Recommend an electrician in Seattle area?

Anyone have a recommendation for an electrician in the Seattle area to run a new 240 V line ?

Specifically, we want to run 240 V from our house to detached garage with a new panel in the garage (which currently has just a small 120 V panel) and an outlet for an EVSE there, then also from there run a 240 V line into the back yard for an electric sauna. So, probably an 80 or 100 amp circuit would be needed from the house to garage, which would be about 60 feet between those two panels, then a 40 amp breaker for the sauna.

Ideally, I'd like to lay down the conduit and cables myself and have the electrician finish the installation, if that seems reasonable.

BuckMkII said:

Ideally, I'd like to lay down the conduit and cables myself and have the electrician finish the installation, if that seems reasonable.

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That is exactly what you should do, otherwise the cost is going to be sky high.
The panel and outlet work is easy work for an electrician -- go out and start getting quotes

The tricky part is going to be pulling 100 Amps from your main panel. That sounds like a major upgrade to me unless your home has an unusually hefty panel already.

Do you have a 200 amp main panel already? You will not want to do this on a normal 'older' Seattle house with a 100 or 125 amp main panel. i just went through a panel upgrade here myself last year (and ran a 40 amp circuit for a sauna too!), pretty straight-forward stuff. Unfortunately got no recommendations for electricians as i did it on my own but if you have questions let me know.

Marko

Our existing panel in the house has a 200 A main breaker. Our house was one of the last to be built on our block (1978) except for a couple of big corner lots that were divided and built on later, so it's not as outdated electrically as is probably common with some of the older houses in the neighborhood.

However, we do have all-electric utilities, so a big EVSE, the sauna, the heat pump, the dryer, the water heater, and a couple of kitchen appliances all running at once might start to add up...

OTOH, we have L2 charging at work, so we rarely actually charge the car at home much. I'm largely just looking ahead to future use in the garage while we're doing the sauna project now.

Is the existing 120V feeder the garage sub-panel in conduit already ? If so, the existing conduit can probably be used to supply 240V to the garage. If not, digging the trench and laying the cable will certainly bring the cost way down compared to having an electrician do that work.

You might need to do a load analysis to make sure, but I'd guess a 200A service will be fine since it is assumed that not every circuit is pulling its max amperage at the same time. I don't know the formulas on how this is calculated but your local building inspector or electrician should be able help with that calculation.

I think it is common for the utility line to terminate in the main panel but it does not have to be that way. My home was built in the 1970's and the utility line terminates in a box that splits the power into two: one to the main panel, and the other to a small panel that feeds the home A/C.

The electrician who came out to hook up my EVSE laughed when he saw the setup and told me I can have as much current as I want to the EV, EVSE permitting
I'm actually happy about it now, since it gives me an easy path to own two Tesla that are charged by two EVSE that share one 100 Amp circuit.

Is the split before or after the meter? :lol:

That does sound like an unusual configuration since everything I've read about home wiring indicate the NEC requires a single 'service entrance disconnect', ie the main breaker that disconnects ALL home circuits from the utility lines. What happens after that disconnect is up to the home owner but unless you have 2 meters (and 2 service entrances) that arrangement may not be up to code.