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Got a call this AM that the electrical inspector was coming out to inspect the HPWC install. Gave me a whopping 3 hours notice and I can't get home from work but thankfully the wife is home to let him into the garage. All I've gotten over text so far from my wife:
"This guy has never even seen one of these let alone inspected one."
"He's got the instruction manual out trying to figure out how to open it up."
"He's shocked that it is 100Amps"
"He keeps asking me questions and I obviously have NO idea."
Oh boy...not feeling very good about this...hopefully he can't screw it up!
"This guy has never even seen one of these let alone inspected one."
"He's got the instruction manual out trying to figure out how to open it up."
"He's shocked that it is 100Amps"
"He keeps asking me questions and I obviously have NO idea."
Oh boy...not feeling very good about this...hopefully he can't screw it up!
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
I see what you did there.....
Afraid I'm going to have a similar experience. Doubt any of the inspectors around here have seen an EV, much less a HPWC.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
It's finally done!
Well, after much stressing and even more waiting, my HPWC was finally installed on Monday! It only cost a little over $3600. :scared:
Hopefully, it will actually work when I get my car in a couple weeks. My electrician did good work but he doesn't read instructions.
I had to inform him about the HPWC's internal dip switches and how to set them appropriately (I only had room for a 70A breaker). Also had to perform the Test Mode check myself after they left. All good there, fortunately.
In the future I may upgrade to a 90A breaker since the cable run is only about 8 feet. What size of wire does that require?
Well, after much stressing and even more waiting, my HPWC was finally installed on Monday! It only cost a little over $3600. :scared:
Hopefully, it will actually work when I get my car in a couple weeks. My electrician did good work but he doesn't read instructions.
I had to inform him about the HPWC's internal dip switches and how to set them appropriately (I only had room for a 70A breaker). Also had to perform the Test Mode check myself after they left. All good there, fortunately.In the future I may upgrade to a 90A breaker since the cable run is only about 8 feet. What size of wire does that require?
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90A breaker requires #3 assuming breakers with termination rating 75 degC. If you have room in the panel's load calculation, with the same wire size you could go straight to 100A rather than 90A.
Obsoletion
Member
I don't want to rain on the parade either, but that is REALLY high for that... and I'm not even sure that is a legal install. Can you take a pic of the white writing on the supply wiring - i zoomed in but can't read it.
What's not legal about it?
EDIT: The photo down-thread shows that it's not conduit but XLPE cable, will talk about it there.
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Well, after much stressing and even more waiting, my HPWC was finally installed on Monday! It only cost a little over $3600. :scared:
Hopefully, it will actually work when I get my car in a couple weeks. My electrician did good work but he doesn't read instructions.
In the future I may upgrade to a 90A breaker since the cable run is only about 8 feet. What size of wire does that require?
Well it sure is purdy. Maybe not $3600 purdy! I had a 100amp put in and the corresponding wiring but then the electrician set it for 40amps despite my discussing the dip switches and asking for the 80 amp setting. I changed it up myself.
Can't remember what it cost now - I'm having basement work done and he did the HPWC as part of that work. If I find out I paid more than you, I'll let you know so you can feel better.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
Indeed. In fairness, that wasn't just for the HPWC. I only had 40A running to my garage, so I had to upgrade the subpanel in the house (with all new breakers because you can't buy compatible panels for the breakers that were in it anymore), run a new 100A underground line to the garage, and rewire the garage panel. Plus I had them run a 14-50 connection in the garage as backup.
I would LOVE that but the garage service is only 100A and I have to share it with a 20kW heater. Might technically be doable but the electrician wouldn't okay it for install.
As requested:
Of course, the overhead lighting reflected right over part of the text.
I believe the covered part reads: "AG14 FT1 FT4 HL"
Canada-only cable--CEC/CSA allows some neat stuff we can't use in the US. Can't speak to the legality in Canada but in the US that would be good to 52A continuous charging (65A with continuous overhead) on a 70A breaker.
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20 kW is 83A @ 240V and that's a pretty serious load (my house's emergency heat strips are only 12.5 kW for the entire home!)... 20A perhaps? In that case, he'd probably require you use the 80A setting which would allow for 64A charging and would require #4 cable, if your feeder is 100A.
That TECK90 cable is incredibly expensive. I'm surprised he didn't use standard conduit and THHN wire.
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20 kW is 83A @ 240V and that's a pretty serious load (my house's emergency heat strips are only 12.5 kW for the entire home!)... 20A perhaps? In that case, he'd probably require you use the 80A setting which would allow for 64A charging and would require #4 cable, if your feeder is 100A.
That TECK90 cable is incredibly expensive. I'm surprised he didn't use standard conduit and THHN wire.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
Heh heh, you're absolutely right, Flasher. That would be one mother of a heater. I did mean 20A. Geez, I'm usually good with that kind of thing.
I think the stress of waiting for my car must have aged me prematurely. Yeah, that must be it.:wink:
Regarding the cable; they didn't really give me an option. They did run conduit for the 14-50 plug though. Maybe they didn't bring the right conduit size with them or something. They used that armored stuff in the house (1/0 AWG) and for the underground run in the yard feeding the garage (1 AWG) too.
Do you think I could go with a 90A breaker if I used #3 cable? The combination of the two devices should only draw 92A of the 100 (72 + 20), right? I could always manually turn down the current (either in the car or the HPWC) in the winter when the heater kicks on if it starts tripping the breaker. The 80A is a safer bet, but it doesn't really add enough juice to justify the expense of changing it out.
