I received a free ChargePoint charger from my electric utility. Wired a new 50-amp breaker and 14-50 outlet right beside the electric panel. No problems, and it works great.

Can set any amperage setting I want from the charger. I usually use 24 amps because I'm usually charging my Bolt, and don't need more. May change that once I get my SEV to Alaska.

Plus: charging is free most of the year because my solar system produces more power than I need.

 

I only LOOSELY looked at those programs. I think my utility company offers me a rebate. My initial assumption was that they would have some sort of control over the device. i.e. They give you a benefit because you allow them to reduce load during peak demand times. Which sounds nice, but I produce most of our power here via solar. So, I didn't want to give them the ability to slow down my charges. If anyone knows the full details, please share.

 

So, I researched the 20A strategy and looks like there isn't anything significant there to be concerned with because the charge rate is still low enough, even at 48A. The degradation comes into play when using fast charging. So, try to save that for must-have times, like road trips. It did say there is potentially a sweet spot around 28-32A where it's the most efficient (less cost to the home owner), but the difference between that and 48A is likely only a few percent.

Then, while chasing down that rabbit hole, I came across the following...
-The most significant battery degradation comes from storing the battery at a high state of charge (SoC), especially when there are high ambient temperatures. So, if you need to go to 100%, ideally you'd set up your daily charge to finish charging right before you leave for work each morning, leaving less time at the high SoC.
When I bought my truck, my strategy was to get the RST (440 miles of range) and then only charge to 80% (352 miles). The data below suggests that this strategy will potentially 2X the life of my battery! But, if I can stretch it further and only charge to 60% (264 miles - which is more than enough for daily commutes), then that would 3x the life of my battery!

Battery life vs. maximum SoC (NCMA chemistry, warm climate average)
(based on lab test data and EV field studies — scaled for EV-sized cells)

Daily Max SoC	Expected Calendar + Cycle Life vs 100% Daily	Practical Trade-offs
100%	Baseline (e.g., ~1,000–1,200 full-equiv. cycles before ~20% capacity loss)	Max range, more regen limitation when full
80%	~1.5–2× longer life (e.g., 1,800–2,400 cycles)	Range reduced by 20%, regen fully available
60%	~2–3× longer life (e.g., 2,500–3,500 cycles)	Range reduced by 40%, may require mid-day charging on long days
50%	~3×+ longer life (e.g., 3,000–4,000+ cycles)	Range reduced by half — impractical unless you drive little each day

I wanted to dig deeper into this because I had several people mock me when I told them I was buying an EV. They said my batteries would only last 10 years, and the replacement would cost more than a new vehicle. With the strategy of charging to 60%, I/we should be able to get 24 years of service!

Another important note that you should have in the back of your mind when defending your EV purchase from the trolls is that it doesn't mean the battery is dead after 24 years. That's the calculated point when the battery will only have 80% of the capacity it has today. I've had very similar conversations with people about solar panels. They have this false idea that they're trash after 30 years. No, they're just degraded to 80% of their ORIGINAL CAPACITY. In my opinion, that is still VERY MUCH usable!

 

I wanted to dig deeper into this because I had several people mock me when I told them I was buying an EV. They said my batteries would only last 10 years, and the replacement would cost more than a new vehicle. With the strategy of charging to 60%, I/we should be able to get 24 years of service!

BU-808: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

"In terms of longevity, the optimal charge voltage is 3.92V/cell."

I charge to 70% (and discharge to 60% before charging up again every two days in my daily drive cycle) solely because of that line on the very extensive Battery University page where they... deeeep doooove... into this stuff. On the SEV 70% is pretty close on 3.92v/cell. Only utilize full batt when towing, which is only like 1-2x month. I bought the SEV on the assumption that I'll drive it 10-15+ years easy and then... maybe... be able to swap in a 3rd party SSD battery at that point for 2,000mi range haha... or whatever batt tech AI comes up with by then... maybe a "flying module" to soar through the skies in a 9,000lb beast. I mean... who knows at that point. We won't even recognize the world in 10 years.

 

I clicked professional but it was our son who became an electrician so I guess it still counts.

 

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you were very thorough .

Did you have the work permitted and inspected? I always recommend this and not just for DIY….make sure your electrician pulls permits too if you go that route.

Electrical work should always be permitted and inspected by your local planning and permitting office. This gets a 2nd set of eyes on your project, ensures maximum safety, and will prevent any problems with home sale or insurance later on, lastly part of this process is that your utility is usually notified you have an EV charger which is important to ensure accurate capacity planning and reliability of the grid.

the only issue I don’t know about is your load calculations which is important to prevent overloading your mains. Just like with each breaker your main service panel continuous load should not exceed 80% of the rating of your main breaker. So in the case of a 200 amp panel that’s 160 amps.

If the load calculations are an issue, you can install load management devices which will slow EV charging automatically when demand within your home increases and then resume charging at higher speeds when demand is reduced. This helps save on the cost of upgrading your electrical service (heavy up) while also keeping the load on your mains within safe limits.

How about some pics of your project 😎

 

I am in the process of having a new house built and am looking for suggestions on the electrical design. Is the best case a 200 amp panel? This is not my wheelhouse so any suggestions on the best set up would be GREATLY appreciated.

I need to let the builder know rather soon as they are framing now.

I appreciate your comments in advance!

 

If it's not absurdly more expensive, I'd suggest going larger.

I'd plan to be able to run all of these concurrently
2 x 60A EV chargers
AC/Heat Pump 40 A
Dryer 30A
Tankless water heater 75 A
Induction range 50 A

That's 240 A without the water heater or 315 A with it.

