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Chevy Spark EV Forum

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Well, to nit pick, EVSE are a logic board and a big relay to supply wall power to the car. The relay is closed or open.

It cannot control the power going through it. It sends a pilot signal the the car's onboard charger telling it to only draw X amount of power.

This is 3.3kW for the Spark EV.


For example: I have a kit built JuiceBox that I used for my Volt (3.3kW). The JB has a pot in there for adjusting the pilot signal to the car. I never touched it because all I had was the Volt and the wiring I used was adequate for 15A @ 240V.

I got a 4 day test drive in a BMW i3 which charges at 6.6kW. So before plugging in the i3 I had a clamp-on ammeter on the input side of the L2 and a small screw driver ready to adjust the pilot signal pot.

When I plugged the car in I saw a big number and immediately fumbled to turn down the pot screw. I brought it down to 13.75 A which is what the Volt would draw. 240V x 13.75A = 3300 watts.

If I hadn't set the pilot signal,, bad things to my house wiring might have happened before the circuit breaker popped.


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