[Howling Porcupine]

I'm in the process of installing an off grid system so we can charge on it at level 1. I'm pretty far up in latitude so I don't think it's going to quite keep up in winter but we shall see. Free charging for half the year will be nice though

Cool! Winter is hard. Unless you have a huge system or drive very little, it’ll just be supplementary in the winter. But this time of year, there’s a lot of free power falling out of the sky.

I swapped out my lead-acid batteries for LFPs in April. I think this is key for off-grid car charging, as drawing lead-acid batteries down to a low SOC and not getting them to a full charge often will kill them in short order. The alternative is to only charge your car when it’s fairly sunny, but it’s sure nice to have some buffering. With my current system, I often charge my car with tomorrow’s sun, and it’s pretty easy.

 

[JimBolt]

As others have said, really depends on your current load. I have 125A panel, but only big items on it are the AC(25A) and Dryer(30A). We have a gas stove and furnace and then the rest is just lights and outlets so plenty of capacity for a 40A circuit. Plus I had room on the panel to add the 40A breaker so that's another thing, if you have a full panel could need a sub-panel for just the breaker.

Also I think depending on the Tesla charger it could use 80A so that's not an apples to apples.

BUT, if you're not entirely comfortable best to have an electrician review, and sometimes even if you are

 

[usedBolt]

I am on a 60 Amp service. Gas range, gas water heater, gas dryer, mini-split air conditioning/heat pump. My Level 2 charger is a Clipper Creek LCS-20. Yes, a low power Level 2, but more than enough for my needs. There is a frequent misconception that you must install the most powerful EVSE you can. Even though my EVSE can only output about 3840 Watts, that is like 12-15 miles per hour charging. As I said, way more than enough for my needs. In your shoes I think I might want to find an adjustable output EVSE. Wire it to support 32 Amp charging, but give your self the option of turning it down when there might be too much load on the system.

I have a very basic, no frills, Powercharge L2 EVSE. It works fine. In my case, after upgrading to 200A service I had plenty of room for a 40A circuit so I left the EVSE at its stock setting of 32A to the car. But it has a DIP switch in the box that adjusts down to 24 or even 16A; I've considered dropping to 16 so the car could charge during mid-day in the summer within the solar panels' output envelope. Haven't done it yet - still cheaper to recharge overnight at off-peak with a discount then collect the solar's net metering at off-peak/no discount or mid-peak rates during the day.

 

[TheLight75]

I had no issues using a 14-50 @ 40A for EVSE in a main panel rated for 125A. Never popped the breaker even with the central air running in the summer.

 

[cwerdna]

I have an all electric home in Texas and so far have never been close to 100A. Once I was welding and got kinda high but normally the largest load is EV at 6Kwh at night plus hot tub and some background use. 8.1Kwh.

You mean kW?

 

[RacerX00]

You mean kW?

kWv

 

[Herbie Bolt]

I have a 100 amp panel, got rid of a large fish tank and freed up enough for a 16 amp EVSE and it meets my 100Km daily needs summer or winter.

 

[jefro]

Sorry, I meant χίλιοι in lower case.

When I went to electronic school they used to use K and it wasn't special.

 

[Pigwich]

I was thinking of installing a 14-50 outlet in my garage a couple feet below my circuit breaker. i called an electrician. he was saying it would cost like $200 but he was saying i should check my main breaker and that there was some Tesla charging install he did recently. The guy's breaker wasn't enough or having issues? so I did go outside and look at my main breaker, and it's only 100A. is that enough to charge a Bolt at 32amp with the dual level charger?

If the city is getting uppity about a permit for a 14-50, then get a NEMA 6-20 and buy a TurboCord. It'll be cheaper than upgrading your service, that's for sure.

Some of the Teslas will slurp up 80 amps, which is a lot and I am not surprised electricians see some shenanigans. I only have 100 amps at home, and we have two EVs too, plus and electric stove and an air conditioner. Be that as it may, we never really crack 50 amps whole house, and usually not even above 36 amps except for a few seconds here and there. We've never popped the main. Not even close.

We run the chargers at 12 and 16 amps and charge late at night or first thing in the morning when nothing else is on, plus some other tricks in the setup.

Definitely consider a charger that you can change the power on, and set it to the lowest you can live with. Every component in the system from the panel to the charge port in the car will thank you for the lower heat load. Even when everything "works fine" there's no real point in running any hotter than you actually need to.***

If you're a real nerd, you can set the charger up to drop back to 6 amps, or even sleep when the air conditioner or stove turns on. (Home Assistant, MQTT, OpenEVSE, OpenEnergyMonitor)

*** There are arguments made about whether lower or higher amperage home charging is more efficient, but the differences, if they exist at all, are hard to spot and too subtle for most grownups to worry about.

 

[CHASBOLT]

Mine is 150 amps and would have to be replaced. So i just bought a 2 way cord for my dryer outlet for $60. No way i was gonna spend 2k for a new breaker box.

