I bought a Chevy Bolt recently and I’m currently a renter. We’re hoping to buy our first house in the coming months, and buying a home charger is one of my first priorities after we close.

Houses are older in my area (metro Detroit), especially at our price point. Most garages are detached, some non existent.

Is there anything specially I need to look or ask for to ensure the house is EV Charger acceptable? Does the electrical equipment need to be somewhere specifically?

Finally, would I be able to purchase a free standing charger if it’s unable to attach to the house?

  • ScuffedBalataBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Most “faster” (Level 2) charging done at home is with 240V circuits.

    This is not standard in older garages, so if you want to go with a faster charge you may need to have an electrician evaluate your home’s overall power availability and then run conduit/trench out to the garage where a circuit can be installed.

    This will range from $1500-$3000 in most cases if there is trenching involve and may be panel upgrades.

    The electrical is BY FAR the most expensive an intrusive and having a charger “attached” to the house is just two screws and I wouldn’t worry about it.

    If you can’t afford that level of new wiring, you can charge a Bolt on a standard electrical outlet, but you’ll only get about 3 mph of charge out of it. That will work for someone who’s only doing 30 miles per day, however, so you decide what’s worth it for you.

  • SpeculawyerBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Ideally you want at least 200 Amps of service but it is possible to put a charger in homes with lower service.

  • scott__pBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Don’t let anyone tell you that you “need” 40A charging or anything. My wife and I split a single 40A circuit (20A each) and it’s totally fine.

    That said, the biggest potential cost is an upgrade to your panel. Honestly, you should steer away from a house without 200A service anyway, just because it will limit many future electric upgrades.

  • retiredminionBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    First and foremost - No Plug! Direct wire your EVSE (Charger). Plugs are a significant fire risk and they create code conflicts where a plug requires a GCFI breaker but the EVSE already has one and may have issues with the GCFI breaker (which is also 5x the price).

    If the EVSE will be in a location that’s publicly accessible, you’ll want access control. This could be a feature of the EVSE or a switch in a lockbox.

    While more power is nice (Tool Man), 24a 240v off a 30 amp breaker will be enough to provide nearly 200 miles of charge overnight. Also if you already have an electric stove or electric dryer, charging overnight can easily be instead of cooking or laundry so no net power demand just breaker space. Every EVSE (Charger) I’m aware of can be set to lower levels of current.

    If you look at a detached garage, see if there is a garage subpanel. If there is, it almost certainly already has 240v available even if it’s not currently used.