Rivian home charger questions

[Mikebike97]

Hopefully, those more knowledgeable than myself about electrical wiring can help me.
When we first put in the Electrical charger for the our Nissan leaf, we installed a 14/50 outlet with max circuit breaker of 40 amps/ 8/3.
The Rivian charger seems to only use a ground and two hots.
My question is can we use the 10 gauge ground or pull the neutral and make it a ground in the subpanel?
2. Could I make a male 14/50 plug and only hook up the hots and ground to wire to the Rivian charger.
My last option is to sell the charger and stay with the basic charger we have now.
Note:
The grounds and neutrals in the subpanel float from each other.

Sponsored

 

[VSG]

You can hardwire your Rivian charger on the same circuit if you set the internal DIP switches to limit charging to 32 amps, which is the maximum your breaker and wiring will support. Remove the outlet and use the two hots and the ground that currently run to your 14-50 outlet and cap off the neutral on both ends. No need to put a plug on the Rivian charger - that only adds another point of failure. Best to hardwire it.

If you want to get the full 48 amps that the Rivian charger can deliver, you will have to replace the breaker and the wiring. For 48 amps continuous you need a 60 amp breaker and #6 THHN (not Romex) wire.

You may find that 32 amps from your present charger is good enough for your needs - that can add maybe 175 miles of range to your Rivian overnight, which is quite sufficient for most use cases. I suggest living with the charger you have for a few weeks before deciding whether you need to upgrade or not.

 

[Supratachophobia]

I think you forgot some info. Do you have a sub panel now or do you want to put one in?


You could run the 8/3 to a sub panel that either uses main lugs/main breaker. And then breaker off the charger on its own circuit. This gives you a local OCPD and technically allows you to keep the outlet. But you'd never be able to use them simultaneously.

 

[Dark-Fx]

10 awg copper ground wire is good up to 60A. 250.122. Shouldn't need to worry about the upsize rule in your particular application.

Neutral is probably best left disconnected and capped on both ends.

 

[Zoidz]

For conductors smaller than 4 AWG, you cannot use the white neutral wire as a ground and be NEC (National Electric Code) compliant. The NEC requires that a ground conductor is green the entire length. It is legit to use colored tape to repurpose wire, i.e. putting black tape on a white wire, but you cannot do that with grounds.


250.119 Identification of Equipment Grounding Conductors.

Unless required elsewhere in this Code, equipment grounding conductors shall be permitted to be bare, covered, or insulated. Individually covered or insulated equipment grounding conductors shall have a continuous outer finish that is either green or green with one or more yellow stripes except as permitted in this section.

 

[Aag12]

What's the point os capping the netrual on both ends? Anyone k ow if that's code?

I converted a nema 14-50 outlet to hardwire and only capped the neutral at the evse side.

 

[VSG]

Cap on both sides is just good practice because, on the EVSE side, you (or the next person to own the property or work on that circuit) have no way of knowing where the wire goes and whether it's live or not. Fewer things can go wrong if that wire is capped off on both sides. And the point of electrical codes is to reduce chances for problems, even if those chances are tiny.

 

[hiker816]

I had a related question and started a thread about it here:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/wiring-rivian-charger-into-dryer-circuit.19448/

@Zoidz , does that prohibition on colored tape on the neutral apply in all jurisdictions? I am by no means an electrician, but when I looked up the code where I live, it looked like you can color a white neutral green at all access points to indicate a ground, and a few electricians bidding on my charger install said the same.

 

[Zoidz]

I had a related question and started a thread about it here:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/wiring-rivian-charger-into-dryer-circuit.19448/

@Zoidz , does that prohibition on colored tape on the neutral apply in all jurisdictions? I am by no means an electrician, but when I looked up the code where I live, it looked like you can color a white neutral green at all access points to indicate a ground, and a few electricians bidding on my charger install said the same.

The local municipality usually adopts a national code such as NEC to make it easy, as opposed to writing their own codes. Some very rural municipalities don't have a codes department, so it usually defaults to a standard established at higher levels (county or state). But in the end, whatever code your municpality adopts is what they should be enforcing. Note that this section of NEC has been revised multiple times over the the past releases of NEC. I'm referring to 2023 NEC. I have seen where municipalities adopt a particular release of NEC and don't adopt later versions, creating confusion. Check out this link to see the patchwork of versions adopted by state. ALabama is still on NEC 2014!

I work the NEC in industrial environments so my previous comment was specific to individual conductors in conduit, we do not use Romex. If the electrician was specifying Romex, it is permissible to relabel the white wire with tape.

Identifying the wire at all access points is permissibile by NEC IF the wire is #4 or larger (#2, #0, etc.) per 250.119(B) OR if it is multiconductor cable, such as Romex per 250.119(C3). This is where assumptions/confusion can come in as to when it is permitted.

Section 250.119(B) Conductors Size N° 4 AWG and Larger

These conductors must comply with the following rules:

• If the insulation does not comply with Section 250.119(A) during the installation process, identify the conductor permanently as an equipment grounding conductor at both ends and all accessible places.

Conductors may be of any color, and correct identification pertains.

Section 250.119(C) Multiconductor Cable
One or more insulated conductors in a multiconductor cable, at the time of installation, shall be permitted to be permanently identified as equipment grounding conductors at each end and at every point where the conductors are accessible by one of the following means:

1. Stripping the insulation from the entire exposed length.
2. Coloring the exposed insulation green.
3. Marking the exposed insulation with green tape or green adhesive labels. Identification shall encircle the conductor.

 

[Mikebike97]

I think you forgot some info. Do you have a sub panel now or do you want to put one in?


You could run the 8/3 to a sub panel that either uses main lugs/main breaker. And then breaker off the charger on its own circuit. This gives you a local OCPD and technically allows you to keep the outlet. But you'd never be able to use them simultaneously.

The sub panel was installed a few years ago.
Thanks

Sponsored