In the first phase, I ran a new dedicated circuit from the subpanel in my garage to the opposite wall to connect a 120V charging station.  In this phase, I removed the existing receptacle, rewired for 240V, installed the Voltec Level 2 charging station, and wired the kWh meter inline.

It’s not my intent to write a full set of instructions for installation here.  The purpose of this post is to illustrate some of the installation steps with real-world pictures, which are somewhat hard to come by online (the pictures are rather small, but you can click on any of them for a larger version).

As with all electrical installations, follow all manufacturer directions, specifications, and applicable local/national codes when installing your equipment.

The first step was ordering the Voltec Charge Station from SPX.  Information can be found here:

https://www.homecharging.spx.com/volt/Display.aspx?id=7&menu=14

The charging station is listed at $499 on the site.  For some reason, my invoice showed the price as $490 (obviously not a problem).  Shipping was free, and with tax my total was $532.26.

Ordering from SPX was easy;  Their sales rep was very helpful, and because I’d previously applied for their “free” charging station they already had my info on file.  I had placed my order in the afternoon on 5/31, and had delivery the morning of 6/6, putting it under a quite respectable 4 business days (hooray for UPS).

The contents of the Voltec Charge Station package: Instructions, warranty information, and the charging station itself.

The charging station comes fully assembled, and the instructions are very straight-forward.  One caveat with the warranty:  If you do a self-installation, the warranty period is one year, versus three years when you have the unit professionally installed.  In my opinion, self-install is still the way to go, because a professional installation can easily cost more than buying a second charger should the first one fail.

To start the installation, you will need a Torx driver.  I had bought a set a few months ago (which I needed just to replace the air filter in Amanda’s old Saab — a rant for another day), which attach to a standard 3/8″ drive head.  That makes taking out the six screws a breeze:

Opening the back with a Torx driver. It's just a coincidence that my Ridgid driver matches the charge station, I swear.

I put the unit face down on cardboard to avoid scratching it.  Next step is separating the two halves, minding the ribbon cable that connects them.

The cover removed from the charging station

The connector on the ribbon cable simply pulls out of its mate on the circuit board.  Don’t worry about how the pins line up — it’s keyed to only reattach one way.

The circuity in the charging station is surprisingly simple.   The Volt has the bulk of the charging logic on-board.  If I’m not mistaken, the charging station just has some thermal and ground-fault protection, and logic to analyze the building wiring so that it knows it’s safe to pass the power on to the car.

A close-up of the charging station's PCB and wiring connections.

I couldn’t resist taking apart the charging station first, but had to get back to the business of prepping the wiring for 240 Volts.

This started with removing the 120V receptacle.  I was careful to cut the hole for the receptacle where I thought the wiring connector for the Voltec would land, and also so that the charging station would cover it completely.  (That turned out pretty well, which was partially dumb luck on my part).

The existing receptacle unit and box came out easily.

I disconnected the receptacle unit and left as much wire as possible in tact.  I also stripped the sheath off the armored cable by a bit more — you’ll see later that I just barely had enough wiring left inside the unit to make up the connections.

Next step was changing the temporary 120V connections in the breaker panel over to 240V.

The Voltec circuit is attached to the breaker in the upper-left.

This was probably the least complicated step of the installation and involved moving the red wire in the upper-left from its very temporary connection at the neutral buss over to the second pole of the breaker.

The next step was wiring the meter.  I thought the meter was a must-have, because it will allow me to get very accurate numbers as far as KWh/mile, and therefore $/mile.  There are a lot of numbers floating around online, but this will let me make calculations based upon my Volt (well, Amanda’s Volt), with my electric rates.

Installing a meter is neither expensive nor difficult.  I got the head on eBay (used/reconditioned) for $36 all-in, and the socket from Home Depot for $25.  And it’s just a few extra electrical connections:

Meter wiring with #6 pigtails.

Connecting the meter socket’s terminals were not as straightforward as I’d hoped, but not all that complicated once you realize what’s going on in that picture.

The label on the pan specifies that the terminal lugs for the line/load (“hot”) connections can accept a minimum of #8 AWG wiring, with a maximum of #2/0.  Since the circuit is only 20A and therefore wired with #12 AWG, a problem arises.

Label showing details of the meter pan. As with all pictures in this post, click to enlarge.

Fortunately the solution was simple:  I pigtailed some #6 wire onto the #12, then made the connections.  I used #6 both because I had it laying around, and because I had wire nuts that permitted the connection of #12 and #6 wire.

