I recently received an official quote from Tesla for a wall charger home installation. Total cost is $1500 --> $1000 for installation service and $500 for "main panel insert". Does anyone know what this "main panel insert" is? Is this essentially just a sub-panel? Also, is the $1500 total cost (not including wall charger) reasonable?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Tesla Wall Charger Installation Quote
- Thread starter colorbynumber
- Start date
electricpepper
Member
It depends where you are located and the complexity of the installation. Most electrians will want pictures of your breaker panel to see what they are working with first and assess the costs. The charger I received can only be hardwired into the panel and requires adding a 60 amp switch into the panel, the work was done in an hour and a half and the fee with inspection and a permit was $1000 but have heard lower and higher. I picked the middle bid that has experience with Tesla wall chargers and a good reputation.
I'm located in the Bay Area (San Jose). This was an official quote from Tesla and I did send pictures of my current panel. I'm also in the process of installing solar and Powerwall to my house so they had all the pics handy.
I'm curious as to what the "main panel insert" is. Is that essentially just a sub-panel with a switch to separate from main panel?
I'm curious as to what the "main panel insert" is. Is that essentially just a sub-panel with a switch to separate from main panel?
Do you have two free adjacent breaker slots in your existing panel? And how far is your panel from your charger location? I did this myself for about $100 in parts but I had two feee adjacent breaker slots and my mounting location was less than 20 feet away. Most professional installs I’ve seen were less than $500 for similar jobs.
Odds are a local electrician can do it for less. To cross an unfinished basement and cross to the far corner of the garage, we were quoted $700-800 (can’t be exact because it was combined with other work). That seems to be the range for two others I know here who got installs. (For all work done, not counting the wall unit itself.) I’ve only heard of Tesla quoting $1000-1500.
I am in the Houston,TX area and that’s what I paid for my installation. Tesla did an excellent job and installing it including all painting, panel insert. They did an outstanding job. The installation included a city permit and the city inspector that came to check the work said everything was perfect to code.
Seems like a lot. I paid $640 in SoCal for a NEMA 14-50 outlet installation with permits. Had I gone with the Tesla charger, it would have been $50.00 more. I only have a 100 amp panel and in the end I could only have a 50A breaker (code) installed which means less that maximum charge rate had I gone with the Tesla charger.
Runebane
Member
I paid around $800 here in the central valley. But we had the electrician run it about 25' away from the panel to get both cars able to charge. One thing to research is if PG&E will reimburse you for installation. SCE does but you'll need to get a copy of their license to send in with it.
Lhshockey24
Member
What is the "panel insert"? I've been asking this question to my sales rep but have not been able to get a straight reply.
I'm getting solar + powerwall installed at the same time. Do I really need to pay for that panel insert separately?
Over here "main panel insert" is usually a type EV or type B RCD if the main RCD is a type A (even a small DC leak can make a type A RCD non-functional making your home more dangerous), overvoltage protection and a circuit breaker.
But I'm in Europe, with a very different typical electric installation.
But I'm in Europe, with a very different typical electric installation.
eprosenx
Active Member
I wonder if you have an old dangerous electrical panel. There are some manufacturers that make drop in replacements (that go into the same metal box) to replace all the guts of the box.
Perhaps if you post a picture of the panel with the door open and all the stickers we might be able to provide a clue.
Also, it may be helpful if you can post a copy of the quote (redacted for location if you would like).
Prices are all over the board. Much of it depends on complexity of install, but then there is an element of what they think they can charge.
I just helped a friend buy supplies for his Wall Connector install tonight. $69.62 in parts at Home Depot and we bought more than was really necessary just in case. Of course his install is the simplest you could possibly get, but it just goes to show how stupid cheap things are when you know what you are doing.
Basically we are going to bend a single 10’ stick of 3/4 in EMT to go direct from his panel to the Wall Connector. Two #6’s, one #10 ground (technically we could probably use the conduit as the ground) and a handful of fittings, straps, and screws and my friend will be in business.
Similar threads
