Preparing for Mach-E charging at home - preparation and installing charger

[Fremont Kid]

You still may want to contact your electric company: My initial wiring + EVSE install cost me $100 due to tax breaks they were getting (The invoice showed $2600 minus $2500 in tax breaks/credits/etc. and my total was $100). All that included the EVSE.

Sure you can do it yourself but if you can get some freebie's out of it (and a city inspector to approve it) why not? Even better: you can sit back and have a cocktail while watching it be installed

It could be as easy as a phone call..

Yes. I just calculated our taxes. The charger installation tax credit paid for the electrician work. Which amounted to running AWG 6 cable from the 50A breaker through the basement wall to the garage and attaching a 14-50 plug. I always charge at home with the 240V Ford Mobile Charger.

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[2010GT]

Any idea how long chargers last? My utility company ended their rebate program, so I'm paying full retail for the unit. The 30% tax credit doesn't exactly make me want to spend big on this. Any luck with cheap chargers?

 

[CHeil402]

Any idea how long chargers last? My utility company ended their rebate program, so I'm paying full retail for the unit. The 30% tax credit doesn't exactly make me want to spend big on this. Any luck with cheap chargers?

They should last a while, especially a "dumb" one since it's basically just a glorified switch. I've had a Grizzl-e unit since 2019 without issue.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Any idea how long chargers last? My utility company ended their rebate program, so I'm paying full retail for the unit. The 30% tax credit doesn't exactly make me want to spend big on this. Any luck with cheap chargers?

I currently have dumb Siemens charger in my garage. 5 years and it's still going. It was not cheap at the time, however. ?‍?

 

[Brian M]

Been using fords level 1 charger for 3 weeks and as long as I plug it in every night I can get back to 80+% but it takes 12+ hrs. Had an electrician (3different ones) come out to give estimate on installing nema 14-50 outlet so I could use the ford charger level 2. Wow…. $1100-1600. Only one ($1100) would do it w/o using a gfi breaker. Other 2 said it’s not code because both plug and breaker box are in garage. Turns out the 50a gfi breaker is $$$. The other two admitted that if I used a gfi breaker and a gfi charger that I MAY have problems but it was code and they wouldn’t cover fixing if it didn’t work. Work around is $1300, a hardwired evse so no gfi breaker is needed and it’s cheaper since a reg 50a breaker is retail $10-20. That said I went with a Grizzl e classic charger (Amazon $395) to be hardwired, 6/3 wire and a 50a non gfi breaker. State will give me $700 back but it’s way more than I wanted to spend. I have a 40a breaker in the box that went to go to an electric stove (now gas)that I wanted to just disconnect run new wire through a conduit to a 14-50 outlet and call it a day with the 32a ford charger. Have done 120v work but wife didn’t want me touching this. Does anyone know if this can be undone later, by that I mean can I just connect a 14-50 outlet to the wiring and use a plug type evse? Grizzl e plug can just be reattached and plugged in.

 

[2010GT]

Been using fords level 1 charger for 3 weeks and as long as I plug it in every night I can get back to 80+% but it takes 12+ hrs. Had an electrician (3different ones) come out to give estimate on installing nema 14-50 outlet so I could use the ford charger level 2. Wow…. $1100-1600. Only one ($1100) would do it w/o using a gfi breaker. Other 2 said it’s not code because both plug and breaker box are in garage. Turns out the 50a gfi breaker is $$$. The other two admitted that if I used a gfi breaker and a gfi charger that I MAY have problems but it was code and they wouldn’t cover fixing if it didn’t work. Work around is $1300, a hardwired evse so no gfi breaker is needed and it’s cheaper since a reg 50a breaker is retail $10-20.

We're basically in the same boat. In my jurisdiction, you can't have a nema 14-50 without a GFI breaker, and the charger won't work well with a GFI. So I'm having a juice box hardwired. That's ok though, because only by hard wiring can you get anything over 40 amps. I want the full 50 amps available for future vehicles.

 

[Maquis]

We're basically in the same boat. In my jurisdiction, you can't have a nema 14-50 without a GFI breaker, and the charger won't work well with a GFI. So I'm having a juice box hardwired. That's ok though, because only by hard wiring can you get anything over 40 amps. I want the full 50 amps available for future vehicles.

A properly designed EVSE will not have a problem on a GFCI-protected circuit.

 

[2010GT]

I have two electricians who won't do it. Weird right?

 

[Maquis]

I have two electricians who won't do it. Weird right?

