
Episode 15 - EV Supply Equipment - Transcript
Trevor Tremblay: BI-directional seems to be picking up a little bit of pace. Essentially it's the same as your regular charging except now it has capabilities to backfeed your house. People call it EV to grid, EV to home, that sort of thing. The one thing to check is make sure your utility does know that you'll be backfeeding because there is a possibility you could backfeed the grid and they need to know this. Now your car becomes a power source. So now the requirements of Section 84 and 64 would be required to be met because it's no different than essentially having a regular battery storage in your home or even like solar. So make sure that they follow all these rules.
Karen Ras: Buying a new car is a big purchase, but adding an electric vehicle adds a whole new set of considerations. In this episode, we're talking all about electric vehicle supply equipment or chargers. Grounded in Ontario is a podcast for you, the province's licensed electrical contractors, master and certified electricians, and offers safety tips, tech and best practices. Now let's get grounded. I'm Karen Ras and I work for the Electrical Safety Authority. I've got Trevor Tremblay with me today. How are you doing today, Trevor?
Trevor Tremblay: Very well, thanks, Karen.
Karen Ras: Now we've got all eyes on EVs right now and charging stations are essential. I feel like every day there is a new announcement about investments in EV manufacturing, municipalities providing more public charging stations and retailers going all in on charging in their lots. However, the equipment to fuel them can be very complicated to install. Trevor, can you give us a bit of background on how the industry has updated and evolved the code to ensure EV supply equipment or the EVSE for short is installed safely?
Trevor Tremblay: Well, technology is forever changing and changing very rapidly. We have published a bulletin dedicated exclusively for electric vehicle supply equipment. Some of the topics on there are bi-directional, adjustable settings, mechanical protection. One nice thing going forward too is manufacturers are actually getting together and actually coming up with a standardized connector. So when you go charge your car, leave the home, you don't need multiple adapters everywhere you go to make sure you can charge your car.
Karen Ras: Now this equipment can have adjustable amperage settings, which gives the user more control over the charging of their EV. Can you tell us how these adjustments can be made?
Trevor Tremblay: Early on, we saw a lot of electrical vehicle supply equipment, EVSEs, have adjustable dip settings. So essentially you open up a panel, flip the dips, and you can actually program it for 12 amps, 20 amps, 24, 42, 38, whatever you wanted to make sure it met your needs. And now going forward, most of the new ones are actually software based. So essentially you have a commissioning app that connects either directly to the unit through WiFi direct or through a WiFi network, Bluetooth, and you do all your programming to make sure that you can output whatever your demand needs. So if you want 32 amps, you set it for 32 amps with the commissioning app. And then once it's set up, the charger or the EVSE actually talks to the car and says, Hey, I'm set at 32 amps. So the car will only draw 32 amps when charging. And the commissioning app, not to be confused with the end user app, is completely different. The end user can't change the settings. They can only look at peak demands, what it's running at, set the time of day, that sort of thing.
Karen Ras: And how are the ratings of the EVSE established? Is it permitted to base the rating on the adjustable field settings for the purposes of the maximum circuit loading?
Trevor Tremblay: Yes. When you adjust the settings through the commissioning app. It can be used for the circuit and for your service size. And this must be done by commissioning apps, software dip switches, et cetera. It does have some conditions.
Karen Ras: And what are those conditions?
Trevor Tremblay: The two big ones are that you have to permanently label the equipment, making sure that it's identified what the maximum output is and the new rating and if the access to the adjustment is restricted.
Karen Ras: And can you give us some examples of restricted access?
Trevor Tremblay: So in the case of dip switches, the physical barrier would be a cover that requires a tool to remove it because you don't want to inadvertently just walk up to a piece of equipment and say, Hey, look, dip switches, start flipping them and then overloading your circuit. In the case of software, you'd have to have a unique password for the commissioning app or whatever software you're using to program the piece of equipment. Some of the EVSEs we're seeing, essentially you turn the power off to the unit, turn it back on for so many seconds or minutes, it creates a WiFi network, so you connect directly to it with that unique password. You sign in with the commissioning app, you set your program or your output, and then once that's set, it's locked in. You close it and then you can connect your EVSE to your regular WiFi and that's when your end user app comes in and you connect to the WiFi and then you can monitor all your stuff. We do have some manufacturers that require them to get involved to change the settings. And if you have to change 'em again, you have to contact that manufacturer.
Karen Ras: Very interesting. You also said that adjustable amperage settings can be used for only fixed in place EVSEs. What is meant by fixed in place?
Trevor Tremblay: Fixed in place is essentially it's bolted to the wall. You need a tool to remove it. Don't get it confused with fastens in place, which essentially is just the holders is secured to the wall, then it just sits in place. It's getting very popular now because people have multiple dwellings. So they go to their cottage on weekends, so they bring their charger with them. So essentially they unhook it, unplug it. So you do need a receptacle at both locations. And when you do have a receptacle, and it's usually typically a 50 amp, make sure you have a 50 amp breaker because you can't put a 40. Some manufacturers early on were saying you needed a 40 amp breaker, but you do need a 50 because that's the code requirement for a 50 amp breaker. Since they are 50 amp receptacle, since they don't make a 40 amp receptacle in Canada.
