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[Crissa]

My bike is three stories below my house in off-street parking.  I currently have it on a 10ga 100' extension cable that I have routed along the old (and very straight and now unused) garden stair railing.  It doesn't get much if any direct sunlight.  The problems of living in the woods!

I just assembled this... It's my charging cable solution v1.

It's a 30a NEMA plug (which can plug into my generator or my house) on a 100' outdoor-rated four-conduit 10ga cable, with a 277v 20a 2P2T arc-resist switch in an IP65 box to a 10' 12ga guitar-amp cable.

I'm kinda nervous since I've never wired anything two-phase before that wasn't inside a radio.  I'm testing it all for continuity.  My house supposely already has the proper four-wire wiring to a 30a double-breaker tho the outlet was some sort of weird old standard for driers I don't know that anyone actually used.  But this should technically be safer, since it'll be lower amperage. ^-^

-Crissa

[Curt]

Sounds good, 10ga 100' carrying 1300W would drop a negligible 1.1V (0.5%).

In most places, code would require running the unburied cable in a conduit, but you're probably not in one of those places, and it's arguably just an extension cord.

Definitely use a GFCI 30A breaker instead of a regular breaker in the electrical panel to avoid any worst case scenario.

[Crissa]

I don't know if a ground-fault interrupter works with a circuit that the return is on the ground.  (Which is apparently how the 220v is supposed to be wired).

It's just an extension cord, officer

-Crissa

[Crissa]

Here's some close ups of it in action.  I'm only allowed to have a temporary structure in my parking area, so the bikes are in a tent.  I haven't stitched the roof yet, so this winter it's just a tarp held over the ribs.  I ziptied the enclosure to a spar and have the cables hanging in drip loops.  There's enough that it won't drip down into my bike, no matter where I park it inside.  Also visible:  To make sure there's no drips, there's also a brooder lamp with a ceramic IR emitter for a low power evaporation solution.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

I don't know if a ground-fault interrupter works with a circuit that the return is on the ground.  (Which is apparently how the 220v is supposed to be wired).

The 240VAC outlet is 120VAC-Neutral-120VAC (old way, such as an old 3 prong clothes  drier  outlet). The neutral is grounded somewhere (most likely) , but is not really the return, the neutral is the return for either 120 VAC leg of the 240 VAC. The 240 is from 120 VAC to the other 120 VAC line. The neutral is the center tap of your house transformer (perhaps up on a pole where the AC comes into your house), only required for 120 VAC. If you have something that needs 240 VAC, and no 120 VAC required, no need for the neutral at all.

The newer 240 VAC outlets are 120VAC-Neutral-120VAC and a separate ground (newer 4 prong clothes drier outlet or several others, such as  a NEMA 14-50). The ground is not ever supposed to be a return for anything. On these the neutral and ground are on separate prongs of the outlet. The ground is for safety, to connect to the frame so it cannot become hot no matter what else happens. The neutral is to satisfy any 120 VAC requirements. For an example, a 240 VAC clothes drier could have a 240 VAC heater element but a 120 VAC motor. Either of the above 240 VAC outlets can also meet that 120 VAC requirement.

Ground fault to work can even be on a two prong 120 VAC. If more current is on the hot wire than the return, it trips. Of course that only happens with current  to ground from the hot even if there is no ground on the outlet (such as very old  house outlets). Ground fault can always  be added to ANY outlet, no exceptions. All ground fault is, is a low current differential amplifier. If it sees a difference of more than a few ma between whats going in and out,  it trips. Current should always be the same anywhere in a circuit, when it isn't, it means there is a short to ground. Since that short to ground can be a person, it should trip well before anybody becomes electrocuted. It only protects shorts to ground, you still get fried if getting across the two 120 VAC lines or even the 120 VAC hot to neutral.

There are GFCI extension cords available, regardless if  for 2, 3 or four prongs or if for 120 VAC or 240 VAC.

There are also  GFCI circuit breakers available.  For 120VAC as well as 240 VAC.
 
The best way to run a line to your bike would be to use 240 VAC (AKA 220 VAC--but measure it, it will never be that low these days) ,  which would be 120 VAC-Ground-120 VAC. The ground is for safety to ground the frame. The neutral is not needed at all in that case, since there is no need for 120 VAC on a Zero when you have 240 VAC available.

There are GFCI extension cords available, as well as GFCI circuit breakers.

120 VAC will be either one of the 120 VAC plus neutral plus ground (normal newer 120 VAC house outlets).

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Curt]

Don has covered it well. You almost certainly have 120v, neutral, -120v at the plug, especially if it's NEMA 10-30. I suspect you have neutral going to the Zero ground, which hopefully doesn't someday short 120v onto the Zero frame (very unlikely).

