Electrician screening

[neoY]

Hey All,

I have had multiple electricians provide quotes to install a wall charger and one of them is saying that I need to upgrade the service to my house from 200A to 300 or 400A (which they can do). The rest of them did not bring this up as a concern with installing it.

The guy saying this is one from Tesla's electrician search list. I will be having another one from that list come in on Friday this week. I will update here what he says.

But wanted to post here to see if anyone else had this situation and any advise. The service to my house is 200A and I only have a electric dryer/washer and cooling HVAC. Rest of the appliances are gas. There are empty slots available in the exterior main breaker box. Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[aerocristobal]

If you’re only installing one charger, your current 200A service is probably sufficient. The HPWC might need to be limited to a 50A circuit, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be set for the max of 60A. I’m not an electrician. From personal experience, we installed a 50A circuit to our existing 200A service with zero problems. Our power company had a TOU pilot for EVs, so we installed a separate 100A service for the HPWC. We also had a 2012 Model S that could charge at 80A, but for about 6 months before that was all put in the 50A circuit on our main service had no problem. Hope this helps

 

[ChrisMPK]

It would be a lot easier to make a judgement if you posted pictures of the breakers in your panel(s)

 

[EVer Hopeful]

I only have a 150A supply so I limited my HPWC to 30A

Personally I'd say that's more than enough (unless you have a small off-peak window) for overnight charging

Seems like upgrading to 300A or 400A would be an unnecessary expense

 

[neoY]

It would be a lot easier to make a judgement if you posted pictures of the breakers in your panel(s)

Sure here are the photos of the main service panel (exterior to the house under the meter) and the breaker box inside the house. Thank you.

 

[Sophias_dad]

The electrician telling you to upgrade to 300-400A is trying to milk the job. There's udderly no need.

 

[Sophias_dad]

To expand on the reasoning.... when doing load calculations, you can be pretty sure that the AC and the heat will not be running at the same time, so you can ignore the lower-value'd one of those without even looking at the nameplate ratings. I see you have a 50 amp heater breaker and TWO 35 amp AC breakers(AKA 70 amps).

Right there you know you have ~50 amps available. Either the AC will be running and the heater will be off, or vice-versa. Putting a new 60 amp breaker in the system is almost nothing.

I >AM< rather concerned about how your inside-house panel is getting powered. I don't see any large breaker in your main panel headed to the subpanel, and I don't see any large breakers in the subpanel saying 'this is the main breaker for this subpanel'. it would be REALLY odd to feed the subpanel without some sort of breaker to it(after the main breaker), and I fear that the original installer just hung it off the main panel without any breaker at all.

BTW, it sounds like you plan to put the new circuit in the main panel anyway, but don't be fooled into thinking you CAN'T fit it in the indoor panel. You'd have to swap a few breakers to 'tandem' breakers, but that's a trivial job.

 

[Hippo25]

Your inside-house panel has a 220V circuit labeled "Range". If all your appliances are gas, this 220V circuit may not be currently used so it can be reused for your Tesla wall connector. Looks to be 40 or 50A (hard to see in the picture) which is sufficient for car charging.

 

[neoY]

Your inside-house panel has a 220V circuit labeled "Range". If all your appliances are gas, this 220V circuit may not be currently used so it can be reused for your Tesla wall connector. Looks to be 40 or 50A (hard to see in the picture) which is sufficient for car charging.

Yes good point. I was thinking the same our cooking range and oven is gas so I will bring it up with the electrician.

That one electrician who was upselling a service upgrade just called saying after discussion with his supervisor they think I don't need the upgrade and can install a 60A breaker.

Also I am getting by with a NEMA 5-20 outlet in the garage (called carport in breakerbox) which is giving 6 miles/hr.

Btw thanks everyone for your responses.

 

[SkyDog]

I only have 100 amps to my house and recently had a Tesla Wall Connector installed. I had estimates from 5 electricians and not a single one said I would have to upgrade service to the house. My Wall Connector is on a 40 amp breaker. I have an electric oven/range on a 50 amp breaker and that's never caused a problem. I might be in trouble if I tried charging the car while baking a cake in the electric oven, but my plan is to only charge the car overnight when no other big electric appliances are being used.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Yes good point. I was thinking the same our cooking range and oven is gas so I will bring it up with the electrician.

That one electrician who was upselling a service upgrade just called saying after discussion with his supervisor they think I don't need the upgrade and can install a 60A breaker.

Silly me... I misread the 50 amp breaker as Heater instead of range, but since the range is gas that breaker is likely entirely unused and my prior sentiment stands.

I'd most definitely be telling the electrician trying to sell you a service upgrade to kindly just piss off and have better luck with their next sales call, even if they magically came up with the lowest quote(which they won't).

 

[jjrandorin]

The electrician telling you to upgrade to 300-400A is trying to milk the job. There's udderly no need.

.... I see what you did there .....

 

[turnbowm]

Have a 200A panel and had a 50A outlet (NEMA 14-50) installed to charge our 2015 Volt, knowing that it would be used to charge a Tesla in the future. Used a Tesla-recommended contractor for the work. Load calculations were required for the permit. Have a MYLR on order and haven't decided whether I will continue using the Clipper Creek LCP-20 (240v/20A) charger with the Tesla-supplied J1772 adapter or replace it with the Tesla Mobile charger.

 

[ChrisMPK]

You definitely do not need to upgrade your service, but I would like to see what's under the main panel cover. As @Sophias_dad mentioned, there is something strange going on or perhaps another disconnect that should be protecting the wire to your interior panel. I say 60A all day off of your main panel, but have an electrician check out how the inside panel is connected.

 

[MrJeep997]

This thread really shows how you always have to get three quotes for anything on your house.
To upgrade my panel and put in the charger my estimates ranged from 2500 to over 6500 for an utterly worhtless "smart panel." The $2500 guy did an outstanding job, his guys were super nice and obviously he beat on price. It's a pain but always, always get three quotes.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

absolutely - because at least one of them will have more work than he can handle so he'll just toss out a ridiculous number and if it gets rejected he doesn't really care ... but every now and again someone will bite (usually a little old lady)

In fact the number will be so high that he won't have to spend any real time cobbling together the estimate, so a win all round . . . for him

 

[Unclepaul]

Load calculations often will consider the existance of a 220v range or dryer socket. Theory is that at sometime in the future an owner may decide to use that as well.

 

[neoY]

My estimates (from 5 electricians) ranged from $795 to $1200 for just the install. The guy who tried to upsell a service upgrade threw a ball park of 3k but then called me to tell me its not needed and I have yet to get his estimate (no thanks!).

I have finalized with a guy who is doing it for $875 as he was very responsive and has several references in my area. He will be installing it from the main panel tomorrow morning. I will try to get some photos when he opens the main panel and pick his brain about the wiring to my interior panel. Thanks everyone for chiming in.

 

[Jschoef]

I just did mine and I have a 200amp, I had to put in a 100amp sub-panel to accommodate it...but this still means I'm still on just a 200amp. I have had 2 electricians help me out installing it. I have a stove, water pump, pool pump, HVAC (Heat and AC) for major draws of electricity. I also have 2 refrigerators, 2 TVs, many computers, and of course lights. I have my Gen 3 Wall Connector hooked up with no issues on a 60amp breaker running at 48 amps. Point is, I think the electricians quoting you are scamming you.

 

[neoY]

Charger installed by electrician. Here are some photos (main service panel before, after, charger wall plate, charger ready). Initial testing showed 42 to 44 miles/hr charging speed which is plenty for my use.