220v charging plug at home

[KINGFISH]

My soon to arrive Taycan 4S includes the Supply Cable for NEMA 6-30 Electrical Socket, 25 ft Charging Cable and Porsche Charging Dock for the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect. Going to have an electrician come out and add a 220v plug to my garage. Is there anything unique to the plug, or does it require a standard 220v plug similar to the one I have for my clothes dryer (US house)?

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[bushmg]

My soon to arrive Taycan 4S includes the Supply Cable for NEMA 6-30 Electrical Socket, 25 ft Charging Cable and Porsche Charging Dock for the Porsche Mobile Charger Connect. Going to have an electrician come out and add a 220v plug to my garage. Is there anything unique to the plug, or does it require a standard 220v plug similar to the one I have for my clothes dryer (US house)?

Congratulations on your new 4S!
I wired up my charger to a spare 220 breaker in the garage. The charger will draw up to 40 amps, which requires at least 10 gauge wire! In my case, I had to throttle back the charger to 30 amps for the 12 gauge wire that was installed. At 40 amps, those wires and the breaker will get hot. The difference in charging time is .3 mi/minute vs 0.4 mi/minute, so an overnight charge works at either rate.

BTW, I'm only charging to 85% per the owners manual for daily driving.

 

[KINGFISH]

Thanks for the response. I want to have the electrician install the right 220v outlet - is the outlet shape unique (looking at outlets on the HomeDepot site it looks like there are different plug shapes). Not having seen the charger plug, not sure what to tell the electrician. Any additional advice?

 

[MassDriver]

Thanks for the response. I want to have the electrician install the right 220v outlet - is the outlet shape unique (looking at outlets on the HomeDepot site it looks like there are different plug shapes). Not having seen the charger plug, not sure what to tell the electrician. Any additional advice?

Yes the outlet shape is unique, NEMA is a standard so just tell your electrician that you need a NEMA 6-30 outlet. You can Google "NEMA 6-30" and it will bring you to a bunch of charts showing the plug and receptacle layouts. You'll also need to tell your electrician the continuous amperage you plan to charge at, so they will install the proper wiring gauge and breaker as @bushmg noted above.
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[daveo4EV]

NEMA 6-30 specifies the AMP’s and charging rate - the “6” is the blade pattern -and the 30 is the amp rating of the breaker. when the porsche charger has a NEMA 6-30 supply cable attached to it - the car will only charge at 24 amps - which is 80% of a 30 amp breaker - which is building code for continous use devices - you can only pull 80% of the rated wire/breaker load for continuous use (current draw for more than 2 hours).

the porsche charger automatically adjust for the correct amperage based on the type of supply cable it’s current attached to:

• for NEMA 14-50 and 6-50 supply cables the charger’s maximum charge rate is 40 amps - 80% of the rated breaker load for a 50 amp circuit
• for NEMA 14-30 and 6-30 supply cables teh charger’s maximum charge rate is 24 amps - 80% of the rated breaker load for a 30 amp circuit

in both cases appropriate wire gauge should be used to match the 30 or 50 amp breaker used with the circuit. Any qualified electrician will pick appropriate gauge wire based on the breaker size and length of the run to the outlet.

simply telling the electician you want a NEMA 6-30 plug tells him all he needs to know. 30 amp breaker, NEMA 6-30 plug type, match the wire guage for length and amperage for a standard building code qualified 30 amp circuit.

If you want to charge at the Taycan’s full 40 amp potential - you will will need at least 4 things:

1. NEMA 14-50 supply cable for the Porsche charger - your dealer can supply this
2. NEMA 14-50 plug installed by your electrician
3. wire rated for 50 amp loads from your panel to your new NEMA 14-50 plug
4. 50 amp breaker installed/upgraded in your main panel

only when you have these 4 things should you then charge at 40 amps.

Since your charger is coming with a NEMA 6-30P (”P” for plug) supply cable - you should tell the electician to install a NEMA 6-30R (”R” for receptical) plug - the type/amps/wire required is all encompassed in the NEMA 6-30 specification.

 

[daveo4EV]

you shoudl consider aquiring the NEMA 14-50 supply cable if you plan to travel with the vehicle, you are are more likely to run into NEMA 14-50 plugs in the wild than NEMA 6-30 plugs. NEMA 14-50 plugs are standard at many hotels and RV parks as this is the plug type used for 220 volt power for most RV’s - and therefore there are a lot of these around when you start paying attention.

 

[daveo4EV]

also one poster said “the charger” will draw 40 amps…well the charge _CAN_ draw 40 amps - but it will only draw 40 amps if it has a NEMA 14-50 or NEMA 6-50 supply cable attached to it. If it has any other supply cable (NEMA 14-30 or 6-30) it will only draw 24 amps.

you should avoid having a NEMA 14-50 supply cable on the charger, and then plugging it into a NEMA 14-50 outlet that is only supplied by wire and breaker that are rated for fewer amps - it’s a fire hazard and building code violation.

