Charging from non dedicated outlet

The owner's manual says charging should be done from a dedicated outlet.

1.Any idea on how to define a dedicated outlet?
2.What are the risk to the car of charging from a non dedicated outlet? Or is the risk only
to the other items connected to that power source.

IE: I recently plugged the level 1 charger into a regular outlet on a light pole that looks like
it shares the same power source as the light on the poll.

TIA!

Rob

The purpose of plugging into a dedicated outlet is to not overload the branch circuit that is supply that outlet. The level I cord that comes with the FFE draws 12A. For a standard 15A circuit, drawing 12A contious is the maximum this circuit can safely supply. So, you shouldn't have anything else plugged into the branch circuit supplying that outlet. The are a few exceptions. One, if this is a 20A branch circuit you still have some extra capacity to deal with. The FFE only draws 12A at 120V no matter what. So, you still would have some head room on a 20A branch circuit. These will generally have the NEMA 5-20 outlets, or standard outlets with the sideways T on the left prong, (however they can have the NEMA 5-15 outlets) to identify themselves. Now, I wouldn't be too concerned, even on a 15A outlet, if you had something like a clock radio plugged in, but lights on that circuit would likely overload it. The potential danger is that the circuit breaker is old or defective and won't trip properly. If this happens, melting or fires could occur. So in conclusion, stating that the outlet must be dedicated and only drawing 12A adds an additional safety factor (or CYA) to the process for Ford. What is important is not to overload the circuit that you are charging from.

Is it correct to say i can only tell if it is dedicated by looking at the circuit breaker box?

mafuada said:

Is it correct to say i can only tell if it is dedicated by looking at the circuit breaker box?

Click to expand...

It's a little more complicated than that. If you can trace the wire from the outlet all the way back to the circuit breaker box and see that there are no other outlets or light fixtures along the way, then you can be relatively certain that it is a dedicated circuit. You might try using a stud finder/wiring detector to trace the path of the wire, but you will need to have practically every other circuit in the house off in order to be able to trace the live circuit while it is bearing a load, running a light, for instance.

Another way to check is to turn off just the circuit breaker that supplies current to the outlet you think may be dedicated and then start checking every other outlet and overhead lighting fixture in that part of the house to see if they are live. If they are live, they are on a different circuit, if you don't find power at an outlet or fixture, they are on the same circuit and you do not have a dedicated line.

In most garages thier are two power outlets. One on the wall and one for the garage door opener. Thier will also be a ceiling lights. These most likely will all be on the same circuit breaker. I would replace all the lights with LED if possible to reduce the current draw.

A local supplier such as Home Depot does sell Cree LED lighting. :idea:
I have one in my garage door opener and it seems to be holding up well.

When I first got our FFE I used the included Level 1 charger plugged into our garage outlets. These outlets are also connected to our bathrooms (one GFI covers the garage outlets and bathroom ones--for some reason that was code here when our house was built. The other GFI circuit in the house is the kitchen).

We also have a refrigerator plugged into the garage outlets. The only time the breakers tripped on that circuit was when all three of the following was happening:

• The FFE was charging
  The Refer was cooling
  and the Wife plugged in and turned on her hair dryer

This only happened once.

I lived for about a month using the Level 1 on this circuit before we got our Level 2 installed.

Note: I am also able to plug our RV in the garage outlets and run the A/C along with the refer...

jmueller065 said:

The only time the breakers tripped on that circuit was when all three of the following was happening:

• The FFE was charging
  The Refer was cooling
  and the Wife plugged in and turned on her hair dryer

This only happened once.

Click to expand...

And which one did you unplug?

LOL at that time I think we unplugged the Refer...

I had the same experience with a garage outlet when I moved into my house. One 15 amp circuit for two outlets in the garage, the two garage door openers, and lights. Needless to say, day 2 of living there was installing Level II charging

Before installing a level 2 EVSE, I used the outlet in the ceiling of the garage that powers the garage door opener. I figured that so long as the car was in the garage charging, the door wasn't going to be going up and down.

I just sold my Volt, and, am looking at the Focus Electric.
I have a level 2 at home, so, not a problem there. At work
I have access to an outlet, but, it is so far from the circuit
breaker that voltage degrades. I was able to plug my Toyota
Paseo Electric and charge, and, my Zero motorcycles charge
with no problem, but, my Volt would shut off after a few minutes
because of low voltage. I believe that the delivered voltage is
somewhere around 108, and, seems to drop to as low as 93
depending upon what is plugged in. I have two questions.
1) What is the rated range for 120 input on the stock charger
In other words, how low of a voltage will work before
giving up. My Zero charger says input 100~240.
2) On the Volt, the 120v charger would charge at 8 or 12
amps. The lower was in case you had old wiring that
would be taxed by the 12 amp. Is there an adjustment
for the stock charger to less than 12 amps?

Thank You

KrazyEd said:

I just sold my Volt, and, am looking at the Focus Electric.
I have a level 2 at home, so, not a problem there. At work
I have access to an outlet, but, it is so far from the circuit
breaker that voltage degrades. I was able to plug my Toyota
Paseo Electric and charge, and, my Zero motorcycles charge
with no problem, but, my Volt would shut off after a few minutes
because of low voltage. I believe that the delivered voltage is
somewhere around 108, and, seems to drop to as low as 93
depending upon what is plugged in. I have two questions.
1) What is the rated range for 120 input on the stock charger
In other words, how low of a voltage will work before
giving up. My Zero charger says input 100~240.
2) On the Volt, the 120v charger would charge at 8 or 12
amps. The lower was in case you had old wiring that
would be taxed by the 12 amp. Is there an adjustment
for the stock charger to less than 12 amps?

Thank You

Click to expand...

There's no adjustment I know of for charge speed. It always takes 12 amps.


This is my EV charging setup

I used my Kill-A-Watt to examine the Level 1 charging, so I can provide a datapoint.

At 113V AC incoming, the FFE charged at 11.65 A from the wall.

Unlike the Volt, there is no 8A / 12A configurable setting.

I don't know J1772 well enough to know if that's a setting on the charger or in the car.

I think you're going to need a dedicated outlet. It's entirely possible that FFE will refuse to charge at all, to protect the circuit from being overloaded.

My daily commute is only about 30 miles, but I needed to be plugged in for 10-12 hours every day to make up that much power using Level 1. Makes for some long workdays, and I'm hugely grateful for the new L2 chargers at work.

I just wired my GE Wattstation last night. I removed the dryer/stove line from the circuit breaker a few years ago so I could run 220 in my garage for my table saw and air compressor. The circuit has a dual 30 amp breaker (one breaker for each hot line) plus a neutral/ground line. In the line I installed 4 outlets (20 amps each) just to have two extra outlets. Last night, from the last outlet, I ran another plug, nema 5-60 plug. Now, I just unplug my compressor when I use the Wattstation and viceaversa. Just don't use the other outlets and it is essentially a dedicated circuit. Be very careful make sure that wire nut connections are very secure.