Where to place my NEMA 14-50?

[crouch]

I’m new to Tesla charging and have an electrician coming early next week to install a NEMA 14-50 outlet in my two car garage. However, I’m not sure where it should go and am hoping for some advice.

The garage doesn’t have a center post so I can’t put it there.

The electrical panel is along the left side of the house in the basement.

I have to park my Model 3 on the right side (our other car is a minivan that needs the longer left side). However, I have young kids and it’s a busy garage so I don’t love the idea of a charging cable coming from the left, across the minivan spot, and into my Model 3 (or of navigating around the minivan to get the charging cable every night and replace it every morning).

Backing into the right side of the garage would be a pain in the neck and also would put the car’s charging port in a tough part of the garage to access (the back corners of the garage are tough to reach).

I believe installing the NEMA 14-50 on the right also would be much more expensive since further from the breaker (see diagram), correct?

Is there a good solution to install the outlet on the front left of the garage but with some type of overhead hooks/pulley system just above where the Model 3 charge port would be (or would installing the new outlet on the front right make more sense)? How about installing it in the ceiling near the garage door opener? Any other ideas/thoughts from those with experience?

 

[P85_DA]

Why not an HPWC (24.5) between the cars in front ? Than u can run cable straight back to charge port

 

[P85_DA]

Other option is keeping 14-50 in front left or center of garage and using an extension like this with overhead hooks to your UMC ..this will give you same or greater distance than 24.5 HPWC Heavy-duty NEMA 14-50R extension cord for Tesla, 20 ft.

IMO the cabling cost from 14-50 to what is needed for HPWC should be minimal and the HPWC is a cleaner solution

 

[thecloud]

Since you have young kids, you probably won't want the charging cable running across the floor at the end of the steps. Your thought of installing it on the ceiling near the garage door opener sounds like a good one to me. There have been other posts here (with pictures) by owners who've done the same thing, pulling the cable down with a retracting pulley mechanism. I'll update this post if I can find some.

Edit: here are the posts I was thinking of:
Retractable cord reel for the Model S?
Tool Balancer: My new favorite home charger hack

Another interesting idea is to have a hinged arm that can swing out from the wall:
Organize your UMC!

And another one, using stroller wheels:

 

[P85_DA]

@thecloud heres good one Tesla HPWC Garage Install

 

[Thunder7ga]

I have a setup where the DOOR to the house from the garage is similar to your's where the stairs/door is. I ended up putting my 14-50 on the wall between the 2 cars to the left of the stairs. I thought it would be a big trip hazard when actually charging, but it hasn't really been a big deal.

 

[d21mike]

View attachment 320708
The garage doesn’t have a center post so I can’t put it there.
The electrical panel is along the left side of the house in the basement.
I believe installing the NEMA 14-50 on the right also would be much more expensive since further from the breaker (see diagram), correct?

I have a three car garage so I do have a poll in the center. Like you it was better for me to park on the right side (but mostly in the middle so we put the charging cable in the middle poll. The "extra" cost to run conduit to the center of the garage was about $400. I think if I were you I would run it to right side of the garaged positioned behind the back tires (ie. towards the garage entrance). Maybe extra $500 depending on where you live? But it is a 1 time cost Then you can pull the cord directly behind the tires for the plugin. And you still have one of the options to go over the car with some system.

Another option is to park the VAN in the driveway until you can replace it with another Tesla

 

[Need]

I have a setup where the DOOR to the house from the garage is similar to your's where the stairs/door is. I ended up putting my 14-50 on the wall between the 2 cars to the left of the stairs. I thought it would be a big trip hazard when actually charging, but it hasn't really been a big deal.

It does seem like it would be a tripping hazard especially when there is a van parking on the left side. When you are unloading the van, you could have grocery bag carrying just below eye level and won't see the ground. I can just see a kid helping with the bags trip and face planted on the stairs.

 

[Rocky_H]

I'm going to with what @d21mike said. I would run it in conduit across the garage ceiling to that right wall and have it near the back right of the car, and I would probably do a wall connector anyway so that you can have the 24 foot cord to have a good amount of length to get across the back of the car and plugged in. And besides, with a long run like that, you can do only two conductors for the wall connector, instead of having to run that extra unused conducting wire for the Neutral that a 14-50 outlet has to have, so you save a little bit on the wire cost.

 

[ewoodrick]

If you ever see a AT&T truck stopped, you will see them set out cones. You will never see then pulled in straight to a perpendicular parking spot, they will always be backed in. Studies from many years ago showed that this was by far safer, and with small kids, it is so much safer that you pull out of the garage forward instead of backward.

So back in and the plug will be in the right place.

 

[eprosenx]

If you ever see a AT&T truck stopped, you will see them set out cones. You will never see then pulled in straight to a perpendicular parking spot, they will always be backed in. Studies from many years ago showed that this was by far safer, and with small kids, it is so much safer that you pull out of the garage forward instead of backward.

So back in and the plug will be in the right place.

Yeah, you have to back up in one direction, so why not just do it when parking?

I do this exact thing in my driveway (since I park the car outside). That is he only way the cord would reach from my Wall Connector.

 

[Rocky_H]

Studies from many years ago showed that this was by far safer, and with small kids, it is so much safer that you pull out of the garage forward instead of backward.

There--I marked the important part. That used to be the case, but that information has been superseded and reversed by the invention of backup cameras.

The given info is that you sit mostly toward the front of the vehicle, let's say with one third of it in front of you and two thirds behind you. If you have to look directly into the area you are going to go, you need line of sight, and yes, backing in and then pulling out forward would give you a better angle to see around the car in front of you. Your eyes aren't on the front bumper, though, so I find I still need to pull forward blindly into the aisle a few feet to get my eyes enough line of sight to see around the end of the pickup or SUV that is next to me.

Backup cameras change this situation entirely. The wide fish-angle lenses they use let you see 180 degrees up and down the aisle from the back bumper of the car before the car ever starts to move at all. So with cars that have backup cameras, pulling in forward and then backing out actually is safer than backing in to the spaces.

But yes, big AT&T work trucks are larger and more boxy and have bigger blind spots and may or may not have backup cameras, so they will continue to back in probably.

 

[crouch]

Thanks to all who posted replies.

I ended up having the NEMA 14-50 installed in the front right corner. I think it will work pretty well there. Still need some type of cable manager/holster to make it all work easier and cleaner.

They ran the new wire from the basement breaker box along the ceiling of my basement until popping up into the garage near the front right. $575 plus tax wasn't too bad considering the distance they ended up going (prob around 40 feet total).

Going from 4 miles added per hour to 30 is a big improvement when your daily commute is 100 miles round trip.