Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
There are options for the EV charger, and it's not as large an issue as some suggest. If you think you'll go this route, Emporia makes a wall charger to which you can add a monitor, which will ensure that you're not overdrawing the electricity. For example, you have a 100A service and want to add a charger. Some people will tell you that you need to upgrade to 200A, which will cost you about $15k. You don't need to do that, with this. You could put a 40A breaker in, and the monitor will track how power the whole house uses, and limit the EV charger to what's available. You could also set a timer and have it charge overnight, when there is no draw, so that you can charge at the full 40A.
I suggest that it is entirely unnecessary. Just charging at 16A is fine; you don't need the absolute fastest charge. You generally charge to 80% anyway, and it depends on how regularly you need to drive, say, 500 km a day. I would suggest that the overall range anxiety and issues like that are way overblown.
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Most service upgrades (100A to 200A) are going to cost much more than $15k with underground service to the home. With overhead wires in an alley it can be a $5-10k job, but most service upgrades with underground wires are over $30k minimum.
Putting a load manager (essentially what is in the Emporia charger) on a 100A panel is entirely sufficient and much much cheaper ($900ish plus labour). Allows you to charge your car but will shut off if load exceeds certain levels (i.e. you're running AC, washer/dryer and trying to charge at the same time). I work for a company that installs EV chargers and a service upgrade is never a recommendation unless its with overhead service to the home, and even then load management is the first choice.