Safety and Charging your Electric Vehicle

When it comes to electric vehicle safety, there are restrictions for charging them in many cities all over the United States. How to charge your battery safety is the top thing for charging stations. EV charging stations are a cost-effective way to get your vehicle juice back up and running. They have to follow strict procedures for putting one in an area to prevent possible environmental damage or damage to your new clean vehicle.

Vehicle charging speeds

When it comes to safely charge your electric vehicle, there three different levels you can charge at depending on the type of car or the speed you want to charge it.

Level 1:

120 volts is what you get when charging with the cord your new electric car came with. It is the slowest way to charge and is done through a grounded wall socket.

Level 2:

240 volts is what most public charging systems have and much higher than home. It is the equivalent of most stoves or clothes dryers in terms of the wiring. It will charge double the time of the 120-volt charge.

DC Fast Charging uses direct current rather than alternating current and will charge your vehicle up in no time. Usually, only public stations off of highways have these set up as they are not practical because of the cost to install them and the energy they will pull.

Safe Charging
National Electrical Code

When it comes to safely charge your electric vehicle at local electric charging stations, even those are considered relatively safe. When each charging station is built they have to follow the National Electric Code which is released by the National Fire Protection Agency which covers every new building or structure that gets built. It is applied to every appliance that has electricity that gets manufactured. Not all third party charging station or ones that are on sale in the United States has received third-party safety certification.

The first thing about charging your electric vehicle is to do so at the station that was tested. They should have an ETL or UL certification on display at the charging stations you will be stopping at.

Car Battery Charging

When you are charging your battery, you do not need to get it to 100 % to get it full. Overcharging your battery is not good for it. Many of the newer cars on the market are designed to stop charging at around 80 or 90 percent to preserve the life of the battery and prevent possible complications from overcharging it. If the station’s code is kept up-to-date then it is safe, but if they are outside of compliance or if the equipment has been poorly maintained, then plugging in can be a danger to the person charging the car.

Also read: Some Useful Tips for Driving Automatic transmission Cars

Vandalism

There are also instances of vandalism at these stations in which copper is stolen out of the hookups and they are in other ways damaged. Cars trying to plug into damaged units can and will suffer damage themselves. Without a proper inspection, these damaged units present a risk to any person who may try to safely charge their vehicle at on. It’s especially dangerous if it is not obvious vandalism.

Legally safe?

Currently, there are no statutes requiring charging stations to be inspected. With charging stations spreading quickly and most of them being relatively new, this is not a problem, but as more electric cars hit the road and these stations age, there will be more problems. These stations can be very dangerous is if not properly maintained and inspected.

When it comes to vehicle safety whether it is an electric car or one that uses gasoline, technology will help bring greater safety to a lot of areas of our lives from driving our cars or having them driven for us to safer more efficient charging stations. Along with this technology will be the regulations that will help to protect the safety of people using stations.

This is a relatively new technology. More rules will come into being when more people are using the technology or using it incorrectly or damaging it. The National Electrical Code will be applied to all EV Charging stations. Mandatory inspections will be implemented regularly and the inspections will be through.

The future on the roads will most likely be electric vehicles. Now it might seem like way too expensive but in the future, it will be available even for the lower class.