Porsche Wall Charger Connect - Green Wire

[Dale T]

My wife had purchased this charger but I am seeing a loose green wire. I can't find any reference to where it goes. Can anyone help me out?

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[IanG]

I think that would be a ground wire, but I'm not seeing where it would connect to - maybe inside a junction box?

 

[Jhenson29]

I’m pretty sure it goes where you have the neutral and you don’t need the neutral.

It took me about 30 seconds to find this, and frankly, I was 99% sure without even checking, because that’s just what ground terminals typically look like. You might want to get an electrician involved here to check the rest of your work. You don’t know what you don’t know.

 

[Dale T]

I’m pretty sure it goes where you have the neutral and you don’t need the neutral.

It took me about 30 seconds to find this, and frankly, I was 99% sure without even checking, because that’s just what ground terminals typically look like. You might want to get an electrician involved here to check the rest of your work. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Yeah, I saw that as well. But there was nothing about a loose wire or green wire. I did have an electrician who got us power to the garage. He looked at it but he had never done a Porsche Charger before and he thought there might be something missing. But he didn't know. I called the Porsche Dealer (unfortunately we bought the car and charger in another state) and their charger guy flipped me attitude them moment I mentioned another electrician.

 

[Jhenson29]

Yeah, I saw that as well. But there was nothing about a loose wire or green wire. I did have an electrician who got us power to the garage. He looked at it but he had never done a Porsche Charger before and he thought there might be something missing. But he didn't know. I called the Porsche Dealer (unfortunately we bought the car and charger in another state) and their charger guy flipped me attitude them moment I mentioned another electrician.

Ok, well you need a new electrician.

The instructions are pretty clear. Either 120VAC or 240VAC on terminals 1 and 2. Ground on terminal 3.

Red and black are supposed to be the hot wires. White is supposed to be neutral (which you don’t need) and green is ground.

You have an extra wire because you have the wrong cable. But white is the extra wire. Not green. It’s just hooked up wrong.

 

[daveo4EV]

Ok, well you need a new electrician.

The instructions are pretty clear. Either 120VAC or 240VAC on terminals 1 and 2. Ground on terminal 3.

Red and black are supposed to be the hot wires. White is supposed to be neutral (which you don’t need) and green is ground.

You have an extra wire because you have the wrong cable. But white is the extra wire. Not green. It’s just hooked up wrong.

I agree new electrician - but honestly neutral is normally also ground in many setups - so it won't make a difference, but it would be best practice to to use the green for ground vs. neutral which commonly shares ground.

 

[Jhenson29]

It sounds like maybe you bought this used and the cable came with it? That cable didn’t come with it new.

 

[Jhenson29]

I agree new electrician - but honestly neutral is normally also ground in many setups - so it won't make a difference, but it would be best practice to to use the green for ground vs. neutral which commonly shares ground.

Neutral may be grounded, but it’s not a ground. It’s a current carrying conductor and may pass current through devices if they become inadvertently grounded in another manner (including people; ask me how I know). Ground is potential free (relative to….you know…ground).

In any case, it makes no sense to connect a neutral instead of a ground there.

 

[xyeahtony]

Like everyone said, green wire is ground. Its pretty basic knowledge for any electrician, so the guy you hired is a moron IMO. Looks like he hooked up the neutral wire (which is not used) to the ground terminal. You shouldn't even have a neutral wire on your incoming feed. EV chargers don't use neutral, just 2 hots and a ground.

 

[DougFrisk]

I'd just written out a long answer, but the question I need answered is what's on the other end of that cable bundle? Is it connected to a plug, or are the wires just hanging loose?

The Porsche wall charger uses a 3 wire connection with two hot wires and a ground. Generally speaking, the green wire should be connected where the white wire is and the white wire shouldn't be connected to anything. It should be capped with a wire nut though.

 

[Jhenson29]

I'd just written out a long answer, but the question I need answered is what's on the other end of that cable bundle? Is it connected to a plug, or are the wires just hanging loose?

Or…are they connected, but wrong, like they are on this end? ?

 

[DougFrisk]

Or…are they connected, but wrong, like they are on this end? ?

I wrote out a couple of paragraphs about why neutral and ground are bonded at the service connection/main panel but it's bad to mix them up at sub-panels or outlets. I realized I was getting way off into the weeds.

If the cord is connected to a 14-50 plug, it will probably work. If everything is correct in the wiring for a house, neutral and ground are functionally identical. But because you should assume that not everything is correct or that a failure could occur at a later date, doing it right is the right thing to do.

If it is connected to a plug and all 4 wires at the plug are connected correctly, swapping the white and green wire in the charger is the right thing to do. If it's wired incorrectly and the green wire is not connected on either end with the white wire connected to the ground pin at the plug then maybe just let it slide.

If the other end it's not connected to anything at the moment, then definitely swap the green and white wire and do the other end correctly.

If it's going back to a subpanel or junction box of some sort I wouldn't want to make any comment without knowing a lot more than I do from those photos.

 

[Jhenson29]

I wrote out a couple of paragraphs about why neutral and ground are bonded at the service connection/main panel but it's bad to mix them up at sub-panels or outlets. I realized I was getting way off into the weeds.

If the cord is connected to a 14-50 plug, it will probably work. If everything is correct in the wiring for a house, neutral and ground are functionally identical. But because you should assume that not everything is correct or that a failure could occur at a later date, doing it right is the right thing to do.

If it is connected to a plug and all 4 wires at the plug are connected correctly, swapping the white and green wire in the charger is the right thing to do. If it's wired incorrectly and the green wire is not connected on either end with the white wire connected to the ground pin at the plug then maybe just let it slide.

If the other end it's not connected to anything at the moment, then definitely swap the green and white wire and do the other end correctly.

If it's going back to a subpanel or junction box of some sort I wouldn't want to make any comment without knowing a lot more than I do from those photos.

That’s the whole thing though. It’ll work if you make assumptions about the rest of the system because what you’d effectively have is a white ground wire (not a neutral as ground). If would be a single wire running back to a grounded point. It’s just white.

But, if I saw those 4 colored wires going into that EVSE box and didn’t know anything else, I’d assume white is a neutral and green is a ground (especially if I saw them connected that way back in the panel). And I’d be wrong. So, there’s assumptions for ya’.

I’ve been doing electrical work for 20 years. It’s hard enough when things are connected properly. Let’s not make it worse.

Of course, my point of view is colored because I’m always involved in new startups where the wiring hasn’t been verified yet (and is often wrong) or problems/troubleshooting where, again, something is wrong.

No one is ever like “hey this system is working great; can you just come out and stare at it for 12 hours?”

I had a 600kcmil ground wire scratch the paint and arc to a drive cabinet earlier this year. I still don’t know for sure what caused that. Cabinet supply was locked out because the cabinet was being replaced.

Wire:

Arc location: (I had already wiped the soot away)

This was fairly small, but it for sure popped and flashed and was not expected…

 

[Nalayak]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's for ground. By the way what gauge wire are you using?

 

[Dale T]

It sounds like maybe you bought this used and the cable came with it? That cable didn’t come with it new.

Nope we bought it brand new from he dealer. Sat in box for 6 months as we knew we were moving to a new state. Now it's been a year since we bought it.

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