120V Charging with a Cycling Plug

[Vadderung]

Just moved to a new building that has the block heater plugs cycling 15-minutes on and off. When I plug my 120V charger into it, every time the power cycles, it doesn't automatically restart charging - I need to unplug and replug in my charger. Is there any way to get around this?

 

[Nogasnohands]

I'll be afraid more of that messing up my battery, or car all together constantly connecting and diaconnecting. Maybe ask building maintenance about that or if u have a coop, bring up adding car chargers because 220 plug is the way to go I never seen a 120 give u more than 5 miles hr.

 

[Vadderung]

They're working on getting real chargers installed, but it's military housing, and they move at the government rate...guess I gotta public charge til then. Thanks.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Certainly the HPWC will wait several(random) minutes after power comes back on to start charging, and I wouldn't be really surprised if the same were true for the UMC. Give it ~6 minutes after the power comes back to see if it starts charging.

That said, this means you have 10 minutes of 120V charging out of every 30. Not very optimal at all.

I assume that the block heater plugs would be trivial for maintenance to turn to full-on mode. That's the right answer.

 

[ATPMSD]

It sounds like the block heater and your car are on the same circuit, which breaks rule #1 - EV charging needs to be on a dedicated circuit. See if you can find another 120V outlet that is not shared and use that one instead. If so, a heavy duty extension cord can be used, if needed. For 25’ a 14 AWG extension cord should suffice, for 50’ you will need 12 AWG. Both should keep the voltage within about 3%.

http://www.paigewire.com/pumpWireCalc.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

 

[DuncanM]

Just moved to a new building that has the block heater plugs cycling 15-minutes on and off. When I plug my 120V charger into it, every time the power cycles, it doesn't automatically restart charging - I need to unplug and replug in my charger. Is there any way to get around this?

Which charger?

 

[davewill]

I'd be concerned that your plug would be on the same circuit with other block heaters, and you might be risking blowing the breaker. I would not be confortable using these plugs for charging.

 

[davewill]

It sounds like the block heater and your car are on the same circuit, which breaks rule #1 - EV charging needs to be on a dedicated circuit. See if you can find another 120V outlet that is not shared and use that one instead. If so, a heavy duty extension cord can be used, if needed. For 25’ a 14 AWG extension cord should suffice, for 50’ you will need 12 AWG. Both should keep the voltage within about 3%.

http://www.paigewire.com/pumpWireCalc.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Why would he have a block heater for his Tesla?

 

[ATPMSD]

Why would he have a block heater for his Tesla?

LOL, pretty sure the block heater in use is not for the Tesla - I hope!

 

[davewill]

LOL, pretty sure the block heater in use is not for the Tesla - I hope!

The point was that no block heater was actually mentioned, so I'm pretty sure there wasn't one.

 

[Rocky_H]

It sounds like the block heater and your car are on the same circuit, which breaks rule #1

LOL, pretty sure the block heater in use is not for the Tesla - I hope!

There is no block heater. These are just outlets. The hypothetical block heaters would be inside of the engine compartments of other vehicles that might plug into these outlets. In cold climates some vehicles attach heaters onto their gas or diesel engines that just have a little pigtail cord that sticks out of the front grill. Whether there are several of these outlets shared on a circuit or not--that's still unknown.

 

[DuncanM]

Just moved to a new building that has the block heater plugs cycling 15-minutes on and off. When I plug my 120V charger into it, every time the power cycles, it doesn't automatically restart charging - I need to unplug and replug in my charger. Is there any way to get around this?

I use a generic J1772 EVSC and adapter with my M3, and when I unplug the charger and plug it back in, it will resume charging, to the charge limit.

 

[ATPMSD]

There is no block heater. These are just outlets

Got ya, thanks!