Bay Area EVSE installation

So, with my Leaf hopefully coming in december, and the AV quote being way too high for me, I've started to look into an electrician who could install the Leviton pre-wire kit for me.

One came this morning, and said he could do it for about $500 (which I still think is quite expensive ...).
We're talking about 20 feet of 20A cable, with the right plug installed to the wall (for the 16A Leviton charger), and my panel has enough room for an additional breaker.

I wanted to know if anyone had found a good and cheap electrician to work with, or if some would be interested in getting one electrician to do the work for everyone. I'm pretty sure that if a few of us get together we could get some pretty decent rates.

Let me know, I'm in Belmont -- but my leaf will come 2 months later than yours.

gudy said:

So, with my Leaf hopefully coming in december, and the AV quote being way too high for me, I've started to look into an electrician who could install the Leviton pre-wire kit for me.

One came this morning, and said he could do it for about $500 (which I still think is quite expensive ...).
We're talking about 20 feet of 20A cable, with the right plug installed to the wall (for the 16A Leviton charger), and my panel has enough room for an additional breaker.

I wanted to know if anyone had found a good and cheap electrician to work with, or if some would be interested in getting one electrician to do the work for everyone. I'm pretty sure that if a few of us get together we could get some pretty decent rates.

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Add me to the list. I'm in San Carlos. Super easy install and location.

I am planning to install secondary panel. I got a quote for installing the panel and charger from my electrician. It comes to $2,145.00 + Charger + Permit. This is still cheaper than the quote given by AV for the installation

If the total package qualifies for the 50% federal rebate, then it would be a great value and with ~ 0.07/kW PG&E E9-B, I should be able recover the cost within 1 year.

The main challenge is to get hold of a charger by year end.

Sigh ... one more person who doesn't know the difference between a charger and a charging dock. Do you know the difference between a boat and a boat dock?

planet4ever said:

Do you know the difference between a boat and a boat dock?

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Can we stop with the insults, please? I'm all for helping educate people about the proper terminology, but there's no reason to humiliate people. This is new for almost all of us, and not everyone knows the right words. Perhaps someone could make a nice writeup with pictures pointing to everything and explaining it all, and then when there is confusion a user can post a link to that writeup.

JasonT said:

planet4ever said:

Do you know the difference between a boat and a boat dock?

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Can we stop with the insults, please? I'm all for helping educate people about the proper terminology, but there's no reason to humiliate people. This is new for almost all of us, and not everyone knows the right words. Perhaps someone could make a nice writeup with pictures pointing to everything and explaining it all, and then when there is confusion a user can post a link to that writeup.

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Nicely said Jason.

yeah, and I'm trying to get a list of people interested in a bay area "group buy" of the installation from 1 electrician to get the price down, so let's not derail the topic.

leaf561 : would you be interested in having my electrician come to your place to give you a quote (that would be free), and if so, in which city are you ? (to make sure he's fine going there)

Yes I am interested. I am in Fremont. I will PM you my email address.

What are you planning to do for your "Charging Dock"? Should we plan for a group buy for that also?

Thanks

JasonT said:

planet4ever said:

Do you know the difference between a boat and a boat dock?

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Can we stop with the insults, please?

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Sorry, I apologize.

I'm interested. I live in Sunnyvale, and am hoping to buy a Leviton 16A L2 EVSE (ahem "charging dock"), perhaps in the "group buy" that is being discussed in another thread. My install should be fairly easy as I have a 40A subpanel in the garage. I just have to decide where the dock is going to go. (I'd like to be able to charge whether the car is in the garage or in the driveway, but I guess that depends on how much cord comes with the dock...)

Figure a minimum of 20 feet, maximum of 25 feet of "e-hose" on an EVSE.

I understand Leviton won't deliver until Q1/11. Anyone know of someone who can deliver and install an EVSE in the Bay Area this year?

pkeys said:

I understand Leviton won't deliver until Q1/11. Anyone know of someone who can deliver and install an EVSE in the Bay Area this year?

