A lot of information going on here. First let me state that I am an electrician and own my own small company so I am going to be biased. As far as the prices quoted in the first post I think those are quite reasonable and most of what the electricians said were true but I would say the electricians probably don't have a ton of experiences with electrical vehicles.
About the new wire because its 240.... while you do not need another wire for EV chargers, MOST new 240 circuits will require two hots, a neutral, and a ground. This to me indicates the electrician doesn't have a lot of experience with EVs but doesn't mean he isn't a qualified electrician.
About the drilling thru the wall... Dealing with existing boxes/wiring will usually end up costing more or at least similar than doing a new outlet. In a new situation I get to bring materials that I KNOW work well together and can be confident in the installation. Say I go to open your existing outdoor box and its done completely not-to-code or is dangerous for one way or another. I have to spend time (and thus money) to fix this and explain to you why something that seemed to be working fine will cost more.
As far as changing out the outlet to a 240v outlet... Unless I could physically trace the wire going from the panel to that outlet I wouldn't dare do it. How do I know there isn't another outlet in the house on that same circuit. Also I can't take the homeowners word for it that there isn't anything else on the circuit because if something is missed it can make for a dangerous situation.
The GFCI breaker pricing... Most residential electricians rarely use 240v GFCI breakers and the ones that do it is for newer requirements such as pool equipment. I have a theory about the pricing mistake as well. Recently GFCI devices are required to "self-test" instead of relying on the homeowner to test them monthly. In a very short span a lot of GFCI breakers doubled in price. I quoted a swimming pool job were the breakers went from $60-$130 in the time I quoted the job to doing the job 2 months later. If the electricians were going from memory on the GFCI breaker cost and than looked them up later I'm sure they were shocked.
$125/hr hourly rate is well within the range of licensed electricians in the MD/DC/VA area, cant speak for CT.
Now I am not blindly going to defend all electricians because there are some greedy ones out there for sure. I have been to customers houses that paid $1500 for a 14-50 that I would have charged $350 or so.
The permit is going to be a regional thing. I have counties by me that I can pull the permit online and I have others that I must go and sit and wait and it could take a few hours there not counting drive time. Also some counties may be $75 for a permit, others I'm not walking out of there with a bill under $200 even for something small. The more rural the area typically the cheaper the permit will cost in my experience. If a customer wants a permit than a permit is pulled. If the customer doesn't want a permit than a permit is not pulled. It is the homeowners decision. Also who is sitting around waiting for inspections will make a big difference in costs as well. If I have to sit around and wait for an inspector than I will have to charge for my time, if the homeowner wants to take a day off to wait than it will obviously be cheaper for them.
Sorry for the mile long post but its tough to read someone bash someone in my profession that from the outside looking in seemed to be doing his/her job reasonably.
About the new wire because its 240.... while you do not need another wire for EV chargers, MOST new 240 circuits will require two hots, a neutral, and a ground. This to me indicates the electrician doesn't have a lot of experience with EVs but doesn't mean he isn't a qualified electrician.
About the drilling thru the wall... Dealing with existing boxes/wiring will usually end up costing more or at least similar than doing a new outlet. In a new situation I get to bring materials that I KNOW work well together and can be confident in the installation. Say I go to open your existing outdoor box and its done completely not-to-code or is dangerous for one way or another. I have to spend time (and thus money) to fix this and explain to you why something that seemed to be working fine will cost more.
As far as changing out the outlet to a 240v outlet... Unless I could physically trace the wire going from the panel to that outlet I wouldn't dare do it. How do I know there isn't another outlet in the house on that same circuit. Also I can't take the homeowners word for it that there isn't anything else on the circuit because if something is missed it can make for a dangerous situation.
The GFCI breaker pricing... Most residential electricians rarely use 240v GFCI breakers and the ones that do it is for newer requirements such as pool equipment. I have a theory about the pricing mistake as well. Recently GFCI devices are required to "self-test" instead of relying on the homeowner to test them monthly. In a very short span a lot of GFCI breakers doubled in price. I quoted a swimming pool job were the breakers went from $60-$130 in the time I quoted the job to doing the job 2 months later. If the electricians were going from memory on the GFCI breaker cost and than looked them up later I'm sure they were shocked.
$125/hr hourly rate is well within the range of licensed electricians in the MD/DC/VA area, cant speak for CT.
Now I am not blindly going to defend all electricians because there are some greedy ones out there for sure. I have been to customers houses that paid $1500 for a 14-50 that I would have charged $350 or so.
The permit is going to be a regional thing. I have counties by me that I can pull the permit online and I have others that I must go and sit and wait and it could take a few hours there not counting drive time. Also some counties may be $75 for a permit, others I'm not walking out of there with a bill under $200 even for something small. The more rural the area typically the cheaper the permit will cost in my experience. If a customer wants a permit than a permit is pulled. If the customer doesn't want a permit than a permit is not pulled. It is the homeowners decision. Also who is sitting around waiting for inspections will make a big difference in costs as well. If I have to sit around and wait for an inspector than I will have to charge for my time, if the homeowner wants to take a day off to wait than it will obviously be cheaper for them.
Sorry for the mile long post but its tough to read someone bash someone in my profession that from the outside looking in seemed to be doing his/her job reasonably.
