converting a regular house outlet to 220 volts

[joneng22]

Thought I would share this to everyone because I think this is an amazing solution for a common problem.

http://www.quick220.com/220_catalog/voltage-converters.html

In summary, if you are visiting a friend's house, the chances are slim that they will have an easily accessible 220V outlet available. This solves the problem so you could connect your portable level 2 charger. I just placed an order for one of these and will receive it next week. I will post a follow-up on the results.

 

[tomt]

It is also easy to home-brew one... There are plans for them in a number of places...

 

[BCKator]

I'm not sure that this will be any better than connecting directly to the 110v.
The 110v current limit will define the max power available to charge and there are no doubt losses in the 110 to 220 conversion.
Given a 20A 110v plug, how many A can you get out of this thing on the 220v side?

 

[tomt]

The amperage will be the same but the voltage will be double. Thus, twice the power and half the charging time...

I'm not sure that this will be any better than connecting directly to the 110v

 

[BCKator]

OK, I didn't realize they were drawing from 2 separate out of phase circuits.

From the site
"** Note: The Quick 220 Power Supply uses two outlets from two different circuits that are out of phase and not controlled by ground fault interupters (GFI's). The Quick 220 Power Supply has built in circuitry to test for the out of phase circuits. A separate tester is supplied to check the outlet for a GFI. Most buildings have numerous outlets that meet these two requirements."

In my house, all outside/garage outlets (where my car would be) have GFI and I believe that all nearby interior outlets are on the same circuit.

 

[joneng22]

OK, I didn't realize they were drawing from 2 separate out of phase circuits.

From the site
"** Note: The Quick 220 Power Supply uses two outlets from two different circuits that are out of phase and not controlled by ground fault interupters (GFI's). The Quick 220 Power Supply has built in circuitry to test for the out of phase circuits. A separate tester is supplied to check the outlet for a GFI. Most buildings have numerous outlets that meet these two requirements."

In my house, all outside/garage outlets (where my car would be) have GFI and I believe that all nearby interior outlets are on the same circuit.

Got the product about a week ago, and works as advertised. I have a level 2 charger with max output of 15amps. The max that this "Quick 220" can handle is 16amps. You don't want to get a level 2 charger that will exceed 16 amps. Makes a big difference from the level 1 charger the car came with. It is about 3X faster in charging time.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Got the product about a week ago, and works as advertised. I have a level 2 charger with max output of 15amps. The max that this "Quick 220" can handle is 16amps. You don't want to get a level 2 charger that will exceed 16 amps. Makes a big difference from the level 1 charger the car came with. It is about 3X faster in charging time.

It's exactly twice as fast, not 3x.

120 volts is doubled to 240 volts. Since virtually all 120 volt household outlets are on 15 amp circuits, don't pull more than 80% of that, or 12 amps while charging.

 

[wtzouris]

For $200 I would invest in a 240v dryer circuit or a long 240v extension cord -- something you could take with you afterwards. If you look hard enough, most houses have 240v wiring somewhere.

One of the two outlets has to be out of phase? If that is not the case, you might end up calling the electrician anyway because you have to re-wire one receptacle. Unless you are up for it. Too bad the box can't do the phase switch for you, automatically. Then it would be handy....... And how hot does this box get -- has anyone used it?

Getting a 240 volt outlet installed with a home run to your main panel isn't such a big deal, if you get an electrician to do it free-lance, takes about an hour or two. Just talk amperage and wire gauge and not "install a car charger". Tell them you are using a Welder or something industrial.

 

[bcurious]

So to do this, you'd need a portable level 2 EVSE, an input cable adapted to plug, the linked portable phase combiner device, extension cables of large enough gauge that are also long enough to reach two out-of-phase outlets...
Perhaps your portable EVSE and a JLong would be cheaper and less unwieldy?