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I talked with AV rep onsite at the San Jose test drive. She said that they can't give us the charging dock till we have ordered the car and eligible to install. With the federal rebate getting expired this year, even I would like to get this installed this year.

I am not sure if anyone who has already ordered the car is getting the charging dock by the end of this year from AV.

I'm also interested in finding out if there's a good electrician serving the Fremont area who will do an installation for a reasonable price. AV quoted me $2066 for the full installation ($1040 for the work, plus charger, permit and shipping). $1040 seems excessive given the numbers I've seen quoted by others on the RAV4EV list from third party electricians. I already have an existing charger installation for my RAV4 EV so there shouldn't be anything incredibly complex about the process.

I would definitely be interested in a group buy.

cdaveb said:

I'm also interested in finding out if there's a good electrician serving the Fremont area who will do an installation for a reasonable price. AV quoted me $2066 for the full installation ($1040 for the work, plus charger, permit and shipping). $1040 seems excessive given the numbers I've seen quoted by others on the RAV4EV list from third party electricians. I already have an existing charger installation for my RAV4 EV so there shouldn't be anything incredibly complex about the process.

I would definitely be interested in a group buy.

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You should be able to get someone to do it for about $200 or so. Where are you located?

$200 would be great ... the electrician I've seen told me the permit alone is going to be between 100 and 200.
I guess that everything is more expensive in the bay area?
Maybe that we should consider finding an electrician outside the area, who would be willing to travel if we get 5-10 people interested?

My electrician told me it would be about 500-600 + permit. that's still 50% off the AV price, but it's clearly not cheap. That's for installing the Leviton kit + adding a 20A breaker to my existing panel, and runnign about 20 feet of wire outside in a metallic tube.

cdaveb said:

I'm also interested in finding out if there's a good electrician serving the Fremont area who will do an installation for a reasonable price.

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I have PMed you the electrician from whom I got the quote. Gudy also gave me the contact information of his electrician.
What is your plan for the charging dock?

leaf561 said:

I have PMed you the electrician from whom I got the quote. Gudy also gave me the contact information of his electrician.
What is your plan for the charging dock?

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Thanks for the PM. My plan is to sell the RAV4 EV when the Leaf arrives. So in theory I could even probably reuse the existing setup (although I have no idea how that works, I'm not electrically inclined although this will be my 3rd EV) and just replace the old charger (and use level 1 charging for a few weeks till it all got sorted out). The AV guy was saying it'd be trivial to just install their charger right above the other one though, yet they seem to think trivial = 1k. So I'm not sure what the best approach would be really and if there's any real advantage to delaying the install till I'm ready to remove the old charger.

AV listed the permit as $185 for me. I'm going to check with the city and see what it normally costs.

I honestly don't mind paying a little extra for the warranty and simplicity of just using AV, but it sounds like it's significantly more than a little extra and I see no reason to encourage the gouging.

EVDRIVER said:

You should be able to get someone to do it for about $200 or so. Where are you located?

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That'd be great if I can swing it. I'm in central Fremont.

I'm also concerned by the timing of the charger availability- it does seem like it's rather tight to qualify for the rebate, and any savings from avoiding AV would be wasted if we end up having to wait till next year to purchase.

gudy said:

$200 would be great ... the electrician I've seen told me the permit alone is going to be between 100 and 200.
I guess that everything is more expensive in the bay area?
Maybe that we should consider finding an electrician outside the area, who would be willing to travel if we get 5-10 people interested?

My electrician told me it would be about 500-600 + permit. that's still 50% off the AV price, but it's clearly not cheap. That's for installing the Leviton kit + adding a 20A breaker to my existing panel, and runnign about 20 feet of wire outside in a metallic tube.

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Just buy the AV EVSE direct form them. If I were you I would skip the permit since you already should have had one for the RAV install, this is like changing an outlet because you are swapping devices. Get an EVSE and any competent electrician could do it. Do you have a picture of the existing installation? AV also inflates permit fees.