Lucid Combined Home Charging System Installation tips!

[msaunders9430]

@DeaneG I have a question for you. Others feel free to chime in.

Since I'm hopeful that my Gravity will be delivered this year, I'm trying to finalize installation of a LHCS.
I'm hoping the electrician I hire will know this information and possibly have installed an LHCS before.
Either, I still like to have a general understanding of how the installation should be done.
Especially the compression lugs I've read posts about members having issues with them.

In the LCHS Installation Guide, on p. 15, the electrical wiring information mentions input directions 1, 2, or 3 and opening a cap.

In a 2024 post, @coma24 shows pictures of their installation.
In the sixth picture in that post, it looks like they used input direction 1.

I am considering using input direction 2 (back entry).
However, In this post from 2022, you say "typically you'd bring in the wire through the backside of the LHCS in a case like this, though you'd have to use a hole saw to drill a 1-3/8" hole in its plastic housing, easy to damage the unit".
When you say "backside" do you mean input direction 2?

When I look at the picture in the guide, input 1 seems to have a pre-drilled hole; inputs 2 and 3 do not.

However, the guide directions say to "Choose the input direction 1, 2, or 3 and, open the cap".
If the input is a cap to be opened, why is drilling necessary?
I'm hoping to avoid damaging the charger, as you mentioned.

BTW, I also hope to use the back of the charger for the entry of an ethernet cable, using one of the grommets.
Related to that, why are there two holes for the ethernet grommet?

If there is something in the 200 posts in this thread before mine, please reference it.
If I'm asking something already asked here, I apologize. Two hundred threads is a lot to read through.

 

[DeaneG]

@DeaneG I have a question for you. Others feel free to chime in.

...When you say "backside" do you mean input direction 2?

...If the input is a cap to be opened, why is drilling necessary?

...Related to that, why are there two holes for the ethernet grommet?

Yes, the backside would be location 2.

There is a threaded hole and cap present only at location 1. The instruction text is incorrect. Most EVSEs are primarily designed for conduit entry from this direction, the bottom center, like @coma24 's photo. To ease future EVSE swaps, that's a good cable entry direction to use. Top entry (3) is pretty rare. Back entry (2) is less rare.

You'd need to drill into the plastic housing with a hole saw to use cable entry locations 2 or 3. The housing has a circular recess marking the drilling location. It looks like you could knock out the circular plastic with a hammer, but you can't without subjecting the unit to a huge shock. It's not difficult to drill with a hole saw, and electricians should be used to it. Many modern electrical mains-connected things are designed to be drilled this way to improve water resistance - no extra holes if they aren't needed.

I don't know why there are two holes for a smaller cable rather than just one. Maybe another low-voltage cable is needed for a future V2H functionality, or for some control and monitoring for some commercial application that the LCHCS guts were also designed to accommodate.

Make sure your electrician uses the correct hydraulic crimp tool for the compression lugs. Most electricians would just show up the day of the installation and then realize they aren't prepared.

Don't install any batteries in the battery holder. And do upper-body exercises for a few weeks before attempting to remove the outer cover.

Good luck!

 

[msaunders9430]

Yes, the backside would be location 2.

There is a threaded hole and cap present only at location 1. The instruction text is incorrect. Most EVSEs are primarily designed for conduit entry from this direction, the bottom center, like @coma24 's photo. To ease future EVSE swaps, that's a good cable entry direction to use. Top entry (3) is pretty rare. Back entry (2) is less rare.

You'd need to drill into the plastic housing with a hole saw to use cable entry locations 2 or 3. The housing has a circular recess marking the drilling location. It looks like you could knock out the circular plastic with a hammer, but you can't without subjecting the unit to a huge shock. It's not difficult to drill with a hole saw, and electricians should be used to it. Many modern electrical mains-connected things are designed to be drilled this way to improve water resistance - no extra holes if they aren't needed.

I don't know why there are two holes for a smaller cable rather than just one. Maybe another low-voltage cable is needed for a future V2H functionality, or for some control and monitoring for some commercial application that the LCHCS guts were also designed to accommodate.

Make sure your electrician uses the correct hydraulic crimp tool for the compression lugs. Most electricians would just show up the day of the installation and then realize they aren't prepared.

Don't install any batteries in the battery holder. And do upper-body exercises for a few weeks before attempting to remove the outer cover.

Good luck!

Got it.
Is there a certain type of hydraulic crimp tool that I could mention to the electrician?

I had an electrician from the company I'm using, come out last January, but I was planning to use a ChargePoint at that time. Since it's been over a year since the company's estimate, they are sending another electrician out next week.

 

[DeaneG]

...Is there a certain type of hydraulic crimp tool that I could mention to the electrician?...

Just make sure that he plans to use compression lugs, and brings the specific hand tool and die to crimp them. He can't use chair lugs.