Please help with my home charger install

[William Munny]

I will be using a licensed electrician but have read / seen on internet many licensed electricians unfamiliar with ev chargers, so hoping for some info here.

I purchased the ChargePoint home flex. Ideally would like to charge as fast as possible hardwired with the charger in my garage, but there is a great distance between my panel and garage, probably about 75 feet….also I might not have the room in my panel for higher amps….

so I’m open to suggestions. Luckily for me I have numerous low cost / free chargers available so rarely charge at home anyway (currently on level 1 outlet), but with tax write off and discount purchase through utility I figured I’d get the home charger, plus maybe I will be able to precondition the vehicle now.

Pics attached.

thanks in advance

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[Athrun88]

I had the same situation as you when I got my Chargepoint Home Flex installed. Main panel maxed out and far from the garage where I wanted the EVSE mounted. My solution was to add a new 200A panel in the garage which fed the main 100A panel. The garage panel would feed the Home Flex with a 60A circuit giving me the full 48A capacity I wanted. I had the electrician rough in a 2nd circuit for a future EVSE but this solution worked out perfectly for me.

This ended up being slightly cheaper than upgrading the old panel to a larger 200A panel since he didn't need to run new wires from the new garage panel to the 100A panel. Otherwise, he would have had to run a higher gauge cable from the grid to the main panel, then run another wire back from the main panel to the garage.

When I pitched this idea to 3 different electricians, the first one was a flat no but was also a pretty sketchy guy. The other two said yes but their prices/labour costs were different. Ended up going with electrician 3 because he had good vibes and was open to discussions and options.

EDIT: Snap, did not realize he was already at 200A on the main panel.. Might have to look at consolidating/eliminating some circuits around the house and running a 60A circuit to the garage for the EVSE to free up a slot. Leaving the above up for anyone else that might find themselves in a situation like mine!

 

[DoyouLightning]

How large is your house? Your panel already looks pretty full? Unless you have an empty circuit on that panel you might need to install a sub panel just for your garage.

Also note your service to the panel is 200 amps depending on the charger and rate you go up to your close to 35-50% of the capacity. When I charge my truck it's 80amps on the Ford pro charger but always changing at night as not to interfere with other power consumption.

 

[Heliian]

You've got space.

You'll be fine, 75ft is nothing.

 

[Henry Ford]

Talk to an electrician. I don't see anything in that panel that would prevent a 50A charger circuit. I'm assuming you can either add double breakers or some of the unlabeled breakers are free. An electrician will be able to answer these questions. An EV charger isn't a difficult install.

 

[El Duderino]

You can have more amperage breakers in your panel than your service is rated for. You don't use them all at once...

 

[Maquis]

If all else fails, get rid of the 4 breakers for garage heat and garage receptacles, run a 100A feeder to a new garage subpanel. Power those 3 circuits and your EVSE from the subpanel.

 

[swtaylor89]

I will be using a licensed electrician but have read / seen on internet many licensed electricians unfamiliar with ev chargers, so hoping for some info here.

I purchased the ChargePoint home flex. Ideally would like to charge as fast as possible hardwired with the charger in my garage, but there is a great distance between my panel and garage, probably about 75 feet….also I might not have the room in my panel for higher amps….

so I’m open to suggestions. Luckily for me I have numerous low cost / free chargers available so rarely charge at home anyway (currently on level 1 outlet), but with tax write off and discount purchase through utility I figured I’d get the home charger, plus maybe I will be able to precondition the vehicle now.

Pics attached.

thanks in advance

Like some others have said, you have plenty of room in there as many of those 20's and 15's can be combined to add in a 60amp or 100amp if you chose to do so. Absolutely get multiple quotes and go with who you feel would best do what you want done at a reasonable price. I would also second what some others have said and instead of running the charger straight from that panel, adding a subpanel, especially if you're a good distance away is a really good idea for future expansion possibilities. Think a 220v outlet for a portable charger, welder, air compressor, etc. Or an additional EV charger, or just more outlets near where the sub is. A lot less work to do so.

 

[Al_V]

If all else fails, get rid of the 4 breakers for garage heat and garage receptacles, run a 100A feeder to a new garage subpanel. Power those 3 circuits and your EVSE from the subpanel.

This is the best approach, and will also leave you with more new open slots in your main panel.

 

[LHR]

you also try a couple of MCBs or tandem breakers to free to a couple slots.

 

[Danface]

Don't forget, you can most likely open a space or two by doubling up existing circuits onto a single breaker. Of course, be careful to not put the high usage/voltage ones together. I ran about 75 feet of 100 copper wire to my 80 amp charger, no issues.

 

[K6CCC]

Note that he likely can not use tandem breakers to make space. That is a 40 position panel and NEC does not allow tandem breakers in 40 position panels. However as others have suggested, a single 240 volt feed to a sub panel is the garage and then move all the existing garage circuits to the new sub panel would be the solution.

Also, I notice that a bunch of your existing breakers are not labeled. Take the effort to determine what breaker feeds every single device, outlet, and switch. Document that so you don't have to guess when something goes wrong. Easiest way to do that is have one person walking around the house with a light or test indicator and another person at the panel. Have the two people talking over radios or phones and the person at the panel kills breakers one at a time until the person at that outlet (etc) says "That's it". Repeat for every device, outlet, and switch. The person at the panel will quickly get an idea what breaker feeds an area of the house so it's not like you will have to go through 40 breakers for every outlet.

 

[Maquis]

That is a 40 position panel and NEC does not allow tandem breakers in 40 position panels.

Can you provide a code reference for that? I’ve never seen it.

 

[K6CCC]

Can you provide a code reference for that? I’ve never seen it.

A quick Google search said 384-15
And I was in error, it's 42 branch circuits (not 40).

I know that on my main breaker panel (42 positions), there is a part of the bussbar that needs to have a notch in order for tandem breakers to be inserted. That notch is present in smaller panels, but not in the large panels.

 

[bryansocko]

Sparky here. Have the electrician run 1/0 aluminum ser to the garage. Put in on a 125 amp breaker (this is the largest breaker you can get amperage wise that is a normal size that will fit in that panel) then install a 125 amp mlo panel on the garage. Yank out all the garage circuits from the main pain and place them in the garage panel. Now you will have a few extra spaces in the main panel and have plenty of headroom for growth in the garage panel.

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