EV charger and garage rewire in Cary
A level 2 charger installed without the panel upgrade two other companies had insisted on, plus a garage lighting and outlet rewire.
Job facts
- Completed
- Duration
- Under a week
- Budget band
- $3,800 to $5,400
- Trade
- Electrical
The budget is a band, not a quote. What your job costs depends on your house, and the only honest way to find out is a visit.
Before and after
Same angle, same lens, same time of day, so the pair is documentation rather than decoration.
BeforeA garage wall with a single ceiling fixture, an extension lead running to a socket and no dedicated circuit 
AfterThe same garage with a wall-mounted level 2 charger, conduit run back to the panel and new ceiling lighting
The job
The scope
A 2011 house in Cary, a new electric car, and two quotes already in hand that both required a service upgrade before a charger could be fitted.
The owner asked us for a third quote expecting the same answer.
The challenge
The question is whether the existing service can carry a charger, and the honest answer requires a calculation rather than a glance at the panel label.
There are two ways to answer it. The quick way is to add up the nameplate ratings of everything in the house, which almost always says no, because it assumes the oven, the dryer, the air conditioning and the charger all run flat out simultaneously. The better way, and the one the code actually permits, is a load calculation based on measured demand over a period.
Two other contractors had used the quick method and quoted a service upgrade on top of the charger. That is not dishonest, it is just the conservative answer, and it costs the customer several thousand dollars they may not need to spend.
The second issue was the garage itself. A single ceiling fixture, one socket, and an extension lead across the floor that the owner had been using for years.
What we did
Nathan put a recording meter on the service for a week and calculated the actual demand.
The result was clear: the existing service could carry a forty ampere charger circuit with margin, with the charger set to a load-managed limit that backs off if household demand spikes. No service upgrade, no panel work, and we said so in writing so the owner had something to compare against the other two quotes.
The charger went on the garage wall on a dedicated circuit, in conduit, run back to the panel on the shortest sensible route rather than the shortest possible one, because the shortest possible route crossed a joist bay full of plumbing.
While the crew were there they rewired the garage properly: LED ceiling lighting on two switched rows, four new sockets on a dedicated circuit with ground fault protection, and the failed backstab connection that had killed the original socket found and remade.
The outcome
One day on site after the week of monitoring. The extension lead is in the bin.
The load calculation and the meter data went to the owner as a written record, which matters if the house is sold or if another circuit is added later.
Finished .
Services used on this job
- Outlet and Switch RepairDead outlets, tripping breakers, ungrounded receptacles and failing switches, diagnosed properly rather than swapped and hoped.
- Lighting InstallationRecessed lighting, fixtures, under-cabinet and outdoor lighting, flat priced, with dimmers actually matched to the fittings.
- EV Charger InstallationLevel 2 home charger installation, with a load calculation first so we know your panel can carry it before anything is ordered.
Other jobs worth reading
- Fuse panel to modern service, plus a standby generator, in RaleighA sixty year old fuse panel replaced with a modern service and a standby generator on an automatic transfer switch.
- Tankless water heater and gas line upgrade in MorrisvilleA failed tank heater replaced with a tankless unit, which needed a resized gas line and a new vent before it could work at all.
- Heat pump changeout and duct repair in Wake ForestA failed twenty year old heat pump replaced, with the attic ductwork sealed and two runs resized rather than reused as found.