 

If you are looking at a sizable solar install, make sure your main buss can handle it or have a splitter box so you can avoid the buss. Not sure of your code rules but around here you can generally only put 40A on a 200A panel and 50A on a 100A panel. Everything we build now has a 225A main buss.

 

Truthfully charge the thing to 80% all the time and 100% maybe once a month to let the BMS recalibrate and top balance the cells. Not worth putting this much thought into it. Even at 1800 cycles if you got 400 miles of range per cycle that’s 720,000 miles!! Even at 25,000 miles per year you’re looking at almost 29 years of service to 80% battery life

 

I have 3 responses…I’ve personally installed one at my in-laws’ house, my house came with 3 40-amp circuits installed, and then I had a pro upgrade all those to 60 amp circuits and installed higher rate EVSEs.

 

As I read it, it sounds like in the original post you did hard wire the EV charger rather than use the NEMA 14-50 plug that charger comes with. That's good since the plug is only rated for 40 amps and you are charging at 48 amps. Also, you should not need a GFCI circuit breaker (which is very expensive) when you hard wire the charger, although this may vary by local electrical code. Most wall chargers should have GFCI built-in.

I'll second the comment that you should get your EV charger installation inspected. If you get a fire in your home your insurance company could use lack of inspection as an excuse to not cover your damage.

 

I believe that all wall chargers have GFCI built in.

 

Even with GFCI in the charger, I've seen reports that inspectors require a GFCI circuit breaker in your electrical panel if you have a plug-in charger vs. hard wired. I assume it's because people might at times plug other things (like a welder or dryer) in that socket which may not have built-in GFCI.

 

We happened to have a 240 V outlet in the garage right where the charger would go, but we needed an electrician to properly route it through our secondary solar breaker panel (it originally bypassed the main panel for some reason.)

As others have mentioned (to the guy building a new house) I think 200 is somewhat standard. I also agree that you're not typically going to be running AC, two car chargers and laundry at the same time. Maybe ...?

If you go solar (and if you live in a sunny area it's 100% worth it) you'll be limited on what you want to run based on available sun/battery anyway. Our system regulates the car charger based on excess solar and if there isn't any, no car charging, so we don't really have to think about it. If we run the dryer, stove and AC at the same time, we don't trip breakers because the charger automatically stops.

I second the idea from someone else above about the heat-pump water heater. Tankless heaters take up a tremendous amount of energy and need a steady flow of electrons. If you currently or in the future plan to go solar, tankless is usually a no go, so plan ahead. Heat pump water heaters take very little energy and are just awesome. We live in an area where it gets up to the low 100's in the summer and below freezing for a week or two during winter, and it's been working great for two years. If you're paranoid you can get a more expensive 'hybrid' unit that has an electric heating element in it, but it might be a waste of money if you live in the right climate and the water heater is in a place (garage) with a relatively consistent climate.

 

Tankless/on demand usually save energy vs old gas or electric units because they only use fuel on demand. Very common outside of the US for that reason. I grew up with them. Heat pumps on well insulated tanks beat the on demand heaters.

 

Agreed, overall tankless can save money for sure but in the moment they're being used they take a tremendous amount of energy that most residential solar systems can't provide steadily enough (when the sun is up.)

If OP is planning on ever going solar, I'd either not go tankless, or be sure you have a ton of battery to provide enough steady power for it. One shower and load of hot water laundry could use half a day's solar production on an 8kw system.

 

Pics or it didn’t happen.

 

Ok fine... Adding pictures now.

The reason for the delay was (I'll admit it) I actually hadn't even thought about pulling a permit until it was mentioned in this chat. I just assumed it was a small enough project. I researched it, and looks like it was solid advice to keep my insurance company from trying to deny a claim should they ever be an issue, AND it'll be one less roadblock whenever I try to sell this house.

It's by no means a super clean installation (sloppy mounting that bends away from the wall in spots), but it has now passed inspection and is tidy enough for my cares.

Just used the concrete ledge to "support" the conduit. I'll add actual brackets next time we move the bikes out of the way.

EV Charger is the largest conduit section entering the top-left of the panel. You can see the giant 4AWG wires routing to the right side going into a 60A breaker.
My Emporia Vue energy monitor makes things quite messy in here.

 

So did you pass the electrical inspection with all that Emporia Vue energy wiring there? Did the inspector ask about it?

As I mentioned in another post, I had all those white Emporia wires too, but I removed them before the inspection because I was worried what the inspector would think.

Of course, there is no significant current/voltage running in those wires, but it sure doesn't look pretty. Problem is, I've been too lazy to put the wires back!

 

Yes, it passed with it there.

I'm sure every inspector is different, but mine is super-cool and laid-back. Not to say he wasn't thorough, but I did NOT get the impression he was there to give me a hard time or try to nail me on things. If the Emporia Vue would have stopped an inspection, I'm sure they'd have much more of an issue selling the product to begin with.

 

I installed my Grizzl-E 80A charger today, thanks again to the guy who posted about the charge club (Canada only) as that was the push to upgrade. I had it wired with a plug and the dip switches set to limit it to 40A while I was waiting for the 100A breaker and some time.

Things were straight forward for the install. The toughest part was getting the wire length in the charger for the staggered connections. I used #4 wire which is a little stiff but required for that much amperage.

Getting the wire to to bend in the LB is always fun but it’s easier when they are individual strands vs something with a sheath. On the inside of the garage I used some armored flex so I didn’t have to mess around with conduit. Overall install time was about two hours.

The flex on the left side of the panel is the new wire. The flex on the right is teck for the outlet that I installed outside for the plug-in charger when I first got the truck.