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[chopedogg]

I installed my FCSP by myself with the help of a buddy who is an electrician...cost me maybe $500 in total between 100A breaker from ACE, some scrap wire pieces picked up from the local electrical supply shop, conduit, and my buddy's time (about 2 hours). That said, I only had to run wires about 25ft from my breaker panel in my garage to where I wanted to put the charger so that it would reach my charge port regardless of which garage door I pulled into.

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[Monkey]

Thanks for the response. The Ford fast charger came with the vehicle and is just sitting in the garage bay as of now-- but is pricey to get installed, so am considering options.

Get quotes from local electricians to install it. Don't mess with SunRun. You don't need the full 100A circuit for the Ford charger unless you want to go all out for maximum home charging speed and/or want the home power backup and all that.

Depending on how far you need to run wire from your panel and a few other factors, will determine price. but I'd recommend a 60A GFCI circuit and you can charge at 48A which will always be more than enough to charge you up overnight. Of course, you can install it on up to a 100A circuit for 80A charging, but that's going to cost a good bit more to install if you have a significant wire run.

Any electrician can install the charger. They're super simple actually.

You'll see most people installing their chargers/EVSE's on standard breakers. The manual actually calls for a GFCI breaker and NEC spec is now saying GFCI for EVSE installations in the latest revisions. Yes, that breaker will cost you another $125 give or take, but it may just save someone's life, maybe your own, if there is a fault. And yes, GFCI breaker if you decide to go with a NEMA 14-50... But also get an industrial grade 14-50 outlet designed to take repetitive insertions and operate at capacity. These usually run a good bit more than the Leviton one you find in the electrical aisle at Home Depot. If you go that route, I'd also recommend getting a good plug-in charger that can provide the full 40A charging and is more reliable than the Ford mobile charger that's limited to 32A. ...By the time you do all that, it makes more sense to install the Ford Charge Station you already have.

 

[Electric Messiah]

Get quotes from local electricians to install it. Don't mess with SunRun. You don't need the full 100A circuit for the Ford charger unless you want to go all out for maximum home charging speed and/or want the home power backup and all that.

Depending on how far you need to run wire from your panel and a few other factors, will determine price. but I'd recommend a 60A GFCI circuit and you can charge at 48A which will always be more than enough to charge you up overnight. Of course, you can install it on up to a 100A circuit for 80A charging, but that's going to cost a good bit more to install if you have a significant wire run.

Any electrician can install the charger. They're super simple actually.

You'll see most people installing their chargers/EVSE's on standard breakers. The manual actually calls for a GFCI breaker and NEC spec is now saying GFCI for EVSE installations in the latest revisions. Yes, that breaker will cost you another $125 give or take, but it may just save someone's life, maybe your own, if there is a fault. And yes, GFCI breaker if you decide to go with a NEMA 14-50... But also get an industrial grade 14-50 outlet designed to take repetitive insertions and operate at capacity. These usually run a good bit more than the Leviton one you find in the electrical aisle at Home Depot. If you go that route, I'd also recommend getting a good plug-in charger that can provide the full 40A charging and is more reliable than the Ford mobile charger that's limited to 32A. ...By the time you do all that, it makes more sense to install the Ford Charge Station you already have.

Thanks for your informed, detailed reply, as well as to all the others who have contributed their knowledge and expertise.

 

[Adventureboy]

Yes, I have the original Ford fast charger that came with the truck-- that the original owner uninstalled from his garage. SunRun has done the preliminary stuff-- just waiting for them to install-- and has given me time to consider cheaper options...

Did you get the Mobile Charger with the truck? (earlier models shipped with it) If so, that will run 30 amps on a 14-50 and keep you out of trouble. Unless you pull in at midnight with less than 20-30% it will top it up overnight. 20%-->80% takes about 8 hours with the mobile charger. If not, a mobile charger (not necessarily Ford's) is a good piece of kit for charging at locations when needed.

 

[The Weatherman]

Thanks for the responses. Just took a short 7 mile trip on winding country roads. Result was 3.1 miles/kilometers per HWH

Wow! I haven’t been able to get above 2.2 in combined highway/ Rural Rd driving.

So, if the truck is fully charged (131kwh) x 3.1 mi. per=406.1mi. range. Now we all know that’s not going to happen.

So what have learned? The range estimates produced by the GOM are not correct.

You will have to do your own distance analysis over time to get comfortable with what you truly have available.

I have determined my range considering the terrain, temperature and driving style is ~260 to 290 on a 90% charge.

 

[Electric Messiah]

I have both. The fast charger (not installed) and the mobile charger which I am now using to charge the Lariat with glacial slowness with the 120 volt connector. Not driving much at the moment, so that's working out o.k.

The detached garage/barn has a circuit breaker box with higher amperage that was installed there in anticipation of eventually having an electric vehicle to charge, so I believe it can accommodate the fast charger at the rate of 40 or 48 amps which would more than suffice my needs.

So the choices I'm mulling are:

1) Getting the fast charger installed. It could be placed right next to the garage box so extended wiring would not be needed.

