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I don't like electricians

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I wish I was more comfortable with the electrical stuff. We had my wife's HPWC installed into an existing subpanel in my my garage. It is a 200amp subpanel so we just needed her 100amp breaker put in, wires run on the outside of the drywall about 7 feet through conduit to the HPWC. Really couldn't be simpler and while the cost of wire, breaker and conduit maybe would be $200, the initial quote was $1200! I complained and spoke with the company owner and since I am a return customer (they'd done my original HPWC install which was WAY more complicated and involved installing the new subpanel) for $2000 he dropped the price to $600, which I thought was still about $200 or more too high, but he was there and I was tired so we paid it.

It is pretty infuriating that they charge so much.
 
I'm just pissed how some electricians think they can rip you off. Most people are clueless about electrical stuff and scared of it's dangers so they blindly accept whatever the 'expert' says.

Totally. I always ignore the "experts" because they're always lying and just trying to jack up the price. I mean, I know liability insurance is crazy expensive for small businesses, but jeez. Its always amazing what's actually possible if you don't have to worry about the liability and safety of the work you do.

</sarcasm>

Seriously though, happy you at very least got permits and got it inspected. I would still not post such a story on a public forum, or at least not in the way you laid it out. The work being done here has the potential to be very dangerous. Its one thing to write a how-to of something potentially dangerous and put in appropriate warnings and cautions, its another to write a post disparaging a construction trade and showing how you beat the system and showed them how easy it was to do it yourself, without mentioning the potential hazards you exposed yourself to and the potential hazards you just built into your home. If you really do understand electricity, then please explain to the readers exactly what they should be cautious about in such an installation, why your installation was safe, what might make their installation not so safe, and (if you know) why electricians are required to be licensed.

I'm not saying the electrician you contacted was perfect: sounded like he glossed over your details and provided pretty crappy customer service. However, danger is still danger, and just because the guy you contacted gave you a crappy offer doesn't remove the danger.

And just an FYI: if your house does catch fire because of an overloaded feeder, good luck getting the city or whatever jurisdiction inspected it to take responsibility for your installation. And hope your insurance company doesn't know you post on this forum.
 
FWIW I DIY my HPWC install. Permit fee was $50 and supplies (breaker, BX 10/2, etc) was $89. Mind you that was for a 30A connection. But still, cheap. If you can DIY safely, do it. 24A continous @ 240V gives me a full charge every morning.
 
That would be interesting. My experience was similar somewhat since the Tesla recommended electrician was 2x higher than another local guy (recommended from my HVAC service company owner). The first obviously know before-hand it was a Tesla since I contacted him via the Tesla we-site; the other guy I told him I wanted a NEMA 14-50 in the garage. He assumed it was for a car since I did not need to put another dryer in the garage! :)
 
... And just an FYI: if your house does catch fire because of an overloaded feeder, good luck getting the city or whatever jurisdiction inspected it to take responsibility for your installation. And hope your insurance company doesn't know you post on this forum.
What a load of FUD. Getting the permit and inspection is all he's required to do to satisfy liability insurance requirements.
 
Can anyone provide proof for an insurance company not paying a claim, because, there was no permit for work done? If they don't inspect the house, before, insuring it, they don't know what they are insuring. I have never seen a house that is completely to code and most have work that was done without a permit. As a mater of fact, insurance companies are guilty of having work done without permits all the time. I have had three different insurance companies, arrange and pay for repairs on two house on three different occasions and there was never a permit.
 
It's upside down, no? Ground should be up.

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Great thread! Glad you did it yourself and had no problems. I've done more and more myself as I've learned from doing and from reading this forum. Its hard to find a reasonable electrician - when I first got my Volt in 2011 I was scammed into buying an entirely new breaker box! Its just like car mechanics and everything else - finding a good honest tradesman is extremely difficult, and its getting worse, at least in my experience. Your example of a $200 dollar difference between 30 amp and 50 amp when the distance was 2 ft is a perfect example. Again, fantastic post!
 
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What a load of FUD. Getting the permit and inspection is all he's required to do to satisfy liability insurance requirements.

