"yet Marty's volt is drawing 16A
my volt draws around 14-15A"
Hi again,
Well what we did was the sparky was here to tag a brickies hoist in a contruction area, so we asked him to wire up a 20 amp circuit, single phase, and attach a meter, then plug in the Clipper Creek.
It started at 14.5 amps, but he said he had to go work on the construction site, so every now and then I would go and check his meter, and it moved up to 16 amps over time. He said the draw may vary, but I didnt watch it consistently for two hours while it took approx 2.7 kw per hour to charge up. I unplugged it after an hour, and it was showing 16 amps at that point, then I plugged it back in, came back and hour later and it was fully charged. No faults showing on either the Volt, or the EVSE from Clipper Creek.
When it was fully charged, I had to go to a meeting , so after that , drove back and plugged in again using the Clipper Creek, and then it only charged at 15 amps (maybe because I was only "topping up" ) It still had nearly a full charge in it.
Saw the link at showing 15 amps at a "Charge Spot" , however on a couple of pages of Clipper Creek (which is what we are basically talking about) it specifies 16 amps (Which is what our tests show , using a meter, and the Clipper Creek, on a 20 amp circuit (single phase), plugged into our Volt)
References for Clipper Creek model 20 showing it requires 20 amp circuit, and draws 16 amps, are on page 13 of the following link.. as tested by Clipper Creek.
Here is the link....
20 amp CB, 16 amps Draw, Clipper Creek LCS -20 ...please scroll down to page 13...
So clearly, from our tests, it shows that the Holden Volt draws 16 amps at times, using the Clipper Creek.
As the Holden Volt is supposed to support 3.3 kw charging
See this media release from Holden here
Holden Volt 3.3 kw under 4 hrs charging dedicated Circuit
then maybe it is ok with 16 amps? (This part is a bit more technical than I can understand at this point without further study) .
However, as Clipper Creek recommends a 20 amp circuit, and I am interested in low cost charging infrastructure for Imievs, leafs and Volts, at different point of the motoring highways, I would be recommending to users , that they plug into a 20 amp , not a 15 amp, based on our tests and Clipper Creeks. (This is assuming they were using a Clipper Creek LCS 20 on a Volt eg. )
If say , with the Motel I am currently working at, we provided a 20 amp dedicated circuit for people to charge for free, I am hoping that we could plug in either a Volt, an Imiev, a Leaf, or any Aeva members conversions, without tripping our rcd 20 amp single phase dedicated circuit, then that would be a great result for us!
I currently only have influence on deciding what to provide EV charging wise, here at work, for another 2 weeks. Then my job moves me to another Company. So no more "bending budget" here any more!
If someone turned up in a basic Volt with 6 amps or 10 amp charging, we have an outlet for that . But we see BEV's becoming more mainstream, and want to be able to provide a service for others as well, without spending thousands on very expensive infastrucure.
Lower Cost charging infrastructure is the best way of spreading charge points more rapidly, in Australia, at this point of EV adoption in OZ, in my humble opinion. Others may differ in opinion of course