Electric Vehicles

Bad idea? Turn two outlets into level 2 charging.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/266244463197?chn=ps

This looks like a bad idea, but I’m not an electrician. Any electrical experts want to stop me from buying this?

by reversering

10 Comments

  1. Good-Spring2019

    This is a bad idea, you have to use two separate circuits for it to work. The way these plugs are set up would lead people to just plug them both into a singular outlet which won’t work.

  2. InterestingFactor825

    It would be unusual to have the separate circuits right next to one another for this to work.

  3. rademradem

    120V circuit breakers alternate in your breaker box between the two halves of the 240V service your house gets from the grid. If you really have 2 outlets that are in different halves of the 240v service and are unused by anything else, you can combine them using this type of device. The problem is that almost no one has 2 separate completely unused 120V circuits on different halves of the 240V service near each other in their garage. Just because you have 2 outlets does not mean they are on different circuits. Even if they are, it does not mean they are on different halves of the 240V service. You will be much safer if you either just use 120V charging on a single unused circuit or hire an electrician to install a proper 240V circuit.

  4. SmackEh

    So if you throw the electrical code out the window, this is how this would even work physically…

    Your 120V power (regular outlet) is your Phase A to Neutral voltage (or Phase B to Neutral voltage).

    240V power is Phase A and Phase B power. (120V + 120V that is 180 deg out of phase).

    So I guess if you used two dedicated outlets, with one wired on Phase A and one on Phase B, this could achieve 240V power. (The other prongs are your carried and combined neutral and ground wires).

    Practically speaking though, this is against code.

    What you’re ultimately creating using this monstrosity is a 15A, 120/240V outlet, which doesn’t even have the right pin configuration.

  5. Aggressive_Ad_5454

    Electrical codes exist for good reasons.

    If you were fitting up your house to handle a gasoline car, would you use old milk jugs to store the gasoline? No? Why not?

    Electricity also has dangers. Please don’t do this. The last thing we need is Fox News running stories about how EVs burn houses down.

  6. SpaceXBeanz

    It’s against electrical code. Don’t do it. If you cause a fire your insurance won’t cover you most likely.

  7. flyfreeflylow

    The outlets would have to be on opposite legs, which is not likely to be the case unless you specifically ran them that way or identified outlets on opposite legs and used extension cords (NOT a good idea). If you did happen to have two outlets next to each other on opposite legs, there’s no real issue with it. You would have limited amperage. On two 20 amp circuits, you’d have 16 amps usable, and on two 15 amp circuits you’d have 12 amps usable.

  8. Greetings from Europe (410V at home)![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|thumbs_up)

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