[HN Gopher] DIY Home EV Charger
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       DIY Home EV Charger
        
       Author : nickt
       Score  : 20 points
       Date   : 2023-12-03 18:30 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jamesfotherby.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jamesfotherby.com)
        
       | photonbeam wrote:
       | mirror
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20231203183047/https://jamesfoth...
        
       | myself248 wrote:
       | Save you a click: It's an EVSE, not a charger.
       | 
       | Looks very similar to OpenEVSE but he wrote his own code.
       | 
       | Nice clean build. Not sure why the extra work instead of just
       | downloading OpenEVSE.
        
         | timthorn wrote:
         | I'd have called an EVSE a charger - I might be naive but what's
         | the distinction you're trying to make?
        
           | Maxion wrote:
           | The actual AC charger is in the car - it is a pretty
           | important distinction.
        
           | Moto7451 wrote:
           | The name itself, Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment, indicates
           | the focus of the hardware beyond simply being a fancy plug
           | and a contactor. Higher end EVSE will do things like load
           | balancing a shared supply of power (ie chaining multiple
           | Tesla EVSEs to the same 50A line), setting supply power
           | limits depending on how much power is in use (ie the Porsche
           | Connect Plus modulating lower current when a clothing dryer
           | starts), and managing Car to Grid functionality (Hyundai).
           | 
           | EVSEs also manage DC charging in commercial settings, which
           | bypasses part of the charging hardware in some cars.
           | 
           | My Porsche Taycan is available with multiple chargers from
           | the factory. I have the faster AC charger unit and there is a
           | third unit that is only sold in Europe for Type 2 chargers.
           | The actual charger handles converting AC to DC, which is car
           | specific and why it's not in the EVSE.
        
         | MostlyStable wrote:
         | I would have liked to see a cost breakdown. If it's
         | significantly cheaper than OpenEVSE (somewhwere between
         | $500-$600 depending on which kit you get), then maybe some
         | people would be willing to take the risk (it seems like there
         | are some safety concerns with his design that I don't feel
         | qualified to adjudicate).
         | 
         | But without some kind of a cost difference, I'd probably stick
         | with something like OpenEVS, which seems to have some level of
         | official certification [0].
         | 
         | I personally regret my decision to not go with them when I got
         | my EVSE this year. I went with an EnelX Juicenet because A) it
         | was on the list of devices my power company would mostly pay
         | for and B) at the time it had API availability to integrate
         | with HomeAssistant. They have since killed that second part,
         | which I would have loved to still have. In the long term, the
         | ~$500 I saved by having my power company reimburse was probably
         | not worth the lack of control I now have.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://openev.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/6000...
         | 
         | -edit- He does have a total cost, I just missed it: he claims
         | that it was ~PS200. I leave it up to the reader if that's
         | enough savings to give up the certification.
        
       | greenthrow wrote:
       | This is such a bad DIY project because the costs of screwing up
       | can be burning your house down. This is non-trivial amounts of
       | power. If you spend the money fot an EV, buy something safe and
       | have it professionally installed. Keep the DIY projects to
       | something less dangerous.
        
         | thebigman433 wrote:
         | I love higher power DIY stuff in general, but yea this project
         | really doesnt thrill me. It does sound like the author did
         | adequate research, which is good, but the soldering joints dont
         | inspire a ton of confidence in overall quality.
         | 
         | Stuff like this is absolutely what I would consider "worth"
         | paying a professional to do. Especially since buying a retail
         | unit/paying a professional to install it will come with
         | warranties.
        
       | eigenvalue wrote:
       | More like a DIY arson investigation. You might not only burn down
       | your house, but also get in trouble with the law and not receive
       | compensation from your property insurance company. This is a
       | horrendous idea. Just do basically anything else DIY besides high
       | current/voltage electronics.
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | 1. Two words: strain relief.
       | 
       | 2. If it's outdoors, at least spray the electronics with Fine-L-
       | Kote or similar to keep water vapor out.
       | 
       | 3. Those relays look undersized for the load. Look at Grainger
       | for similar ratings. Do not buy power relays on eBay or Alibaba.
       | Current ratings there tend to be wildly exaggerated.
       | 
       | 4. Er, overcurrent protection? An approved circuit breaker?
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-03 23:00 UTC)