davewill
Active Member
Don't feel bad. With a bad ground, you can't really expect consistent readings.
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Unable to charge using NEMA 14-50 outlet in garage and Mobile Connector
- Thread starter pete_shaw
- Start date
That is normal for fir the other outlets. A 120V outlet has a hot (narrower slot), neutral (wider slot), and ground (round or U hole). Neutral to ground should read near 0, hot to ground and ground to neutral should read 120v.
Funny you mention having trouble finding a coil tester. I was going to offer my "Volt Doctor" as possible cheper alternative and after some online searching it appears they stopped making it a year or so ago.
https://www.amazon.com/GB-Electrical-GVC-300-Volt-Doctor-Continuity/dp/B00004WLKN
I think I paid in the $20 range for it years ago. It works without them, but it has lithium batteries that will provide you with continuity and an alarm. The continuity is nice to let you know the leads are working and alarm in presence of voltage is nice too.
eprosenx
Active Member
Note that I suspect that with the cover on that electrical box, it probably does end up being grounded through the receptacle, so I would not call it extremely unsafe, but it is just poor quality work and slightly unsafe. I would want that fixed too.
Don’t worry, those weird readings make total sense if your ground wire is “floating” (not connected to anything and so it’s voltage just floats around in reference to other conductors or ground).
What is happening is that it is picking up voltage from “inductance” from the other wires in the romex. Basically electromagnetic waves from the other wires cause a voltage to show up in the unconnected ground.
I have a mode on my Fluke electricians meter called “Low Z” that provides a little bit of load when measuring and that will drain off any weird phantom voltages like that.
As others have said, you definitively have a wiring issue and the electrician needs to come back out. Clearly they did not do the basic test you just performed.
It is still possible that they terminated the wire properly back at the panel but that somehow your neutral and ground bus in the panel are not properly connected together, however, you have proven that a 120v receptacle works fine, so that shoots a hole in that theory.
Get the electrician back out, and I would try to gently suggest they need to fix the grounding at the receptacle box as well (maybe after they have fixed the bigger issue).
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@pete_shaw
i hope you get it all straightened out soon. There's nothing more convenient than a home charging set-up.
We had our Nema outlet put in (2 actually) and then found out we can get a $500 rebate from our electric company for EACH charging station. It makes the process better due to not only getting the $, but after the electrician filed a permit -only $50, the County inspector comes out and inspects it. It's a good feeling knowing there's checks and balances., and god forbid,if anything tragic happens like a fire or anything-- we'll be covered with our Homowners since everything was legit and inspected.
Your Angie's Electrician sounds a little shady to resist checking his own work.
Just curious how much he charged?
i hope you get it all straightened out soon. There's nothing more convenient than a home charging set-up.
We had our Nema outlet put in (2 actually) and then found out we can get a $500 rebate from our electric company for EACH charging station. It makes the process better due to not only getting the $, but after the electrician filed a permit -only $50, the County inspector comes out and inspects it. It's a good feeling knowing there's checks and balances., and god forbid,if anything tragic happens like a fire or anything-- we'll be covered with our Homowners since everything was legit and inspected.
Your Angie's Electrician sounds a little shady to resist checking his own work.
Just curious how much he charged?
I paid $500 for labor and material. The panel is on one side of the 2-car garage and the outlet is installed on the other side of the garage. My estimate is about $200 material and $300 for labor. It took him and a helper just under an hour to get this done. Existing breaker in the pane;l was replaced with a new 50-amp breaker. Romex 6-guage cable was used.
I am not holding my breath but my electrician told me he would come out tomorrow evening. Given today is Sunday and its not that urgent of a situation, it is all good if shows up as promised today and fixes the issue. Thank you all. I will post any updates as I make progress on this. So glad to have found this very supportive community. All helpful comments and not one negative comment.
I don't think NJ has any rebate for such installs. Haven't seen that mentioned anywhere before. That's a good incentive for sure.
That's exactly what we paid. Do check your Energy Co for rebates. It was nice that we got all our money back- so essentially the install was free!- only had to pay the $50 permit.
Keep us posted and ENJOY your car!!
We had to go digging with our Energy Co. they didn't really advertise it! We saw it by accident . It was hidden in their website titled "PEV" lol (Plug-in Electric Vehicle program)
@pete_shaw
So ... I was trying to see if there are any rebates in your area-- I didn't see any but not sure of your particular energy company,....
BUT.. I did find this!
Event Recap: Electric Vehicle Blessing - Jersey Renews
How sweet! A local church had a "Blessing of Electric Cars" day!!
So ... I was trying to see if there are any rebates in your area-- I didn't see any but not sure of your particular energy company,....
BUT.. I did find this!
Event Recap: Electric Vehicle Blessing - Jersey Renews
How sweet! A local church had a "Blessing of Electric Cars" day!!
Given this is a simple install of an outlet and not even related to a HPWC, I think any good electrician can handle this.
I looked into this a little more. NJ also has a rebate program for this but installs in single family-homes are not eligible.
Drive Green NJ
I think we should all put pressure on our Electric companies to follow suit and enact rebate programs. They ultimately benefit anyway, as does future generations.
@pete_shaw if you need a place to test NEMA 14-50, message me via private message. I live less than 20 miles from you so feel free to stop by and test your charger. I hope you get your issue resolved with your electrician if he does stop by today.
davewill
Active Member
I was going to mention one thing. If the electrician wired this from a subpanel, it's possible that the problem is upstream of where he connected and not directly his fault. Not that I'm inclined to cut him much slack considering his response to your problem report.
If he claims it's OK, make him check the ground all the way back to the main panel, and through to the earth ground if he has to. If it is upstream, he might insist on charging for his troubleshooting time.
If he claims it's OK, make him check the ground all the way back to the main panel, and through to the earth ground if he has to. If it is upstream, he might insist on charging for his troubleshooting time.
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Other way around. Narrower slot is the hot.
Ground to neutral should be zero V since they are bonded at the panel. Hot to either neutral or ground is 120V, give or take.
Doh! I had a tickle in my brain that I wrote it wrong later. I'll ping the mod for a fix. Thanks!
Ground and neutral are bonded at the main panel. But if there is a sub-panel between the two, there could be a (hopefully very small) voltage difference between the two out at the receptacle. Depends on what else is on the sub-panel, etc.
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