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Are electricians price gouging because you bought a tesla model 3?
- Thread starter Mymeatguy
- Start date
Many Yelp and Angies List electricians' goal in life is apparently to do actual electrical work for only a couple hours a day. The rest of the time they prefer spend giving high quotes. Try to find someone who works a lot in the neighborhood and ask for a phone estimate, not a quote. If you can not describe the job accurately then you are probably stuck paying full retail. Few jobs are more than a couple hundred dollars in parts excluding the wall connector.
Edit: Nextdoor.com is a good place to find recommendations for tradesmen who work a lot in your neighborhood.
Edit: Nextdoor.com is a good place to find recommendations for tradesmen who work a lot in your neighborhood.
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SteveTack
Member
My case is highly anecdotal, but sometimes the opposite is true in terms of pricing.
An electrician who was personally recommended gave me an $1800 estimate (!), plus he wanted to run the conduit along the outside of my house (I wanted to run it through my crawlspace). He did know it was for a Tesla.
Ended up calling one of the electricians from the Tesla website, and not only did they run the conduit through my crawlspace, it was $500 total. I'm sure I could have shopped around to shave a little more off of that $500, but I was really happy with their professionalism, communication, speed, and quality of work.
JBare
Member
Thanks for the tips! My run is actually pretty simple: The panel is on an outer wall in an unfinished room and if I go up and follow the floor joist 30' later pops me out to my garage right where I'd want to put the sub panel. I definitely plan to keep it all in conduit mounted to the basement ceiling. I'm trying to future proof here (in case my wife steals my 3 and I have to get a different electric car down the road) but really it might be easier just to run a 50 Amp now and then another when needed. I'd like to add a few outlets but that can be done with a simple 12 gauge wire run
Here in Phoenix, AZ, I focused on the Tesla-approved electricians. I got quotes from 6 different electricians (including one not on the Tesla list) for install of 2 HPWCs that I provided (My electrical was already upgraded to 390 amps, so no changes needed there)
I was amazed by the variability: Pricing ranged from $1,250 to $4,000.
After reading online reviews, I was comfortable with the lowest-price electrician. They did a great job - for the price, they also put wiring in the garage drywall and repainted my entire wall.
Moral of the story: Shop around.
I was amazed by the variability: Pricing ranged from $1,250 to $4,000.
After reading online reviews, I was comfortable with the lowest-price electrician. They did a great job - for the price, they also put wiring in the garage drywall and repainted my entire wall.
Moral of the story: Shop around.
OR you could buy a spare 14-50 pigtail adapter for the UMC for $35, and leave it in the socket.
I am in the process of getting quotes right now in Phx. Though I think I am going to use the cords supplied with the car.
Which electrician did you end up going with?
Here in Scottsdale, I went with AZ Charging Specialists / Quickturn (John C was my contact).
As I mentioned, they had a great price, strong online reviews, and they did a great job. Good luck!
kaoru
Member
I'm in Ottawa and I had my Tesla HPWC installed in May. Cost me $852.00 including taxes, permit, and inspection. This included ~25' of #6 armoured cable and 60A breaker. I provided the Siemens 240V 60A 2 pole safety switch (from Home Depot $57) which is required by code. Here's a pic:
kaoru
Member
No, that wasn't me as I'm mostly Ottawa South and around the Vanier area. During my delivery in Toronto, I met 6 people from Ottawa picking up their Model 3s. I've yet to see any of them which prompted me to join the Tesla Motors Club and the Ottawa Model 3 group. I'll be going to the meet up at Place d'Orleans on the 19th.
Kaoru
Ok, will try to check the group out on Tuesday. At least get a sense of which colour to choose as photos never quite do them justice. Leaning toward midnight metallic silver.
Suppose we should get back on topic!
Has anyone looked at upgrading to a 200 amp service? Or do you think it will be fine with scheduling and 100 amp?
Suppose we should get back on topic!
Has anyone looked at upgrading to a 200 amp service? Or do you think it will be fine with scheduling and 100 amp?
SoundDaTrumpet
Member
There are a few costs:
1. Field engineer inspection: complimentary
2. Engineering cost upfront deposit: 1000USD.
3. Aerial vs. underground.
3a. Aerial not explored and not applicable for me nor my friend who started this process
3b. Two paths: buried conduit or direct burial
3b1: A test mandrel is passed thru to see if the conduit is clear bore. Tree roots will trigger a conduit replacement. Size of conduit determines amperage.
3b2: The direct burial wire needs to be pulled up. This is the most costly as you may have to trench across your neighbors property to replace the wires all the way up to the .
