Installing EV charger with 100 amp electrical panel.
In ON Energy now we getting a lot of EV charger installation requests from people who have a 100 amp service in their homes. In case you have a 200 amps service, you can easily run a 60 or 50 amp circuit to the NEMA 14-50 plug or EV wall connector. Even if your EV requires a 32 amp outlet always price out getting bigger wire than you need, it may add a tiny amount to the price, but in future you may get a second car or different EV, which will need more amps. Even if you decided to go for one of the cheaper options with slower charging, like the NEMA 6-20, you should better run a bigger cable to it, and later able to convert it 50 or 60 amp charger. Later if you upgrade your electrical panel, you won’t need to rewire the circuit to get minimum charging time. Let’s see what options you have.
Option A: Charging at Level One
The average car is driven only 50-80 km/day. The Level One charger (which comes with electric car) plugs into a dedicated standard house plug, and can charge EV at 12 amps/1.4 kW. This means it will deliver around 60 kilometers in an 8-hour overnight charging time. Most people will have their car at home for more than 8 hours a day. So generally speaking, with this very slow charging, you can still survive. On some days you may drive more, and you won’t be able recharge your EV fully, but as long as you don’t keep doing long drives days 3-4 days in a row, you will make it back home.
Option B. Change dryer or stove to a gas one.
Most houses have a 30 amp circuit for a dryer. It can be easily to switched to a natural gas dryer, also it is cheaper to use it anytime of the day. They cost a little more, but they cost less to run, and as such they can save money in the long run. You will need to get a natural gas line at your laundry room. The price for adding natural gas line depends how far is gas pipes from dryer. You might be able even sell your old dryer on KIJIJI.
This way you will remove 30 amps of from the load from your house, and now you can add a minimum 32 amp ( 7.6 kW) EV charger. Electricians can run a line from where your electric dryer plug is (was) to where your car is, this way you can also save some money.
Option C: Electric Vehicle Energy Management System
The Electrical Code requires that your panel be able to handle everything being turned on at once( with some exemptions) — dryer, oven, air conditioner and car charger — in reality is you never have everything turned on at once. There is a device called the DCC-9,10,12 which goes in your electrical panel and it will shut off power to the charger when panel load reaching maximum capacity . Sadly, it costs around $1,500. But still sometimes it can be much cheaper than service upgrade.
There can be a lot of other reasons to increase the service amperage in your house. It gives you room for future expansion you might do in the house, for example more EV cars, air conditioning, a hot tub and other things.
In ON Energy we have a team of professional and licensed electricians who will help you with your EV charger installation and if needed electrical panel upgrade. We provide free estimate and serving all GTA.
