Sunrun did not inform me that I was paying for a 50 amp circuit!

[O’Majestic1’slightnigF150]

Pull out their 50, check the wire size, grab a wire chart by amps voltage n distance off the internet, validate. Amazon 100 amp square d HOM is $49. Change them out. Flip it on and charge.

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[RavenYZF-R6]

Pull out their 50, check the wire size, grab a wire chart by amps voltage n distance off the internet, validate. Amazon 100 amp square d HOM is $49. Change them out. Flip it on and charge.

No way they put in bigger wire than needed for a 50A imo.

 

[kWfart]

Fair enough, that is a little nuts that you submitted all of the pictures and they didnt contact you to confirm, inspect and just installed.

Do you have a pic of the install? How far away is the FCSP from the panel?

 

[ExCivilian]

So I am just going to say that I also would not install a 100 amp breaker in that panel unless the 50 amp car charger was removed. Panel upgrades are not a big deal, just a lot of tedious work getting everything mounted and nice and neat.

I would highly recommend thinking about a panel upgrade that gives you more breaker slots. Just my opinion, but I rewired my entired house, swapped my old panel with a new one and I have an outside sub panel.

A larger panel won't just slide in where the old one came out. A new panel could require major reconfiguring--and that's without considering all the old wiring that's there. Plus, you have to go through permitting depending on where you are to change them out, which could take a month or longer. Then you have to find someone to finish the exterior to match the old. Paying someone to do this in LA is about $4,500 right now.

If someone starts to run out of panel space, I'd suggest adding a sub-panel like you did before changing out the panel unless it's old. But that panel is relatively new or they would have swapped it when the solar was put in. It doesn't look like they have that high of a load. There are no breakers for water heater, dryer, and the oven is 20A meaning those are all gas.

There's a huge difference in the wire necessary for 50A vs. 100A. The necessary conduit is larger, too. The entire job needs to be redone. There isn't anything reusable unless the electrician put larger than necessary things in.

I'm not an electrician but I don't think you have enough space in that conduit to simply pull new wire and replace the breaker.

You need #3 AWG (thanks, Maquis). Here's a conduit chart: Conduit Fill Table - Electrical References - Elliott Electric Supply

 

[Maquis]

100A branch circuit requires #3 copper wire, not #4.

 

[vagabond7846]

Fwiw, sunrun installed a 100A breaker for me and my home service is 200A. The installers were really great guys, but the sunrun sales and project managers were complete trash, extremely hard to work with and they ghosted me. I had to escalate to even get a response. It’s a shame ford partnered with sunrun because their customer service is a 0

 

[cvalue13]

Also if someone could have physically inspected before the purchase of install

i don’t think this makes it any better, but: to evaluate my install they sent someone out before purchase

kid was not an electrician, just someone “trained” l to take certain photos

that said, I’m surprised SunRun didn’t otherwise take the opportunity to lard this stuff onto your estimate. In my case, they quoted me out for things I *didnt* need (like a panel upgrade) because

 

[sotek2345]

Every thread I see on Sunrun makes me more thankful that they priced the home backup system so high (so as to make me not want it). I will avoid them, take the FCSP, and use our local electrician thank you very much!

 

[cvalue13]

Every thread I see on Sunrun makes me more thankful that they priced the home backup system so high (so as to make me not want it).

i don’t know that it’s exactly irony, but interesting to think the new tax bill’s extension of 30% credit to battery backup (apparently not starting until 2023?) will narrow the financial gap between the HIS (still expensive) vs a stand-alone battery solution (historically far more expensive)

On other words, seems like starting 1/1/24 the HIS becomes an even worse economic proposition

 

[sotek2345]

i don’t know that it’s exactly irony, but interesting to think the new tax bill’s extension of 30% credit to battery backup (apparently not starting until 2023?) will narrow the financial gap between the HIS (still expensive) vs a stand-alone battery solution (historically far more expensive)

On other words, seems like starting 1/1/24 the HIS becomes an even worse economic proposition

Both still pale to the cheapness that is a generator transfer switch with the Lightning's 240V outlet.

 

[cvalue13]

Both still pale to the cheapness that is a generator transfer switch with the Lightning's 240V outlet

we’ll see!

I’m still hand-holdingmy electrician towards a quote, and since I’m not super agile with electricity and he’s not super agile with EVs, I’m still not feeling confident of operational robustness. The discussions around ground faults, etc., in particular has me unsure that once it’s all in place it will work as reliably as intended!

 

[FlasherZ]

Do you know how many breakers you have inside your panel? That really is going to be the determining factor as far as the electrician goes. I dont think you should get a full refund, sans the electrician ripping out what he installed.

If anything its a simple switch from 6/4 to 4/4 and a breaker swap depending on if conduit was used. Thats atleast what I would ask for from Sunrun. Its just bizarre to me that some random person can install a FCSP with access to your breaker box without you approving it. They would have to break into them here in LA or the house.

#3 is required for a 100A circuit to do 80A charging, and judging by the conduit size in the photo, it would probably require an upgrade as well.

In California, you'll frequently find external panels. Standard practice is to have the service disconnect outside in PG&E land, I've always been told it's so that power can be disconnected easily. All of my homes in Northern CA (when I lived there) had this setup. The downside is that it is very easy to cause mayhem/harm to others by turning their power off in CA.

Finally, it's not about the number of breakers as to whether there is "room" or not. There are load calculations that must be performed to determine whether it is appropriate to add the loads. I can guarantee if you only have 200A service and a dual 50A EV charger already, that there is no way you'll pass load calculations for an additional 80A charge load (100A with continuous load factor) added. This load calculation is part of the NEC and must be done by an electrician and justified to the inspector.

 

[Maquis]

#3 is required for a 100A circuit to do 80A charging, and judging by the conduit size in the photo, it would probably require an upgrade as well.

In California, you'll frequently find external panels. Standard practice is to have the service disconnect outside in PG&E land, I've always been told it's so that power can be disconnected easily. All of my homes in Northern CA (when I lived there) had this setup. The downside is that it is very easy to cause mayhem/harm to others by turning their power off in CA.

Finally, it's not about the number of breakers as to whether there is "room" or not. There are load calculations that must be performed to determine whether it is appropriate to add the loads. I can guarantee if you only have 200A service and a dual 50A EV charger already, that there is no way you'll pass load calculations for an additional 80A charge load (100A with continuous load factor) added. This load calculation is part of the NEC and must be done by an electrician and justified to the inspector.

To add, once the 2020 NEC gets adopted in your area, an outside “emergency disconnect” is required.

The NEC has yet to add anything specific regarding how to treat EVSEs in load calculations, so they have to be treated as a continuous load (rating X 1.25).

 

[ChrisCon]

Got a 100 amp run in a 200 amp house - completely doable/safe depending on how much of the rest of your house runs on electric vs natural gas.

My setup is exactly like @kWfart distance to panel and the charger being outside except my panel is inside, but the run is about the same length. I have a 200 amp house with a 100 amp circuit now. I paid $600 for the install and it works perfectly now that my charger received the software update from Ford.. I did not use SunRun but I originally reached out to them and gave my $100 to get signed up which I can't get back even though it says refundable on the website. Sunrun is the absolute worst.

 

[Roy2001]

So @kWfart, can you post your email/contract with Sunrun?

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