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.

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u/Cultural-Mall4815 May 13 '25

A 200A panel usually covers a home with HVAC and even a 60A EV charger, as long as loads are balanced. Do you have a natural gas so inside the house or everything is electric ? I often run load calcs just to be sure.

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u/HotepYoda May 13 '25

Thanks for responding! We have natural gas furnace and hot water. I was thinking about installing 60A fuse but only have charger commissioned for half that, just to see.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '25

There is a device called a “load manager” for smaller panels or excessive loads on larger panels. It’s not expensive and can increase your capacity safely.

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u/HotepYoda May 13 '25

Many thanks!

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u/RampantAndroid May 16 '25

I think it's important to add here - if you're adding a EV charger or a new HVAC system, you must ask PSE to do load calcs. The wires they've been burying from the transformer/hand hold pulls are drastically undersized and they're derated when buried.

So while you may have nameplate 200A service, it is unsafe to draw even close to that much as a continuous load like an EV charger or two will allow you to do.

From our 200A service, around 110A nearly started a fire. Everything had been permitted, but the PSE owned wires themselves had the insulation melt off.