220v installation in garage

I had an electrician appointment today to estimate the cost of work to install 220v plug in my garage. He gave me a quote $900 for 50A breaker. I think it's extremely high. My town house is relatively new (2005). Does anybody have a good cheaper recommendation in the Bay area ?

I think Juicebox maintains a list of installers.

Yes, in the SF Bay Area, eMotorWerks (the JuiceBox folks) can bundle a 240V plug installation with a charger purchase for an additional $299 plus extra materials, assuming (a) the plug is getting installed reasonably close to the main breaker panel and (b) there's space there for a new breaker.

In my case, both were true, so "extra materials" was 40A breaker. The electrician requested photos of the main panel and the wall where the plug was going, to be reasonably confident there weren't complicating factors. PM me if you'd like his contact info. (I'm also in Sunnyvale).

DepletedZPM said:

Yes, in the SF Bay Area, eMotorWerks (the JuiceBox folks) can bundle a 240V plug installation with a charger purchase for an additional $299 plus extra materials, assuming (a) the plug is getting installed reasonably close to the main breaker panel and (b) there's space there for a new breaker.

In my case, both were true, so "extra materials" was 40A breaker. The electrician requested photos of the main panel and the wall where the plug was going, to be reasonably confident there weren't complicating factors. PM me if you'd like his contact info. (I'm also in Sunnyvale).

Click to expand...

You installed a 30 amp EVSE, not a 40 amp model, take it? Price of the 40 amp circuit breaker?

JoulesThief said:

DepletedZPM said:

Yes, in the SF Bay Area, eMotorWerks (the JuiceBox folks) can bundle a 240V plug installation with a charger purchase for an additional $299 plus extra materials, assuming (a) the plug is getting installed reasonably close to the main breaker panel and (b) there's space there for a new breaker.

In my case, both were true, so "extra materials" was 40A breaker. The electrician requested photos of the main panel and the wall where the plug was going, to be reasonably confident there weren't complicating factors. PM me if you'd like his contact info. (I'm also in Sunnyvale).

Click to expand...

You installed a 30 amp EVSE, not a 40 amp model, take it? Price of the 40 amp circuit breaker?

Click to expand...

Well, there is no 30A charger in the JuiceBox lineup, though 30A is the most the 7.2 kW charger draws anyway. Yes, it might have been better future-proofing to get the 50A breaker.

The 40A breaker was $40.

DepletedZPM said:

JoulesThief said:

DepletedZPM said:

Yes, in the SF Bay Area, eMotorWerks (the JuiceBox folks) can bundle a 240V plug installation with a charger purchase for an additional $299 plus extra materials, assuming (a) the plug is getting installed reasonably close to the main breaker panel and (b) there's space there for a new breaker.

In my case, both were true, so "extra materials" was 40A breaker. The electrician requested photos of the main panel and the wall where the plug was going, to be reasonably confident there weren't complicating factors. PM me if you'd like his contact info. (I'm also in Sunnyvale).

Click to expand...

You installed a 30 amp EVSE, not a 40 amp model, I take it? Price of the 40 amp circuit breaker?

Click to expand...

Well, there is no 30A charger in the JuiceBox lineup, though 30A is the most the 7.2 kW charger draws anyway. Yes, it might have been better future-proofing to get the 50A breaker.

The 40A breaker was $40.

Click to expand...

If you bought the juice box 40, your breaker should be 50 amp capable. Any NEMA 14-50 outlet needs a 50 amp circuit breaker and needs to be able to flow 80% continuous of that current level, or 40 amps.

JoulesThief said:

If you bought the juice box 40, your breaker should be 50 amp capable. Any NEMA 14-50 outlet needs a 50 amp circuit breaker and needs to be able to flow 80% continuous of that current level, or 40 amps.

Click to expand...

So it sounds like I should push back and complain that the installation is not up to code.

Does anyone have a precise electrical code citation that I can use when discussing this with the
electrician or eMotorWerks? I started to a look at the 2013 California Electrical Code (downloads: https://archive.org/details/gov.ca.bsc.2013.03)
but I suspect others here may already know it or the National Electrical Code well enough
to save a lot of time.

DepletedZPM said:

JoulesThief said:

If you bought the juice box 40, your breaker should be 50 amp capable. Any NEMA 14-50 outlet needs a 50 amp circuit breaker and needs to be able to flow 80% continuous of that current level, or 40 amps.

Click to expand...

So it sounds like I should push back and complain that the installation is not up to code.

Does anyone have a precise electrical code citation that I can use when discussing this with the
electrician or eMotorWerks? I started to a look at the 2013 California Electrical Code (downloads: https://archive.org/details/gov.ca.bsc.2013.03)
but I suspect others here may already know it or the National Electrical Code well enough
to save a lot of time.

Click to expand...

That's not 'Code' that is wrong installation.
Did you show him the manual to the Juicebox 40 or did you just tell him, put in a 40amp breaker with this kind of plug.

DepletedZPM said:

JoulesThief said:

If you bought the juice box 40, your breaker should be 50 amp capable. Any NEMA 14-50 outlet needs a 50 amp circuit breaker and needs to be able to flow 80% continuous of that current level, or 40 amps.

Click to expand...

So it sounds like I should push back and complain that the installation is not up to code.

Does anyone have a precise electrical code citation that I can use when discussing this with the
electrician or eMotorWerks? I started to a look at the 2013 California Electrical Code (downloads: https://archive.org/details/gov.ca.bsc.2013.03)
but I suspect others here may already know it or the National Electrical Code well enough
to save a lot of time.

Click to expand...

A NEMA 14-50 is a style of plug, the 14 designates the style, the 50 the amperage it's capable of handling. So, being a 50 amp outlet, it should have a 50 amp circuit breaker, and be capable of flowing 40 amps continuously, 80 % rated continuous capacity, as is normal for a 40 Amp EVSE, regardless of the matter that your charger unit, being only 7.2kw, only draws or accepts 30 amps continuous. There will be newer electrical cars, think Tesla's and Toyota Rav4 EV's, that will allow a full 40 amps to be provided by a Juice Box 40. Your 14-50 outlet needs to flow 50 amps peak, 40 amps continuous, and for that a 50 amp circuit breaker is required.

This is why you pull permits and get inspections for contracted work being done by any contractor.