is my breaker box to full?

First post here! reserved april 20th
getting excited!

but 20 year old house
200 amp service panel in my garage (thats good)

but its prettly loaded

has only one knockout left
plus I found and unused 20 amp breaker (went to an old sat dish)

I have lots of heavy electric stuff , water heater, a/c , dryer, stove,floor heat in sunroom. well pump(240v) and a pool pump !!!!

all on 240 breakers!!

hoping I will pass an evse inspection?

Any electricians have an idea?

Kevin

kmp647 said:

has only one knockout left
plus I found and unused 20 amp breaker (went to an old sat dish)

Click to expand...

I can only answer about the physical space....you will need room for a double-pole breaker. So loose the unused 20amp and (if necessary) move some others around so you can get two spaces together.

kmp647 said:

First post here! reserved april 20th
getting excited!

but 20 year old house
200 amp service panel in my garage (thats good)

but its prettly loaded

has only one knockout left
plus I found and unused 20 amp breaker (went to an old sat dish)

I have lots of heavy electric stuff , water heater, a/c , dryer, stove,floor heat in sunroom. well pump(240v) and a pool pump !!!!

all on 240 breakers!!

hoping I will pass an evse inspection?

Any electricians have an idea?

Kevin

Click to expand...

Kevin, on the eTec questionnaire they asked if I had TWO unused slots above or below each other, so I would say you need those.

Sounds like there (most likely) would not be an install problem.

Thanks for the replys!

I am down for a December order here in Virginia
so sometime before my charge assesment I will have an electrician move the 2 availble
breaker spots together.

Kevin

kmp647 said:

Thanks for the replys!

I am down for a December order here in Virginia
so sometime before my charge assesment I will have an electrician move the 2 availble
breaker spots together.

Kevin

Click to expand...

I don't think you'll need to go to the extra expense...stuff like that should be covered under the EVSE installation. Just be prepared to point out to the installer which breaker is the unused one.

Right, no need to mess with the breakers yourself, and you will not really save any significant $$ ... none from AV it seems. Best to leave it alone!

The installer will do the little that is required, without DANGER to yourself.

Actually, my guy told me I needed 3 slots - 2 (next to each other) for the 240V for EVSE, and one for the dedicated 120V GFI circuit.

Don't know if electricians use these, but you can get half width breakers and then are able to get two breakers into a single slot. I've only seen these for 120V circuits, so you might have to juggle a little bit to get all of the slots right.

ETA - but as Gary says - for the $2200+ AV wants to charge, they should be doing all of the work. Don't hurt yourself!

AV quoted me $250 more to install tandem breakers because my breaker box was full. After I emailed and tried to find more info. They said they can do it all for $1600 if I got the tandem breakers done myself. Obviously I caught them and asked them to justify $800+ for installing tandem breakers. Waiting to hear back. Be prepared for AV to charge more to install the breakers.

csriram45 said:

AV quoted me $250 more to install tandem breakers because my breaker box was full. After I emailed and tried to find more info. They said they can do it all for $1600 if I got the tandem breakers done myself. Obviously I caught them and asked them to justify $800+ for installing tandem breakers. Waiting to hear back. Be prepared for AV to charge more to install the breakers.

Click to expand...

$800 to swap a few breakers is very expensive. I just had several subpanels completely replaced with all new breakers (about 12) for $560 each panel.
(shipping and tax included :roll: )

My service panel was so full and far from the garage that I decided to install a new sub panel in the garage.

I did the work myself and this morning got the rough inspection. Didn't pass because of a minor violation with the RMC 90 degree angle I ran into the wall. Just need to put a box instead and run Romex instead of tubing...

Anyway : no problem with space. The new panel is empty

Also the inspector gave some good tips about installing the charger. He told me to install a 40A 240V breaker and a 4x4 box next to the panel. Connect the 2 with a a piece of Romex, cap the ends and close the box.

He said that will pass the final inspection and once I get the charger I can just open the box, connect the charger, bolt it on top and be done with it. No need for another inspection.

After the outrageous quote I got from AV I am seriously thinking about getting everything done myself.