The “neutral” terminals (which I’m using to bond the box to ground as there is no neutral conductor in this installation) can accept my #12 wire.

With those connections made, the meter head plugged in, and the cover in place, I fired it up for a test (I capped the wires hanging out of the wall first).

Zero kWh!

That lead to some good feedback for the eBay seller.  Of course, I have no idea of the degree of accuracy of this meter.  I’m willing to assume that it’s accurate enough for my purposes.

Now back to the Voltec Charge Station.  That’s probably why you’re reading this post to begin with, but this part of the installation can’t be easier.  You just need two screws to attach this thing to the wall (I’d recommend hitting a stud if you have a framed garage — the unit is light, but the charging cable is quite heavy and I wouldn’t trust drywall anchors to hold it).  Then it’s 3 screw terminals for the wiring and you’re done!  Well, almost done.  As you’ll see, attaching the cover can be a problem if you’re not prepared.

Charging station mounted and wired.

I used ceramic-coated 3″ deck screws and a couple of washers for mounting.  They’re a little beefier than drywall screws (plus I had them laying around).  I don’t think a thick lag screw is really necessary for the weight of the unit/cable.

Three electrical connections is all it takes:

Close-up of the wiring connections.

I didn’t trim the leads for the supply wires at all.  The length just happened to work out very well, which saved me some extra time re-running the cable up to the meter.  (It’s hard to tell in the picture, but there’s about a half-inch clearance between the PCB and the supply wires, and they’re laid in there quite comfortably).

The final step is applying the cover, and turning on the power.  Applying the cover was one of those things that annoys me about engineers.  The screws attach from the back, and are flared out at maybe 30 degrees from the wall.

It was really just dumb luck that I had this drive head sitting around in my garage.

This makes reattaching the cover a minor pain in the neck.  If you don’t have a little Torx driver (or driver head), go out and get one before starting this project.  I forgot what size I needed, but get a set of them.  Torx screws seem to always pop up when you least expect/want them to.

Why the engineers that designed this thing couldn’t use hex-head screws is beyond me.  Pretty much everyone has Allen keys around from old Ikea projects or whatnot, and they’re ideal for this sort of tight space.

It wasn’t all bad, though.  I was able to get the screws seated just by hand tightening.

And here’s the result:

The finished installation!

The installation as described above took just a little over an hour.  Of course, I did the bulk of the prep work in Phase I, and that project took more than a few hours.

If you have any questions or want any additional details, please post in the comments below.

Postscript

I wanted to comment on the build quality of the Voltec Charge Station.  I was neither impressed nor disappointed with the unit itself.

As I wrote earlier, the charging station is not heavy at all.  I can’t say that it feels flimsy, but the edges around the cover are rather thin plastic, and it’s almost hard to believe that it’s a weather-tight enclosure suitable for outdoor use.  Let’s just say that it definitely has the feel of a residential appliance.

The charge cord is quite heavy. The ship weight of the charging station is 18 lbs., and the cord could easily account for 12 lbs. of that weight.  I only bring that up because I’ve seen lighter cords attached to heavier-built units that eventually worked their way loose from their mounting points.

But wait, the charge cord also isn’t heavy enough! The conductors in the charge cord that carry the full charge current, approximately 15A, are 14 gauge.   While I’m sure that’s technically sufficient to satisfy any safety requirements, the cord still becomes quite warm while the Volt is connected and charging.  12 gauge wire would have been a better choice (IMHO), but of course would have made the cord heavier still.

Finally, I don’t like the fact that the cord is coiled.  I vaguely remember from childhood something called a “corded phone” (well, we called it a “phone”).   The sound clarity was great, but do you remember what eventually happened to all of those curly cords?  Have you ever had to untangle one?  Sure you have.  And it sucks.

Despite all of these complaints, the Voltec Charge Station is your best bet for the money.  I don’t see a need for a heavier-duty unit in my garage, and though $500 isn’t cheap, I could buy 4 of these things for what a low-end commercial grade charging station might cost.   The heat emitted by the cable is a concern, but it’s due to the #14 wire and not a defective unit.  I will be keeping a close eye on it, however.

The coiled cord?  Replacing that might be a project for another day.  Maybe in a year when the warranty is up anyhow, I’ll see if I can find a suitable replacement with #12 conductors.

Of course, the whole point point behind a PHEV is the actual plugging in.  The Volt comes with a 120V charger that plugs into your average 15A receptacle, and can fully charge the car in about 10 hours.

