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Help, One Electrician Wanted To Charge $1500
- Thread starter Goutami
- Start date
I had a similar situation and yes it is expensive if your power box is not close to your garage. In my case, the electrician would have had to either go up and over my flat roof to reach the box, or dig a trench across my front lawn for which I'd need a permit from the City. It would have been well over $1000. And my EV-hating HOA neighbors would have given me grief for the trench. But fortunately someone told me about another option - something called a Dryer Buddy that feeds off your clothes dryer outlet which hopefully is near your garage. Much simpler and less expensive. It's a one-man company in Nevada and he builds the system specifically for you. Dryer Buddy™
I have a panel on opposite side of the house; the conduit needed to be routed through walls from the basement up to the garage. Tesla electrician charged $500 for wall connector, $1000 for installation and managed all permits etc. It took 2 guys about 3 hours. Quoted $1000 extra to hide the conduit inside the wall of the garage but I declined; it looks totally fine just covered in spray paint.... it's a garage and no one is looking at the wall ... they can't take their eyes off the car : ). I'd report the electrician to Tesla and ask for another recommendation.
I had a sort of similar experience when I installed my Level 2 charger back in 2011 for my Nissan Leaf (now used for my Model S). Nissan tried to be helpful by offering a home charging dock assessment with AeroVironment. They charged $100 just to give me a quote. I don't know if they had any idea what they were doing because they said I had to get a new circuit breaker panel (or something to that effect) and they quoted me something insane like $3500 to do the whole thing (including the EVSE plug). I ended up buying a plug on eBay and hiring a master electrician for $1,000 to do the wiring and installation. It was on the other end of the house from the circuit breaker.
Mine was $1500 as well. The garage is on the opposite side of the house from the breaker panel. So it had to traverse almost the entire length of the house and up to the garage. So the price is not absurd. But his claims about the warranty being void is untrue.
My electrician pulled the permit as well as scheduled the inspection. I don't know what the cost (if any) of those are, as they were not itemized in his original quote.
Sounds like a scam to me. We paid $800 for a guy to re-route a line, and my parents are paying around $500 to bring a line up from the basement. It did not void our warranty.
We're in CO, though, and we needed a permit. It cost about $30 and came from the county. I don't know what the electrical codes are in GA, but you should check first. Sometimes they come from the state, sometimes from your city or county. Not having one shouldn't void your warranty, but if the wiring catches fire you could be liable. Angieslist or the BBB should be able to help you find reputable electricians who are familiar with the local building codes. Get several bids if possible.
Note: If your municipality says you need a permit and the electrician says otherwise, hang up.
--m
We're in CO, though, and we needed a permit. It cost about $30 and came from the county. I don't know what the electrical codes are in GA, but you should check first. Sometimes they come from the state, sometimes from your city or county. Not having one shouldn't void your warranty, but if the wiring catches fire you could be liable. Angieslist or the BBB should be able to help you find reputable electricians who are familiar with the local building codes. Get several bids if possible.
Note: If your municipality says you need a permit and the electrician says otherwise, hang up.
--m
I did use an electrician listed on Tesla website. Get multiple quoted. Did cost about 1500 to install the high power wall charger with permit. Also on top of this i have purchased the HPW charger. These things will pay back with time.
Dariushd
Member
in Southern California, mine cost over $1300 with a similar, but straight line, distance to install the Tesla charger. I called and bid 3 electricians and got quotes up to $2200.
I would’ve done it myself, but California offers a rebate of $500 for the charger itself, if installed by a licensed electrician and permitted. So In essence I paid a bunch to get the free charger instead of a plug, but at least that gives me faster charging than a NEMA plug. When/if we sell the house I can convert the line to a plug for the future owners myself, thankfully. But in the end it was a much bigger expense than I hoped and I didn’t kill myself in the process of installing it.
I would’ve done it myself, but California offers a rebate of $500 for the charger itself, if installed by a licensed electrician and permitted. So In essence I paid a bunch to get the free charger instead of a plug, but at least that gives me faster charging than a NEMA plug. When/if we sell the house I can convert the line to a plug for the future owners myself, thankfully. But in the end it was a much bigger expense than I hoped and I didn’t kill myself in the process of installing it.
Get a licensed electrician. If you need to file for a permit, just eat the cost and do everything above board (re: legally). Call around for multiple quotes and ask if they've done these kinds of installs before.
My father-in-law lives in Nassau County (Long Island, NY) and got quoted $1100 for the labor by a licensed electrician.
My thinking is this: you've worked hard for the car, don't cut corners near the finish line. Also, you don't want some unlicensed yahoo doing something that might cause your house to burn to the ground.
I just finished having an electrician install my HPWC, and I did all the prep work and picked up materials (50A breaker, $10 at Home Depot). Took him about 2 hours, but I already had service to my garage. Some notes:
- My electrician said 80A charging should use a 2-2-2-4 cable with copper, rated for 100A of service. For a 100' run that was about $600 in material alone (I have my cable installed in a conduit). I'm going to wait to upgrade until I have 2 electric cars.
- A 14-50 plug can use aluminum wire (which is what I have). I have a 70A breaker going to my garage and a 50A breaker to the HPWC.
