Charging Your EV at Home

🔋 Level 2 Charging is the most common way to charge an EV at home and is also the fastest way to charge your EV at home. Depending on the battery technology used in the vehicle, Level 2 charging generally takes 4 to 6 hours to completely charge a fully depleted battery. 

Choosing an Electrician to Install my EV Charger

There are a lot of DIYs, guides, and “how-to’s” online that lead people to think installing an EV charger at home is a simple job. If you’re handy, setting up the charger is fairly easy to do, but the real expertise comes in properly understanding the charging requirements for each vehicle. Every electric car has specific guidelines that need to be followed in order to ensure EVs are being charged safely and with the proper equipment.

Fortunately for you, our licensed electricians in San Francisco, CA specialize in installing EV chargers and have worked with all makes and models (a lot of Teslas!). So when choosing an electrician to install your car charger, make sure they have experience and they understand your car’s charging requirements. Any electrician can wire an outlet, but EV charging experts aka “us” know the charging rates and requirements for the different makes and models of EV cars. Facts! 💯

The Costs of Installing an EV Charger

Cost is always dependent on 4 main things:

1. $300-1000 or $50 (for Teslas ONLY) – EV Charger (dependent on your make and model)
   • Remember, different makes and models have different requirements!
2. $200-300 per 5 ft – The complexity and the distance from your electrical panel to the EV charging outlet (240v outlet)
   • The more complex and longer the distance, the more expensive things get.
3. $200-300 / $500-1,500 / $4,000 🤯 – The capabilities of your electrical panel
   • You need at LEAST 2 free spaces in your electrical panel to install an EV charging outlet which is an additional $100-200 for parts. Now if you do not have enough space in your electrical panel, you will need to install a sub-panel to charge your EV which can easily add an additional $500-1500 depending on the size of the panel. Lastly, in some cases you may need a panel upgrade which typically run up to $4,000 🤑
   • $300-700 – Labor Costs
     • All the previous numbers from above are for parts-alone.

I know… That’s a lot of numbers and variables to calculate, but you are in luck, because we put in the extra time, effort, and resources to build an EV Charger Installation Cost Calculator! It’s a mouthful, but that’s exactly what it is.

Before you start your virtual estimate, you’ll need a few things beforehand:

• Make and Model
• A picture of your electrical panel opened up, so we can see the breakers 
  • This is OPTIONAL, but with it, we’ll be able to give you a more accurate estimate!
• An approximate distance from your electrical panel to the area you would like us to install your EV charging outlet
• Basic Contact Information