Chevrolet’s charging station partner, SPX, sells a variety of Level 2 charging stations compatible with the Volt (and most plug-in electric vehicles, including the Nissan Leaf).  The Level 2 charging stations use 240V, and can charge the Volt in about 4 hours.  We’re going to be getting the least expensive charger, the Voltec, for installation in our garage.  That’s going to be “Phase II” of this project.

Phase I consists of getting wiring in place that will eventually be used by the Level 2 charger, temporarily configured for Level 1 (120V) charging using a standard receptacle.

I’m fortunate to have an electrical sub-panel in my garage, so wiring the new charging station is going to be relatively easy.  The twist is that I put an electric meter in-line so that I can monitor Sparky’s energy usage.

Here’s a pictorial overview of the project:

My sub-panel was almost full, and I had to move a breaker down to the bottom-right to make room for a double pole breaker.  The feeder is protected by a 50A breaker on the main panel — the 100A main breaker pictured is just used as a disconnect.

I ran some EMT from the panel up into the garage attic.  The charging station is going to be positioned on the opposite wall, and I wanted to run the wiring hidden on that side of the garage.

In the garage attic, the EMT terminates at a junction box so I can transition to MC for an easier run across the attic and down the garage wall.  I needed about a 5″ offset because the finished wall in the garage is proud of the wall pictured (which is actually the side of my house).

THWN waiting to be connected to the MC wiring.  All wires are #12.

The main reason I didn’t use EMT in the attic is because there are a lot of turns in tight places.  This cable is fed from the upper-right of this picture after it passes overhead between the roof rafters.  It’s fed through the top plate of the wall below in the lower-left.  The next picture shows where it terminates.

Cable from the attic, along with a jumper that will go between the meter and the charging station.

Here’s the meter pan and the box for a temporary 120V receptacle.  (More on that to come).  The wires are coming out of the bottom of the box because I left some extra slack in the wall for the eventual mounting of the Level 2 charging station (which doesn’t require a box).

VERY IMPORTANT: In the next few pictures there are things shown that you should not imitate.  They show temporary wiring that will only be serviced by me, and it will be gone within the week.

New circuit wired to a new double-pole breaker.  Note that I have used a red wire as a neutral.  That is an incorrect practice according to the NEC, and general logic.  In about a week, this circuit will be converted to 240V by moving the red wire to the other pole of the breaker in the upper-left.

This is the junction box in the garage attic.  I’ve re-labeled the white conductor in the MC red, which is incorrect when it’s used as a grounded conductor (neutral).  It is acceptable practice for the future use as a 240V circuit.

The meter I purchased requires a 240V circuit, so for now the meter socket connections are bypassed, and there is plenty of extra slack left on the wires.  Again, what’s pictured is not the correct practice for wiring a 120V circuit, as the white neutral wire has been re-labeled red, indicating it is “hot”.  Also, without the meter in place this box can’t be adequately covered, which is also incorrect.  The neutral terminals have here been used both to connect the two grounding wires, and to bond the box to the grounding wire from the panel.  I believe this is acceptable practice, and though the terminals look large, the plate on the meter pan does permit a minimum of #14 wire under those terminals.

The receptacle unit is wired and ready to go into the box.  Note that this is not a “back stab” connection.  The wires are attached by compression terminals.  It’s also a duplex receptacle, which should not be used on a dedicated circuit, but again, this is temporary.

The meter socket and Level 1 charger.  I forgot the exact meaning of the lights on the charger, but I do know that the top two lights would indicate a wiring fault if they were anything but both green.  So it appears I have success!  One last note on safety:  The meter socket looks incredibly dangerous in this picture, as the contacts are, shall we say, overly accessible.  I just want to point out again that those contacts are not connected to the circuit.  This box is still unsafe because it’s improperly covered without the meter in place, but there are no exposed live conductors.  Again, this is very temporary.

Here’s Sparky, enjoying her first meal in the garage.

Stay tuned for Phase II of the project, when all will be made right with the electrical wiring, and our new 240V Level 2 charging station will be installed!

Update (2011-06-07): The new Voltec Charge Station is installed!  Check out the new post:

Installing Our New 240V/Level 2 Voltec Charge Station (Phase II)

“An automatic garage door opener makes you feel like you’re working in a futuristic wonderworld”.  – Frank Ormand, Pretzel Magnate

With the purchase of Amanda’s new Volt, I had to get the garage ready for a permanent resident.  She had kept her old Saab in the driveway, so I pretty much had the run of the place until now.  Protection from the elements aside, the garage is just a logical place to stick an electric car whilst it’s charging.

And my father raised me on automatic garage door openers, so I figured installing one would be the right thing to do.