- My HPWC is set to 40A, which will allow a full charge in approx 8 hours (~30mph)
- Contact Georgia Power to signup for their EV rate plan, which drops your electrical rate from 11pm- 7am. Sign-up online here.
- Georgia Power will also give you a $250 rebate on the install. Rebate form is here.
- Try Nextdoor for electrician recommendations. My quotes ranged from $200 - $1,500 (but I did all the prep work so my electrician just had to hook everything up).
I paid $1,457 for mine in MD, similar situation as did a friend in NJ.
Agree with all the responses. The only issue with the length of the cable run is voltage loss. You’ll probably have to go up one wire size. Not a biggie. I used a 240v 50 amp breaker and an NEC 50 receptacle. The charging cable that comes with the car can only handle 32 amps-but that’s fine.
cdhowe
Member
One thing my town inspector told me made me very glad my electrician pulled a permit and had the installation inspected.
Few people check in with their insurance company about their electric car charging infrastructure, but should your house burn down as the result of an unlicensed charging system (i.e., one not installed by a licensed electrician and inspected to be in accordance with electrical and fire code), the insurance company can refuse to pay for damages. That's truly the nightmare scenario: you lose your Tesla and your house at the same time, and then your insurance won't even pay for it.
That's just some food for thought if you decide to go the do-it-yourself route: make sure your insurance will still cover any disaster where the electrical work may have been involved.
Few people check in with their insurance company about their electric car charging infrastructure, but should your house burn down as the result of an unlicensed charging system (i.e., one not installed by a licensed electrician and inspected to be in accordance with electrical and fire code), the insurance company can refuse to pay for damages. That's truly the nightmare scenario: you lose your Tesla and your house at the same time, and then your insurance won't even pay for it.
That's just some food for thought if you decide to go the do-it-yourself route: make sure your insurance will still cover any disaster where the electrical work may have been involved.
In my experience, Tesla-recommended electricians use that moniker as a license to overcharge. Yes, they have a combined reputation to maintain and they’ll do good work, but way over market. I’ve now installed HPWCs in two homes and the highly competent non-Tesla electricians did great work for less than half of what the “recommended” guys quoted.
SSonnentag
埃隆•馬斯克
I spent $1000 on materials to make our 75' run for 100A service. Lower amperage wiring is significantly cheaper, but $1500 for both parts and labor doesn't really sound too unreasonable to me. If the cost of the permit is included (which you definitely don't want to skip), it's quite reasonable.
I paid $285 to get it installed to the other side of the 2 car garage including the 60Amp circuit breakers. Either I got a killer deal or the $1500 very unrealistic
FWIW--Already had wiring in my garage on a 50A breaker for my first Tesla. Just paid $690 for that breaker to be upgraded to 60A (wiring to the garage won't support more, and I didn't want to pay for a new run), the existing entry to be split off to the other side of the garage, 2 HPWCs to be installed, and a comms wire to be run between them. I thought that was not a bad price at all.
Yes, manual calls for copper. It was $150 for 30' of 4/3 copper for a 60A circuit from Amazon. For 14-50, you only need 6ga which is about 1/2 the cost, assuming the run is <100'.
If the access is easy (open basement ceiling), it should not matter much how long on the install rate. I would have had mine installed in about 2-3hr if it wasn't for me trying to use the slim mount option (the 4ga is too thick to really do this and is actually a PITA to work with in general). I couldn't imagine paying more than $300, $400 tops, for labor on this, but it seems that I always underestimate what trades people trying to get out of customers.
#DIY
PS: I can't believe that permit is $400. That is neither representative of the effort to validate nor the value of the project. Would a basement finishing cost $15000 to permit?
If the access is easy (open basement ceiling), it should not matter much how long on the install rate. I would have had mine installed in about 2-3hr if it wasn't for me trying to use the slim mount option (the 4ga is too thick to really do this and is actually a PITA to work with in general). I couldn't imagine paying more than $300, $400 tops, for labor on this, but it seems that I always underestimate what trades people trying to get out of customers.
#DIY
PS: I can't believe that permit is $400. That is neither representative of the effort to validate nor the value of the project. Would a basement finishing cost $15000 to permit?
The $1500 quoted price isn't necessarily unreasonable. But you should definitely avoid this guy due to the lies about the warranty.
I also had a run clear across opposite ends of my 2-story house through the attic. $100 for permit, $1175 for parts and labor, $250 for upgrade to my main breaker (some weird code issue unique to my home's configuration). I got another quote that was similar as well.
I also had a run clear across opposite ends of my 2-story house through the attic. $100 for permit, $1175 for parts and labor, $250 for upgrade to my main breaker (some weird code issue unique to my home's configuration). I got another quote that was similar as well.
navguy12
Active Member
Outstanding video, including the background piano music.
I also did my own install of a HPWC back in May 2018.
FWIW: after a year of service, I rechecked the tightness of the connections at the 60 amp CB and at the HPWC.
I was unable to tighten (any more) the connections inside the HPWC.
I was able to tighten (about 10 degrees of arc) the connections at the CB.
Cheers.
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