Input for charging setup / install

[Petey]

New on the forum here, so please be gentle. I'd like some feedback if this is a reasonable setup for charger wiring:

I have a panel in the garage already, and it has space. Looking to add a 60AMP breaker, and wire 6/3 for 50 ft, that will then be run within the rafters of my garage. The estimate was that it would take about 50ft of wiring, and drilling through each beam (every couple of feet), running the heavy wire - would take two people to do the install. It would run down to a small section of the garage wall where I can remove and re-add some dry wall. Right now we would like add a 14-50 plug at that location (and not directly hard wire). The estimate is pretty high will all the drilling and cabling fishing, maybe $1500 or so. I can see if I did the work it would be a hassle, and I'm not shocked at that price.

I am looking at a chargepoint station for charging. My goal is to do this job once in the garage, and have it support EVs for the next 20 years (or at least a long term job where I don't mess with this again).

Some questions:

• Should I just do a 50 amp breaker since the chargepoint requires hard wiring to take full advantage of 60 amps? The thought for 60 amps is I could switch to hard wiring later.
• Should I hard wire the chargepoint?
• Is 6/3 wire ok to run for ~50 ft and 60 amps? I believe 6/3 is rated for 55 amps, but it is possible to round up???

Sponsored

 

[macchiaz-o]

New on the forum here, so please be gentle. I'd like some feedback if this is a reasonable setup for charger wiring:

I have a panel in the garage already, and it has space. Looking to add a 60AMP breaker, and wire 6/3 for 50 ft, that will then be run within the rafters of my garage. The estimate was that it would take about 50ft of wiring, and drilling through each beam (every couple of feet), running the heavy wire - would take two people to do the install. It would run down to a small section of the garage wall where I can remove and re-add some dry wall. Right now we would like add a 14-50 plug at that location (and not directly hard wire). The estimate is pretty high will all the drilling and cabling fishing, maybe $1500 or so. I can see if I did the work it would be a hassle, and I'm not shocked at that price.

I am looking at a chargepoint station for charging. My goal is to do this job once in the garage, and have it support EVs for the next 20 years (or at least a long term job where I don't mess with this again).

Some questions:

• Should I just do a 50 amp breaker since the chargepoint requires hard wiring to take full advantage of 60 amps? The thought for 60 amps is I could switch to hard wiring later.
• Should I hard wire the chargepoint?
• Is 6/3 wire ok to run for ~50 ft and 60 amps? I believe 6/3 is rated for 55 amps, but it is possible to round up???

I'm not sure why they need to drill through the trusses in your attic... My electrician just pulled the 6/3 right through the open "triangles." The wire is held by gravity and its own stiffness. He only needed to drill through the top plates of each wall (my wiring had to run from a load center on one wall to an outlet on the opposite wall of the garage).

How you end up connecting the ChargePoint is somewhat up to you... But you will want to match the circuit breaker to the wiring option to keep things safe.

I had my electrician wire for a 60A circuit with a 60A breaker... He put a 14-50 receptacle on it since I started off with the included mobile EVSE.... That's a no-no, it should have been a 50A breaker in this case.

So I changed the breaker right after he left and used it that way for awhile.

Then some months later, I upgraded to the Ford Connected Charge Station, which is hardwired. While installing it, I removed the 14-50 receptacle and swapped the original 60A breaker back in so that I could configure the FCCS to its maximum capability (48A of vehicle charging).

 

[zvez]

New on the forum here, so please be gentle. I'd like some feedback if this is a reasonable setup for charger wiring:

I have a panel in the garage already, and it has space. Looking to add a 60AMP breaker, and wire 6/3 for 50 ft, that will then be run within the rafters of my garage. The estimate was that it would take about 50ft of wiring, and drilling through each beam (every couple of feet), running the heavy wire - would take two people to do the install. It would run down to a small section of the garage wall where I can remove and re-add some dry wall. Right now we would like add a 14-50 plug at that location (and not directly hard wire). The estimate is pretty high will all the drilling and cabling fishing, maybe $1500 or so. I can see if I did the work it would be a hassle, and I'm not shocked at that price.

I am looking at a chargepoint station for charging. My goal is to do this job once in the garage, and have it support EVs for the next 20 years (or at least a long term job where I don't mess with this again).

Some questions:

• Should I just do a 50 amp breaker since the chargepoint requires hard wiring to take full advantage of 60 amps? The thought for 60 amps is I could switch to hard wiring later.
• Should I hard wire the chargepoint?
• Is 6/3 wire ok to run for ~50 ft and 60 amps? I believe 6/3 is rated for 55 amps, but it is possible to round up???

OK, you don't mention, but assume you don't have enough capacity in your present breaker box to install a 50 amp breaker? If that's not the case, and they have to run the wire in either scenario, then absolutely go for the 60 amp install. If you plan to use 50 amp evse (48amp) it needs to be hardwired. The ford portable evse that comes with the car, as well as the chargepoint evse with nema 14-50 receptacle can be plugged/unplugged.