Here’s a before picture of the garage:

Nothing to laugh at, I suppose.  But the stupid door would just sit there unless you went up to it and moved it around manually.  Clearly an unacceptable situation.

But wait.  Did you see the problem in that picture?  I sure didn’t.  Not even after looking at the situation real closely, like in this picture:

As anyone would, I went to my local Home Depot, and purchased their top-of-the-line Chamberlain Whisper-Drive Whateverthehell for $250.  Like an ass, it was after I got home that I started to check clearances around the door.

Do you see that 2×4 running horizontally above the door?  In the picture, you can see that it’s shaved down on one corner.  The joist across from it is likewise shaved down, only on the corner facing the door, so you can’t see it.

Why were they shaved down?  Because that’s the only way the motherfreaking door will actually clear them.  The top of the door travels up in between those joists as it rises, by about 3 inches.

Meaning I couldn’t mount the damn guide track for the opener underneath those beams.

Fortunately after some head scratching — “Should I lower the track and get a low-clearance kit?  Get rid of the overhead storage completely?  Return the opener and let Amanda open her own damn door?” — I came up with a solution:

Use a Sawzall (yes, I have an actual Milwaukee) to cut the ever-living crap out of those joists. It took some temporary bracing and a bit of cursing, but I managed to get a nice channel cut out for the opener, without losing my all-important storage area.

The middle of it is hung from the ceiling, which you can see a bit better here:

The structure is hung by 1×4 maple (yes, I decided to go fancy) which is bolted to 90deg angle brackets, which are then lagged into the ceiling joists.  It’s pretty damn solid, fortunately.

Here’s one more picture from the door’s end of things, just for fun:

Between figuring out a plan, removing (and later re-wiring) the lights, restructuring the overhead storage, installing and configuring the opener, getting power to the opener, and about 4 trips to Home Depot, what should have been a simple project ballooned into a 9-day adventure of anger and confusion.  (OK, so 2 weekends and some evenings in between, and I was calm for most of it).

Fortunately the whole thing works just fine, and I managed to avoid any major blunders along the way (except assuming that this would be a simple project from the get-go, of course).

Oh, and the garage door is probably 50 years old and will fall apart under the stress of constant use, so I’ll probably be replacing that soon.  (Hooray?)

Sorry if you were expecting a how-to, but I hope this gave you some ideas if you’re stuck in a similar situation.  (Plus, I just didn’t think to take pictures during the project).

I’ve been wanting to upgrade the electrical since I moved in about 7 months ago, and I figured I’d do it in EMT. It’s rather stupid because the wall I’m installing most of the conduit on is adjacent to the house — however it’s framed separately, and there is a ~2″ gap between the back of the framing and the side of the house. It would make a perfect wiring chase for NM-B, making the job a hell of a lot cheaper and easier. But I wanted EMT because, well, for fun. It looks cool too. This is the first project I’ve ever piped and I made a few mistakes (like not putting offsets at the boxes), but I learned a lot.

This is by far not my first electrical project, and it’s probably not for the faint of heart.

Background

The garage had 2 20A circuits running to it, one for lighting and 1 recept. group, and the other for just receptacles. Lighting consisted of a single 100W bare bulb in the garage, and another in the garage attic. The receptacles are all about 12-18″ off the floor, and were always getting blocked by crap I’d store against the walls. A couple are damaged; probably the previous h/o had been doing a project of his own and knocked into them.

The circuits were basically fine for me for the time being — my highest draw tools are a 15A contractor table saw and a 12A shop vac. So long as I ran their cords to opposite sides of the garage, I’d be fine. (Of course, I couldn’t run my compressor at the same time).

The lighting was my main problem. I’d get plenty of natural light during the day, but at night I’d need to set up portable lights, which is inconvenient at best and they’re never in the right place at the right time.
I happened to rip a 4-bulb T8 fluorescent fixture out of my kitchen recently (I installed recessed cans in its place), which is plenty bright. So my plan was to put that in the garage, plus a couple of other light fixtures, and also add some more receptacles.

Pics follow.  If anyone has suggestions, comments, criticisms, etc., please let me know!

Front of the garage. Good lumber storage above, but it makes lighting difficult.

Back of the garage. Good natural lighting and ventilation. I have a couple of window fans I use for cooling and venting out paint fumes.

My fantastic task lighting. Ceiling is 10ft. high.

First Home Depot run. Didn’t forget much. Figured I’d post this in case anyone wanted to know what brands I’m using.

New main light fixture. Sorry for the weird angle, but it’s the only way I could get the full conduit run in there.

