I’m in the market for an SUV and after reading a ton of posts on here, I’ve tried to figure out if an EV would work for me. I’ve had 3 electricians come out to quote installation for a 240v charger. The last one opened up the main breaker box outside and it’s maxed out, so it’ll be $2K to update that box + another $2K-$3K to run the wires from the main box to the opposite side of my house, where the garage is located. That’s more than I’d rather spend on this house, as I may be selling & moving in a few months.
I’ve checked Electrify America’s (for BMW IX) website and the closest chargers are a 45 minute drive. Shell Recharge stations are 200+ miles away. There’s a Tesla charging place about 15 miles away, but I don’t want a Tesla.
Separately, with my usage I could get by almost exclusively by just plugging into a standard 110V outlet in the garage.
Yes, it’s a very slow process, but I don’t put on a lot of miles (currently averaging ~600 miles a month, and rarely more than 75 in a single day – which is also pretty uncommon).
I will also drive 10-15 miles for free EA charging, which came with my car.
I would do the same thing if I needed gas and a tankful was free.
But most often I can just combine an EA stop with other errands, so it’s generally not a special trip.
If you have other major electric loads, like a dryer or range, you can consider an A/B splitter. Most electricians would look down on this…but it works fine.
Hm may be worth looking into. I have a panel inside too, which is what the dryer is on, but that one is maxed out, too. Would this situation hinder use of the dryer when its “switched” to car charger?
Yea, but the dryer is located in a different room, with a non adjacent wall and the house is 2 stories with no attic space above the garage to access the garage walls. There’s a bedroom directly above.
If your worried about that you can buy the tandem breaker for the single pole ones and combine a few on the left side of the panel to make space for a 50
Amp breaker
I think some of your breakers could probably be fine being consolidated to make physical room in the box and install a 14-50 as long as you’re mindful of what’s running but if you can upgrade your electric service to 200A at the same time as getting a new box it’s worth the effort over chasing down circuits for draw to figure out what can be paired.
They might make something similar for your dryer breaker. It basically a 50/30 tandem. And you would only replace 1 big breaker. But I didn’t look for that