I don't know if you can get into the breaker panel, but if so, the GFCI breaker is pretty easy to install and ground isn't involved (funny for Ground Fault device huh). Below is the wiring diagram. You'd disconnect the neutral wire from the bus bar and wire it to the neutral pin on the GFCI breaker. Then wire the neutral pigtail to the neutral bus bar.

https://www.riverpool.com/images/Image7.gif

[Crissa]

According to the wiring diagrams I could find, I'm supposed to do hot-hot-ground to the bike, not hot-hot-neutral because the neutral can have potential to ground.  If the bike had a separate wire for neutral, I'm supposed to use it, but it doesn't.

Hence ground fault detection not working here.  It's supposed to route to the wired ground so it doesn't fault to the real ground.

-Crissa

[Curt]

If you've got a true ground running through the cable then that's great. But then a GFCI breaker is even easier because you don't need to connect anything to its neutral terminal.

[DonTom]

According to the wiring diagrams I could find, I'm supposed to do hot-hot-ground to the bike, not hot-hot-neutral because the neutral can have potential to ground.  If the bike had a separate wire for neutral, I'm supposed to use it, but it doesn't.

Hence ground fault detection not working here.  It's supposed to route to the wired ground so it doesn't fault to the real ground.

-Crissa

I don't know what "it's" is referring to in above. You can always add ground fault protection. The only ground that GFCI needs is the one that will make it trip. And if it doesn't trip, no ground is necessary for GFCI.

But some Zeros have an imbalance and trip GFCI. Shouldn't,  but I know it happens and isn't all that rare.

That is because one side of the AC charger input is less of an impedance /resistance  to ground than the other, for whatever reason. Some people isolate the bike's frame  for that reason. IOW, only run two wires, not letting the ground from the outlet connect to the bike's frame. Perhaps considered unsafe, especially in rain or wet. But it's a way to get a charge when the GFCI keeps on tripping.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

Okay.  Guys, you can't have a ground-fault protection on a Zero's charging if that charging is at 250v.  There are only three conductors, and one has to be ground.  GFCI detect current going to ground instead of neutral, and the Zero would be conducting to ground, and would automatically trip the interrupt.  Else the interrupt wouldn't function.

Thank you for the suggestion, though.  I plan to put an all-weather cover atop the ip65 enclosure I'm already using, which means no direct contact to the switch.  That'll make it safer to flip if I'm wet.

I do still need to figure out a good way to hang the charge cable when not using it, tho.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

Okay.  Guys, you can't have a ground-fault protection on a Zero's charging if that charging is at 250v.  There are only three conductors, and one has to be ground.  GFCI detect current going to ground instead of neutral, and the Zero would be conducting to ground, and would automatically trip the interrupt.  Else the interrupt wouldn't function.

Nope. No extra prong needed for GFCI. It's often done internally.  The only ground is the fault that  it detects from the imbalance.

And no, the ground on a Zero is  not required to charge. It's only for safety. Only two wires are needed to charge, regardless if 120 VAC or 240 VAC and can still have the GFCI on those same two wires.

You can buy an extension cord that adds  GFCI for two wires or three where it doesn't normally have GFCI. The two wire ones are scarce (but I do own one) but if you get a 3 prong and remove the ground prong, the GFCI will still work normally on two wires.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

Guys, no.

I cannot buy an extension cord to run 250v with GFCI to the bike.  You need hot-hot-neutral-ground for GFCI to work at 250v, and the bike does not have four pins.

-Crissa

[TheRan]

The bike doesn't have 3 current carrying pins either (in normal operation). The 250v output (input for the bike) would be coming from the hot-hot and the GFCI measures those for any imbalance.

[DonTom]

Guys, no.

I cannot buy an extension cord to run 250v with GFCI to the bike.  You need hot-hot-neutral-ground for GFCI to work at 250v, and the bike does not have four pins.

-Crissa

Again, you only need two pins for GFCI to work. The differential amplifier  ONLY connects to two pins and NOWHERE else. It looks for current going in and out. That's two pins. If there is a difference, it puts an open on the hot side output to disconnect. So all that is ever needed is TWO wires, no ground,  and no neutral (if 240 VAC) required.

But there is no way to get such as difference with out a leak to a ground somewhere, such as to a wet pavement, through a person's body. Or being wet to ground. Other than that, no ground required for other than safety, has nothing to do with GFCI.

BTW, do you own a 120 VAC hair drier? They normally come with two wire GFCI right on the plug with a reset button. I just checked mine and it  does. That should prove it to you beyond any possible doubt.

-Don-

[Curt]

GFCI detect current going to ground instead of neutral, and the Zero would be conducting to ground, and would automatically trip the interrupt.  Else the interrupt wouldn't function.

I had that misconception as well, but I get it now. Ground wires never carry current, including on the Zero. They're only there in case of a short to chassis.

GFCI doesn't even have a connection to ground. It adds together all the current in the current-carrying wires and requires the sum to be zero. The current-carrying wires are hot and neutral (120v), or two hots and neutral (240v). In your case, neutral is not connected, so it's just the two hots (240v).

One caveat: I've seen posts here that Zeros not uncommonly trip GFCI.