Lucid Home Charger Plug

@DeaneG *

(See, this is why you keep me around)
@borski Correct and thanks. Strangely, when I previously hit @, names popped up - not now on my damn new iPad. But they do on the PC browser. Must be User error. Anyway, its @DeaneG fault, as I have told him several times to change his handle to DEAN-O - much easier to remember and rolls off the tongue (that was before your time @borski )
 
There's probably a good reason why you have a 14-30 outlet installed. There are a variety of adapters available but as the others have hinted ... you should understand and verify the existing installation can support the current draw. But more importantly, I also wouldn't mess with the provided cable ... it sets the current draw through the cable and WILL try to pull the 40 amps (ref the attached screenshot from the cable manual).

I also had a 14-30 outlet and opted to have an electrician re-do my wire run and replace my subpanel breaker before installing in industrial 14-50. It doesn't hurt to get a quote .... it may not be as much as you think for the peace of mind.
 

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You should find a new electrician. There are a number of misunderstandings here:

1) The continuous current that the Lucid charger can pull, at maximum, is 40 amps - on that you're correct, and that is what it says.

2) However, in order for it to pass electrical/fire code requirements, any continuous loads (like an EV charger) must be, at maximum, 80% of the breaker and wire. That is, a 40A continuous load must be on a 50A breaker and wire, as 40A is 80% of 50A. If you wanted to run it at 48A, you would need to hardwire an EVSE, and put it on a 60A breaker on 60A gauge wire, as 48A is 80% of 60A.

3) In order to run 50A wire, you need to use #6 AWG wire.

4) The "50" in 14-50 literally means 50A breaker and wire.

5) You should ensure your outlet is a commercial outlet, not a $15 Leviton or cheap Home Depot/Lowes outlet. EVs melt them. The $15 Leviton residential grade outlets sold at Home Depot are not sufficient to support daily vehicle charging. The Leviton outlet has fiberglass insulators that tend to melt out after a few months of vehicle charging. The outlets are not designed specifically for EV charging; they are designed for plugging in RVs and range ovens. Ranges will pull max power once in a while when we roast a turkey, but EV charging will be pulling maximum amperage for hours on end every night. For this heavy use, you want an industrial grade NEMA 14-50 outlet, by one of these three brands: Hubbell, Bryant, or Cooper. These use glass or ceramic insulators and should last 3-5 years before they, too, eventually need to be replaced. At $50 – $100, they are not cheap.

You should find a new electrician, ASAP, and make sure they're licensed.
Again thanks you for explaining the EV charger information to me. I will definitely look into it.
 
What you've linked to is an NEMA 14-50 plug, and you could. But there's very little reason why you'd want to.

The Lucid Home Charging Station has four DIP switches inside and they must be adjusted at installation time to match the breaker. There might be reasons not to go with the maximum, such as if you are replacing an outlet, and the wires are rated for less than the maximum, or you are adding wiring but a qualified electrician tells you that there's a maximum that your system can handle without more substantial work.

I used something like that cord for a Tesla wall connector, and it intentionally crippled it by limiting it to 40A on a 50A breaker. I did it because I already have a NEMA 14-50 outlet, and I wouldn't have installed an outlet for that purpose. And by crippled, it means that it will still charge my Tesla at its maximum rate but won't charge some other Teslas at their maximum rate, so I didn't really care. I could charge a Lucid with it with an adapter, but if I hard wired the same unit, meaning that I'd need a different breaker, different wiring, etc, then it would charge a Lucid faster. If I had had that wall unit before any wiring was done, I wouldn't have put in the outlet.

If you have something like a 14-50 outlet or dryer outlet already, and you think that there's no reasonable situation in which you'd need to add range faster (a dryer outlet could add up to 24 miles of range per hour, which would mean daily charging would take less than two hours per night for the average user) then it might be a reason to add a cord and set the unit for a lower amperage if you'd like to avoid a big electrical project. But if you are going to do that, you might as well buy something that plugs in in the first place. It will be about a third of the price.

Also, if you have an existing outlet such as a dryer outlet, you could also use a smart splitter, in which case something that plugs in would work. Again, the Lucid unit would be overkill in that case. The only UL listed smart splitter I know of is the NeoCharge, and it works for people who already have an outlet, have little chance of needing to charge two cars (or charge a car and run a dryer) at the same time, and want something that will dynamically switch off one outlet. But if you don't already have a suitable outlet, and don't plan to use the same outlet for some other purpose, then adding a power cord is a bad idea, especially if you are paying somebody to install it.

I would expect the installation costs to be higher if you had to pay somebody to add that cord and put in a 14-50 outlet, because the wires that go into the back of 14-50 outlet could just as easily go into the Lucid Home Charging station itself. So this idea would raise your costs, limit your capability, and have no advantage unless there's something that you didn't mention.
 
