My Tesla Charger Experience

[AdaKyle]

In prep for my M3LR Feb delivery, I had an electrician install the $550 Tesla charger. Its 50A. He said to go to 60A would require thicker gage wiring, that is really not practical because increase is substantial (cost and more importantly diameter). This electrician company is a fairly large local company. They have installed many chargers in the same manner.

Cost to install $412. Its why I use these electrician's. They don't over charge. I started using them when I had a switch installed for my generator (for power outages). Another local electrician wanted to install a brand new electrical panel, they said was needed. Is was gonna be like $4K if I recall correctly. With the electrician I chose,, it was $600. No new panel needed and it has worked fine for last 10 years.

Point is, shop around. For me, I live in an area considered to be affluent. And some contractors increase the quotes for us. Add the fact that I am installing Tesla charger, can create high quotes. My local friends paid close to $1000 for their install. Maybe they had to run more wire, I am not sure.

My charger is in the front wall in the middle of a 3 stall garage. Conduit running a foot or so up from the floor.

 

[LoudMusic]

Any chance we can get a picture of the breaker box for this circuit?

 

[AdaKyle]

Any chance we can get a picture of the breaker box for this circuit?

You can see the black heavy gage wiring just left of the incoming conduit in the third pick. Funny thing, I noticed they didnt label the new locations as the charger. It currently is labeled as "dead". Because it used to be the circuit where our laundry was, before we moved it to the upstairs. Thanks for asking, I labeled it properly. Although its not hard to spot a 50A breaker.

 

[LoudMusic]

You can see the black heavy gage wiring just left of the incoming conduit in the third pick. Funny thing, I noticed they didnt label the new locations as the charger. It currently is labeled as "dead". Because it used to be the circuit where our laundry was, before we moved it to the upstairs. Thanks for asking, I labeled it properly. Although its not hard to spot a 50A breaker.

Yeah that looks like a pretty typical install. Thanks for sharing!

 

[AdaKyle]

Yeah that looks like a pretty typical install. Thanks for sharing!

Curious if you thought it wasnt a typical install? Its a quite large and well known company in the area. All licensed and do work to local code.

 

[LoudMusic]

Curious if you thought it wasnt a typical install? Its a quite large and well known company in the area. All licensed and do work to local code.

I just thought it was odd that someone wanted to put in a whole new panel and another electrician could use what you had. My family has a retail store and the warehouse space they're using now, which is actually office space, has like four subpanels, even though the main panel and each subsequent subpanel has several empty breaker locations. It struck me as an electrician making up excuses to do more install and charge more money.

 

[AdaKyle]

I just thought it was odd that someone wanted to put in a whole new panel and another electrician could use what you had. My family has a retail store and the warehouse space they're using now, which is actually office space, has like four subpanels, even though the main panel and each subsequent subpanel has several empty breaker locations. It struck me as an electrician making up excuses to do more install and charge more money.

The new main panel replacement was from an electrician less than a mile away. That wasnt for a Tesla charger. That was 10 years ago when I was installing a switch to connect my portable generator. We loose power during ice and wind storms. A generator is a necessity here. That is when I called another electrician, and they said in would be just 600 bucks and they could use the existing panel. So now they are my electrician. And they are 15-20 miles on the other side of town.

I mention all of this to everyone, because it is good to get at least 3 quotes. That is standard at a lot of companies win bidding out work. For my charger I paid 500 dollars less than friends of mine paid for the same installation. Saved 50%. If you live in an expensive neighborhood and drive what some people think is a rich guys car, there is an opportunity to over charge.

I know this is obvious. But it is good to share my experience.