Electrician installed my NEMA 14-50 receptacle upside down..

[Jeremy3292]

Informative. Thank you. We had an electrician install ours. The hoops were invisible to me. Took a few hours and he was done. Works well. We live in Canada. It may be different here. Stove plugs are very common here for EV EVSE's.

There a few good reasons why hardwired chargers are safer and why the NEC is specifically concerned with EV outlet charging and does not really care about hard wired EV charging. This is not to say that a properly installed 14-50 outlet is unsafe, but most readily available 14-50 outlets were not designed for EV charging. A stove pulls ~30 amps for an hour or two, infrequently, and is rarely ever unplugged from the outlet. An EV pulls a constant 30+ amps for a long period of time, is frequently used, and is plugged/unplugged relatively often (unless you have 2 mobile chargers). You really would want a heavy duty industrial grade 14-50 outlet like Hubbell brand and those are ~$75 and generally have to be ordered online. The constant plugging/unplugging and constant power draw wears down (melts) those 14-50 outlets you find at your local home improvement store as they are $10 and designed for an oven/stove. There are sooooo many threads on here about burned out/melted 14-50 outlets because of everything mentioned previously. But it isn't a sure thing it will happen to you, it's just why install a new outlet when the Tesla Wall Connector is available and you can keep your mobile charger in your car for traveling? There is a reason Tesla recommends the Wall Connector and I promise you it's not bc of extra $$$ for them as they aren't making much of anything at the $500 price point (similar not Tesla brand chargers are $800+). But I wouldn't worry about your outlet burning down your house or anything drastic like that, assuming it was installed properly, it just may need replacing at some point. I personally try to get people to go the hard wired route if they haven't done it yet and do not try and bash those who have one already of course - your install looks very nice!

 

[Webeevdrivers]

There a few good reasons why hardwired chargers are safer and why the NEC is specifically concerned with EV outlet charging and does not really care about hard wired EV charging. This is not to say that a properly installed 14-50 outlet is unsafe, but most readily available 14-50 outlets were not designed for EV charging. A stove pulls ~30 amps for an hour or two, infrequently, and is rarely ever unplugged from the outlet. An EV pulls a constant 30+ amps for a long period of time, is frequently used, and is plugged/unplugged relatively often (unless you have 2 mobile chargers). You really would want a heavy duty industrial grade 14-50 outlet like Hubbell brand and those are ~$75 and generally have to be ordered online. The constant plugging/unplugging and constant power draw wears down (melts) those 14-50 outlets you find at your local home improvement store as they are $10 and designed for an oven/stove. There are sooooo many threads on here about burned out/melted 14-50 outlets because of everything mentioned previously. But it isn't a sure thing it will happen to you, it's just why install a new outlet when the Tesla Wall Connector is available and you can keep your mobile charger in your car for traveling? There is a reason Tesla recommends the Wall Connector and I promise you it's not bc of extra $$$ for them as they aren't making much of anything at the $500 price point (similar not Tesla brand chargers are $800+). But I wouldn't worry about your outlet burning down your house or anything drastic like that, assuming it was installed properly, it just may need replacing at some point. I personally try to get people to go the hard wired route if they haven't done it yet and do not try and bash those who have one already of course - your install looks very nice!

Informative again. Yah. Not sure what receptacle they chose. We have two mobile chargers so the one you see on the wall doesn’t move. We also have a hardwired 12 amp 240 volt Clipper creek unit outside. (Yep you read that right). When they did the load calculation for our second unit they said that 100 amp town house panel couldn’t support anymore than that. Which is fine. We are a one car household. We use tihe outside unit When have projects happening in the garage.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Informative again. Yah. Not sure what receptacle they chose. We have two mobile chargers so the one you see on the wall doesn’t move. We also have a hardwired 12 amp 240 volt Clipper creek unit outside. (Yep you read that right). When they did the load calculation for our second unit they said to our 100 amp town house panel couldn’t support anymore than that. Which is fine. We are a one car household. We use tihe outside unit When have projects happening in the garage.

Good plan to never really unplug the outlet and have a second mobile charger available. I have a 200 amp service to my house here in the USA, so I have a Tesla WC on a dedicated 60 amp breaker, so it pulls the 48 amps max allowed for ~45 miles per hour of range on my M3 LR. I never come close to using the other 152 amps at one time (my heat is natural gas also) so never a worry for me. Like I said, nothing inherently bad about using a 14-50 outlet just always good to be informed of the positives and negatives!

 

[ThomasD]

I just had a 220 outlet installed in my garage. The electricians also brought the 120 feed for the lights and outlets that were already there up to code. The 120 volt power was a major fire hazard. They had to trench 52 feet to my garage. My house has the meter on a pole that is on the west side of my home also that is where the main shutoff is for the house. There is a 200 amp panel in the house and a panel in the garage. My 220 outlet is also upside down.
Before you go hooking up an outlet to a circuit make sure the system can handle it. That there are no other problems with the panel or other wiring in and around the home. Good licensed electrical are not cheap. Just don't cheap out on something that could burn your building down

 

[PianoAl]

Think of it as a fun opportunity to rig something up.

 

[bdwalters]

Here is my setup. I installed an industrial grade 5-20 socket upside down. I bought the Tesla brackets to hold the charger and the cable. I can unplug this easily if needed. I get 7mph for my 3, so I easily get back up to 80% SOC overnight. I can’t see ever needing a better charging solution. This cost me about $50 to do myself.

 

[ODWms]

This is the setup I’ve been using for over 3 years now, and works fine for me. Thirty miles per hour charging, and cost less than $30 for everything I needed (I did already have a couple things already laying around). No unplugging/plugging for me as I’ve never had a need to carry around the cable. Everyplace I’ve been to charge, the charger has a cable. If/when we get a second Tesla, I foresee not even having to add a 2nd outlet.

 

[RRichie]

View attachment 719420
Here is my setup. I installed an industrial grade 5-20 socket upside down. I bought the Tesla brackets to hold the charger and the cable. I can unplug this easily if needed. I get 7mph for my 3, so I easily get back up to 80% SOC overnight. I can’t see ever needing a better charging solution. This cost me about $50 to do myself.

Late to the thread but is it okay to have it plugged upside down with a nema 14-50? I know that the ground should be on top, but just curious if it makes a difference.

 

[orntar]

Late to the thread but is it okay to have it plugged upside down with a nema 14-50? I know that the ground should be on top, but just curious if it makes a difference.

No, it doesn't matter one bit. The only down side is if it makes it hard to use/store your UMC. Otherwise function is that same.

 

[RRichie]

No, it doesn't matter one bit. The only down side is if it makes it hard to use/store your UMC. Otherwise function is that same.

Oh good to know. i did buy a wall mount holder for the UMC and the cable too so , i should be fine then. THANKS!!

 

[puckpurnell]

That's what electricians always do. Maybe put a hook above the outlet and loop the charging cord over it so you don't put tension on the plug. Otherwise, works just the same.

 

[.Slug]

Ours is "upside down" as well, but when we bought and installed a "splitvolt" device, things hang down now. Check it out.