[myosin]

Just ordered my EV6 two days ago. This will be my first EV. I want to put a charger at my house and dental office as I own my own building.
The three top choices for chargers are Charge Point, Enel X Juice Box and Wallbox.

However, my office is 3 phase power. The only charging company I could get on the phone was Juice box and they sent me wiring diagrams on how to hook up to 3 phase. But they don't have their 48 amp charger out yet.

Does anyone know if Charge Point or Wallbox can be hardwired to 3 phase?

I've looked at their websites but can't find any imformation.

Ideally I would like to get the same brand charger for home and office so they can be on the same app. I know that is not possible with Charge Point as I would have to set up two different accounts. Will be charging more at work because I'm going to let my business pay for my electrons!

 

[NoCo-Pete]

My $.02 - I would not use "setting up multiple accounts" or having "multiple apps" as a big concern. My chargepoint home setup is done once, and I've seldom needed to use the app after that. I've found that I needed/wanted EA/plugshare.... lots of apps anyways to be able to see / have available all the charging options.

I'm surprised that you could not have a commercial chargepoint installed at work? Could you not add one of these at work? CPF50 Charging Station | ChargePoint

 

[myosin]

My $.02 - I would not use "setting up multiple accounts" or having "multiple apps" as a big concern. My chargepoint home setup is done once, and I've seldom needed to use the app after that. I've found that I needed/wanted EA/plugshare.... lots of apps anyways to be able to see / have available all the charging options.

I'm surprised that you could not have a commercial chargepoint installed at work? Could you not add one of these at work? CPF50 Charging Station | ChargePoint

That charger you listed is a BIG BOY commercial charger. My dental office building looks like a 1960 built house. It will be just me charging at work.

 

[ag5bpilot]

Have you spoken to an electrician? Perhaps hooking up the charger is as simple as only hooking up any two of the three phases, much like all the 120 volt outlets are using just one of the three phases.

 

[myosin]

Have you spoken to an electrician? Perhaps hooking up the charger is as simple as only hooking up any two of the three phases, much like all the 120 volt outlets are using just one of the three phases.

I've got an electrician who is going to do install at my office and house. I'm just concerned if the units can take 3 phase power. So far the juice box is in the lead for my office install because I easily got tech support on the phone. Secondly, they were able to email the below information.


The below is from Enel X juice box:

Here are a couple circuit diagrams illustrating hook up of our device on a 240V 3 Phase Delta circuit and a 208V 3 Phase Wye circuit, respectively (left to right):

May just have 40A Juicebox installed at my office. Then my house would be the Charepoint Flex of Wallbox with their chargers that are 48 amp.

 

[ag5bpilot]

To me (not a licensed electrician) it looks like their diagrams say “just hook it up to any two of the three phases.” I imagine it’s the same with any two phase 220 volt appliance.
But there’s lots of things I don’t know that I don’t know, so see what your electrician says. If he’s experienced with installing EVSEs, he should already know the answer.
For what it’s worth, my guy installs a lot of EVSEs, both in residences and commercial buildings. He never mentioned anything about any special considerations if you have all three phases on premises, as you would have in most buildings larger than a private residence.
By the way, if your guy has not installed EVSEs before, you might want to have someone who specializes in EVSEs do this work. There’s (non-electrical code) considerations that he might not be aware of, such as making sure your J1772 cable is long enough to go down to the floor, over to the car, and up to the charging port. You don’t want the car’s connector supporting the weight of the cable.

 

[myosin]

Awesome information ag5bpilot, I appreciate it.

 

[elkkk]

KIA supplies ChargePoint Flex Home as a free gift to First Edition owners so I think KIA would recommend it. It would be fine for you office as well. Think about how your going to secure it at the office. I would stick with same make in both locations.

 

[alansh42]

ChargePoint supports 208-240v according to the spec sheet. ChargePoint Home Flex (CPH50) Datasheet | ChargePoint So you would use two of the phases.

You'll get slightly less power, of course.

 

[ag5bpilot]

KIA supplies ChargePoint Flex Home as a free gift to First Edition owners so I think KIA would recommend it. It would be fine for you office as well. Think about how your going to secure it at the office. I would stick with same make in both locations.

Definitely agree with "stick with the same make". Less to learn, for both you and the guy doing the installation. I would 100% get the same device (not just the same manufacturer) for both locations.

One thing you might want to do is plan on getting the same device for both locations, but stagger the installation times. Buy one, live with it for a month, and then decide if you want to get the same device for the other location.

 

[tbalotte]

I'm an industrial electrician.

It's not a problem installing the charger at your office since it will only be fed from one of three phases. You just have to be careful if the transformer is delta because one of the busses will be the high leg which is 208v to neutral. If your service is wye then you don't have to worry about that and can pull a circuit from any bus to neutral. But either way, the charger will work no problem as it is only pulling from one coil to neutral (180 degrees phase difference).

 

[myosin]

I'm an industrial electrician.