What you've linked to is an NEMA 14-50 plug, and you could. But there's very little reason why you'd want to.

The Lucid Home Charging Station has four DIP switches inside and they must be adjusted at installation time to match the breaker. There might be reasons not to go with the maximum, such as if you are replacing an outlet, and the wires are rated for less than the maximum, or you are adding wiring but a qualified electrician tells you that there's a maximum that your system can handle without more substantial work.

I used something like that cord for a Tesla wall connector, and it intentionally crippled it by limiting it to 40A on a 50A breaker. I did it because I already have a NEMA 14-50 outlet, and I wouldn't have installed an outlet for that purpose. And by crippled, it means that it will still charge my Tesla at its maximum rate but won't charge some other Teslas at their maximum rate, so I didn't really care. I could charge a Lucid with it with an adapter, but if I hard wired the same unit, meaning that I'd need a different breaker, different wiring, etc, then it would charge a Lucid faster. If I had had that wall unit before any wiring was done, I wouldn't have put in the outlet.

If you have something like a 14-50 outlet or dryer outlet already, and you think that there's no reasonable situation in which you'd need to add range faster (a dryer outlet could add up to 24 miles of range per hour, which would mean daily charging would take less than two hours per night for the average user) then it might be a reason to add a cord and set the unit for a lower amperage if you'd like to avoid a big electrical project. But if you are going to do that, you might as well buy something that plugs in in the first place. It will be about a third of the price.

Also, if you have an existing outlet such as a dryer outlet, you could also use a smart splitter, in which case something that plugs in would work. Again, the Lucid unit would be overkill in that case. The only UL listed smart splitter I know of is the NeoCharge, and it works for people who already have an outlet, have little chance of needing to charge two cars (or charge a car and run a dryer) at the same time, and want something that will dynamically switch off one outlet. But if you don't already have a suitable outlet, and don't plan to use the same outlet for some other purpose, then adding a power cord is a bad idea, especially if you are paying somebody to install it.

I would expect the installation costs to be higher if you had to pay somebody to add that cord and put in a 14-50 outlet, because the wires that go into the back of 14-50 outlet could just as easily go into the Lucid Home Charging station itself. So this idea would raise your costs, limit your capability, and have no advantage unless there's something that you didn't mention.

I appreciate all the information, but I am not a tech guy, so a lot of the info goes over my head. Let me try to explain what I did. I am using the charging cable that can with my GT Lucid. I had a license electrician put in NEMA 14-50 plug using #8 ga wire and a 40 amp breaker. He said he put in quite few EV station. I am not using a Lucid Home Charging station. I do not have electric dryer, it is gas. The Lucid is the only electric car I have. I do not travel far these days since my wife and I are over 80. But we are planning a trip to Las Vegas next month and Palm Springs. So we do not charge the car very ofter. But I am getting concern that what had done was not correct and might start a fire. Is there some I need do over?

 
I appreciate all the information, but I am not a tech guy, so a lot of the info goes over my head. Let me try to explain what I did. I am using the charging cable that can with my GT Lucid. I had a license electrician put in NEMA 14-50 plug using #8 ga wire and a 40 amp breaker. He said he put in quite few EV station. I am not using a Lucid Home Charging station. I do not have electric dryer, it is gas. The Lucid is the only electric car I have. I do not travel far these days since my wife and I are over 80. But we are planning a trip to Las Vegas next month and Palm Springs. So we do not charge the car very ofter. But I am getting concern that what had done was not correct and might start a fire. Is there some I need do over?
Where are you located? Maybe someone on the forum is nearby and can recommend an electrician that is more familiar with EV charging equipment.
 
I appreciate all the information, but I am not a tech guy, so a lot of the info goes over my head. Let me try to explain what I did. I am using the charging cable that can with my GT Lucid. I had a license electrician put in NEMA 14-50 plug using #8 ga wire and a 40 amp breaker. He said he put in quite few EV station. I am not using a Lucid Home Charging station. I do not have electric dryer, it is gas. The Lucid is the only electric car I have. I do not travel far these days since my wife and I are over 80. But we are planning a trip to Las Vegas next month and Palm Springs. So we do not charge the car very ofter. But I am getting concern that what had done was not correct and might start a fire. Is there some I need do over?

A 14-50 outlet should have a 50A breaker to deliver 40A continuous. The charging equipment that came with the car should meet your needs, but it will try to draw 40A. Gauge 6 wire and 50A breakers would be appropriate. A 40A breaker isn't dangerous since it won't let more power through than the wiring can handle, but you run the risk of tripping the breaker. I'm not an expert on how Lucid regulates charging, but I'd expect that if the car encounters anomalies while charging, it would step down the amperage on its own. Perhaps somebody else could comment on that. Lucid doesn't let you set the amperage for the session, and it if did, I'd recommend setting it to 32A.

