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Given what's in this, why are EVSEs so expensive? Given the quantities we see, the $150 range should be more than enough for a decent profit.
Given what's in this, why are EVSEs so expensive? Given the quantities we see, the $150 range should be more than enough for a decent profit.
More like a DIY arson investigation. You might not only burn down your house, but also get in trouble with the law and not receive compensation from your property insurance company. This is a horrendous idea. Just do basically anything else DIY besides high current/voltage electronics.
Page is hugged to death right now but I strongly disagree with parent. I'm an EE and I'm quite familiar with the National Electric Code. I build high current/voltage devices and I've wired two houses (both of which passed inspection). If you're trained, experienced, and generally know what you're doing there's nothing wrong with working on high power electronics.
I'm disappointed at the anti-DIY sentiments here, it's this safety obsessed mentality that got us to where kids can't walk outside by themselves any longer. The box in that guy's build is outside and could probably burn to a crisp without hurting anything else. I suspect it would not hurt anything even inside a garage, other than making a lot of smoke and setting off smoke detectors.
All the no-name $6 extension cords from Amazon that we have in our homes are far more likely to burn your place down than this project. It's surprising that we have such cavalier attitudes when it comes to our own field, but so much fear and magical thinking about the power of government oversight when it comes to everything else...
You must be new to HN. Let me introduce you to the two types of comments:
1) The problem I am responding to does not involve software. The people in that industry must not be competent. Therefore, the solution is more government regulation.
2) The problem I am responding to involves software. Everyone in my industry is highly competent and moral! Therefore, let the free markets operate and the problem will automatically disappear.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us here are actually Engineers (Electrical). I’ve installed 3x 240V 60A EV chargers, was a cakewalk. I didn’t build my own in this case since I was going for an aesthetic match. Meanwhile you can enjoy paying some alcoholic $1000 for 30 minutes of work to: * pop out a hole on the back * Tap and install 2x screws into studs * pull 3 wires 6” through, wrap around the strain relief, strip/insert/torque * flip a…
I've hired enough licensed, bonded, certified, well-recommended, well-reviewed professionals who completely botched the jobs* to agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment. You can't hire someone without thoroughly understanding what they're doing, and once you reach that level of understanding, you absolutely can make an intelligent decision whether to buy or build. At the point where my house burns down, I really don…
So in case of lightning strike (which is pretty much a given) that would invite that lightning into your home right at the distribution panel. People may be following 'the code' but that doesn't mean they actually understand what they are doing. He wouldn't take responsibility for it, I asked him to put it in writing as an instruction and sign off on it so I could pass it to my insurance company. That never happened...
I'm disappointed at the anti-DIY sentiments here, it's this safety obsessed mentality that got us to where kids can't walk outside by themselves any longer. The box in that guy's build is outside and could probably burn to a crisp without hurting anything else. I suspect it would not hurt anything even inside a garage, other than making a lot of smoke and setting off smoke detectors.
Don't DIY what you can buy.
Doing & making things (within reason) is the essence of human experience. Buying all the things is the essence of consumerism.
Given what's in this, why are EVSEs so expensive? Given the quantities we see, the $150 range should be more than enough for a decent profit.
I see $200 evse’s on amazon nowadays. Only 32 amps tho. As to why they are so expensive one has to keep in mind these are inherently dangerous so they do not buy the cheapest parts, they have to go through a longish federal approval process and the companies probably have higher insurance costs.
We hope. I don't trust anything being sold on Amazon or any other such website known for scams, knockoffs, and otherwise shite products being passed for legit. I'm less concerned about the price of the components vs the quality of the components. You can have cheap quality but a high price just to fool people that expensive is good.
I'm disappointed at the anti-DIY sentiments here, it's this safety obsessed mentality that got us to where kids can't walk outside by themselves any longer. The box in that guy's build is outside and could probably burn to a crisp without hurting anything else. I suspect it would not hurt anything even inside a garage, other than making a lot of smoke and setting off smoke detectors.
>I'm disappointed at the anti-DIY sentiment How would you feel about a "DIY House Circuit Breakers" project? This is essentially the equivalent. Total insanity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
TBH I’m less concerned about dangerousness… but the costs listed are so much, whereas commercial EVSEs are so cheap. You can buy a 40A 240V capable EVSE for like $200-300. The OP says they bought the cable for $120… why not just have the rest of it for a small additional cost?
It is surprising to see this question on HN. We regularly see Show HN projects that cost tens of thousands of dollars in time (assuming a typical software engineering hourly rate), but that aren't all that innovative compared to existing options. And we love those projects. Why would DIY effort outside the software domain be any different?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Supply and demand. See also $40 HDMI cables at Best Buy.
I'm not sure I buy this. If someone can hack this together for $40 HDMI cables are an option (albeit a terrible one). For EVSEs, there really isn't a reasonably-priced alternative on the market right now.
Just some things to keep in mind