3c: The work can be subcontracted to a 3rd party or one can simply use the power company at a higher cost.
4. Typically the service panel / meter will required to be changed out to match service 1:1. ~3000USD
I hope this sheds some light on a service upgrade.
Hey SoundDaTrumpet,
My install would be a little simpler than that as the line going to the meter is already good for 200 amp.
From there it would be the cost to upgrade from the meter to the panel, and likely a new panel.
There is already a conduit from the meter to the panel, but I'm not sure if it's the right size.
I was more curious if people have had any issues running a 60 amp line for the charger on a 100 amp service and doing it again, gone for a 200 amp upgrade. Or with scheduling, there have been no issues at all?
Thunder7ga
Member
I got one quote yesterday and 2 more today....for about a 70' run for a 14-50, the first one quoted $1,556.40. WOW! We'll see what the others say. I think the first made a typo by about $350 on a calculation from what I see. I contacted them, but they have not responded.
I got a recommendation from another forum member to get a quote directly from Tesla for the HPWC installation.
They quoted me $1250 for the install, plus $500 for the HPWC. I had already bought a HPWC from the Tesla store so they just used mine.
Tesla’s installation price was less than half of what the Tesla recommended independent electricians quoted me. The best price I got from any local electrician was $2300, and they weren’t planning on pulling a permit so I didn’t really trust them.
Tesla’s standard price is $1000, but I had an additional $250 because my run was long at approximately 130 feet.
They did the install today and they did an awesome job. The installers are Tesla energy employees so the same guys doing the solar and Powerwall installs. They installed 130 feet of 1” metal conduit through my finished basement and garage. I was really impressed they only needed to cut 1 access hole in the finished basement to make the run. They supplied and installed a 60A (for 48A on Model 3) breaker and even had to rework some of the existing breakers in my panel to fit the 2 pole CB. Charger works great. Car is reporting 43 miles per hour at 48A and 231V. I don’t really need that much charging speed at the moment so I will probably lower to 24 or 30A.
I’m not sure if Tesla is actually making any money at what they charged me. It took 2 guys about 6 hours to do the install. Plus the cost of the materials, permits, inspection etc. The installers seemed to think Tesla is basically covering costs. Im super happy. They did a nice neat job.
The installers were telling me they were at a customer for 12 hours the day before because they had to do a main panel upgrade. There were no labels in the old panel and the inspector made them map out and label all of the circuits. It sounded like they can deal with some complicated situations.
The quoting process was pretty easy. It was all done via emails and photos. The estimators were based out in CA. From initial contact to installation was about 2.5 weeks.
I’m not sure they work in all areas of the country, but it’s definitely worth getting a quote from them if you live in an area where they operate and you have anything beyond a super simple installation.
They quoted me $1250 for the install, plus $500 for the HPWC. I had already bought a HPWC from the Tesla store so they just used mine.
Tesla’s installation price was less than half of what the Tesla recommended independent electricians quoted me. The best price I got from any local electrician was $2300, and they weren’t planning on pulling a permit so I didn’t really trust them.
Tesla’s standard price is $1000, but I had an additional $250 because my run was long at approximately 130 feet.
They did the install today and they did an awesome job. The installers are Tesla energy employees so the same guys doing the solar and Powerwall installs. They installed 130 feet of 1” metal conduit through my finished basement and garage. I was really impressed they only needed to cut 1 access hole in the finished basement to make the run. They supplied and installed a 60A (for 48A on Model 3) breaker and even had to rework some of the existing breakers in my panel to fit the 2 pole CB. Charger works great. Car is reporting 43 miles per hour at 48A and 231V. I don’t really need that much charging speed at the moment so I will probably lower to 24 or 30A.
I’m not sure if Tesla is actually making any money at what they charged me. It took 2 guys about 6 hours to do the install. Plus the cost of the materials, permits, inspection etc. The installers seemed to think Tesla is basically covering costs. Im super happy. They did a nice neat job.
The installers were telling me they were at a customer for 12 hours the day before because they had to do a main panel upgrade. There were no labels in the old panel and the inspector made them map out and label all of the circuits. It sounded like they can deal with some complicated situations.
The quoting process was pretty easy. It was all done via emails and photos. The estimators were based out in CA. From initial contact to installation was about 2.5 weeks.
I’m not sure they work in all areas of the country, but it’s definitely worth getting a quote from them if you live in an area where they operate and you have anything beyond a super simple installation.
John Lamoureux
l Parzival l
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