"thousands of dollars" to install 220v line in condo building

[twonius]

I just had an electrician come out to quote running a 220 line from my condo's panel to to my garage (garage is below the unit).

He didn't even want to touch it, said it would be at least $4k which was driven more by running the conduit than any panel upgrades.

This seems a bit surprising. Getting another quote later this week but for that money we might as well put in a commercial unit for the whole building.

 

[azdryheat]

I would get another quote. I had almost 100 feet of trenching and it was $1000. But in AZ, not SoCal.

 

[KJD]

For any major electrical work you should get at least 3 different bids and then decide.

However the price could have been a lot worse than that.
$13k for EV Charger @ Condo - Should I do it?

 

[twonius]

For any major electrical work you should get at least 3 different bids and then decide.

However the price could have been a lot worse than that.
$13k for EV Charger @ Condo - Should I do it?

Yeah i had a friend get a similar quote for an EV charger in his newbuild condo.

My guess is they're figuring you'll just check the box because relative to the total outlay it's so small and you'll really want it plus you're financing it over XX years at a good rate and view it as increasing the value of the condo (so it's not really consumption right? )

 

[chmoss]

I was quoted $2500 in a condo. Needed to install a new meter. I stuck with the 110v that was in place. So far works just fine for my usage pattern. I get 4 miles per hour of recharge time, ie about 50 miles/night. More than enough for me.

 

[twonius]

I was quoted $2500 in a condo. Needed to install a new meter. I stuck with the 110v that was in place. So far works just fine for my usage pattern. I get 4 miles per hour of recharge time, ie about 50 miles/night. More than enough for me.

Yeah i have a 110 in my garage as well that's already on my meter. Only spits out about 5A since it's shared with one of the bedrooms.

Putting that on its own breaker would probably be a good low(er) cost alternative.

 

[ewoodrick]

Have you checked with the condo management for permission to install?
Commercial installations are indeed expensive. Conduits just add to the cost.

 

[twonius]

Have you checked with the condo management for permission to install?
Commercial installations are indeed expensive. Conduits just add to the cost.

I'm getting a quote to see if before I proceed.

But it's a small building (5 units) and I'm on the board.

We have private garages in the basement though. So this isn't like putting in a chargepoint or something.

 

[twonius]

Another one I'm looking in to is SDG&E's program for multi family buildings. Free is better than cheap.

 

[mociaf9]

You could also convert an existing 120V circuit going to the garage into a 240V 20A circuit then use a NEMA 6-20 adapter with the UMC. Though, seeing as you have an S60, you might have the Gen 1 UMC and I think Tesla only sells those adapters for the Gen 2 UMC. But doing that would allow charging at up to ~3.8 kW (240V * 16A continuous). That's about the best you can do for a "low cost" option that is still workable for people who drive their cars much at all. You shouldn't need to rewire much, except to isolate it on its own circuit so it isn't tied to anything else in the garage that you didn't want on 240V. But the existing wires in place should be able to support that just fine (though ask your qualified electrician to be sure if you're not).

 

[twonius]

had another electrician come out. It ended up being 4 guys for an hour brainstorming this one.

What they came up with was running a new sub panel for my unit which would enable 50A service to the garage.
50' conduit run into the garage

$3400. which is basically what I spend on charging in 7 years.

now if I'm going that deep I'll probably check if anyone else in the building is thinking of going EV because 50A is serious overkill for my charging needs but I can see the value in future-proofing if you're going to do the work anyway.

I checked into incentives but it seems the best thing out there is subsidized financing.

 

[markb1]

It's not totally clear what the problem is that requires an hour of brainstorming. Is it a long or tricky conduit run? Does it require trenching? I don't see what problem a 50A subpanel would solve, either. Where's the main panel in relation to your garage?

 

[twonius]

I think they were trying to figure out what was the best place to pull it from and see where they'd need to come through the wall from. But yeah it was a bit excessive. They called in a couple senior guys at the end and they figured it out in 5 minutes.

Tesla just dropped in 24 supercharger stalls 2 miles from my house and I've got charging at work so I think I may just back burner this until next year or if someone else wants to split the cost.