Can anyone provide proof for an insurance company not paying a claim, because, there was no permit for work done? If they don't inspect the house, before, insuring it, they don't know what they are insuring. I have never seen a house that is completely to code and most have work that was done without a permit. As a mater of fact, insurance companies are guilty of having work done without permits all the time. I have had three different insurance companies, arrange and pay for repairs on two house on three different occasions and there was never a permit.

I'm just playing the devil's advocate. My own personal experience with insurance companies tells me that they are going to try harder to NOT pay a claim than to actually pay it.

As I mentioned in my post: I'm fine with people posting the how-to's, but I think these things should be accompanied with "This is dangerous stuff, bad stuff can happen if you do this wrong, you can kill yourself doing this, you can burn your house down, etc", rather than "Got an outrageous quote from an idiot electrician, so I showed him and did it myself for cheap."

Not only can someone easily hurt themselves doing this stuff, or burn their house down, I'd prefer to see as few stories in the media about a house burning down because of an electric car charging.

I'm a huge fan of DIY, but I have immense respect for dangerous things. This is potentially dangerous. Just sayin.
 
Great thread! Glad you did it yourself and had no problems. I've done more and more myself as I've learned from doing and from reading this forum. Its hard to find a reasonable electrician - when I first got my Volt in 2011 I was scammed into buying an entirely new breaker box! Its just like car mechanics and everything else - finding a good honest tradesman is extremely difficult, and its getting worse, at least in my experience. Your example of a $200 dollar difference between 30 amp and 50 amp when the distance was 2 ft is a perfect example. Again, fantastic post!

I think that's what the frustration is. The actual work is very simple and straight forward. I have done countless electrical work in my life and learned from some mistakes. I know exactly where my limits are and what things to look out for. In this case I would have happily payed an electrician to do it as I was very busy with other things. I know they have to make money after they pay all of their overhead. I'm running two businesses myself I know how it works. Labor is worth more than the time doing the job. All the experience that goes into being able to do the work quick and safe needs to be payed for as well. What I can't deal with is being treated like I know nothing and think they can fool me. I don't think all electricians work that way, though. I would have called the next one to get another quote, but after looking at the panel for a few minutes I saw the solution so I didn't even bother.
 
So do you just not like electricians at all, like your thread title states? Or do you not like over charging electricians?

I have the same reaction to plumbers (over charging ones). I got a quote from a plumber to change my garbage disposal (he was there for something else). To replace my existing disposal with the exact same model, he was going to charge me over $800. I said never mind, bought the same model on Amazon for about $150, got it in two days and installed it in an hour. Probably would have taken a plumber 15-20 minutes since they would have the right tools, that darn ring took me 30 minutes to put on.

I've also had my water heater go out and they charged me over $1200 to replace it.
 
I know some good ones, and I know some bad ones. Just like I have good family members, and I have bad family members. True for nearly anything in life.

Get multiple quotes, be informed, and ask what they'll do. You don't have to question them on wire size and type, conduit size, etc., etc., etc. But at least understand how they plan to accomplish their work and what they'll cost you.
 
What upset me is that he hardly looked at what would really be required, what the amount of work really was in my case. Instead he pulled out a binder with standard price quotes. There was a $200-300 difference between a 30 Amp and 50 Amp installation. That makes no sense if you need a total of 3 feet of cables. He didn't even take the inside cover off the panel to see what is really hooked up and how to put the wires through the wall. He quoted me the prices without much looking. Only after I asked, 'hey is there even enough room for another 50 Amp breaker' he jumped on the $1300 extra for the sub panel and re-wiring. If he comes out to a house to make a quote I expect him to look at what amount of work actually needs to be done, not just standard prices. I expect him to give me options and alternatives. He didn't even see (or maybe he didn't want to see) the free slot.

Had he given me a fair quote based on the actual work he needs to do and given me some alternatives, I would have just hired him on the spot. I was busy with so many other things moving. But because he didn't, I looked closer myself and saw there is a very simple and perfectly safe solution I could easily do myself.
Playing devils advocate most tradesmen will charge some standard rate for a job no matter how hard or easy the job is, the $200 difference between 30amp and 50amp was probably a basic difference they charge because of material price difference based on some standard length run. I'll bet this was a larger electrical company and the estimator was quoting their published rates. If you were talking to a solo licensed electrician I'm sure there would have been some more accurate pricing and wiggle room on the quote.