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Diy nema 14-50
- Thread starter Darkwax
- Start date
I would caution you against doing this yourself. You are supposed to get a permit and, depending on your municipality, maybe an inspection. If you do it yourself and there is a fire or injury, your insurance company could use that as an excuse to deny coverage, even if you did it perfectly right. Also, in a lot of areas, a licensed electrician can get the permit and the inspection is waved (or he does it) so it's a lot quicker. You can do a lot of the pre-work to make it cost less.
dhrivnak
Active Member
It depends on the area. In NE Tennessee one does not need a permit, electrician or inspection. If you know what you are doing it is perfectly safe for one to do. That said if you have never done electrical work I would not recommend it but if you have wired outlets and are handy then adding a NEMA 14-50 is not bad. It took me about 3 hours one morning and about $100 in parts and wire.
I would agree - it isn't hard, the theory is fairly straightforward. Just do your research to understand what you are doing. Whether or not you have it inspected, it wouldn't hurt to have a buddy who has done this kind of thing before either help you or look over what you've done. When I added my Nema 14-50 to our barn location, it allowed me to really pay attention to the main panel and fix some minor issues and clean things up a bit. A hired electrician probably wouldn't have looked at the panel and the other circuits as closely as I did.
DIY 14-50 install at my place and have been charging everyday since January! Thanks FlasherZ! From the savings of the install I bought more :wink:TSLA stock
It's not too hard. There are some wiring techniques you'll want to pay attention to, such as ensuring that you're not pulling wires too tightly in the panels (e.g., use right angles at the outside edges of the enclosures), paying attention to bend radius, etc... A quick D-I-Y book that gives you the basics on wiring would be good backup to the specific details in the FAQ that mknox linked above.
I did it myself and very pleased with the result, permit not required in GA, and more than one electrician even encouraged me to do it if I felt confident about it. By the way, a couple of podcasts here: Home Owners Friend Podcast - the FREE Homeowners how-to-guide! really boosted my confidence, especially the one about breaker boxes (here: Video: All About Breaker Boxes | Homeowners Friend Podcast ) it always seemed like a bit of a mystery to me until I watched that. Fantastic video with a real emphasis on safety!
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Of course that's true but when some one asks how to do it, I think it's safe to assume that they are starting from a fairly low level of knowledge. I'd say, if you have to ask, don't. This isn't quite the same as wiring up a light fixture or such. We are talking about 40A at 240V. Even a poor connection to a terminal can be cause for a problem. I agree that there are lots of people out there with skills to do this.
And the whole issue of insurance is not to be glossed over.
One other point, if you can afford a tesla, why skimp on this?
To save cost I did the run of the wire in conduit from my garage to my basement and ended the drop next to my panel. I also got the 14-50 plug and box. I just had the electrician finish the box installation and hook up to my panel along with arrange the inspection. I save the electrician about 3 hours in labor by not making them do the wire run so I was able to save about $400 on my installation.
I say do what you are comfortable with then let an electrician finish. I personnally didn't do the hook up to my pannel because I didn't have enough room on the panel and I needed to have some breakers swapped out for half size breakers to make room. I wasn't comfortable with that work so I let the pros take care of it for me.
I say do what you are comfortable with then let an electrician finish. I personnally didn't do the hook up to my pannel because I didn't have enough room on the panel and I needed to have some breakers swapped out for half size breakers to make room. I wasn't comfortable with that work so I let the pros take care of it for me.
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