Nema 6-20 outlet

[Effopec]

I have a Nema 6-20 outlet in my garage that the previous owner used for a welder. I have a Open EVSE charger that I have used for my PHEV for a few years. First question - what kind of m/hr will I likely get if I'm limited to 20 amps? This will likely be good enough for me, but next question - is there an way to tell if this could be easily upgradeable to a higher amperage? The outlet is only about 10 feet from the breaker box, but there is a window between them. If I could safely replace the breaker and outlet to a higher rated one it would be an easy switch, assuming the wire gauge is adequate.

TIA

 

[trm2]

I have a Nema 6-20 outlet in my garage that the previous owner used for a welder. I have a Open EVSE charger that I have used for my PHEV for a few years. First question - what kind of m/hr will I likely get if I'm limited to 20 amps? This will likely be good enough for me, but next question - is there an way to tell if this could be easily upgradeable to a higher amperage? The outlet is only about 10 feet from the breaker box, but there is a window between them. If I could safely replace the breaker and outlet to a higher rated one it would be an easy switch, assuming the wire gauge is adequate.

TIA

I get 11 "miles per hour" charging on my 6-20 and I have a Model S. You should do a bit better - Tesla says you should get 15.

 

[COrocket]

You’d have to unscrew the outlet and look at the wire gauge to tell if you could do a breaker/outlet swap. The current setup with 15 Mph charging should be sufficient for charging overnight - unless you are driving over 150 miles daily.

 

[iluvmacs]

Rather unlikely higher than 12 AWG wire was used, so you are probably stuck at 20A. If for some reason they used 10 AWG, then you could do 30A (with a breaker and receptacle change).

 

[brkaus]

@Effopec so, note that you will get 16a Charging in a 20a circuit. 80% rule for continuous loads.

Can you just put a new outlet right at the breaker box?

 

[eprosenx]

Checking the wire gauge is probably easier at the breaker panel by removing the cover.

If you can post pictures of the following we can give you more feedback:

• Picture of the general area of the panel and the receptacle (and how they relate to each other)
• Picture of your panel with good enough resolution to see the breaker handles
• Picture of your panel schedule that shows what circuits are used for what
• Pictures of your panel with the cover off if you are comfortable doing this safely

My guess is the wire gauge is not going to be larger than what was needed for the 20a 240v circuit. But with your panel so close to the receptacle I would just wire in a NEMA 14-50 or hardware a Wall Connector (unless you otherwise had panel load calculation limits issue).

 

[Kirby64]

I have a Nema 6-20 outlet in my garage that the previous owner used for a welder. I have a Open EVSE charger that I have used for my PHEV for a few years. First question - what kind of m/hr will I likely get if I'm limited to 20 amps? This will likely be good enough for me, but next question - is there an way to tell if this could be easily upgradeable to a higher amperage? The outlet is only about 10 feet from the breaker box, but there is a window between them. If I could safely replace the breaker and outlet to a higher rated one it would be an easy switch, assuming the wire gauge is adequate.

TIA

Check if you have conduit running back to the main breaker... if so, it might be possible to string higher gauge wire pretty easily.

As others have noted, given it was for a welder, there's very little chance the original owner used higher gauge wire than necessary. Since welders are intermittent duty, usually the requirements on wire gauge is pretty lax. I'd guess 12ga.

 

[ewoodrick]

Check out Mobile Connector

Outlets Charge speed
Miles of range per hour of charge Model 3 Model S Model X

NEMA 6-20
240 volt / 20 amp breaker 15 11 8

 

[timk225]

I installed a new 6-20 outlet on about 60 feet of 12/2 Romex, and have been charging on it for 4-5 months, and it's almost always been enough to get 15 mph in charging.

 

[jsmay311]

Rather unlikely higher than 12 AWG wire was used, so you are probably stuck at 20A. If for some reason they used 10 AWG, then you could do 30A (with a breaker and receptacle change).

*I'm not an electrician*, but one possible hangup is that the only available 30A UMC adapter is a NEMA 10-30, which uses 2 hots and a neutral, whereas the NEMA 6-20 uses 2 hots and a ground. So it might not be a straight-forward swap even if it is already using 10 AWG wire.

 

[iluvmacs]

*I'm not an electrician*, but one possible hangup is that the only available 30A UMC adapter is a NEMA 10-30, which uses 2 hots and a neutral, whereas the NEMA 6-20 uses 2 hots and a ground. So it might not be a straight-forward swap even if it is already using 10 AWG wire.

There is also a 14-30 adapter. That does require a neutral wire, but chances are decent that an extra wire is there just waiting. At any rate, making or buying a non-Tesla adapter to 6-30 or L6-30 would be an option.