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I am installing a wall charger 150 ft from the panel. What guage wire should i use?
- Thread starter ajmacho95
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Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
Definitely do *not* use 6/3 unless you expect to power some 120V devices from this circuit.
Use 6/2. It's considerably cheaper and easier.
Use 6/2. It's considerably cheaper and easier.
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A WC can be setup for anything from a 15amp circuit to a 60 amp circuit.
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Yeah but if you're running new wiring it's kind of dumb to run anything except 48A capable wiring. The capabilities to go down to 15A are so you can reuse existing wiring and not pay labor costs for installing new wiring.
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Operator64
Member
From what the OP has said I’ll bet a load calculation is not a consideration at this time
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Then run 48A capable wiring, use a 40A breaker, and set the WC for 40A, so that when the panel is upgraded, you switch the breaker and reconfigure the WC and do not need to pull wiring out of the wall.
That would be my guess. A lot of people might not know exactly what the capabilities of the WC are.
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Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
No, there can be a very significant difference in the cost to drag a simple piece of 6/2 Romex across the property vs something 60A rated.
And although a 48A charge rate is significantly faster (20%) than 40A, the difference is almost never noticeable in practice.
P.S. @ajmacho95 My comment about "Romex-ish" was not to imply that it is in any way bad, just that you can't put 6/2 on a 60A circuit because Romex is rated differently.
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Cheburashka
Active Member
True. Not an electrician. When I ran 6/3 it went to a subpanel where I also needed 120v so that was my point of reference.
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When thinking about something like this it is always good to get the whole picture, and there are many ways to look at this.
If there is any possibility that the power you run 150' might be used for something else in the future, then wire added for a neutral or oversizing the wire might be a good idea. The difference between 6/2 and 6/3 is almost $200 at this length so not insignificant. Often people install a new subpanel with the car charger, as a way to distribute power to other new loads. If you run 6/2 you can't do that in the future.
If I was running 150' of wire through my house (because most Romex cannot be run underground) I would run the 6/3 copper myself (or 4/3 copper if a future Cybertruck/2nd EV is a possibility) I personally ran #4 THWN-2 wire to my HPWC where my model 3 parks for just this reason.
Remember that in the future most cars will become electric and so a second charging circuit might be added later. Plan ahead and you will be happy if you plan to live there a long time.
If there is any possibility that the power you run 150' might be used for something else in the future, then wire added for a neutral or oversizing the wire might be a good idea. The difference between 6/2 and 6/3 is almost $200 at this length so not insignificant. Often people install a new subpanel with the car charger, as a way to distribute power to other new loads. If you run 6/2 you can't do that in the future.
If I was running 150' of wire through my house (because most Romex cannot be run underground) I would run the 6/3 copper myself (or 4/3 copper if a future Cybertruck/2nd EV is a possibility) I personally ran #4 THWN-2 wire to my HPWC where my model 3 parks for just this reason.
Remember that in the future most cars will become electric and so a second charging circuit might be added later. Plan ahead and you will be happy if you plan to live there a long time.
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Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
I agree with @Vines advice to consider the likelihood of a 2nd EV charger thru a subpanel or otherwise.
But I'll add that you can use one single run of 6/2 from a 50A breaker in your main panel to supply a subpanel in the garage that branches out to a 50A welder outlet, 40A tablesaw, 30A joiner, 30A dryer, and several 50A EV chargers. That's completely legal and safe, but you'd obviously have to pay a little attention when using multiple devices simultaneously. The only reason 6/3 would be advantageous is if you want an RV hookup or your 120V supply to the garage is woefully inadequate.
But really the best way to "future-proof" is to run a second 6/2 circuit. Not upsize the first run to 6/3 or 4/3.
BTW My 1973 garage only had one 120V circuit to feed the lights, opener, and lone outlet so I ran 6/3 to a subpanel and branched it out to 2 EV chargers, 10 new outlets, and some exterior lighting.
But I'll add that you can use one single run of 6/2 from a 50A breaker in your main panel to supply a subpanel in the garage that branches out to a 50A welder outlet, 40A tablesaw, 30A joiner, 30A dryer, and several 50A EV chargers. That's completely legal and safe, but you'd obviously have to pay a little attention when using multiple devices simultaneously. The only reason 6/3 would be advantageous is if you want an RV hookup or your 120V supply to the garage is woefully inadequate.
But really the best way to "future-proof" is to run a second 6/2 circuit. Not upsize the first run to 6/3 or 4/3.
BTW My 1973 garage only had one 120V circuit to feed the lights, opener, and lone outlet so I ran 6/3 to a subpanel and branched it out to 2 EV chargers, 10 new outlets, and some exterior lighting.
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RayK
Active Member
The way I understand it, 6/2 has three wires; 2 hots and a ground. Good enough for 240VAC EV charging. 6/3 has four wires; 2 hot, a ground and a neutral. That can be used to power two separate 120VAC circuits.
A 6/2 connection can provide power to a 6-xx outlet (and also a wall connector), whereas a 6/3 connection can be used with a 14-xx outlet. At least that's what I believe (not an electrician).
A 6/2 connection can provide power to a 6-xx outlet (and also a wall connector), whereas a 6/3 connection can be used with a 14-xx outlet. At least that's what I believe (not an electrician).
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Yes, but what's the cost of labor to install the wiring? Whether you're paying an electrician to do it or doing it yourself isn't really relevant; it's a high cost either way. I insulated the recirculation loop in my crawlspace and I did it with 1" think polystyrene foam. Sure, it was more expensive than the 1/2" polystyrene foam insulation they were selling at Lowe's or Home Depot by maybe $50-100 or so but given how much I hate going down into the crawlspace I'd rather just use the best stuff I can get and never have to go down there again for the same job. If I paid a plumber to do it, they were going to charge me $200 just to enter the crawlspace plus $150-200 an hour. You think it's worth saving $50-100 in materials costs when labor is easily 5 times that amount or more? This is basically the same scenario I faced with my service line and main panel upgrade. I wasn't so concerned about paying an extra $2-4k to go to 400A because just getting the trenching company back out to put in a new conduit, if that's what is required to upgrade from 200A to 400A in the future, would cost another $7500.
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Typically once you get to #4 then we often start using SER and aluminum wire. However the HPWC is not rated for aluminum wire. Technically #4 Cu Romex is available but it is not super common.
You could use aluminum wire for the majority of the length, but the end would need to be copper and a termination device would need to be rated for copper and aluminum to make the transition.
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ATPMSD
Active Member
Apologies if already noted, but you cannot use #6 romex if you want to get the full capability (48A charging) out of the wall connector. On a continuous load circuit, the load cannot exceed 80% of the wire’s rating. #6 Romex is rated at 55A, therefore, the maximum continuous load it will support of 44A. Note also that 150-feet is a long way and you will likely need #4 wire anyway.
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