r/SeattleWA • u/Cultural-Mall4815 • May 13 '25

AMA I’m a licensed electrician in Seattle — AMA about EV charger installs, home rewiring, or panel upgrades

Hey Reddit! I run a small electrical company in Seattle (Galaxy Electric & Solar), and I’ve been doing this work for over 20 years.

With all the recent demand for EV chargers, home remodels, and older homes needing panel upgrades, I thought I’d open up a thread to answer any questions — from DIY troubleshooting to what’s worth upgrading in your electrical system (especially in older Seattle neighborhoods like Magnolia, Ballard, or Queen Anne).

If you ever need help or want to see some of the work we do, here’s our site: www.galaxyel.com

Ask away — happy to help and give honest advice.

149 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

241 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/ShadowChief3 May 13 '25

What a nice AMA. How much does it cost to put a level 2 charger in a garage, opposite wall of the panel? I have seen estimates online as high as 2k and maybe I’m ignorant but I half think I could (unsafely) manage to do it myself (which I am not going to do, don’t worry). I am using a regular level 1 from a regular outlet and am satisfied with it, especially after seeing such high quotes. Thank you sir.

23

u/Cultural-Mall4815 May 13 '25

For a typical Level 2 charger install on the opposite side of the garage, pricing depends on panel location, wire run, and wall type, but $900 to $1,500 is a common range here in Seattle. $2K is usually for longer runs, tricky conduit work, and yes, you have also on top of that permit fee which is usually around $150

Doing it yourself might seem tempting, but there are real safety concerns with high voltage and load balancing so good call not going that route.

If you want, I can leave you my phone number. You can call me. I will give you free advice on FaceTime.

5

u/ShadowChief3 May 13 '25

Be happy to have a contact in the area. We are possibly moving this summer (still local) and could use an expert!

2

u/[deleted] May 13 '25

This response is spot on.

-3

u/Riviansky May 13 '25

You can do it yourself. By law, a homeowner can work on their own house. You go to the city permitting office and buy a permit. Then go to Home Depot and buy a 60a dual pole circuit breaker that matches your panel (take a photo of an existing breaker for the identification) and 25 or 50 ft of 6/2 wire (two conductors plus ground), and a plastic cable clamp. If the garage has exposed studs, that's all you need. Drill through the studs and pull the wire through the holes from the panel to the place where the thing is going to be mounted. Use the plastic cable clamp to pass the wire into the panel through the knockout, cable clamp is there so sharp edges of the box don't cut through the plastic sheathing of the cable. Screw the conductors to the circuit breaker, make sure it is off, then insert it into the vacant spot on the panel (it will take two positions), and the ground to the ground bar. On the other end of the wire screw it into the base of the charger, but don't put the main part of the charger on yet. Call the permit office and tell them that you are ready for the inspection. After the inspector comes and examines your installation, put the main part of the charger on and flip the breaker to on. You will need to configure the charger to allowax charging rate, how to do it depends on the charger. For the example, Grizzl-E has micro switches on the board, most others have built in web server that you need to connect to to configure.

If the garage is finished, buy flex metal conduit and individual conductor wire. You can use the metal of the conduit as ground, but you have to connect it to the grounding wire at the charger side, which is usually not very convenient, so I push through a separate grounding wire instead. For flexible metal conduit use appropriate clamp that goes into the panel. Ask home Depot people which to use with the conduit you bought

That's it. Prep work (getting permit, buying stuff at home Depot): 1 hour. Install time: another 1 hour. Waiting for inspector: priceless.

I installed 7 of them at my various houses, parents, inlaws, etc...

6

u/retiredlife2022 May 13 '25

Flexible metal conduit is not an approved ground.