2. Getting an electrician to install an industrial grade NEMA 1450 plug and the copper wiring and utilizing the the mobile charger.

3. Getting the highly rated and economically priced Emporia level 2 charger and having an electrician install that. I have solar panels and can apparently program the Emporia to "feed off the sun" when it charges. If going this route I would sell the Ford fast charger.

I appreciate all the good feedback and advice I am getting here.

 

[Electric Messiah]

Wow! I haven’t been able to get above 2.2 in combined highway/ Rural Rd driving.

So, if the truck is fully charged (131kwh) x 3.1 mi. per=406.1mi. range. Now we all know that’s not going to happen.

So what have learned? The range estimates produced by the GOM are not correct.

You will have to do your own distance analysis over time to get comfortable with what you truly have available.

I have determined my range considering the terrain, temperature and driving style is ~260 to 290 on a 90% charge.

My short trip was a slow, windy meander around local roads which no doubt accounts for the inflated figure. Overall, am at 2.0 which as another commented seems to be the standard figure. (I used to work in weather-- gonna use the truck for storm chasing?)

 

[msadan]

If you're paying for something to be installed, I'd recommend you just hardwire a 40A or 48A EVSE. The 14-50 plugs on the market vary in quality and the ability to handle that much continuous power for extended periods of time. My opinion, a hard wired EVSE with a secondary breaker is the safer route to go. As a bonus there are plenty of good options at 48A if you don't need to charge quickly.
(When I priced it out there was a huge jump in price for a 100A Breaker/80A Ford fast charger vs my Chargepoint Flex 48A).

Agree 100%. Eliminating the plug eliminates a potential failure point. Hardwiring it is definitely the way to go.

 

[spadesaspade]

+1 to what @msadan said. Hardwired with 60A breaker is the way to go.

Choose any charger that you like, I personally use Chargepoint EV Flex and it has everything that I need. Charges at 48A(11.5kW/hour) which will still charge your truck from 10-90% overnight. Needs thinner wiring which is easier and cheaper to install that any electrician can do for you. It is so simple that I went the DIY route but I have some experince working with electrical panel. Costed me under $100 excluding the chargepoint hardware.

 

[Galactus55]

I'm looking into this unit. https://enteligent.com/dc-coupled-dc-evses

 

[mattskr]

Regarding the "bonus miles" I have a Platinum so my max is supposed to be 305. When charging to 100% I notice that sometimes I'll get the 325 or 330 miles. But those extra miles literally disappear after driving just 4-5 miles the GoM drops right back down to around 300.

 

[djwildstar]

1) Getting the fast charger installed. It could be placed right next to the garage box so extended wiring would not be needed.
2) Getting an electrician to install an industrial grade NEMA 1450 plug and the copper wiring and utilizing the the mobile charger.
3) Getting the highly rated and economically priced Emporia level 2 charger and having an electrician install that. I have solar panels and can apparently program the Emporia to "feed off the sun" when it charges. If going this route I would sell the Ford fast charger.

So here are some suggestions based on my ownership so far. My understanding is that you have an ER Lariat (just like I do, except that mine is red), because your truck came with the Ford Charge Station Pro (FCSP).

So regarding question 1, my suggestion go ahead and install the FCSP -- it is a decent Level 2 charger, and you already have it. I had mine installed by a local electrician, for about half of what SunRun charges. If your garage box can't support a 100A circuit, the FCSP can be easily dialed down to 48A (for a 60A circuit) or 40A (for a 50A circuit). Ford has the installation guide on-line here: FCSP Installation Guide so your electrician can do it correctly. While the FCSP has connected features, it will work just fine as a "dumb" charger as soon as its powered-on.

I don't recommend going the NEMA 14-50 outlet route with a mobile charger, and I doubly-don't recommend doing it with the Ford Mobile Charger (FMC). The FMC is limited to 30A even when plugged into a 50A circuit, and people report that it can be unreliable when used day-in and day-out as your charging solution. I personally use a J+ Booster2 as my mobile charging solution, because it supports several different 240V plugs, and is adjustable anywhere from 6A to 40A.

I've heard good things about the Emporia unit, so that would be a good alternative if you don't like the FCSP for any reason (or if the FCSP fails at any point). One caveat is that the Emporia charger defaults to 48A charging and therefore needs a 60A circuit (while you can change the charge rate via their app, the electrical code doesn't seem to consider that sufficient).

Finally, any EV charger will charge your vehicle from solar power if the charger is wired into your panel and the solar system is producing energy. The clever trick that the Emporia unit does is that -- if it is paired with an Emporia energy monitor -- the EV charger will charge your truck with any excess solar production. This may (or may not) be financially advantageous, depending on how much you can get for selling excess production to your utility versus how much they will charge you for super-off-peak EV-charging usage.

 

[Electric Messiah]

Thanks for the detailed reply and info. I do have the Lariat ER that came with the Ford charger, but have decided to go with the Emporia and dial it down to accommodate my 50 amp circuit. Charge rate will still be adequate, especially compared to the glacial rate of the Ford plug-in 120V mobile charger I'm using now--

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