Cost of Charger Installation by Electrician

dbsb3233

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And as of now, the federal 30% credit is gone as well, so this will be 100% out of pocket.
It's a shame you didn't do this last month before the 30% tax credit expired. You didn't need to wait on the car in order to take advantage of the EVSE credit.

Agreed though, these electrician prices just seem crazy. The parts/materials are only a small part of it (<$200, often <$100, exclusive of the EVSE of course). 90% of it is labor. Mine was ~$900 for a pretty easy 35' run through the crawl space. I was tempted to do it myself, but dedicded just to bite the bullet and have them do it all to make sure it's all correct. It was worth it for some of the little things they did (better conduit work than I'd have done, weatherproofing the hole outside, heaver outlet box, etc). Plus 30% tax credit made it effectively $630, so tolerable. $1600 would sting. I'd probably check with a few more electricians, especially independent ones.
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RickMachE

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It's debatable whether getting it done in 2021, before it could be used if you just the car, would have qualified. By the wording of the credit, it wasn't "in use".

Doing this type of installation should also require an inspection by your local community, and those aren't usually free.
 

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Just an idea. But my problem was similar to @hls811 insofar my panel was similarly on the opposite side of the house and garage slab too. My solution was that our double wall ovens are a wall exact opposite the garage and there is a 50A circuit already there. So I had the electrician put in a tap to that circuit and in the garage I have a hefty looking insulated “Frankenstein” lever that I can pull down for the EVSE and back up for the wall ovens. Of course I can’t bake and charge at the same time but hey it works and ended up costing me $1300 versus $3k for the long run outside option and extra sub panel.
 

dbsb3233

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It's debatable whether getting it done in 2021, before it could be used if you just the car, would have qualified. By the wording of the credit, it wasn't "in use".
That's actually what I ended up doing. Had my outlet installed in Aug-2020 (taking the credit on 2020 taxes), but didn't get the car until Feb-2021. Of course, at the time I still had hopes of taking delivery of the car in late 2020 (before everything kept getting pushed back).

The wording is fuzzy. The requirements refer to the "refueling property" rather than the vehicle. It does make one reference to vehicle but not in regards to the timing. Not even entirely sure a vehicle is required at all, just that it be for the intended purpose of plugging in an EVSE.

But like all things IRS, it ultimately comes down to whether the IRS questions it, and what the interpretation is of the IRS rep that's reviewing your tax return.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8911.pdf
 

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Back when my company was doing a lot of electrical service upgrades for solar projects, we would typically add $2000-$3000 to do a full service panel upgrade on a home (100A panel to new 200A panel, all new breakers, new service line to meter, etc.). If you are seeing prices like that for installing an electric car charger, you either have a very elaborate situation that requires tons of extra labor, or you are getting charged the "if they are buying an electric car they have more money than sense" price.

For cases where the service panel has enough room in it (physically and electrically) for the new breaker, and the outlet or charger location is less than 20' from the panel, then I'd expect prices in the $500-$900 range, market dependent.

You'll pay more if they have to upgrade your service panel, or if the run to the outlet location is very long.

As for doing extra work at the same time, if your electrician is fair, it usually does make sense to do all the work at once. If you think you want two chargers in the future, it won't cost a lot more to install two outlets now. Materials will be less than half the cost of the project in these cases, and usually the big cost on a small task like this is the initial mobilization. I bet for some of these jobs where the panel and outlet are in the same location and adjacent to each other the mobilization and demobilization time will be longer than the actual task.
Gosh, I’m just reading this thread. Here is my situation. I have 200 amp main breaker. I have a sub panel in my garage. Not sure if I can add a 50 amp circuit. First 2 pictures are panel box in garage. Last is my main panel box. I just want NEMA 14-50 plug installed. Any suggestions?

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Gosh, I’m just reading this thread. Here is my situation. I have 200 amp main breaker. I have a sub panel in my garage. Not sure if I can add a 50 amp circuit. First 2 pictures are panel box in garage. Last is my main panel box. I just want NEMA 14-50 plug installed. Any suggestions?

8326A5E2-1248-4742-A760-324EFA3A2964.jpeg


91BAF1C8-D196-4CE6-9805-552541B25B43.jpeg


36F43510-7B0D-4B78-9704-21D3B97C8477.jpeg
Guessing the garage panel is fed from the 100A breaker? Or is it the 90A?

The most you can safely do is a NEMA 14-30 outlet on a 30A breaker so you can charge at 24A max. (Revised)
 
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TonyaE

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Guessing the garage panel is fed from the 100A breaker? Or is it the 90A?

I think the most you can safely do is a NEMA 14-50 on a 40A breaker so you can charge at 32A max. More than that is risking overload.
I’m not sure. 40a is fine with me.
 

TonyaE

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I’m not sure. 40a is fine with me.
Guessing the garage panel is fed from the 100A breaker? Or is it the 90A?
2nd question, would this be a simple install in the garage? No running wire from main breaker right?

I think the most you can safely do is a NEMA 14-50 on a 40A breaker so you can charge at 32A max. More than that is risking overload.
 

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Price seems reasonable. I paid $500 with about 30’ of wire to run but didn’t need a new panel.
 

dbsb3233

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Gosh, I’m just reading this thread. Here is my situation. I have 200 amp main breaker. I have a sub panel in my garage. Not sure if I can add a 50 amp circuit. First 2 pictures are panel box in garage. Last is my main panel box. I just want NEMA 14-50 plug installed. Any suggestions?

8326A5E2-1248-4742-A760-324EFA3A2964.jpeg


91BAF1C8-D196-4CE6-9805-552541B25B43.jpeg


36F43510-7B0D-4B78-9704-21D3B97C8477.jpeg
What does it say on either side of those 90A and 100A breakers? Not sure if they're both feeding your garage panel, or if you have another panel somewhere.

The writing might clarify that. If not, I guess you can always pop a breaker and see what goes off.
 
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TonyaE

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What does it say on either side of those 90A and 100A breakers? Not sure if they're both feeding your garage panel, or if you have another panel somewhere.

The writing might clarify that. If not, I guess you can always pop a breaker and see what goes off.
On the main breaker. Both are 100;a
 

TonyaE

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I'm confused then. The picture shows a 90A breaker on the left and 100A on the right. Which panel is that?
I’m sorry, I just found out today I have 2 panel boxes. The one by meter is main. It’s labeled AC and heat only with 200 amp max. The one in garage is sub panel for everything else
 

TonyaE

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I'm confused then. The picture shows a 90A breaker on the left and 100A on the right. Which panel is that?
I live in eastern NC. Most have central AC/heat
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