it doesn’t require an entire change to the electrical system, that item is valuable for future EV drivers and could make a world of difference.
We All Want to Charge at Home
Driving an electric vehicle means no more gasoline and no more stops at the gas station. All you’ve got to worry about is your clean home charging system that provides your car with full battery power whenever necessary. The growth of home EV charging is exponential and will continue to rise as we move closer to a world without gasoline or diesel-powered cars. This new setup from ConnectDER and Siemens changes the entire conversation from a costly and intrusive home installation, to one that can be completed during a lunch hour for only a fraction of the cost.
Will you convert your home to allow EV at-home charging with the ConnectDER collar and Siemens plug? It could be the right setup for your future EV driving.
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