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I love my county to death. Seriously!

BarkingGhostar

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
I wish it to die!

The last five quotes I got to install a 60-A/240V outlet in my garage came in between $5500 and $12,500. Why? Because the electrical panels are situated on an interior wall of the finished basement, two-thirds it home's width away from the garage. An interior solution involves making about twelve holes in the drywall, including one of the finished basement rooms that has a ton of plumbing, ventilation and existing electrical in it, and the quote doesn't include the drywall repair or repainting. So, the $5500 quote is for that interior destruction, which will ultimately cost me another $1-2K to get drywall/paint repaired. The high-end quote involves conduit solution with an exterior run of about 80 feet, and would still involve drywall repair all be it a lot less.

So, I asked my local electrical coop if I could install a second meter just to the garage. The garage has a short driveway of about 30 feet and about ten feet from its edge is their transformer sitting on the ground. I appreciated that they responded to me in less than an hour (email exchange), but they informed me that my county prohibits a second meter from being installed in a single-family home, and furthermore even if my electrical needs are beyond what they might consider to be capacity-challenged original panel install, they are not allowed to upgrade the service because, you guessed it, the county prohibits that, too.

At this point the idea of taking deliver of a Tesla this Saturday is seeming like a poor decision on my part. Thanks, Gwinnett County! You belong right up there with the state of Texas in asinineness.
 
Pretty sure every county feasts on electrical work permits. They don't compromise...because of two things.

Safety.
Money(and indirectly stimulating the market demand for electrical work).
And never presume the first is more important than the second for the state.
 
What is your daily commute? I haven't bothered to install 240V to my garage since we don't drive enough to warrant it (20-30 miles a day). Get about 40 miles overnight on a regular outlet (4-5 miles/hr). I could theoretically connect to the dryer outlet since it is right next to the garage...

Depending on your wiring, you might be able to just upgrade the breaker for you garage to 20A. Not much better, but a lot cheaper (though I have not looked into it, not sure if the charger will accept >15A charging on 110V).

Does your state/county/city have any rebates for EV charging installation? There is a federal 30% tax credit up to $1K.
 
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weird, i've never heard of a place prohibiting a second meter. a number of people i know have them for their barns. only thing that sucks is that they charge you like 30-40$ extra per month for the second meter.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
I wish it to die!

The last five quotes I got to install a 60-A/240V outlet in my garage came in between $5500 and $12,500. Why? Because the electrical panels are situated on an interior wall of the finished basement, two-thirds it home's width away from the garage. An interior solution involves making about twelve holes in the drywall, including one of the finished basement rooms that has a ton of plumbing, ventilation and existing electrical in it, and the quote doesn't include the drywall repair or repainting. So, the $5500 quote is for that interior destruction, which will ultimately cost me another $1-2K to get drywall/paint repaired. The high-end quote involves conduit solution with an exterior run of about 80 feet, and would still involve drywall repair all be it a lot less.

So, I asked my local electrical coop if I could install a second meter just to the garage. The garage has a short driveway of about 30 feet and about ten feet from its edge is their transformer sitting on the ground. I appreciated that they responded to me in less than an hour (email exchange), but they informed me that my county prohibits a second meter from being installed in a single-family home, and furthermore even if my electrical needs are beyond what they might consider to be capacity-challenged original panel install, they are not allowed to upgrade the service because, you guessed it, the county prohibits that, too.

At this point the idea of taking deliver of a Tesla this Saturday is seeming like a poor decision on my part. Thanks, Gwinnett County! You belong right up there with the state of Texas in asinineness.
Click to expand...
Is your service 100A? Why not just install a 60A sub-panel in the garage and then branch off from there? That is what my father did. Our situation was very similar to yours. The electrician installed the new panel and the conduit from the main to the garage (about 50 feet).

My father then wired up the garage himself including a 240v outlet for his table saw. He did get his electrical work inspected and it passed with flying colours.
 
quikah said:
What is your daily commute? I haven't bothered to install 240V to my garage since we don't drive enough to warrant it (20-30 miles a day). Get about 40 miles overnight on a regular outlet (4-5 miles/hr). I could theoretically connect to the dryer outlet since it is right next to the garage...

Depending on your wiring, you might be able to just upgrade the breaker for you garage to 20A. Not much better, but a lot cheaper (though I have not looked into it, not sure if the charger will accept >15A charging on 110V).

