Car charging, plus space heater, causes house electric circuit to trip?

[howardbc]

Something happened last night that hasn't happened in all the years before I bought my 2013 Fusion Energi last April. I had plugged my car into its 110/120v wall outlet and then turned on a space heater in my bathroom. I've used this exact same space heater for many years without incident but last night something caused the GFI switch in my house's electrical box to trip. I guess it was the combination of the car drawing amps plus the space heater drawing amps.

 

I am NOT an electrician, so I may be using incorrect terms. I just know this has never happened before and the only thing that has changed is the charging (since last April) of the FFE. I will try to remember to not plug in the car until AFTER I've used the space heater. 

 

I had another incident a couple weeks ago where a different space heater being used in a different room (during the day) also tripped a circuit. I don't remember if the car was left plugged in after being charged but it probably was. Should I unplug the car after it has charged? At least during the Winter? 

 

If I need to hire an electrician to upgrade my electric panel, what specifications do I need? Any feedback/help is much appreciated. Thanks.

[murphy]

Are the car and space heater on the same circuit?

The car should be on its own breaker.

 

Is the breaker for the bathroom a ground fault breaker or an arc fault breaker?

 

The heater probably has a thermostat with a bi-metallic temperature controlling element.  When that element opens there will probably be a spark (arc) that an arc fault breaker might detect and open the circuit.

 

The minimum panel these days is a 200 ampere panel with 200 ampere service from the power company.

 

How old is this house?  It sounds like my parents old house that was built in the 1920 era and had two fuses for the whole house.

My house, built in 1957, has 200 amp service with a 40 breaker panel.

[Russael]

Easiest way to tell if they're on the same circuit - when the breaker tripped, did your heater AND car lose power?  If so, same circuit and you can't run that much energy through those wires.  You can do one or the other, but not both at the same time.

 

Space heaters draw anywhere from 750w on low to around 1500w on high, if they're 120V heaters.  1500w @ 120 volts is a 12.5A draw.  Your car draws about the same (1300w, or about 11A).  Even if they were on a 20A circuit, 12.5 + 11 = 23.5A which exceeds your circuit rating.

 

New construction code, as of 2008 I believe, dictates that Arc fault breakers be used in all rooms except the kitchen.  I have no idea when your house was built, or if it's up to current code or not...  My home has 100A service with a 20 position panel.  My sub panel in the garage handles up to 100, but i'm only feeding it 50, and I also have GFCI breaker just for the charging station.  At the time I bought my house, Arc Fault breakers were not a requirement.

 

GFCI should trip if current is exceeded, OR, if it detects 5 milliamps of current on the ground wire.

 

Once your car has completed charging, you should be able to use your heater without incident.  Leaving the charger plugged in hardly draws anything if it isn't charging your car.  But if you remote start it or a Go Time activates while your heater is on, you'll be in the dark again. :)

Edited December 3, 2013 at 05:30 PM by Russael

[howardbc]

Thanks to everyone. My house was built in 1994 or 1995 so it is about 20 years old. 

 

Last night both the space heater in the bathroom AND the power in the garage went out at the same time, so obviously they are on the same circuit. When I went outside to the control panel, the switch that said "GFI" had tripped. I reset it and everything came back on. 

 

I was just re-reading my car's owner's manual. So it appears that the wall outlet in my garage should be able to handle 20amps. Also it says the line to my car should be dedicated and obviously it's not. Maybe if I just got that one line dedicated and at at least 20 amps I should be okay. Everything was fine all summer with my a/c units pulling a ton of amps, so this appears to only be a problem in the Winter with my space heater. 

 

I'll get an electrician to at least fix me a dedicated line for the car. I will want to get an L2 charger for that outlet eventually. In the mean time, I just have to remember to not plug in my car until the last minute before I go to bed.

 

Fortunately I have a very good and honest handyman who has done many small jobs for me for around 13 years. If I need a licensed electrician he will tell me that. 

 

Thanks again for all the help. You all are wonderful and it is much appreciated. 

[larryh]

You can also try Value Charge to delay charging until a specified time.  You can then plug the car in and charging will begin later. 

Edited December 3, 2013 at 08:13 PM by larryh

[howardbc]

Thanks, larryh. I tried to do the Value Charging thing several times and it didn't work. Plus when I tried to stop it I got an error message that it was still trying to charge, so it was just easier to manually plug it in at night when I needed it. I am always home in the evening so it is no problem to plug it in after 9PM. I'm having more solar panels installed on my roof in January and hope to then switch to an earlier time frame for my electric company.

 

I am waiting to hear back from my handyman about installing a dedicated line for the car. I'll have him also install an outlet than can handle an L2/240v charger. Then I need to go back to the posts about what kind of charger, etc. I know I read them but didn't pay much attention at the time. The 120v wall outlet is working fine. There's only been 1 instance in the 8 months I've had the car when I needed to go back out twice in one day and wished for an L2 charger, but I know I will eventually want one. Plus I expect to be buying a 100% EV in a few years when the batteries, ranges, and charging stations improve.  

[mdrevs]

I would guess that the outlet you are using in your garage is shared with the outlet outside of your house, as well as the one in the bathroom, putting all three outlets on GFI a circuit.  My house was built in 1995 and the bathroom shares the same GFI circuit as one of the outlets in the garage.  On the other side of that wall is an outdoor outlet.  Do you have any other outlets in your garage you can utilize?

[Gigi]

Look up.  Before getting a level 2 station, I plugged my 120v charger into the outlet on the garage ceiling for the garage door opener.  What I had in mind was that this had a good chance of being a different circuit from the outlet on the wall that has a refrigerator plugged into it. 

[howardbc]

Great advice, Gigi! I will mention the garage door opener to the person who will be investigating making the wall outlet a dedicated one for my FFE. Thanks. 

[SteveEnergi]

Don't get your hopes up, my garage door is on the same circuit as the lights and outlets.

 

I was tripping the breaker with my L2 and L1 charger until I had a dedicated 220 breaker put in and a line run into the garage..  I also had a 110 outlet put in using the same dedicated line, so I can charge using my L1 or L2 on a dedicated circuit,  however I'm not sure why I would ever use the 110 (supplied cord) at the house again; it's less efficient because of heat loss and takes longer to charge.

 

Steve

[Fat Fusion]

Steve just throw that factory cord in the trunk.  It's useless on anything other than the car so having it there at least gives you a shot at using it somehow someday.  

 

I now have a dedicated high voltage line going to a junction box about a foot away from the breaker panel where I have a 50 amp breaker.  I'm going to put my outdoor rated charger on a post right there.  I'm pretty excited, maybe I'll get it done before the year is out.

 

Andy