It's not a problem installing the charger at your office since it will only be fed from one of three phases. You just have to be careful if the transformer is delta because one of the busses will be the high leg which is 208v to neutral. If your service is wye then you don't have to worry about that and can pull a circuit from any bus to neutral. But either way, the charger will work no problem as it is only pulling from one coil to neutral (180 degrees phase difference).

THANK YOU!!!!!! I appreciate the information tbalotte!!!!!!!!!!! First EV and this is all so new to me!

 

[tbalotte]

THANK YOU!!!!!! I appreciate the information tbalotte!!!!!!!!!!! First EV and this is all so new to me!

And also, if the charger doesn't need both 240 and 120 then you don't even have to worry about the high leg neutral and just use any two busses in the service. Just wanted to throw that out there because some chargers are dual voltage and some are not.

 

[Cataract2]

I'm an industrial electrician.

It's not a problem installing the charger at your office since it will only be fed from one of three phases. You just have to be careful if the transformer is delta because one of the busses will be the high leg which is 208v to neutral. If your service is wye then you don't have to worry about that and can pull a circuit from any bus to neutral. But either way, the charger will work no problem as it is only pulling from one coil to neutral (180 degrees phase difference).

If the charger was only fed by only one of the 3 phases going to neutral then it would only have 120V available (unless you goofed and pulled from the high leg). I believe, at least for the US Spec EVs, that to get Level 2 type charging we would expect the charger needs to have 2 legs and in this case, depending on if it is wye or delta they would either have 208V or 240V respectively. Since US Spec gets it's "240V" from the sum of two phases. I believe you summed that up in your second post regarding dual voltage chargers vs non. Now, all of this could be bunk if the EV accepts 208V to neutral input, but I am unaware of that being apart of the spec.

 

[audaibnjad]

EVs will accept (and many commercial chargers will output) 208v instead of 240v. Since the amperage stays the same, you'll only get 208/240 (about 85%) of the power.

Say you get a 40-amp EVSE.
At home with 240v: 240*40 --> 9600 watts
At work: 208v * 40a --> 8320 watts


Also as mentioned above: Do you really need 2? (both at home and work?) If it's only you charging at work, it may not be necessary.
It may not be too much harder to install one of the commercial ones from ChargePoint and get it connected to their network. That way your clients could charge their cars while they're visiting. ChargePoint lets you set up groups of people. So you can (for example) set up one fee (or even free) for your clients, and a different rate (or none at all) for the general public.

 

[myosin]

Two chargers because business will buy the business charger. I'll charge most of the time at my office so my business pays for the electricity. The charger will be just for me at work. Then having a charger at home will be my backup charger. I work 3 to 4 days a week, so having a charger at home will be nice.

 

[pss]

I have a question for the dental building owner: I realize you say 3 phase power is coming into your office building. But then are you telling us that every plug socket in the building is a 3 phase socket. So you can't plug in a lamp, TV, computer, copier, etc. All utilities deliver 3 phase power. they then use a transformer to connect wires as 240 volts 1 phase, 200 amp service to most panels, even 300 amp. they can deliver 480 volts 3 phase of larger machines and motors. Every dentist I know only requires 1 phase 240 volts for their equipment.

 

[Cataract2]

I have a question for the dental building owner: I realize you say 3 phase power is coming into your office building. But then are you telling us that every plug socket in the building is a 3 phase socket. So you can't plug in a lamp, TV, computer, copier, etc. All utilities deliver 3 phase power. they then use a transformer to connect wires as 240 volts 1 phase, 200 amp service to most panels, even 300 amp. they can deliver 480 volts 3 phase of larger machines and motors. Every dentist I know only requires 1 phase 240 volts for their equipment.

Picture being worth a thousand words.

This shows a diagram of a typical distribution 3 phase panel for an office. Figure you have 3 legs @ 120V coming in, so you have 120V for lights, computers, typical plugs etc. Then, if you need it you can install a 2 leg breaker or 3 leg breaker (for 3 phase motors and the like) for bigger loads as required.

 

[myosin]

I have a question for the dental building owner: I realize you say 3 phase power is coming into your office building. But then are you telling us that every plug socket in the building is a 3 phase socket. So you can't plug in a lamp, TV, computer, copier, etc. All utilities deliver 3 phase power. they then use a transformer to connect wires as 240 volts 1 phase, 200 amp service to most panels, even 300 amp. they can deliver 480 volts 3 phase of larger machines and motors. Every dentist I know only requires 1 phase 240 volts for their equipment.

I am extremely ignorant on electricity. All my computers and electrical devices just use regular electrical socket at my office. Looks like what Cataract2 posted is probably the most likely scenario and I was WAY OVERTHINKING things.

 

[pss]

I am extremely ignorant on electricity. All my computers and electrical devices just use regular electrical socket at my office. Looks like what Cataract2 posted is probably the most likely scenario and I was WAY OVERTHINKING things.

Just understand that in 1 phase one leg you have 1 wave of power. In 2 legs of single phase, one leg is +120 while other leg is -120 volts. In a 3 phase power supply you have 2 phases positive at different times while the third phase is negative at another time. You just cant pick any 2 legs, it will not be the same as 1 phase.