Necessity of using Tesla electrician

[sashner]

How critical is it to use the Tesla recommended electrician for the HPWC? I have a regular electrician who works on my house (has many subpanels, ATS for generators and other equipment) and he is most familiar with what I have/don't have in terms of capacity for a 100 amp circuit. In short, is it a requirement that I use Tesla's required installer or just a recommendation?

 

[Max*]

Recommendation.

 

[msnow]

I got quotes from two of the Tesla recommended electricians and my own electrician. They were all competitive but the Tesla guys seemed to know more about what I needed and where it should go to give me the most flexibility plus the permit.

 

[TexasEV]

No reason at all to use an electrician that Tesla recommended. Any licensed electrician who can read directions can install a HPWC, and most are less expensive than the Tesla recommended ones.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Not at all critical. Any licensed electrician should work.

 

[Earthdog]

No reason at all. I work for an EVSE and installer and zero reason.

 

[Doug_G]

No reason, except electricians that have never done an EVSE before may be inclined to massively overcharge. When I got my original Roadster charger I got four quotes, and the highest was 3X the lowest. (I didn't like the proposal for the lowest so I went with the second-lowest.)

 

[CHG-ON]

No reason at all. It's a simple wiring job. Any licensed electrician can do it.

 

[Rockster]

I just looked on Angie's List and found a well regarded local electrician. He even had a coupon.

 

[DCGOO]

I installed it myself. Mostly anyway, I needed a bit of help from my son on the other end of the conduit.

 

[FlasherZ]

Occasionally we hear a story of a non Tesla electrician failing to set the HPWC DIP switches or provisioning the circuit for only 80A rating (64A charging) instead of the 100A rating required for 80A charging. Most, however, do just fine.

Tesla requires that its listed electricians follow its guidelines, whereas others may take shortcuts (e.g., using #4 for 100A because 310.17 allows it for 100A service drops). This is probably more of a concern in areas without inspections.

 

[511keV]

Yes, any licensed electrician can do the work. My cousin, the family's master electrician, has a well established but small client base and he said mine was the third HPWC that he's installed over the summer and had a couple of more scheduled but was awaiting delivery of the HPWCs themselves. I watched the installation and it is quite straight forward. You should feel free to use any well regarded electrician.

 

[pedriscoll]

I just used my usual electrician. Did a fine job at a reasonable price.

 

[Fezzik]

I did the job myself. Two quotes were 5 grand and 9 grand. This was two runs at 100' and 175 '. I said screw it and did it. Took 4 days and 1500 in materials

 

[AmpedRealtor]

My solar guys installed my HPWC. I made sure they read the installation instructions thoroughly and looked at the specifications. I watched them!