120V charging options

[T35LA_AC]

Hey there - I live in a rental house and have been getting by with charging from a regular 120v outlet in my garage at 12 amps. Now that colder weather is coming (and the garage is not insulated), I’m wondering if there are any simple upgrades available to me. Since we don’t own the house, we can’t do any major electrical work otherwise I would aim for 40 amp charging.

my question is this - based on the attached photo of my breaker panel, does anyone know if I can simply install a 5-20 outlet in my garage to charge at 16 amps? The breaker linked to the garage shows 2x 15 amp circuits. I’m not an electrician so I’m not sure whether those 2x15 amp circuits are combined or run separately.

in summary, yes I know none of this is ideal charging and I would be better served with a NEMA 14-50 or Tesla Wall Connector but that will just have to wait until I own a house. For now, wondering if just replacing an outlet and buying a 5-20 adapter is at all in the cards for slightly faster charging.

thanks!

 

[wws]

Nope. You need to leave them as 15 amp circuits, as they are likely wired with 14 ga Romex.

Is the 240V 30 amp clothes dryer circuit near or in the garage?

 

[xcat]

Is the breaker box in the garage?

 

[T35LA_AC]

Nope. You need to leave them as 15 amp circuits, as they are likely wired with 14 ga Romex.

Is the 240V 30 amp clothes dryer circuit near or in the garage?

negative - garage is detached

 

[T35LA_AC]

Is the breaker box in the garage?

Negative

 

[camalaio]

I'm no electrician so ask someone else if this is possible, but do anything you can to get 240V. Even 240V 15A circuit is way better than a 120V 15A circuit.

On a 120V 15A circuit, the car can use roughly 1050W for charging at most.
On a 240V 15A circuit, the car can use roughly 2350W for charging at most. Note how that's more than simply double that you'd otherwise expect. This is due to overheads of some stuff running while charging.

That said, what are your daily needs? If you don't drive much you might be okay. But you're also in Calgary so... very cold and probably more than a 5km commute I'm guessing.

 

[ucmndd]

5-20 is likely a no-go, as others have said. You need a 20 amp breaker and suitable 12awg wiring for that. IF you can confirm that the wiring for the entire length of the circuit is at least 12awg, AND had a spot for a new 20 amp breaker, you could do that.

Do you have extra room (blank spaces with no breakers) in the panel? If so, you may be able to do what @camalaio suggested and convert the circuit to a 240v 6-15. This depends on what else is powered on that circuit, if anything, and if you can move that stuff to another 120v circuit.

I’m guessing you might not have much/any extra space in the panel though given all those tandem breakers.

 

[user212_nr]

Now that colder weather is coming (and the garage is not insulated), I’m wondering if there are any simple upgrades available to me.

The breaker linked to the garage shows 2x 15 amp circuits.

A lot depends on your electrician (or you if you are doing the work yourself). Some will refuse to work on "old wires" for whatever reason, except something minor like replacing an outlet. They are going to sell you the big upgrade, and you may have a hard time finding someone who will do it the easy and cheap way.

You have 4 live 15A wires (2 black and 2 white) going to your garage, plus 2 copper ground wires. You can upgrade one of the circuits to a 6-15 outlet, and you can take the one you removed and daisy chain it onto the other. If your lights are incandescent, upgrade them to LED and then it will use minimal power (one circuit is probably for lights.

 

[nwdiver]

but do anything you can to get 240V.

That's the key. Lots of ways to get there with varying levels of ..... sketchiness

I may or may not be in the process of cutting the end off a regular 120v extension cord to hardwire into my 240v off-grid system so I can charge my Tesla off-grid when my batteries are full instead wasting that energy. I heard a rumor that I may or may not have verified that a UMC with the 120v plug on the end doesn't care wether its connected to L-N-G (120v) or L-L-G (240v)

 

[jstjohnz]

You really should have an electrician look at what you have and offer suggestions. I don't know much about Canadian electrical code, but it sounds like your garage may be fed by what is known here as a multi wire branch circuit. If that is the case it may be possible to have a 240v receptacle.

 

[GWord]

Seems like a lot of folks who are replying here missed the part about this being a rental house. I’m guessing permanent electrical modification is off the table.

Is the dryer outlet somewhere semi convenient to where you could park the car outside, but near the house? A 240V shore power cord seems like the only decent option here. Maybe through a window with foam or a towel or something providing the weather seal. Wouldn’t necessarily have to be every day.

 

[TheRFMan]

You can't put a 5-20 outlet. If the breaker is 15A, the wire is most certainly only rated for 15A. What you may be able to do however is change the garage circuit from 120V to 240V (still 15A) if the garage circuit in the picture is only for one outlet (not for lights, or a garage door opener, etc.).

You'd need a breaker like the one you have at the bottom of the picture, with a dual-pole circuit in the centre and two single-pole circuits on the outside (but with a dual-pole 15A rather than 30A). Essentially, something like this (https://www.amazon.ca/Siemens-Q21515CT-15-Amp-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B0052MEDUO). That breaker would replace the two with blue switches in your picture.

Move the dishwasher and the "lites and plugs" circuit to the outboard 120V 15A circuits on the new breaker, and connect the white and black wires of the garage circuit to the two poles of the centre portion of the new breaker. Put a ring of black electrical tape on the white wire to indicate it as "hot". It doesn't hurt to label it as "hot" as well. I can't stress enough, you can only do this if there is a dedicated outlet on the circuit. Otherwise, anything else on the circuit will be exposed to 240V and go poof, perhaps spectacularly.

In the garage, replace your standard outlet with a NEMA 6-15 outlet (https://www.amazon.ca/Legrand-Pass-...MWJ9N3T43PY&psc=1&refRID=91N66TAQ2MWJ9N3T43PY). Also put a ring of black tape on the white wire and label it as "hot". And that's pretty much it.

All you need is the NEMA 6-15 adapter for the UMC, and you will triple your charge speed over your existing outlet according to Tesla charge rates.

I'm not recommending that you do this yourself (you need to know what you're doing, and I don't know what kinds of permits/inspections would be needed in Calgary for something like this, if any). I just wanted to point out that if that is a dedicated garage circuit, it can be upgraded to 240V without changing any wires, and can easily be reverted back to the original configuration when you move out. Total parts cost would be less than $60CDN. An electrician can probably do this in 30 minutes, since there is no new wire pull necessary.


On another note, I have to say that the breakers in that panel look odd to me. There seems to be different styles of breakers in there, which is a bit unusual (perhaps the blue ones are older models, I recognize the lower one as a standard Siemens breaker (also used in ITE panels, as Siemens bough ITE).

 

[Webeevdrivers]

How many circuits feed the garage. If you have two circuits you may be able to use a quick 220 device if they are opposite phase.Google quick 220.

 

[Rocky_H]

How many circuits feed the garage. If you have two circuits you may be able to use a quick 220 device if they are opposite phase.Google quick 220.

Probably not. Garages are considered "wet" locations, so all of their outlets have to be GFCI. And with the way a Quick220 works, it can't work on GFCI protected outlets. That's why the Quick220 devices are not very practical most of the time. The garage outlets where you would like to use it, can't be used, so you have to find inside outlets and run long cords through the house.

 

[xcat]

I would consider a 30 amp extension cord from your dryer.

 

[ucmndd]

Probably not. Garages are considered "wet" locations, so all of their outlets have to be GFCI.

Based on the age of that panel and those breakers, it's a reasonable bet that the garage was constructed prior to any GFI code requirements.