Installing the HPC

[graham]

Over the past 2 days, Solar City has been out at my house upgrading my PG&E service to 200amps and installing my HPC and NEMA 14-50 plug. All the while working around my wacky solar / battery installation.

I thought some might be interested in the process of upgrading service, adding the charger/outlets and seeing it next to my inverter. Apologies if this is too many photos at once.

 

[graham]

Unboxing the HPC:

Mounting and installing:

Running new conduit:

 

[graham]

Installing new meter and higher amp subpanel:

New mast:

HPC mounted, up close:

 

[graham]

New NEMA 14-50 and Edison plugs:

Testing the HPC.... *THUNK*... "charging"...

The HPC, the 4 solar panel inverters, and the 3 battery charge controllers. (along with some system monitoring gadgets)

Now I just need the car...

 

[TEG]

Why do you need the NEMA 14-50 if the Tesla HPC is hard wired in?
Do you plan to put an electric dryer or welder out there?

 

[graham]

It is a 2-car garage, and the NEMA 14-50 is on the opposite wall from the HPC. This allows me to park on either side of the garage and still charge the car if I need to for some reason. It also gives me the option of possibly having more than 1 electric car some day.

 

[TEG]

Do you know the breaker size and amps draw on the Tesla charge controller?

 

[graham]

90 amps to deliver 70

 

[donauker]

The HCS current draw is whatever the max charge rate configured in the Roadster VDS setting is for that location. The HCS is primarily a contactor that passes the current through to the car, it in no way regulates the the current draw. It does tell the car how much current it has available but it is a very simple setting that could be changed thus causing the car to draw more than the breaker that the HCS is attached to, thus tripping the breaker.

The VDS does allow you to set lower values than the max that the HCS is configured for.

 

[donauker]

The NEC specifies that a device may only draw 80% of the rated capacity of the breaker that it is connected to.

Here is the configuration information for the original HCS.

 

[TEG]

Thanks, Don.

Does the new Clipper Creek unit have some sort of similar adjustment for smaller breakers?

 

[DaveD]

Does the new Clipper Creek unit have some sort of similar adjustment for smaller breakers?

Unfortunately, it does not. It's my main gripe about the Clipper Creek unit.

Looking at the CC circuit board closely, I believe that the capacitor labeled C16, which is located near the "Signal I/O" connector (J4), is changed to give the pilot signal different frequencies, which is how the HPC signals its current handling capacity to the Roadster (likely to be similar to the pilot signal spec'd in the J1772 standard).