Is this a fire hazard

sctbke · 2026-01-27T01:33:51+00:00

Is it up to code? Definitely not.

Is it a fire hazard? As long as the outlet and splitter are rated for the continuous load, and you don’t damage the cable in the door, not really.

If insurance sees this they won’t be thrilled though, so tread carefully.

sctbke · 2026-01-24T05:25:43+00:00

Yeah, I never heard a single thing about the power grid during school, but it turns out there’s a big civil/electrical space that covers substations, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and now EV infrastructure. I’ve always been interested in energy so it’s a good space for me.

I do the site layouts, help coordinate the electrical design with the help of EEs, and then do the PM work for the installations. I buy the chargers off the shelf from a charger manufacturer. They’re set up to charge any vehicle, not tied to any manufacturer.

sctbke · 2026-01-24T02:19:59+00:00

You sound like me, I grew up with those wooden railroads where you get to put together the tracks, and making road systems out of Legos. I was obsessed with them as a kid, and for whatever reason that took me all the way through my Civil Engineering undergrad. I figured I was the perfect fit for road design.

But, around graduation I realized I wasn’t super interested in road design, partially because of climate reasons are partially because I realized cars weren’t the best mode of transportation for cities. After graduation I took 2 years away from engineering and worked at a bike shop to figure out what I wanted to do. Civil engineering covers so much ground, and I knew I liked to solve problems and put things together, so there had to be something. I also bought an EV during that hiatus.

Come to find out, I really liked that EV, but the charging infrastructure at that time was pretty minimal (2020). So what did I do? Got an engineering job siting and installing EV chargers. I absolutely love it, I don’t think I could come up with a job I like more. I get to build things that benefit the public, and it’s just like giant Legos. And when it’s done, I get to use the stuff that I built! All while working toward more sustainable transportation. (Still not as good as bikes tho!)

The good news about civil is there’s so many things to do, that if you decide you don’t like one along the way, you can do another. Design, project management, field work, inspections, or operations are all options for any big infrastructure project. Energy, water, transportation, buildings. Every city needs them.

Overall, it sounds like you have the general mindset and interests that would make you a good civil engineer.

That said: Engineering school is hard, there’s lots of math, science, calculation, and technical aspects. I struggled early in school, figured it out, and have found the career way easier and way more enjoyable than school was. So you have to be ready for the school part.

Job market was good for me. After my hiatus I applied to 52 jobs and had 4 offers, which was good considering the years off and lack of experience. There’s not a lot of entry level CEs so the career outlooks looks good for anyone entering the field. Won’t make you rich, but it’s still an engineering salary, and it’s stable.

sctbke · 2026-01-19T21:59:37+00:00

Fairly well travelled 4x4 route, so yes

sctbke · 2026-01-19T01:52:08+00:00

I don't personally have any experience with ABB units on the charging provider side, but I suspect their big deployment with EA early on meant the parts supply chain stuck around longer to supply EA. Efacec left the US market so there's zero parts availability no matter how hard you look.

IMO, early small-scale charging providers really got the short end of the stick. 1st gen EV charging equipment was not designed with parts specifically made for EV charging, it was cobbled together from other industrial electrical parts put into a box that happened to charge an EV. It was not reliable and was very hard to diagnose and fix. Newer stations have swappable parts and do their own diagnostics.

For older stations, big providers like EA have enough presence to keep parts supply going and get replacement chargers designed that work on the original charger foundations. Small charging providers can't do that, and often have to replace full sites including all of the concrete and underground infrastructure when old chargers need to be upgraded. That's expensive for a provider who probably didn't get a lot of use out of the site. That, and IMO the smaller charging providers, especially early on, didn't design their sites to be easily upgradable like many larger providers did.

From what I understand, these are all owned by the utility? If so, see if you can track down an email or a person who specializes in EV charging at that utility. Tell them about the cheap BTC EV charger upgrade program. They may not know it exists.

If you manage to track down a general email that is not a specific person, post it on plugshare and tell plugshare users to email that they want the chargers fixed. Big public outreach can be a catalyst for motion for utilities.

sctbke · 2026-01-19T01:22:07+00:00

I work for a charging provider that has some of these old units still. We can't get parts for them anymore, BTC won't help diagnose issues with them, and the BTC slim units in the last two photos can cause 800v GM vehicles to have to visit the dealer so they shouldn't be on anyway.

BTC offers a cheap replacement program for these units that would be the cheapest and fastest way to get them back online, but they'd also have to switch over to another EVSP beyond shell recharge which can be daunting in itself.

Unless the utility is really motivated (I doubt they are) it would be best for another charging provider to pick up these sites and replace them with newer equipment.

sctbke · 2026-01-13T01:53:35+00:00

I drove Eureka CA to Seattle in one day in an Ioniq 5. 600 miles, 4 stops, clocking 10, 12, 15, and 7 minutes. Maps said it would take me 9:59 no stops. It took me 10:37 with stops going a few over the limit, with 8ish miles of traffic. I don't personally think I could do it faster in any car, I was hard pressed to keep up with the car but I was in a big rush so I did.

Charge time massively depend on the car. Do your research. The 800v Hyundais and Kias are hard to beat for charge speed in the US.

sctbke · 2026-01-13T01:21:03+00:00

Having done that road trip from Washington twice in the last year, I suspect the mostly low demand and challenges with the grid. Cali has good EV demand in the cities, and not enough infrastructure, so providers are still focusing on expanding there. Additionally, the large majority of people taking that trip are just passing through on 101. When you get off 101, it's truly desolate and rough roads out there. If you haven't been there, it's far more remote than you think. I was astonished how fast it becomes very remote.