The plug type, wire guage, and breaker should all match for the amperage specified by the plug type - mixing and matching NEMA plug types with “off sized” breakers is a receipe for things melting and/or catching fire. while you can manually adjust the charger to use fewer amps - all it takes is you forgetting to lower the amps one time and then while you’re asleep during a 6 hour charging session bad things will happen and only melt if you’re luck, fire if you’re not lucky.

use the correct supply cable - the charger will do the right thing
use the correct plug type
use the correct wire guage or more (you can use 40/50 amp rated wire for 20/30 amp circuits - it’s over spec and will actually run cooler with less voltage drop)
use the correct breaker to match the plug and the wire

if you do these things the charger will not necessarily use 40 amps - it will match it’s behavior the expected amp rating of the supply cable.

 

[daveo4EV]

this is what can happen when you pull 40 amps over wire rated for only 30 amps - I recomend against it - and the only thing that kept the fire under control was the overheat/fire occured inside a rated electrical box (building code) designed to stop just this type of failure from snowballing into a full blown fire.

don’t rely on turning “down” the amps on the porsche charger as a way of keeping the wires/breaker from overheating - if everything is properly installed and balanced, the wires/breakers won’t overheat and you don’t have to remember to do anything.

 

[daveo4EV]

the OP also asked about the typical plug used in US homes for a dryer. NEMA 6-30 is _NOT_ the typical dryer/water heater plug...

since about 1998 NEMA 14-30 is the most common 30 amp plug for modern building codes and typically found for electric dryers and water heaters.

NEMA 10-30 was the standard type of plug for pre-1998 homes (again dryers and water heaters)

NEMA 14-30 plugs have 4 “blades” - blades 1 & 2 are 120 volt hot (240 volts total) - 1 blade for electrical neutral - and one blade for electrical ground

NEMA 10-30 and 6-30 plugs have 3 “blades” - blades 1 & 2 are 120 volt hot (240 volts total) & 1 blade for ground - the only difference between 10-30 and 6-30 plug types are the blade orientation (in the 10-30 the two “hots” are angled at 45 degrees, and in the 6-30 the two blades are flat parallel with the floor - the two plug types are identical electrically in terms of voltage, amps, and wire guage.

you can easily change a 10-30 to a 6-30 plug or vice versa becuase they have the same number of wires, and the wires are all the same purpose two hots + a ground - you can even convert a 14-30 to a 10-30/6-30 plug (just don’t wire up the neutral) - but you can not convert a 10-30/6-30 plug to a 14-30 plug because you are most likley missing the required 4 wire in the run for the electrical neutral…

the order for most likley to encounte for plug types is:

14-30 - all homes post 1998
10-30 - all homes pre-1998
6-30 (very minor fraction of typical residential plug types) - not a typical residential plug type

all three of these plug types are 30 amp circuits - which will provide for a 24 amp charge rate for any properly configured EV charger that knows it’s using a 30 amp circuit. 24 amps is approximately 5,760 watts or 5.76 kiloWatts - a 30 amp circuit (24 amp charge rate) should be able to charge a taycan from 0% battery to 100% battery in about 15 hours (83.4 kWh / 5.76 kW).

 

[daveo4EV]

Congratulations on your new 4S!
I wired up my charger to a spare 220 breaker in the garage. The charger will draw up to 40 amps, which requires at least 10 gauge wire! In my case, I had to throttle back the charger to 30 amps for the 12 gauge wire that was installed. At 40 amps, those wires and the breaker will get hot. The difference in charging time is .3 mi/minute vs 0.4 mi/minute, so an overnight charge works at either rate.

BTW, I'm only charging to 85% per the owners manual for daily driving.

you really should swap the plug for a 30 amp plug- and get the correct supply cable for the porsche charger - that way you won’t have to “remember” to ramp down the porsche charger to supply fewer amps - it will just do the right thing - I’d recommend getting this set up correctly to avoid overloading the wire and causing a potential fire.

get a NEMA XX-30 plug from home depot (less than $20)
get a NEMA XX-30 supply cable for your porsche charger from your dealer

and then the car and the charger will automatically just do the right thing - i.e. not pull 40 amps across 12 gauge wire.

 

[daveo4EV]

also this thread is recomended reading…

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/setting-up-for-charging-in-garage.826/

 

[domin1720]

Just remember the lead on the Porsche charger is tiny so I wish I would have mounted my outlet up higher although it is still Ok but a few feet higher would have been easier on my back
Also it sounds silly but if you have just the holster to put the handle back in after charging you may want to put a few soft kid play mats or gym mats under that area if concrete is below. It clearly "clicks" back into the holder but my son unplugged for me once and didn't hear it click when he put it back and of course if fell down onto the concrete. DIdn't crack but very easily could have broken.

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