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Weighing Tesla-recommended electrician vs non ...

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Fishing the wire seemed like the most time-intensive part of my job ... just make sure you use 6-gauge copper wire.

I don't want to sound too cheap here, but would it be an option for me to simply run the wire from the circuit breaker to the garage and have an electrician do the connections at both ends? Or is it more complicated that that? For me that sounds like the bulk of the labor. I would never trust myself to do wiring but if it is a matter of fishing 40-Amp wire through the wall I can do that easily enough. But at the same time, I don't want to be pound-wise, penny-foolish either.

Thanks.
 
I don't want to sound too cheap here, but would it be an option for me to simply run the wire from the circuit breaker to the garage and have an electrician do the connections at both ends? Or is it more complicated that that? For me that sounds like the bulk of the labor. I would never trust myself to do wiring but if it is a matter of fishing 40-Amp wire through the wall I can do that easily enough. But at the same time, I don't want to be pound-wise, penny-foolish either.

Thanks.
That should be OK and is a pretty decent idea, as long as you're doing it the right way. There are some code requirements of certain types of wire that are OK for running inside walls and others that can't and need to be outside of walls in conduit, etc. But that is kind of the good thing about doing that part of it yourself; you have the time. Read up on it, and make sure you know what you need to use and how to do it, and then you can take your time to do it well, while you're not paying someone else some high rate per hour to do it.
 
I don't want to sound too cheap here, but would it be an option for me to simply run the wire from the circuit breaker to the garage and have an electrician do the connections at both ends? Or is it more complicated that that? For me that sounds like the bulk of the labor. I would never trust myself to do wiring but if it is a matter of fishing 40-Amp wire through the wall I can do that easily enough. But at the same time, I don't want to be pound-wise, penny-foolish either.

Thanks.
Yes, definitely. Talk to your electrician beforehand, both so that you know what exactly to do, and as a way to negotiate your final cost. I did this, end ended up pulling the wires from the panel to the garage (in the crawl space under the house), installing the 14-50 outlet, and a pair of 120v GFI outlets next to it while I was at it (almost no cost), etc. I even did those connections, with his review, and took pictures of the hidden stuff to show him. All ok. (I used #4 wire instead of #6, so an upgrade beyond the 14-50 won't require rewiring, just a breaker and EVSE swap.)

The overall job included a panel upgrade (too small, out of slots, and a "Zinsco brand" - look it up), so helped out as manual labor for that too. Given how much time I spent crawling under the house, I probably cut the cost of the job by a third to a half, overall.
 
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