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For those who have electric charing stations and have the ability to monitor their station and charging amount; please review my thread: EVSE Monitoring Hardware / Software
I am trying to install a monitoring system to track KW usage.
I am trying to install a monitoring system to track KW usage.
Reviving this thread because I wanted to post my cost to have HPWC installed. I added dual chargers at the last minute. It was an expensive decision. I know I could still go with the NEMA outlet and not utilize high charge rates at home, but...
Anyway my quote is $1426 for option A which involves cutting a hole in an interior plaster wall to run the line to the ceiling and then to the garage (Note: as luck has it, the breaker box is as far away from the garage as you can get in my house). Then I'd have to have the wall repaired and repainted. Plaster guy says he'd have to do the whole wall for it to look right with the sand texture. And I just had this area painted not 3 mos ago. This is too much hassle and would probably end up costing more than option B.
Option B is running conduit up the exterior of my house (vinyl siding on the least visible side which already has the electric meter and pool equipment) to the soffit and then through an attic space. Probably a bit of an exterior eyesore. This is $1946.
Electrician says the NEMA would be significantly less both labor and materials because smaller cable is easier to handle and cheaper. I didn't have him give me an exact quote. I'm guessing about half the price or 2/3.
I'm going with option B, but it has added significant expense to my car and was sort of a last minute decision on stuff I probably didn't need and don't know if it's really worth it. $1500 twin chargers + ~$100 added tax to car + $1200 HPWC + $1926 Electrical work = $4726.
Anyway my quote is $1426 for option A which involves cutting a hole in an interior plaster wall to run the line to the ceiling and then to the garage (Note: as luck has it, the breaker box is as far away from the garage as you can get in my house). Then I'd have to have the wall repaired and repainted. Plaster guy says he'd have to do the whole wall for it to look right with the sand texture. And I just had this area painted not 3 mos ago. This is too much hassle and would probably end up costing more than option B.
Option B is running conduit up the exterior of my house (vinyl siding on the least visible side which already has the electric meter and pool equipment) to the soffit and then through an attic space. Probably a bit of an exterior eyesore. This is $1946.
Electrician says the NEMA would be significantly less both labor and materials because smaller cable is easier to handle and cheaper. I didn't have him give me an exact quote. I'm guessing about half the price or 2/3.
I'm going with option B, but it has added significant expense to my car and was sort of a last minute decision on stuff I probably didn't need and don't know if it's really worth it. $1500 twin chargers + ~$100 added tax to car + $1200 HPWC + $1926 Electrical work = $4726.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
Did you at least get a full 100A circuit (80A for HPWC) out of the deal? I paid almost twice what you were quoted and could only run a 70A circuit!
As you've discovered, installing the HPWC can be quite pricey, depending on the layout of your home and your existing electrical service.
I'm still glad I went for it as the HPWC is very nice and works great, but the installation cost was definitely a tough pill to swallow.
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
The real gain from dual chargers is when road tripping and you use a High Amp L2 (HAL2) charger. There are more HAL2 places to charge than most people realize, including Tesla Service Centers and Showrooms, The Sun Country Highway, personal and destination HPWCs, etc. Once you spend the money for the dual chargers, which I highly recommend to any potential MS buyer, there is a separate decision on whether to install an HPWC at home. After 15 months of no HPWC at my second home in Boulder, I installed one, mainly for reliability and connivence. I already had a 14-50 that I used with a UMC. Making this a much easier decision was the fact that I had a garage panel that was only 35 feet of conduit away from where the HPWC went. I am very happy that I installed the HPWC, but only very rarely charge at the full 80 Amps. I usually charge at 56 Amps to cut resistive heating in half, and test both chargers on a regular basis.
Remember that the HPWC can be set to lower circuit breaker settings, and you don't have to pull the largest wire. Check with your electrician and verify local code, but here are the choices that should meet code, and I would have your electrician price out. These are a lot of choices, but if he has the distances, etc figured out, it should not take much time to give you some comparisons.
- HPWC, 100 Amp Circuit Breaker, #3 wire, 80 Amp charging. You will probably spend an hour or two more for the electrician if he uses #2 wire in addition to the cost of the wire. #2 is a real pain to route inside the HPWC.
- HPWC, 90 Amp Circuit Breaker, #4 wire, 72 Amp Charging.
- HPWC, 60 Amp Circuit Breaker, #6 wire, 48 Amp Charging. With the right insulation and inspector, you might even be able to push this to 56 Amp Charging on a 70 Amp CB.
- 14-50, 50 Amp Circuit Breaker, #6 wire, 40 Amp charging.
- 14-30, 30 Amp Circuit Breaker, #8 wire, 24 Amp Charging.
The last two choices, 14-50 and 14-30, have the wire size bigger than you need, but at this point, with your long run and the relatively small wire, you probably want a little extra buffer against the 25% current reduction trigger in the MS.
With the prices in hand, you can decide how important that last bit of home charging speed is to you. Home charging is usually overnight, so very high speed charging is not a big issue. Personally, I would probably put in the HPWC with #4 wire and 72 Amp charging, then normally charge at 50 Amps unless I needed the speed.
Good Luck!
I have an HPWC set up for 80A charging, use it every night and am very happy with it. It was an easy decision for me because the HPWC is installed just three feet from my 200A panel. My electrician did have to install a 100A sub panel because my main panel was pretty full and because I also wanted a 50A / 240V plug installed (for my next EV .
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