We just placed our order for our first Tesla and we have inquired with a local electric company for converting 2 standard outlets to a 14/50 outlet. The estimate came back at $600 ($200 for material and $400 for labor). From all of the video's I've seen, that seems high. The panel is next to our 2 car garage and inside our house. The wires are run through the attic and accessible. What are other people paying for the conversion?
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Charging Outlet Installation Cost
- Thread starter Eric66
- Start date
CyberGus
Not Just a Member
That might be a tad high but it's within reason. To get the best price, there is no substitute for multiple bids.
What do you mean, "converting two standard outlets to a 14-50"? The electrician would just run a new circuit. They couldn't reuse existing wiring, which for a standard outlet is going to be too small for a 50A circuit.
I did the work myself. The hardest part is running the cable (6/3 cable is heavy) from one side of the garage to the other inside the conduit, and it’s not dangerous as it is made out to be. If you know how to shut off the electricity to the panel, then it is safe.
The total cost came out to be around $250. The wire cost (6/3 gauge 25ft) is already around $120, and the cost for a Hubbell outlet $60 (recommended by Tesla).
The cost for inspection for us was $60, and the inspector was very helpful. He showed me how to ground the outlet (something that is not detailed in youtube video), and I passed the inspection in the second visit. There are several youtube video how to do this.
The total cost came out to be around $250. The wire cost (6/3 gauge 25ft) is already around $120, and the cost for a Hubbell outlet $60 (recommended by Tesla).
The cost for inspection for us was $60, and the inspector was very helpful. He showed me how to ground the outlet (something that is not detailed in youtube video), and I passed the inspection in the second visit. There are several youtube video how to do this.
No need for GFCI. It’s in the charger, both UMC and Wall charger.
Please ask them to specify a Bryant brand NEMA 14-50 instead of a cheaper Leviton brand, as the latter are of poor quality and have caused shorts and fires in EV charging situations. The Bryant is more expensive than the Leviton, but is of much higher quality.
Bryant Electric 9450FR 50 Amp 125/250V NEMA 14-50R Flush Straight Blade Receptacle, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003A2R9RM/
That doesn’t protect the person plugging or unplugging from the wall. It’s a requirement in the latest NEC code, so it depends on local jurisdiction.
The wall charger is fine since it’s hard wired.
My electric panel is also in close proximity right outside my garage. I looked on Yelp locally to compare pricing and got a NEMA 1450 outlet installation for $220 which is the cheapest I found.
Make sure you specifically request good quality parts (Bryant or Hubell outlet). And if you want to future-proof (to be able to upgrade the circuit breaker to 60A), make sure the wire size is at least 6 gauge).
And this is an outlet (not directly wire like a Tesla wall charger), the breaker has to be GFCI (new NEC code).
JGhere
Member
No two electrical jobs are identical, so no two cost's are the same. There are so many factors determining cost, such as distance from the main panel to the charger outlet location, remaining existing capacity in the panel, breaker space availability in the panel, running new conduit and pulling wires either underground or through walls or crawlspace, and installing a new box/charger mount in the destination. My friend needed to install a new service panel/meter from the power pole for his 220 single phase in the right location in the front of his house. Cost: $3300 not counting the $500 Tesla charger. I needed to pull out 40' of bricks in my driveway and trench to install underground 1.5"conduit (for the 6 gage wires) to get the power to my detached garage. After a lot of my own work and some from contractors, my cost was just over $1K, and add the $500 charger on to that. Your $200 cost looks like a walk in the park!
I understand; the NEC was revised in 2017. 14-50 receptacles installed outdoors or inside a garage (I'm not sure if this applies to kitchen installs) are now required to be protected by a GFCI at the breaker. The reasoning (shaking my head) is that while the EVSE has GFCI protection from the EVSE electronics chassis to the J1772 charging connector and charging port the NEMA 14-50 receptacle is unprotected. Somewhere, somehow, sometime someone could get their fingers in contact with the prongs of the 14-50 plug and get electrocuted. This would also protect someone plugging into a 14-50 receptacle for RV power.
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That doesn't seem out of line. People seem to not have a good idea of the overhead involved in what they see as a very short job. Like they see that it only took one hour or half an hour, but it really took up a lot of extra time outside of that. There is taking the initial call, driving out to look at it and do the bid, driving to an electrical shop to buy parts, driving to and from your house, etc. These are times that are subtracted from paying work that he could be doing on another job.
Not truly 20 feet; the Tesla Mobile Connector charging cord is 18 feet in length from the electronics chassis to the charging connector.
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