Most EV owners with off-street parking use a home Level 2 or 220-240 V (volt) charger for the vast majority of their charging. It is much cheaper than most public charging and more convenient. It can be quicker than public Level 2 charging, sometimes much quicker. The only alternative for those unable to charge at a workplace or public Level 2 charger is Level 1 (110 V) charging at home.
Level 1 charging is just plugging your car into a regular home electricity outlet. Many EVs come with a charging cord that has an adaptor for 110 V outlets. As long as your car’s charge cord, with an extension cord if needed, can reach an outlet you can charge there, just very slowly. Level 1 chargers provide 3 to 5 miles of range per hour of charging. Therefore, if you charge overnight from a household plug for 8 hours, you can get 24 to 40 miles added to your battery. That is enough to cover many people’s daily commute.
An advantage of 110 V charging is no modification of the house’s wiring is needed and no charger needs to be purchased. Therefore the arrangement is effortless and free to move with you to another home or rental property. Level 1 charging might have a downside for battery longevity. Some reports suggest Level 2 charging yields slightly greater longevity than Level 1 for EV batteries. Of course if your commute occasionally or regularly exceeds the amount of juice that Level 1 charging will inject into your battery overnight, relying on Level 1 charging might not be for you. (see link: EV performance by the numbers for this computation).
Installing a Level 2 Charger at Home
If you anticipate someday purchasing a second EV, or eventually selling your house to someone who is likely to want a car charger, there might be longer term benefits to installing a Level 2 charger in your home or garage even if the benefits to you today are modest.
If you are interested in installing a Level 2 charger, start by checking with your electric utility to see if they provide any incentives. For example, Colorado’s La Plata Electric Association Co-op, offers up to two free Level 2 chargers per household and a $500 rebate or installation and labor costs for owners of any electric vehicle. Public utilities such as Xcel and Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) may also have incentives.
Another source of money saving for EV charging equipment is the federal government. Consumers who purchase qualified residential charging equipment may receive a tax credit of 30% of the cost, up to $1,000.
The cost of installing a level 2 charger in your home or garage is heavily dependent on whether your existing wiring and electrical panel can accommodate the extra electrical load. If you have a 220-240 V circuit in your home that is not being used (they are often installed for shop tools, electric clothes dryers, electric heaters, and ovens), the cost of extending the wire to a place suitable for a car charger will be dependent on the length of wire needed. In some cases, a charger can be plugged directly into the unused circuit. You could conceivably unplug a clothes dryer each time you needed to use the car charger, if the dryer was located near the car.
(LPEA will give you one if you are in their service area and the charger can access the internet through your wifi network)
If you do not have an unused 220-240 V circuit, but you have two open circuit breaker slots in your electrical service panel, and if the wiring coming to the service panel can accommodate an additional 20 A (ampere or amp) 220 V (volt) circuit, the cost will be slightly higher. The exact amount depends on how difficult running the new wires will be.
If your electrical service needs an additional circuit but the panel has no empty slots, you may need to install a new service panel. This will likely cost several hundred dollars and may cost more if the occasion of its replacement stimulates other electric system upgrades.
If you are one of their customers, LPEA will subsidize the cost of such upgrades at up to 50% of the electrician’s bill.
If you are considering upgrading your circuitry, be aware a 20 A circuit is the minimum needed for a 220-240 V charger, but circuits up to 60 A will allow even faster charging (the charging rate is directly proportional to the amperage (20 A allows 3.8 kw charging up to 60 A allowing 11.5 kw charging). Most chargers can be set to any of those charging rates.
Identifying an electrician who is familiar with installing EV chargers can be a challenge in some communities. We encourage you to use only electricians who have experience with EV charger installations. FourCore (fourcore.org) is a good resource for identifying experienced EV electricians in the Four Corners area.