Lights in the front. I realized far too late that the one in the background gets hit by the door, so now I can’t get it open.  I’ll have to move it back to the next 2×4. Fortunately I did those lights with MC and not EMT, so it should be an easy move.

The jbox just after the panel on the bottom will have a dedicated MWBC split onto 2 receptacles on the same yoke. Next jbox just has wiring connections, no devices. You can see some AC coming out of it; they feed 2 new single-bulb fluorescent fixtures. The EMT coming out the bottom of that box goes to a receptacle unit with a dedicated circuit, to be used for chargers, a radio, and other things.

The conduit that goes up into the ceiling in the previous pic comes out here, in the garage attic. It looks a bit weird, but the offset goes back towards the wall (~3″) and also to the left. It is plumb where it heads up towards the jbox, even though it looks angled in this pic. The NM-B coming out of the jbox goes to 2 luminaires on the front of the garage — they are controlled by the timer in the next pic. Some NM-B that currently runs to a switch next to the door in the back of the garage will enter this jbox from the left.

Timer for the outdoor lights. The GFCI supplies the timer/lights — personal preference, but I like my outdoor lighting on GFI. I had to put offsets in the EMT coming from the panel because the knockouts close to the wall are all blocked by the neut. buss bar!

Receptacles closest to the front of the garage — at the end of the conduit run that goes off the right of the panel. I needed to get some usable power coming off the new panel so I can have lights when I disconnect and re-wire the existing circuits.

Close-up of the panel. Not much done yet — the circuit hooked up is the one from the above pic.

Details

50A breaker at the main panel (in the basement, about 6 feet below and 6 feet to the left of the sub).

6/3 feeder. (Yes, I bought 125 ft. of 6/3. I just could not bring myself to spend $2.36/ft. when I could get 125 ft. for $136).  I figure I’ll use it eventually, or at least sell it.

100A disconnect at the sub.

Why only 50A, and not 100A+? Simply because I don’t need more than 50A. And if I ever do, I can pull a new line from the main panel to the garage. It’s a very easy pull. The only reason I’m doing a sub is b/c I don’t have space in the main panel for all those breakers.  (And yes, I like LOTS of circuits).

I’ll connect the existing receptacles near the floor to the sub today or tomorrow.

All wiring in conduit is 12 AWG THHN/THWN. The NM-B in the attic is 14/2 and will be on a 15A breaker. Existing receptacles were wired with 12-2 NM-B. I tagged the wiring for each circuit with its own color of electrical tape. Wiring is tagged in every box, even if it doesn’t terminate in that box.

EGC is #12, except where it hits a future 240V/30A receptacle; there it’s #10 from the panel. I didn’t want to use the EMT to bond everything together. I don’t have a good reason for that…

UPDATE 2009-06-10

I didn’t do anything last night, but did some new work on Monday. I also did three stupid things:

1) I mounted a light switch upside down.

2) I shorted the neut. to ground in a box and almost didn’t notice.. You’ll see — it’s not quite as stupid as it sounds (well, maybe it is).

3) I bought the wrong switch. Or they mfr. them in an illogical fashion.

The good news is I moved the light that was blocking the garage door. They all work, and it’s a heck of a lot brighter in there!

Upside-down switch. I was in a hurry to get the new lights on.  This switch was existing and has 14/3 NM-B to the box from the attic. Luckily the 14/3 in the attic was just sorta strung on a nail with tons of slack. I was able to easily get it to the new metal box in the attic, and I properly secured the cable to the rafters.

I installed this switch just to the right of the box w/the GFI recep. and the timer. It’s to control the attic lights, and is slaved off of the main light switch.

This switch has a pilot light. When I saw the switch I thought “the light must go on and off with the switch”. Not so! It just stays on constantly.

You can see where the insulation is chafed on the white wire, and a little bit on the red wire, too. When I put the switch in the wire rubbed against the EMT coupling, hard. I didn’t notice, but the neut. screw was also touching the coupling when the unit was fully seated, and the hot screw was maybe a millimeter from shorting.  I’ll be replacing it with a plain single pole switch, which is much thinner in the back.

Oh, one more thing: All the other boxes are bonded to each other with wire. This box is only bonded by the EMT. It’s a switch, so I’m not terribly concerned; I’ll probably leave it that way.

Close-up of 2 boxes, for no reason.

Lighting connections, ready for a box cover. (You can kinda see the tail of one of them, but there are anti-short bushings in the ends of the MC. The box is bonded to that green pigtail, too).

That’s it for now.  More to come later..