Charging on 110V

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Stuart F.

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Joined
Apr 8, 2013
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I just bought my RAV 4 EV and brought it home tonight. I have a Chevy Volt already, so I'm not a total stranger to electric vehicles. I plugged the vehicle in when I got home and while I can hear the vehicle charging, and the charging lights appear to be blinking normally as stated in the owner's manual, it seems like the vehicle is charging very very slowly. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.
 
Stuart F. said:
I just bought my RAV 4 EV and brought it home tonight. I have a Chevy Volt already, so I'm not a total stranger to electric vehicles. I plugged the vehicle in when I got home and while I can hear the vehicle charging, and the charging lights appear to be blinking normally as stated in the owner's manual, it seems like the vehicle is charging very very slowly. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

I have a Volt and RAV, too, but I've never charged the RAV using L1. It's a much bigger battery, so it's going to take forever, and I would also be careful that you aren't pulling too many amps from the same circuit if charging both cars at once.

I charge the Volt about half the time on a dedicated GFCI outlet, but I would strongly recommend L2 charging for the RAV.
 
Thanks "J". Thinking the same thing you did, I disconnected the Volt but it didn't seem to help w/ the charging issue.
 
From what I hear, the Volt has about 10 kWh of usable battery capacity. The Rav4 EV's is 41.8 kWh usable in extended mode. So, if all else is equal, I expect it to take at least 4x as long to fill a Rav4 EV to totally full, in extended.
 
Yes it takes way longer to charge on the 110.
I get about 12 miles of range with 3 hours of charging on the 110.
If you look at your dash when you power off it will show
how much time of charging on 110 volt and how much time on
the 240 volt.
 
I only charge with the L1 120V charger at home when I have used up around 10-12 miles from full (80%) and want to start out with a full charge the next morning. I set the timer and it starts around midnight and finishes around 6-7 am. Until I get 240V down to the garage, I am only able to L2 charge at work... about 7 mi from home. L1 is very sloooooooooow though!

I know people have had charge timer issues but so far the timer has worked as expected with the L1 charger for me. Now I've done it... jinxed it for the next time I want to use it... :)
 
For folks with "only" 120 volts, check to make sure if you can use a "Quick220" to magically get 240 volts.

If so, then your charge rate would double at the same 12 amps of the original Toyota/Panasonic EVSE. Of course, you will need to modify the original EVSE to 240 volts, or buy an EVSE that doesn't exceed the rating of the wiring (usually 12 amps continuous for a 15 amp breaker or 16 amps continuous for a 20 amp breaker).
 
TonyWilliams said:
For folks with "only" 120 volts, check to make sure if you can use a "Quick220" to magically get 240 volts.

If so, then your charge rate would double at the same 12 amps of the original Toyota/Panasonic EVSE. Of course, you will need to modify the original EVSE to 240 volts, or buy an EVSE that doesn't exceed the rating of the wiring (usually 12 amps continuous for a 15 amp breaker or 16 amps continuous for a 20 amp breaker).
Do you mean a box with 2 120V pigtails that can be plugged in to 2 outlets on two separate busses? I thought of that and checked all the outlets available and they are either on the same breaker, which I doubt, or on the same buss... no 240V. I have yet to try the overhead light which should be on a separate breaker.
 
Just take your voltmeter and a long extension cord and plug one end into the first 120v plug in question, then take the other end and your voltmeter and try every available 120v outlet looking for a 240v difference between the hot on your extension cord and the hot in the outlet(s).

You'll always get 120v to neutral or ground, and 0v from hot to hot on the same phase, and 240v on different phases.

My modified 12 amp / 240 volt Toyota/Panasonic is for sale.

Easy.
 
TonyWilliams said:
Just take your voltmeter and a long extension cord and plug one end into the first 120v plug in question, then take the other end and your voltmeter and try every available 120v outlet looking for a 240v difference between the hot on your extension cord and the hot in the outlet(s).

You'll always get 120v to neutral or ground, and 0v from hot to hot on the same phase, and 240v on different phases.

My modified 12 amp / 240 volt Toyota/Panasonic is for sale.

Easy.
Yup... that's what I did with all the available outlets... no 240V. Like I said there is one more possibility with the overhead light being on a different phase/buss to get 240V
 
What is the maximum amperage the Rav EV will take at 110 volts? I know some RV parks have TT-30 outlets which, I believe, are 110 volt outlets with a max output of 30 amps.

I built a portable, dual voltage OpenEVSE and I am wondering what I can set the EVSE to in order to charge the Rav EV to its max capacity.

Thanks!!!
 
jimbo69ny said:
What is the maximum amperage the Rav EV will take at 110 volts? I know some RV parks have TT-30 outlets which, I believe, are 110 volt outlets with a max output of 30 amps.

I built a portable, dual voltage OpenEVSE and I am wondering what I can set the EVSE to in order to charge the Rav EV to its max capacity.

Thanks!!!


20 amps.
 
Talking about a Quick 240 doubling up on 120, can our RAV4's use a second on-board charger like the Model S does? Not a lot of high amperage J1772 stations out there, but its really more a technical question (Tony?) than a practical or economics question.

http://www.teslamotors.com/charging#/highpower
 
Larry_in_Seattle said:
Talking about a Quick 240 doubling up on 120, can our RAV4's use a second on-board charger like the Model S does? Not a lot of high amperage J1772 stations out there, but its really more a technical question (Tony?) than a practical or economics question.

http://www.teslamotors.com/charging#/highpower

Yes, very easy to add a second Tesla 40amp charger with a dedicated second J1772 inlet. It would likely cost a total of $4000, however.

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6385#p6385
 
TonyWilliams said:
jimbo69ny said:
What is the maximum amperage the Rav EV will take at 110 volts? I know some RV parks have TT-30 outlets which, I believe, are 110 volt outlets with a max output of 30 amps.

I built a portable, dual voltage OpenEVSE and I am wondering what I can set the EVSE to in order to charge the Rav EV to its max capacity.

Thanks!!!


20 amps.

You will have to edit the L1 current table. Stock it stops at 16A. That is the max for a 20A circuit.

The table is in plain text and it is easy to modify. You will need Arduino 1.01 and the files along with a programmer. There is instructions on the OpenEVSE site. If you are near Anaheim I can do it for you.
 
GlennD said:
TonyWilliams said:
jimbo69ny said:
What is the maximum amperage the Rav EV will take at 110 volts? I know some RV parks have TT-30 outlets which, I believe, are 110 volt outlets with a max output of 30 amps.

I built a portable, dual voltage OpenEVSE and I am wondering what I can set the EVSE to in order to charge the Rav EV to its max capacity.

Thanks!!!


20 amps.

You will have to edit the L1 current table. Stock it stops at 16A. That is the max for a 20A circuit.

The table is in plain text and it is easy to modify. You will need Arduino 1.01 and the files along with a programmer. There is instructions on the OpenEVSE site. If you are near Anaheim I can do it for you.

Yeah Chris has made a couple different firmware versions for me. Designing those was a little over my head.
 
Arduino programming is a lot like C++ programming, a second language to most software engineers. Not so much for the rest of us. :lol:

I took a crack at it to customize my JuiceBox front panel display. It was quite a task! I needed a lot of help from Valery at eMW, although I did all the H/W mods myself, and eventually got it done. I am really pleased with the results.

http://s862.photobucket.com/user/dsinned99/media/photo13_zps30d37b3b.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8
 
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