re: Electricians of OT - options for installing a dedicated 60A 220V circuit...

Can't see the picture but what kind of demand do the existing circuits have? If they are in a garage and an addition it may be full of 15 and 20 amp circuits that have almost no load on them....convenience outlets and lighting. If that's the case and the panel is not so old that you can't buy piggy back breakers for it you can replace 6 standard breakers with 3 piggy backs freeing up 3 full sized slot, 2 of which can accommodate a full size 2 pole breaker. If that panel is feeding cooking equipment and the like you may have to upgrade that circuit to a 200 amp subpanel. Most people get confused over this...most 225 amp single phase panels can accommodate 30 - 42 single pole breakers. At 15 amps each that would be 450 to 630 amps....but they are limited to 80% so it would be 360 and 504 or so....but thats not correct either....most of those circuits will only have a few amps on them at any given time...the demand factor...thats why you can have 42 20 amp single pole breakers fed from a 225 amp panel....even with the AC and drier and oven and water heater all coming on at the exact same moment you'd have about 100 amps of demand per phase...if you have the space for piggy back breakers you should be good. If you can't piggy back feed another 100 amp 12 circuit subpanel, refeed the 2 single pole breakers from the existing subpanel and the 60 amp 2 pole circuit and get on with life....any electrician can tell, you in a few minutes what has to be done but most likely the panel in the garage is more than sufficient.

So wait, you don’t have an EV yet either?

Depending on model, some only take a max of 32 amps (would need a 40a breaker). The bigger the breaker, the more expensive the copper, also harder to run.

Ours is a third car, but I get by just fine on home charging on 110v. I live close to a supercharger as well. There are some level 2s around town that are free but that’s not a great solution for most situations.

But do some searches, there are good options that don’t require as much panel work - particularly if max panel demand is an issue.

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It is unlikely the house only has a 100A service because the panel shown is a second panel added with an expansion/reno. I would bet the meter/pan is on the outside wall opposite the older panel. The service would likely have been replaced with a 200A (or larger)service if the house originally only had a 100A service.

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Yes, you are right.

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Ok, I'm obviously not well educated on this topic, but here is what I have outside on the side of the original dwelling - that breaker at the top is labeled 200A:


Here is the panel that runs most of the "old house" - the existing dwelling when I moved in, again top breaker on this panel labeled 200A:


And here is the panel that is in the garage where the power in the rest of the addition and the garage goes through - as noted before the breaker at the top is labled 100A


I have the electrician we use coming out this week to look at it and tell me what I'm gonna need. Just curious myself to help me understand when he's telling me what It will take.

There are empty slots on the "old house" panel and its a longer run, but that panel is accessable under the house to the back wall of the garage.

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There is a pretty good chance that there isn't much demand on the circuits fed from the garage....it's not too much work for an electrician to determine this, if it is convenience outlets and lights it would take a BUNCH of stuff being used simultaneously to prevent your feeding a 60 amp 2 pole 240 volt load from that panel. If there is a hot tub or electric heating or cooking appliances fed from there it probably won't work but if it is all single pole 15 and 20 amp breakers there probably isn't much load on the feeder. It will also depend on what size the conductors are....just because its feeding a 100 amp panel there is nothing to say it is not fused at 30 amps somewhere and fed with #10 wire....that would prevent your using that panel. Depending on when it was installed it will either be #3 0r #4 copper or #1 or #2 Aluminum. Depending on the length from of the feeder to the subpanel..if its more than about 100 feet you may have a voltage drop problem feeding a 60 amp load. Generally speaking though if it is less than 100 feet and is a conductor capable of being fused at 100 amps and the only load its currently feeding is outlets and lights you should be fine feeding it from there. There is a very good chance if it is just outlets and lights each circuit may not have more than an amp or so of load at any given time.

If you have space anywhere in any of the panels in the house and the demand load (loads that are likely to be called for simultaneously) like heating and cooking equipment you may have issues feeding another 60 amp load from anywhere. A 60 amp breaker and circuit is designed for about a 48 amp continuous load. Unless you have something like electric strip heat or an on demand electric water heater that would be the largest typical continuous load in a typical house. There is a demand factor involved (not everything being used simultaneously) but in single family dwellings it is not as "lenient" as it is in multifamily dwellings. In essence if the charger requires a 60 amp 240 volt load that is a significant load on a 225 amp single phase service and may require you to upgrade to a 300 or 400 amp service...if it does and you do it upgrade to 400 amp. There won't be a lot of price difference. From the description it sounds like you may be close to maxed out...you have a 200 amp main and a 200 and a 100 amp subpanel. Somewhere in that mix you most like have a stove and cooktop, a couple of heat pumps, a clothes drier, a water heater and possible some back up strip heat. Not including required kitchen convenience outlets and microwave / refrgerator etc. If you have natural gas cooking and heating you have plenty of power but if you are total electric adding a 60 amp circuit may be too much with a 200 amp panel. Most residential 200 amp services today are actually 225 amp because of the number of required outlets and adding another 60 amp circuit would be a lot to ask of a 225 amp service that has been built in the last 20 years or so. I assume that when it is charging it will be pulling somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 amps and bumping up higher at times...thats like adding another oven and microwave runnning all burners and the microwave simultaneously....that would tax most 225 amp services.

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Kudos for having a marked panel.
I've bought 3 "used" houses in my lifetime and none of the panels ever had any identification as to what breaker went to what.
Frustrating.

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Amen. I have owned a bunch of houses and have been a licensed electrical contractor in 7 states for the last 32 years and I don't know that I have ever had a labeled panel LOL...but it is an excellent idea. Especially with the preponderance of back feeding "undersized" generators....

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Smart home panel + appropriate battery and the EV charger from EcoFlow. Can also so as partial home backup.

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I am designing our retirement home and the main house will have about 100 square feet of roof facing south and my shop / boat shed and timber framed camper shed will all have almost that much roof....I am integrating exactly this system into that design. It is going to cost about $10K but should pay for itself in 36 months. That's me doing the work. it'd be about 5 years if I paid a contractor to do it. That's also without any backward metering which the Southern Company doesn't do. If they did, as required by law, the payback would be about 18 months and every house in Georgia would be covered in the unsightly things....

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Not so fast....15A breaker labeled water heater....

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Igniter circuit for gas water heater?

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You really don’t need 60amps, but you will need 240v for anything above 10m/hr charge.

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He actually might as EV chargers pull power for longer periods than typical appliance on a NEMA 14-50 receptical and if he wants to charge at the max rate. That's why EV 14-50 are built differently and cost quite a bit more than the typical 14-50 you might have for a range or double oven. Before others caught up, Hubbell 9450 recepticals were going for $100+ as they were the only "heavy duty" 14-50 option.

On the 2nd picture you have empty breakers. Cheapest way would be for your electrician to run a wire from that panel to another subpanel in your garage where you can feed you charger.

I just went through the same thing, except mine was for a welding machine.

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On the 2nd picture you have empty breakers. Cheapest way would be for your electrician to run a wire from that panel to another subpanel in your garage where you can feed you charger.

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Space on the panels is irrelevant since even on the garage panel that is full currently all you have to do is replace 4 of the 120v breakers with 2 tandem breakers which opens enough space for the 240v breaker. Given the location that would be a LOT cheaper than pulling from the indoor panel.

THE question is where in his system does he have the code acceptable ability to add 60A of draw. If there is more than one place then which is the cheapest. We don't even know if his SEC has the code allowable ampacity to add the extra draw.