Also, don't forget you can get up to 30% tax credit for evse and installation costs. Also, check with your local utility, many have a rebate for installs of level 2 evse in home situation

 

[HuntingPudel]

Is there room above the beams in yoir garage, or is there a hard cap above them? If there is room above, the cabling can be fished over the tops. Depending on local code, the cabling might need to be secured at intervals. If there is a hard cap above the beams, you’re stuck with the need to bore holes. The cabling can be solo fished theough its path, but it is *much* quicker to have two people do it over a distance that is as long as yours.

With regard to amperage, you always round down. If your wire capacity is 55A, you can only use a 50A or smaller breaker. If you want to run up to 60A, run 4AWG cable.

 

[Petey]

I'm not sure why they need to drill through the trusses in your attic... My electrician just pulled the 6/3 right through the open "triangles." The wire is held by gravity and its own stiffness. He only needed to drill through the top plates of each wall (my wiring had to run from a load center on one wall to an outlet on the opposite wall of the garage).

All I have are roof joists to go through - there is no triangle. The other option might be to add some conduit channel maybe out side the joists??? I'm ok with the approach they will take, but it will be extra money and labor.

Thanks all - I think I'll just still with 50A breaker, and probably use the plug. While it won't be able to hit those higher charger rates, I think it would probably be fine for us for a long period of time.

(We don't put that many miles on our cars, and even if this charger was split between 3 cars - charging every 3rd night would be fine for us).

I've been reading this forum for a while - a lot of great stuff to learn from everyone!

 

[macchiaz-o]

(We don't put that many miles on our cars, and even if this charger was split between 3 cars - charging every 3rd night would be fine for us).

Yeah for sure this is an area where most of us have over-prepared.

After I installed the Ford Connection Charge Station, I was excited to charge at 48A... but due to the TSB 21-2288 issue, it's very very loud when I do that. (I haven't had that addressed yet.) Also, it's probably not as healthy for the car's charger and pump/fan longevity (the AC inverter will get pretty hot). So I backed it off from 48A to 30A and this has still been way more than adequate for my needs.

I average just under 300 miles driving per week.

I've been reading this forum for a while - a lot of great stuff to learn from everyone!

I'm of the same opinion.

 

[dtbaker61]

New on the forum here, so please be gentle. I'd like some feedback if this is a reasonable setup for charger wiring:

I have a panel in the garage already, and it has space. Looking to add a 60AMP breaker, and wire 6/3 for 50 ft, that will then be run within the rafters of my garage. The estimate was that it would take about 50ft of wiring, and drilling through each beam (every couple of feet), running the heavy wire - would take two people to do the install. It would run down to a small section of the garage wall where I can remove and re-add some dry wall. Right now we would like add a 14-50 plug at that location (and not directly hard wire). The estimate is pretty high will all the drilling and cabling fishing, maybe $1500 or so. I can see if I did the work it would be a hassle, and I'm not shocked at that price.

I am looking at a chargepoint station for charging. My goal is to do this job once in the garage, and have it support EVs for the next 20 years (or at least a long term job where I don't mess with this again).

Some questions:

• Should I just do a 50 amp breaker since the chargepoint requires hard wiring to take full advantage of 60 amps? The thought for 60 amps is I could switch to hard wiring later.
• Should I hard wire the chargepoint?
• Is 6/3 wire ok to run for ~50 ft and 60 amps? I believe 6/3 is rated for 55 amps, but it is possible to round up???

more than 50 amps thru 50ft of 6AWG would be pushing it pretty hard .... I seriously doubt you'll need to charge that fast, even from empty, to get a full charge overnight.

I would suggest sticking with 50amp breaker.

furthermore, why not hang 1" conduit from ceiling, and pull r,w,b #6, and #8 ground wire from service panel to wall space near your vehicle bay rather than time and expense needed for uncovering and drilling thru trusses? Conduit can be painted to match ceiling, and drop down to a regular surface mount NEMA 14-50 outlet you could use for power tools, charging, or even emergency backfeeding from a Generator (or Inverter from your BEV) to power your home when/if the grid goes down.

 

[blheron]

I would stick with a 50 circuit install 14-50 receptacle . If you want it more adaptable to future Chargers then don't hard wire in. I have a 40 amp JuiceBox. Overnight it will charge my MME to 100% if needed. (most of the time I charge to 90%.).

 

[Mach-Lee]

You need to be careful about what you're drilling through. You cannot drill through roof truss or floor truss members. If there's a room above the garage, you can drill through floor joists, but the hole size and distance from other holes and bearing points needs to follow engineering specs. Location is very important to preserve strength. Ask an engineer if you're at all not sure.

A NEMA 14-50 on a 50A circuit wired with 6/3 Romex will likely be the best value for installed cost. You can use the included 32A charger (cheapest), or upgrade to a 40A EVSE for 25% faster charging. 32A will be plenty for most people charging overnight (20 MPH).

Confused about wire or breaker sizes? See my topic: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/ev-charger-breaker-wire-size-reference.8367/

Sponsored