adding a 240v outlet to garage

Ron said:
BECO has a great reputation in high point, but they are big enough - that your experience will depend on who gets sent out.
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I thought about them funny enough. Ill have to ask my buddy who he used to have his level 2 charger installed. I thought he called BECO, but that they were outrageous and then called another company in Thomasville and had them do the install.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
I thought about them funny enough. Ill have to ask my buddy who he used to have his level 2 charger installed. I thought he called BECO, but that they were outrageous and then called another company in Thomasville and had them do the install.
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Sounds like you already have the answer. Want me to delete this thread?
 
shawn said:
I've found really good deals on Amazon for stuff like this. I bought a 230v 30a GFCI breaker for $40 open box instead of the $100 or whatever they normally cost.
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They will also let you return them. Hence the open box deal I guess. :laughing: Lowe’s, HD, etc. usually won’t accept returns on GFCI or Arc fault breakers.
 
I waited for my wife to leave the house for the day…. Once she left…. and wouldn’t worry about me dying.

I ran exterior conduit from my main at the rear of the house. I pulled 3 HD wires through the conduit, terminated it at the receptacles then connected to the breaker box and installed the breaker.

Wife came home asking how my day went….while the 220v compressor was spinning. My answer: “it was a good day.”
 
Guy from BECO came out this morning and tells me that with my current setup, I could run a 240v outlet, but that if I tried to charge my car, run the washing machine, and the dryer or cook in the oven, it would probably trip. He said my current breaker box is a 125? and he said he could upgrade the box to a 200.

Don't know prices just yet, he said he would send me a quote for both options.

I want to do this right, but I know changing out the break box is probably not going to be easy on the wallet and I have made it a habit of charging my car during the night, but I know there might be some times where I need to charge it during the day after a longer trip or something.
 
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RatLabGuy said:
I'd like to point out that OP @Cherokeekid88 just bought a used Tesla. I'd bet my hat this is for his charger.

There's more to this than just voltage. How many amps do you need? Hence what ga wire? Is there is a special kind of plug? Will this plug on the other side of the wall from your box be in the right place for plugging in the car?

With only 3 open slots and you're about to use 2 of them... how is the rest of the power situation in the garage? If you're running a heavy gauge wire for 240 anyway, is it worthwhile to make it a 60A and put a sub panel on the other end in the garage and be ready to tee off your charger line plus a few more 120s later? Its hardly any more work, all the PITA work will be running the wire, not the hookups.

OP came here asking about the cost to have this done by somebody else. IMO he's on the right track. This isn't a hard task, and would definitely be a journeyman job for an electrician. I'd do it myself w/o thinking twice but I've also cumulative spent weeks of my life reading code and years building up comfort - my impression is OP has no experience doing electrical and IMO running a 240v isn't the place to start DIYing. There's a lot of little things that matter to do it to code.

IMO best scenario is to find a knowledgeable friend to pay and do for you and walk you through it, or just pay a local guy and politely ask if you can watch what he does so you can understand better.
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The most intuitive and sensible post I've ever cared for RLG to write that I read lol
 
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Water heater (if electric) and dryer are the biggest reliable loads, other than the car charger. They're each about 30a at 240v. The range is going to pull anywhere from like 10-50a, depending on how many elements are on and how much they're turned up. But that depends on how much you use it and when. Resistance coils in the heat pump are the other big draw, but you're good there. No well, I assume...?

If you only have a 125a panel (wtf?), you could always consider a 20a or maybe 30a 240v circuit. You can run a load calc to see. Pull the nameplate wattages off all your major appliances and get Grok or Claude to do it. Biggest load is probably charging the car and trying to run the dryer and cook breakfast (don't forget about the toaster, coffee makers, etc, lol... They're 1500w each.)
 
shawn said:
it. Biggest load is probably charging the car and trying to run the dryer and cook breakfast (don't forget about the toaster, coffee makers, etc, lol... They're 1500w each.)
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Especially a damn keurig. Some of those fawkers are hogs
 
shawn said:
Won't pull more than 1800w, b/c Americuh.
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Generjunk came out with their first Honda /Onan inverter knock off ….name plate rated at 2000w…. We ran some special promo sell deal….sold like 1800 in a month. Had to process like 200 returns - and we weren’t set up for retail. I bet 90% of the returns were ‘My keurig trips it off’

Later iterations were better but that first bubble up was junk
 
shawn said:
Water heater (if electric) and dryer are the biggest reliable loads, other than the car charger. They're each about 30a at 240v. The range is going to pull anywhere from like 10-50a, depending on how many elements are on and how much they're turned up. But that depends on how much you use it and when. Resistance coils in the heat pump are the other big draw, but you're good there. No well, I assume...?