Does your state/county/city have any rebates for EV charging installation? There is a federal 30% tax credit up to $1K.
Click to expand...
70 miles
brianmanahan said:
weird, i've never heard of a place prohibiting a second meter. a number of people i know have them for their barns. only thing that sucks is that they charge you like 30-40$ extra per month for the second meter.
Click to expand...
My garage it attached. If it wasn't then it would not have been a problem. The county allows that.
Iron Woode said:
Is your service 100A? Why not just install a 60A sub-panel in the garage and then branch off from there? That is what my father did. Our situation was very similar to yours. The electrician installed the new panel and the conduit from the main to the garage (about 50 feet).

My father then wired up the garage himself including a 240v outlet for his table saw. He did get his electrical work inspected and it passed with flying colours.
Click to expand...
Its actually 150A. There already is an existing sub-panel for the basement, which contains a lot of electronics, the heat pump with electric heat, and pre-wired for the kitchenette (including electric clothes dryer). That's why I didn't want to add to those panels.
 
is the meter near the garage? convert the main panel to a sub panel, install separate main panel in garage and wire charger to that, house runs off breaker in the garage sub panel. this is what I did in a previous house.
 
Out here in the boonies, I can do all my own work, no permits, no inspections. The only exception is if the meter hub needs to be opened. That requires a $75 inspection (guys physically looks at it and says 'OK').

I have one meter. One neigbor has two. Another neighbor has three.

Without a floor/site plan or sketch, it's really hard to try and offer suggestions.
 
Lost_in_the_HTTP said:
Out here in the boonies, I can do all my own work, no permits, no inspections. The only exception is if the meter hub needs to be opened. That requires a $75 inspection (guys physically looks at it and says 'OK').

I have one meter. One neigbor has two. Another neighbor has three.

Without a floor/site plan or sketch, it's really hard to try and offer suggestions.
Click to expand...
Generally you can always do the work yourself, as long as you feel confident it would pass inspection (and you still generally have to get a permit and inspection before you final connect).
 
Well, late yesterday I got a call from one of the electricians I emailed off their website over the weekend--as opposed to those from the Tesla website. He called me and 45 minutes later was at my house. He said it would be done with one or two holes in the drywall and nowhere near what others stated. He said they would be small and he could put plastic access panels over the holes as a finished look, but could route through the soffits in the basement to the two adjacent utility closets to gain access to the garage and then run a jacket cable down the length of one wall in the garage. Asked about cost and I am waiting on a quote but he implied $2K, which is far from what I had been getting quotes on. If the quote comes in today and it is <$2K then I'll accept and have them do it immediately.
 
I might run into this problem too as my panel is in the finished basement and my garage is pretty far away on the other side. But I'm not worrying about it right now since I've yet to buy an electric car and my Tesla Cybertruck probably won't be delivered until sometime in 2023. I have Tesla solar panels and Powerwall batteries on order to get ready to go all electric. I'm hoping Tesla will add a second panel for me in the garage when they install the Powerwall batteries.
 
That's insane pricing. The 2kish quote you figure from the other electrician sounds way more reasonable. The price of copper is high right now so if it's a long run it will cost you a decent amount for the wiring. I recently bought 10m of 8/3 teck for a short underground feed and it cost $170 for the wiring.

Before I finish my garage I want to run a 40a feed to a junction box on side of house as well for a future EV. I do need to look at upgrading my main panel though, mostly so I can get a bigger one with more physical room as I want to run a 100a feed to the server room panel and another 100a feed to garage. Not now with these copper prices though. 😱
 
There's a rebate I can apply for when I buy the charger. The electrician plans on using the soffits that have canned lighting in them because he knew he could gain ready-access to them and I just got a quote for $1800. Install is scheduled for December 1st. Thinking of ordering the Tesla outlet and handing it over to the electrician when they do the install as I've heard of outlets getting hot when less expensive outlets are used.
 
brianmanahan said:
weird, i've never heard of a place prohibiting a second meter. a number of people i know have them for their barns. only thing that sucks is that they charge you like 30-40$ extra per month for the second meter.
Click to expand...
I wonder if they are concerned about people illegally converting their sfh into two units.
 
While you're dealing with that, I'm just gonna stop at the gas station. Maybe get me a fountain soda while I'm there.
 
I'm in a similar situation, but haven't gotten estimates. I have at least a 2 year wait for my CT or Benz, so I'm in no hurry.
 
I commuted 45~ miles round trip 5 days a week with my model 3 for 2 years or so with just a 12amp / 120v charger at home and it was plenty to cover the drive and then other in town stuff.
 
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