Hello everyone,
I am going to be installing the wall connector myself but want to confirm what wires to go with in what type of conduit. I am going to run around 35' feet as I will be installing the wall connector on the opposite side of my garage that the breaker box is on (two car garage door but one door). Anyone buy the wires locally? Home depot/Lowes?
Thank you!
The two viable options are EMT (metal) or PVC (the grey stuff). I personally vastly prefer the look of EMT. PVC feels kind of amateur to me. Really best used when running conduit in the ground.
You will need THHN wire (usually dual rated as THWN-2 as well). I buy my wire at Home Depot often by the foot for small projects.
You only need two hots and a ground wire. No neutral needed for the Wall Connector so that saves on wire and conduit fill space. For up to a 60a circuit you only need a #10 gauge ground wire. Up to 100a you need 8 awg.
I'd also advise caution, but Darwin awards always needs candidates.
I'd go with #6 Cu THHN, 1" EMT, 60A Breaker
Don't burn anything down.
Two #6 hots and a #10 ground fit in 3/4 EMT just fine. It is only 22.08% filled which is well below the limit. Heck, you can even do two #4's and a #8 in 3/4in conduit. 1" is a more difficult to work with and more expensive, so I would not use it unless you want to run a 100a circuit.
100A breaker, electricians used 2-2-2-4 SER wire on my installation. Beware that there is some anti-oxidizing goop that must be applied to aluminum wire connections.
link to the SER wire at Home Depot.
If your electrician terminated that wire directly into your Wall Connector then he/she made a huge mistake and you need to stop using your Wall Connector until the situation is rectified. The Wall Connector terminals are NOT rated for aluminum wire. Using aluminum wire on terminals not rated for it can be a massive fire danger. Also, what size breaker did they install and what rotary dial / dip switch setting did they use? #2 AWG aluminum is only rated to 90a.
2gauge aluminum won't fit well and Tesla says not to use aluminum.
Aluminum is prone to warming and expansion loosening connections, the high sustained loads of EV charging are perfect for causing this issue hence copper only. 3 gauge copper THHN is rated high enough for 100amps and is I think $.92 a foot at Home Depot. Two of those plus an 8 gauge ground at $.56 a foot.
Aluminum is generally fine these days when using the right connectors, etc... and when installed property, but it certainly is less optimal in several ways than copper. Due to the cost delta between copper and aluminum you will find it used nearly exclusively in power company projects and on all feeders and large circuits in residential. I think due to space limitations and an abundance of caution, Telsa choses to only rate their Wall Connectors for copper out of an abundance of caution. Tesla really does not want bad PR for folks burning their houses down.
@SSedan is correct though, #3 AWG copper THHN with a #8 AWG copper THHN for ground in a 1" EMT conduit is a perfect setup to MAX out a Tesla Wall Connector.
If you only plan to charge a Model 3 (which all today max at 48amps continuous on a 60a circuit) then you could just do #6 AWG with a #10 ground in 3/4 in EMT - this is what I did for my M3. Had I to do it again, I might have done a 100a circuit just to future proof (because why not - overkill is good right?), but my 60a circuit setup is working fantastic. I have a loaner Model S right now with dual chargers in it, and it would be fun to charge at 80a just to try it out. Right now it maxes at 48a naturally.
I could have done #4awg plus #8awg ground in my 3/4in conduit as a mid step (only delta cost is the additional wire, and grunt work to pull it through conduit, and a little up charge on the breaker cost). That would allow 64 amps of continuous charge rate vs. my 48. (but only on Model S or X units appropriately equipped - M3 maxes at 48a no matter the configuration)
Oh, and we have not talked about load calculations. Just because you can run a #3 wire in conduit does not mean your service has enough capacity to support that charging rate. You need to run the NEC load calculations to figure out what it can support. If you post pictures of the gory details of your panel and the sticker on the door, and the list of circuits, and the inside of the panel (if you can do that safely) we might be able to help swag whether you have enough capacity or not.
