Add EV charging to garage? Cost?

[ExtraSlow]

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Just look at the size of the main breaker at the top of the panel, yours is probably a 100A double-pole which means 100A service. If the breaker says 200 on it, you have 200A service.

Gotcha. Yeah 100A panel.

[JustinL]

The first thing to do is determine what kind of daily charging you actually need to do. I burn through about 11-14kwh getting my Model 3 to work and back about 60-80km depending on the route I take. When I get home I plug it in and charge it for 2 and a bit hours at 24amps and I'm good to go for the next day. I have a NEMA 14-50 plug and 50amp breaker to the charger, so I can charge it faster, but plugged in overnight is plugged in overnight. The reason for the 24amp charging is that is just under what my solar system makes at peak power so on days when I'm at home I can just wait for some sunshine before starting the charge.

You could plan for a worst case charging scenario where you are charging both of your Ford Lightnings from dead to full, but prepping for this unlikely scenario is where you are going to run into higher costs.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

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Your hot tub has to be at least 40 amps. Your ac unit at least 30. If you have your ev charger installed Your well past any load calculation to pass any inspection. Theres no inspector in the world who's passing that on 100 amp service.

If they are real i'd love to have their contact info to get a lot of other jobs signed off.

For the record you have a hard enough time getting a permit with a hot tub/ac unit let alone a hot tub/ac/ev charger plus everything else in your house.

I suppose the difference was likely that there was no EV charger actually installed when permitting was done, there was/is just a 50A circuit with a NEMA 6-50 plug for future use. Seems a bit silly but I guess if the appliance isn't installed yet it doesn't count toward the load calc. They may be a bit more lax with homeowner permits.

A bit surprised to hear you are having difficulty doing A/C+hot tub on 100A service but it makes sense on larger sqft houses with a big tub and big A/C. For more modestly-sized homes like ours, it's still easily doable on 100A.

[benyl]

I'm going to see if I can get a 125A subpanel in my garage with basically 2 60A breakers for two chargers.

With the Tesla wall connectors, they will load share automagically.

I am sure Ford will come out with something similar for people who own 2 Lightnings.

[pheoxs]

Aside from the initial install does Enmax charge any additional fees for a 200A service? Do all the extra fees on your bill stay the same or do they increase?

[gwill]

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A bit surprised to hear you are having difficulty doing A/C+hot tub on 100A service but it makes sense on larger sqft houses with a big tub and big A/C. For more modestly-sized homes like ours, it's still easily doable on 100A.

Most people who get a hot tub or ac unit don't apply for their permits. If they did they'd run into issues with their load calculations. A good hot tub needs 60 amps. Your ac will be around 30. Running both is never an issue but the city doesn't care about that. Their focused on the load calculation and draw the line there. Theres always options to pass the inspection/permit(transfer switch) but not when you throw an ev charger into it as well.

Good to see so many people have an option that works but I wonder how many will run into issues when they go to sell. With the issues I've ran into with the permitting process I don't see how ev vehicles are sustainable in anyway. The infrastructure doesn't seem to be there for every house on the block to be pulling 200 amps which will be required if gas vehicles are all banned in the next 10 to 15 years.

More Importantly if your house isn't situated close to the transformer to upgrade to 200 amp service your costs balloon astronomically. In the few cases I've been apart of it required drilling under the road way. It needed multiple departments and engineers. It's been a nightmare.

[FraserB]

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Good to see so many people have an option that works but I wonder how many will run into issues when they go to sell.

I don't see how people who have pulled permits and had them approved by the city will have an issue? None of the electrical inspectors that did mine did any sort of load calculation, they wanted to see things installed to code. If anything, they grilled me on the work because they thought I was lying when I said I did it.

Agreed that the infrastructure simply isn't there. But ICE vehicles aren't going anywhere anytime soon and EV tech will need to grow substantially before a lot of people can actually give up ICE. Take the Lightning, which is more of a novelty instead of a proper replacement to an ICE pickup.

[Tik-Tok]

An electrician told me when I was getting a quote that he couldn't put in the circuit I wanted with a contactors permit, but I could with a homeowner one. So I'm pretty sure the inspectors for home owner permits don't care about loads. They inspect the installation work. If there's a fire due to loads, that's between the home owner their insurance company.

Hell, the last two inspectors I had didn't say shit about the fact my panel is in a bathroom, lol. (Previous owner built around the panel, I am planning on moving it)

[gwill]

^if you applied for a permit your all good but as I stated before theres no way a house with 100 amp service has a hot tub, ev charger and an ac unit thats passed an ispection/permit.

Homes today are barely being built for today's needs let alone our future use. Imagine buying a new house and being told your new home needs $35k in electrical upgrades just to support what you want installed in it.

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An electrician told me when I was getting a quote that he couldn't put in the circuit I wanted with a contactors permit, but I could with a homeowner one. So I'm pretty sure the inspectors for home owner permits don't care about loads. They inspect the installation work. If there's a fire due to loads, that's between the home owner their insurance company.

Hell, the last two inspectors I had didn't say shit about the fact my panel is in a bathroom, lol. (Previous owner built around the panel, I am planning on moving it)

theres definitely leniency on some permit applications for the average Joe when compared to a company who does it for a living.

[arcticcat522]

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From the transformer, which is at the end of the fence to the property line, Enamx is charging me an estimated $5K. That includes a hydro vac and backfill.

Attachment 100884

The trench was $400 to dig out and then the electrician is charging me more (waiting for the bill) for this big fat cable.

Attachment 100885

Interested what the cable cost was