Hello fellow M3 owners!!
I'm wondering if there are more creative solutions for accommodating a 14-50 NEMA charger? A couple of electricians took one look and immediately opted for upgrading my panel for $4-$6K, which is not what I want to spend. I understand that there is no room for additional breakers, but was wondering if our brilliant community had any suggestions for cheaper alternatives? Thanks in advance, have a great day y'all! I have a 100 amp panel.
Can you please post more pictures of the panel in the house just so we get an idea of what is going on here? I am assuming this meter and main breaker are in the garage itself?
I really would love pictures of all the stickers on the panels so we can see if we can read or download specs on them, but it looks like they are too damaged. I am assuming that main breaker is labeled 100a?
As others have asked, where is the power for the lights in the garage coming from? A circuit is being backfed from the panel in the house?
It looks like you have one conduit into the meter from the street (utility) and one going out over to the house. Both underground. Is there a third underground conduit bringing power back from the house for lights in the garage?
The cheapest option might be if we could find a way to tap a 240v circuit off that main disconnect panel you already have in the garage (separate from the feed to the house so it did not count against that load). We need to know more about that panel though first to see what kind of breakers it is allowed to use, etc..., what the max rating is on it, etc...
As
@SoundDaTrumpet points out, your conduit to the utility looks plenty large for a 200a service. So one very interesting option here would be to replace your meter main panel with a new 200a one that had a handful of breaker position spots available in it. Put a 100a (or whatever it is now) breaker in to feed the house, and then whatever you darned well please for EV charging since you would have tons of remaining capacity (say a 60a circuit). I can't imagine that would be 4-6k just to replace a panel and to re-use all other existing wiring. Presumably the vehicle charger would go right next to the panel...
Also, let's assume for a second that your house is currently fed from a 100a breaker in that meter main. Maybe we find the specs on that meter main and it turns out it can support a 125a breaker. Well perhaps you then replace the 100a breaker with a 125a breaker, then feed from that into a subpanel inside the garage (I think this is what
@SoundDaTrumpet was suggesting). In the subpanel you have a 100a breaker to the house. Then you could have a second breaker in that subpanel to feed an EVSE. You would have *at least* 25a to work with at 240v, if not more depending on load calculations for the house itself. Note that if you get a Wall Connector it actually has a current limiting setting for 25a I think (or as others mentioned you could just do a 6-20 receptacle or something).
I think your situation leaves room for creativity to get a reasonable charging solution for not that much money.
Please report back what you end up with!