Old habits die hard. When GFCIs were first introduced, phantom tripping was a real issue. The electronics were overly sensitive to noise transients. The phantom trips got blamed on all kinds of things, and cascaded GFCIs was a popular one that lives on.


Electricians who won’t install them are eventually going to run out of work, because the NEC is expanding to requirements for their use. For example, as of the 2020 code, all outdoor circuits 50A and less must be GFCI protected even when hard-wired. This is causing real issues because many air conditioning units and heat pumps with VFDs won’t function properly on some brands of GFCI. It’s going to be a mess, but the mess isn’t due to cascaded GFCIs.

 

[Mrn]

I'm using this and have had no issues in the almost 6 months I've been using it.

AMPROAD iFlow P9 EV Charger Level 2, 10 to 40 Amp, 110-240V Universal EVSE, Versatile for Portable & Wall Charger (NEMA 14-50, 25 Foot Cable)

 

[2010GT]

Is it fair to say I don't need a smart charger because the MME can do everything a smart charger would do, all on its own?

 

[Maquis]

Is it fair to say I don't need a smart charger because the MME can do everything a smart charger would do, all on its own?

If you want advanced statistics, a smart charger can provide much more data.

 

[ArthurDOB]

I’m still months from delivery, but I’m starting to think about hooking up a hard-wired EV charger and I’m looking for some opinions.

I live in an L-shaped, one-story rambler with a full, mostly finished basement that covers the entire footprint.

My electrical box is in the basement and is about as far away from the garage as it is possible to get. I had an electrician give an estimate on an installation that would go outside, up the side if the house, back into the attic space and go the full length of the house and down into the garage - approximately 70 ft. of wiring would be required. This was all done by me sending him pics and him never actually coming to my home.

Including all parts & labor as well as the EV charger, he quoted me around $2,750 (!). This was way more than I was expecting, to say the least.

I originally discounted a second possibility for a path to the garage, but now I’m wondering if I should have.

The area at and near the electrical box has an unfinished ceiling. It is in the bottom part of the “L” in my L-shaped house. The reason I discounted it is that once you run a wire through the rafters, the wire would have to go outside and be buried under the ground and then come up before going through the garage wall. This would eliminate about 20 feet of wiring and also keep from having an electrician crawling around my attic space.

I know there are wires rated for underground use, like for 120 volt outdoor lamps, etc., but is it OK for a 240 volt line? I would dig the approximately 18 foot trench myself to save labor costs if running a wire underground is do-able. This seems like a much cheaper potential option.

What do you think?

 

[CHeil402]

I’m still months from delivery, but I’m starting to think about hooking up a hard-wired EV charger and I’m looking for some opinions.

I live in an L-shaped, one-story rambler with a full, mostly finished basement that covers the entire footprint.

My electrical box is in the basement and is about as far away from the garage as it is possible to get. I had an electrician give an estimate on an installation that would go outside, up the side if the house, back into the attic space and go the full length of the house and down into the garage - approximately 70 ft. of wiring would be required. This was all done by me sending him pics and him never actually coming to my home.

Including all parts & labor as well as the EV charger, he quoted me around $2,750 (!). This was way more than I was expecting, to say the least.

I originally discounted a second possibility for a path to the garage, but now I’m wondering if I should have.

The area at and near the electrical box has an unfinished ceiling. It is in the bottom part of the “L” in my L-shaped house. The reason I discounted it is that once you run a wire through the rafters, the wire would have to go outside and be buried under the ground and then come up before going through the garage wall. This would eliminate about 20 feet of wiring and also keep from having an electrician crawling around my attic space.

I know there are wires rated for underground use, like for 120 volt outdoor lamps, etc., but is it OK for a 240 volt line? I would dig the approximately 18 foot trench myself to save labor costs if running a wire underground is do-able. This seems like a much cheaper potential option.

What do you think?

You can certainly get underground rated wire and it's the same wire for 120 V or 240 V, but the added expense of underground rated wire will probably negate the savings of 20 feet of wire run unless you think it would save a lot of labor costs (which you could ask the electrician). Long runs of large gauge wire are just really expensive, and from what you say that price doesn't seem too above average. There are tax credits for the installation you might be able to take advantage of.

 

[ArthurDOB]

You can certainly get underground rated wire and it's the same wire for 120 V or 240 V, but the added expense of underground rated wire will probably negate the savings of 20 feet of wire run unless you think it would save a lot of labor costs (which you could ask the electrician). Long runs of large gauge wire are just really expensive, and from what you say that price doesn't seem too above average. There are tax credits for the installation you might be able to take advantage of.

Thanks for the reply.

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