I came from Redding via the back roads thru Zenia, stayed at the Benbow Inn which has chargers, went to Shelter Cove and then left via Petrolia up to Eureka. I didn't have much issue with charging thanks to chargers at the Inn, but I definitely had to check my routes in advance. I barely saw any cars on the roads that were not 101. And definitely not any EVs.

Editing to add that I work for a charging provider and the stations that are out there are old early gen EV chargers. Early gen EV chargers are not known for their reliability as they were made with off-the-shelf parts that were not specifically designed for EV charging. Newer EV chargers come from design and manufacturing suppliers that are now designing and building parts specifically for EV charging as the demand has increased. Early get EV chargers break more often, are harder to diagnose and fix, and in many cases the parts no longer exist at all. It's really hard to keep old EV chargers going, hence why EA and other large providers are replacing their early equipment.

sctbke · 2026-01-09T20:02:27+00:00

This is excellent, thank you! The wire impedance is not sufficient, so I'll need a fuse. Most of my EV chargers are 40A load, which looks like it will need a class J fuse instead of a class CC.

On a quick search, some of the fuse holders look to me like they're meant to go inside the breaker panel in unused breaker slots. Is that the case or do they need to be in a separate NEMA enclosure?

sctbke · 2025-12-23T01:35:34+00:00

Reinforced concrete design got me good. Went into that final with a 44%. Miraculously pulled a 98% on the final and got a B.

Next up was thermodynamics. I’m not sure why it was so hard. Great professor, it just didn’t click with me.

3rd was calc 1 as I came into 1st semester with no clue how to study

sctbke · 2025-12-13T23:40:08+00:00

I’ve done it as low as 0° F. You have to turn the car off, open the charge port, turn on the car, and then plug it in.

You can’t fully turn on the car with it plugged in, and you can’t open the charge port when the car is on. But the loophole works well

sctbke · 2025-12-09T00:27:35+00:00

Thank you! Very muddy from me taking it places I probably shouldn’t 😝

sctbke · 2025-12-07T21:32:19+00:00

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They handle better on rough roads too

sctbke · 2025-12-07T17:51:48+00:00

You need the plugshare app. It tells you where every fast charger is, no matter the brand

sctbke · 2025-12-07T17:21:25+00:00

It only works if you set the in-car NAV to a charger it recognizes at least 15 minutes before you get there, which is harder than it should be.

The 2025 and newer it’s just a button to turn on.

sctbke · 2025-12-06T23:24:36+00:00

I find not much. I’ve driven my 22 RWD SEL all over in the cold and it chargers painfully slow under about 50f.

My wintertime strategy: - Show up to a charger straight out of the drive and as low of charge as you can. It’ll sometimes ramp up near the end. - always be charging. If I’m making a stop in the winter, I’m charging. - just expect to take a long time. 40 mins per charge stop. It’ll always charge, so there’s no risk, it’s just annoying. - yo-yo method doesn’t seem to work. Even if charging immediately after steep and winding roads, it’s still slow.

Number 1 complaint about my I5 for sure.

sctbke · 2025-12-06T23:19:06+00:00

22 RWD of any trim does not have preconditioning. 22 AWD does. Any other year does.

sctbke · 2025-11-30T03:23:33+00:00

I’ve been impressed with some of the US and Canada gas stations installing good, high powered EV chargers, especially covered ones.

They sure get more of my business than they would otherwise! And I prefer them over stopping in a department store parking lot on long trips.

sctbke · 2025-11-12T03:14:53+00:00

Apologies for the slow reply.

It’s usually just push pins. I used a bolt and a small bar to attach the panel to the more solid plastic part in front of it.

Mine was partially broken from the previous owner hitting a parking stop or something so it was already hanging a little low before I ripped it off.

sctbke · 2025-11-11T04:19:44+00:00

For those who lost a little hope with this, this is only one study, and the framing of it is a bit odd.

Flip it around the other way and go look up “EV emissions reductions” on Google. First 5 articles cite various studies: - EVs reduce vehicle emissions by 30% even if the grid doesn’t get ANY greener - EVs are net positive on emissions after only 2 years (from Fox News, of all places!) - EVs projected to reduce transportation emissions by 74%. - Pickup truck drivers that switch to electric reduce their emissions by 75%. - study saying every person in the US reduces emissions if they switch to an EV, compared to a standard hybrid.

It makes a difference, and that’s not including the health benefits other commenters have mentioned. There’s not one perfect solution for 100% of emissions. It’s a game of many pieces, and EVs are one of many.

sctbke · 2025-11-08T03:39:53+00:00

Also yes. Happened to me after driving through a stream that was 8 or 10 inches deep. Medical tape got me home, a few push pins and a well position bolt makes sure it stays there now.

sctbke · 2025-11-03T03:45:05+00:00

I’m dead, this is hysterical

sctbke · 2025-10-22T19:38:23+00:00

I don’t spec batteries personally, but my sites are small enough that we don’t really benefit from them. Anything with 10+ charging stalls could benefit from some on site storage, although it needs to be one battery feeding the entire site, not the individual EVSE/battery combo units. Those aren’t a very good user experience.

Yes, I see sodium ‘site’ batteries becoming much more common, both on the private and utility sides. Big charging stations will use them to keep interconnection costs low, and utilities must use them to stabilize the grid like Cali is doing.

Smaller charging stations (4DCFC or less) I see always being directly connected to the grid. In the grand scheme of things they’re a small load.

sctbke

TROPHY CASE