Karen Ras: And we do have a bulletin that addresses this issue. Bulletin 86-1-6. So thank you for clarifying. Let's chat a bit about disconnects. Does an EVSE require a separate disconnecting means when the unit is de-rated to 60 amps or less, even if the original rating was over 60 amps?
Trevor Tremblay: You can use the new de-rated value when determining if a disconnect is required. So if your new rating value is under the 60 amps, then you would not need a separate disconnecting means. But if it's over 150 volts, you'd still need that.
Karen Ras: And if a disconnect is required, does it have to be within the site of the EVSE?
Trevor Tremblay: No. If it's over 60 amps, 150 volts to ground, the disconnecting means does not have to be within sight. It just has to be lockable in the open position and it can be installed anywhere between the EVSE and wherever it's fed from. It's kind of funny because from our last podcast, one of our extra questions, someone emailed me and said, so it doesn't have to be within in sight because they're actually installing them next to this EVSE in a fancy car showroom going, you see this nice showroom, you see the nice EVSE, and then you have this ugly disconnect beside it. So he was pretty excited when we found out it didn't have to be within sight.
Karen Ras: And since these are located in parking lots, I'm guessing that they sometimes get damaged by cars.
Trevor Tremblay: Oh, they get damaged. We also see damage to the cords. We do have that bulletin, again, 86-1, dedicated to EVSEs that actually give some requirements on what we'd accept from mechanical protection and where they could be located. So kind of protected by location. So one meter back from curbs, one meter up so it doesn't get inadvertently hit by a bumper. But again, if you come across anything that's damaged, please let the whatever site you're at know or even call our one 800 number or 877 number.
Karen Ras: Okay, well that makes sense. Okay, next technical question. What maximum conductor termination temperature should be applied for hardwired EVSE?
Trevor Tremblay: The default termination temperature we're going to go with is 75 degrees. If it's not marked, go with 75 degrees. A lot of times if you try to apply 4006, you might end up with a larger conductor than the lugs can accommodate. So essentially we're going to base it on 75 degrees unless the manufacturer states a larger conductor or if it's actually marked, use 60 degree conductors.
Karen Ras: Okay, that's good to know. Now talk to us a bit about bi-directional EVSE.
Trevor Tremblay: BI-directional seems to be picking up a little bit of pace. Essentially it's the same as your regular charging except now it has capabilities to backfeed your house. So you can actually, people call it EV to grid, EV to home, that sort of thing. The one thing to check is make sure your utility does know that you'll be backfeeding because there is a possibility you could backfeed the grid and they need to know this. And now your car becomes a power source. So now the requirements of Section 84 and 64 would be required to be met because it's no different than essentially having a regular battery storage in your home or even like solar. So make sure that they follow all these rules.
Karen Ras: Now final technical question, is a plan review submission required if your bidirectional EVSE nameplate capacity exceeds 10 kilowatts?
Trevor Tremblay: Yes. When the name plate from the factor is over 10 kilowatts, plan review is required. Even if you de-rated it under 10 kilowatts, it's similar to solar installations and the bulletin we published about that and battery storage. So essentially even if the inverters and the other installations are also over 10 kilowatts, plan review is required even if they're de-rated, unless they're de-rated by the factory for the other installations.
Karen Ras: That is good information for our listeners and for people like me. I know I'm in the process of getting an EV charger installed. And do you have to upgrade your service when installing EVSE?
Trevor Tremblay: Not always. It would depend on a load calculation from Section Eight, or you can also provide historical demand for the dwelling. We do have a calculation on our bulletin, which will be posted on our podcast page, on our website so you can have easy access. We do recommend if the panel is older that you do upgrade it. Nothing beats time. It always wins. And the older your service is, the more likely it is to give you issues in the future. You are adding a pretty significant load to that service. If you don't want to change your service, you also have the choice of installing an electric vehicle energy management system so you don't overload your service. Essentially it monitors your service conductors on what's being drawn from the utility and when it gets to a set point, it turns off your electric vehicle supply equipment to make sure you don't overload your service. Again, lots more can be found on our website and the recent bulletins at our podcast page regarding EVSEs and you can find them there.
Karen Ras: Thank you, Trevor. There is a lot to think about when it comes to making sure EVSE is installed safely and properly. Now, before I let you go, we did have a question from a listener, Chris in Collingwood asks, is ENT conduit permitted to be installed underneath a concrete slab in direct contact with the gravel base?
Trevor Tremblay: Thanks for the question, Chris. Yes, it is permitted provided that the slab is at least a hundred millimeter stick and the location and depth of the underground installation is marked in a conspicuous, legible and permanent manner and not subject to mechanical damage. And it should have nice screensand around it, so no rocks if there's a possibility of frost can actually puncture the ENT and damage it.
Karen Ras: Alright, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks again for joining us Trevor.
Trevor Tremblay: Thanks for having me.
Karen Ras: And thank you to listeners for sending in these questions. We want to hear from you, so please email us at podcast@esasafe.com. We're open to topic suggestions, questions and comments. Make sure you subscribe on any platform where you get your podcasts so that you'll get notified about our next episode. Until next time, be safe, work safe and stay grounded.