If the run of wire is relatively short, 8 gauge should handle it but I'm not in a position to say that it would be safe to swap out the breakers. You wouldn't be the first to use gauge 8 with a 50A circuit, but you shouldn't be doing it because some random guy on the Internet said that it might work. It most likely should be gauge 6. If replacing it would be a matter of pulling wire through conduit, it might not be such a big thing to change, but whoever did the job should reimburse you. Or it might be too much of a headache to deal with that person, and time to move on.

If you are going to do most of your charging at home using the charging equipment that came with the car, having the appropriate wiring for the outlet and using a 14-50 outlet is fine. This is the type of thing that the building inspector should look at when they do the inspection to sign off on the building permit for installing the outlet, unless the person who installed it didn't get the required permit.

EDIT: One thing that occurred to me is that a number of years ago (2017 or perhaps earlier) Tesla switched the charging cable that came with their cars to one that's limited to 32A. So if most of his customers are driving Teslas and plugging one of those in, he might have been getting away with it because it wouldn't hurt them. That unit isn't going to draw more power than that, but the outlet is designed for 40A continuous draw and that wasn't accounted for.
 
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A 14-50 outlet should have a 50A breaker to deliver 40A continuous. The charging equipment that came with the car should meet your needs, but it will try to draw 40A. Gauge 6 wire and 50A breakers would be appropriate. A 40A breaker isn't dangerous since it won't let more power through than the wiring can handle, but you run the risk of tripping the breaker. I'm not an expert on how Lucid regulates charging, but I'd expect that if the car encounters anomalies while charging, it would step down the amperage on its own. Perhaps somebody else could comment on that. Lucid doesn't let you set the amperage for the session, and it if did, I'd recommend setting it to 32A.

If the run of wire is relatively short, 8 gauge should handle it but I'm not in a position to say that it would be safe to swap out the breakers. You wouldn't be the first to use gauge 8 with a 50A circuit, but you shouldn't be doing it because some random guy on the Internet said that it might work. It most likely should be gauge 6. If replacing it would be a matter of pulling wire through conduit, it might not be such a big thing to change, but whoever did the job should reimburse you. Or it might be too much of a headache to deal with that person, and time to move on.

If you are going to do most of your charging at home using the charging equipment that came with the car, having the appropriate wiring for the outlet and using a 14-50 outlet is fine. This is the type of thing that the building inspector should look at when they do the inspection to sign off on the building permit for installing the outlet, unless the person who installed it didn't get the required permit.

EDIT: One thing that occurred to me is that a number of years ago (2017 or perhaps earlier) Tesla switched the charging cable that came with their cars to one that's limited to 32A. So if most of his customers are driving Teslas and plugging one of those in, he might have been getting away with it because it wouldn't hurt them. That unit isn't going to draw more power than that, but the outlet is designed for 40A continuous draw and that wasn't accounted for.
The length of wire is no more than 7 feet.
 
hi guys, i have the neocharge smart splitter going into my dryer 14-30. how do we set the amperage on the Lucid or will it autosense and draw the current properly?
 
hi guys, i have the neocharge smart splitter going into my dryer 14-30. how do we set the amperage on the Lucid or will it autosense and draw the current properly?
If you're using the NEMA 14-30 charging adapter with the Ludid mobile charger, then it will know the amperage based on the adapter.
 
If you're using the NEMA 14-30 charging adapter with the Ludid mobile charger, then it will know the amperage based on the adapter.
The 14-30 adapter tells the mobile charger the level of maximum current it should tell the Lucid to draw (0.8 x 30 = 24 amps).
 
thanks guys, 24 amps is plenty for home charging for me. have many DC fast near me if I need the full juice.
 
thanks guys, 24 amps is plenty for home charging for me. have many DC fast near me if I need the full juice.
It's plenty for most people and is a good reminder that people with a dryer outlet might not need to do any rewiring or add any outlet at all. You should be able to add about 24 miles per hour plugged in, which is close to 200 overnight (more for people without TOU rates who aren't restricted to 11pm to 7am) and that's many times what most people drive on non-road trips. For road trips, it's a moot point, and even coming home after a road trip will mean plenty of charge the next day for normal activity. Except for back to back road trips, even if it takes another night to catch up for a standard charge, it will be fine for most people.

I have their 50A splitter and it works well. I originally used a single 14-50 outlet for two cars, alternating days, with no problems. The plan was to upgrade when I got a second EV, but since I never once ran into a problem with the temporary solution, it went on for years. The only real reason I need the splitter is that my wife doesn't like backing into the garage and the Lucid and Tesla have ports in different locations. That, and an adapter would make things awkward. So would plugging in and unplugging. So it's more a matter of differing ports, which is a problem that will go away for most people in the long term. Having to move a cable to different cars, on the other hand, is an issue and will be an issue unless the industry ever standardizes a port location.
 
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