 

[Duke Woolworth]

I was thinking of installing a 14-50 outlet in my garage a couple feet below my circuit breaker. i called an electrician. he was saying it would cost like $200 but he was saying i should check my main breaker and that there was some Tesla charging install he did recently. The guy's breaker wasn't enough or having issues? so I did go outside and look at my main breaker, and it's only 100A. is that enough to charge a Bolt at 32amp with the dual level charger?

No problem. We have 100A service, and converted a 3 way circuit in our garage, which is fed underground 50' from the house, to a 240 box with welding outlet. Factory cable with adapter runs our two Bolts with no problems. Remember that the factory cable is only 14/3, and the onboard charger doesn't draw much, so the load isn't very great in the first place.

 

[Sean Nelson]

You probably should have someone do a load calculation for your panel that looks at your whole home.

Back before I started using the OEM EVSE on 240V and I thought I would need to install a higher-capacity L2 charger in my garage I asked an electrician who specialized in charger installs about my 100A main panel. He said that they would check my usage history with BC Hydro (our local electric utility) to see if I'd need an upgrade. Now that everyone here has smart meters I guess they go based on actual usage rather than a theoretical calculation.

 

[Maritime]

Back before I started using the OEM EVSE on 240V and I thought I would need to install a higher-capacity L2 charger in my garage I asked an electrician who specialized in charger installs about my 100A main panel. He said that they would check my usage history with BC Hydro (our local electric utility) to see if I'd need an upgrade. Now that everyone here has smart meters I guess they go based on actual usage rather than a theoretical calculation.

yep, actual is better. just because you have a stove doesn't mean you cook on it LOL. Our actual in winter is close to maxing out our 200 amp service as we have electric baseboard. If I didn't burn wood it would be touchy if we were charging and cooking a turkey and heating the house LOL.

 

[NortonCommando]

.. Our actual in winter is close to maxing out our 200 amp service as we have electric baseboard. If I didn't burn wood it would be touchy if we were charging and cooking a turkey and heating the house LOL.

You should consider a Mini-Split or two! They easy to install and high efficiency heating or cooling.
Just keep some of the baseboards for the coldest of days.
But that's when I also use a wood burning stove.
(Smallish 100A house)

 

[NortonCommando]

....

View attachment 43619

"Loved an image" as they say!
Now I really want solar for my old 100A service house!!
What is sucking it up around 7 pm?
What do you get back when solar is producing more than you use?
We really need a Net Metering rule for the good of the nation.

 

[Maritime]

You should consider a Mini-Split or two! They easy to install and high efficiency heating or cooling.
Just keep some of the baseboards for the coldest of days.
But that's when I also use a wood burning stove.
(Smallish 100A house)

had an energy audit done, for me to save by switching to 3 heat pumps, I'd have to stop burning wood to have them pay for themselves in 10 years. Not worth it unless wood goes up 10X what it costs today. I burn 2-3 cord and I save 3X the cost of the wood on my bill. So $750 cost, saves $2250 in power and nets $1500/year so takes the mini-splits a long ass time to get me there.

 

[Maritime]

"Loved an image" as they say!
Now I really want solar for my old 100A service house!!
What is sucking it up around 7 pm?
What do you get back when solar is producing more than you use?
We really need a Net Metering rule for the good of the nation.

Will be going solar here soon. We have fair net metering and very soon the cost to install is offset by savings and pays for itself in 8-10 years, a few more months and it should have an even better payoff as they are adding government incentives. Now if I can do the install all myself and just have it certified by an electrician I'll pay it off even faster.

 

[just frank]

had an energy audit done, for me to save by switching to 3 heat pumps, I'd have to stop burning wood to have them pay for themselves in 10 years. Not worth it unless wood goes up 10X what it costs today. I burn 2-3 cord and I save 3X the cost of the wood on my bill. So $750 cost, saves $2250 in power and nets $1500/year so takes the mini-splits a long ass time to get me there.

Another wood burner here. You can also track the hours spent handling wood and feeding the stove, times a nominal hourly wage, and redo the calculation.

Ofc if you have burly children, or burn in lieu of a gym membership, that analysis may be flawed.

 

[Maritime]

Another wood burner here. You can also track the hours spent handling wood and feeding the stove, times a nominal hourly wage, and redo the calculation.

Ofc if you have burly children, or burn in lieu of a gym membership, that analysis may be flawed.

Ha, I cut/split/stack all by hand for exercise, and have a kid to help. Love wood heat and we can have the house much warmer than if we used either the baseboards or a heat pump. When I get over 60 we'll see how that goes then.

 

[Herbie Bolt]

Now that everyone here has smart meters I guess they go based on actual usage rather than a theoretical calculation.

Great idea @Sean Nelson
I logged onto my account and found a day this month when my HVAC was in use and my car was charging and total house load was 12.5KW and the meter was registering 240 volts so that is 52.1 amps.
As I have a 100 amp service I am confident my decision to run the EVSE at 16 amps was a good decision.
my only concern would be if the oven self clean was started, the HVAC then started and a load was put in the dryer and the EVSE was supplying the OBC.

Note, most customers have a login portal that displays their max KWH, don’t use this number, I logged into my LDCs (Local Distribution Company) admin account that displays data reads in 15 second intervals not KWH in hour intervals.
As @Sean Nelson said, call your LDC to get this number.