If you only have a 125a panel (wtf?), you could always consider a 20a or maybe 30a 240v circuit. You can run a load calc to see. Pull the nameplate wattages off all your major appliances and get Grok or Claude to do it. Biggest load is probably charging the car and trying to run the dryer and cook breakfast (don't forget about the toaster, coffee makers, etc, lol... They're 1500w each.)
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So the guy from BECO said I could run the 240 outlet but I’d have to be careful of running too many things at a time. Would it be wise to go that route if I am charging on non peak hours (2am- 6 am) or depending on how much the new 200 amp panel is gonna run and potentially go that route?
 
shawn said:
Water heater (if electric) and dryer are the biggest reliable loads, other than the car charger. They're each about 30a at 240v. The range is going to pull anywhere from like 10-50a, depending on how many elements are on and how much they're turned up. But that depends on how much you use it and when. Resistance coils in the heat pump are the other big draw, but you're good there. No well, I assume...?

If you only have a 125a panel (wtf?), you could always consider a 20a or maybe 30a 240v circuit. You can run a load calc to see. Pull the nameplate wattages off all your major appliances and get Grok or Claude to do it. Biggest load is probably charging the car and trying to run the dryer and cook breakfast (don't forget about the toaster, coffee makers, etc, lol... They're 1500w each.)
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Water heater is gas. No well.
 
Ron said:
This is a great point and the angle I was going to go.

I know I am about to sound snarky, and I am all for DIY. But electricity is the one thing that can burn down your home and kill you. And EV chargers are pretty much by far the largest power consumers most folks will have in their home.

Based on OP's posting history, it is highly likely he is going to ignore the next two things I post ( :flipoff2:) but I will offer unsolicited advice anyway.
As someone who has installed a few hundred EV chargers. For home personal use
- Buy the damn Tesla brand charger, dont try to save a few bucks.
- Buy the 'Wall Connector' not the 'Mobile Connector'

All joking aside, if its as you describe - if you were local we'd supply the Tesla 'wall connector', wire it and mount it for ~$1,000-1,200.
$600 of that is the device.

If you have a sparky friend you probably have under $100 in materials and 2 hours of labor
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That price… is that if the customer already has 240v hookup?
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So the guy from BECO said I could run the 240 outlet but I’d have to be careful of running too many things at a time. Would it be wise to go that route if I am charging on non peak hours (2am- 6 am) or depending on how much the new 200 amp panel is gonna run and potentially go that route?
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You just need to look at you usage habits.
Do you run the oven between 2 and 6am? Do you run the Keurig then?

Another high current thing not mentioned in A/C.

But the reason 2-6am is labeled is off-peak is bc the vast majority of people aren't running much during that time. Rarely will A/C be running then. Rarely is the oven, coffee maker. MAYBE the washer or dishwasher if you run it overnight.
Water heater is the thing you'd have to look out for since it will run just to re-warm itself whenever it needs to, but since its gas thats a non-issue.

I'm assuming your home heat is gas furnace and not heat pump, that's the other big thing that could be running in the middle of the night.

If it we me I'd be eyeing the box upgrade just so I could add more later - but that's bc a box upgrade is one thing I cannot do myself.
If I were a cheapskate and paying for this, I'd probably just get the one circuit done and then see how it goes bc honestly it sounds very possible to balance out. Then if its a problem later get the service upgrade.

The work doing the service upgrade and the work doing this new line are pretty independent of one another. There's only minimal labor time savings by doing them together, just "I'm already here so not charging you for showing up".
 
Id put it in and see how it goes. Only thing you'd have to worry about if its set to run at night would be heat strips in the winter. But if thats all you have going even with the charger you shouldn't overload.
 
So, when I had mine wired for my charger it was $285. But it was the straight double blade addition as mentioned. I believe I have a 200 Amp box. I've never had an issue even with my petri dish Keurig and all electric appliances.

I'd be eying the 200 Amp upgrade. Buy once cry once. You don't want this thing tripping a breaker at 3am when your AC kicks on.

Also, you will have those use cases where you come home at 4pm and need to juice up the Elon Mobile before a road trip.
 
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