Do I need to run new 400 amp service in my house for the Lightning + everything else?

[Brian Head Yankee]

I'm a Licensed electrical contractor in California and Nevada.

OP - You will be fine. You do not determine your panel capacity by adding up the breakers. You do not "have 40 amps left". I install Tesla 100 amp chargers on 200 amp services without any issue whatsoever. Be very careful taking forum advice. As you see here, most replies are simply not true.

Having said that, you should charge your EV at night when you go to bed to take advantage of lower electrical rates (if available).

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[Roy2001]

You can install 80A charger and arrange to charge during night.

In addition, a 48A charger would charge 15-100% within 13 hours, that means you can charge 20-90% within 10 hours. I would imagine that is plenty fast unless you need to drive more than 250 miles a day.

 

[toyko joe]

I'm a Licensed electrical contractor in California and Nevada.

OP - You will be fine. You do not determine your panel capacity by adding up the breakers. You do not "have 40 amps left". I install Tesla 100 amp chargers on 200 amp services without any issue whatsoever. Be very careful taking forum advice. As you see here, most replies are simply not true.

Having said that, you should charge your EV at night when you go to bed to take advantage of lower electrical rates (if available).

This is the correct answer. Remember the breaker does nothing more than protect the conductors from overheating. If you have a 200A service and all branch circuits sized conductors and breakers properly, and your main is 200A breaker then all conductors are protected from over heating which in turn prevents fires; which is why the NEC exists, to prevent fires.


Also, make sure you have your transfer switch installed correctly by a Certified Electrician for back-feeding your home with power given that you have solar panels with a net meter. (unfortunately I haven't yet researched how Ford does this with their Lightning charging system)

 

[rjhedrich]

The Op I am told I have only 60amp head room in my 200a panel . Will the pro charger still work just at a slower charge . I am going with the extended battery. Does the charger step down from 80 to 60 amp charging.

 

[Silenze]

The Op I am told I have only 60amp head room in my 200a panel . Will the pro charger still work just at a slower charge . I am going with the extended battery. Does the charger step down from 80 to 60 amp charging.

Don't guess. Get a product that measures your energy usage like https://sense.com/

 

[gorwell]

The Op I am told I have only 60amp head room in my 200a panel . Will the pro charger still work just at a slower charge . I am going with the extended battery. Does the charger step down from 80 to 60 amp charging.

Unlikely you'd actually have concerns w/ a 200 amp service, unless you are charging in the middle of the day while running AC, running a electric pool pump, running your electric dryer, running your electric stove, etc..... If you plan on charging at night, it would be rare to have a constant pull of much more than 20amps at night.

If you do have a problem. The software inside of the F150 should have a limit option, or the charger might have an option to be setup w/ less power

 

[ShirBlackspots]

208V is only on three phase if you are in an apartment or commercial building. OP is not in an apartment, so its single split phase 240V with 200A service.

I'm in the slow process of rewiring my house, so I am going from 100A to 200A service
I chose to use a 60A breaker for Ford's 48A charger. Not sure how well a 100A breaker will work in that panel, I'd have to rearrange things. (light blue is things I've completed)

Will be going from.

To this:

 

[Pilot2022]

thanks for sharing the panel details. I am replacing a square d split bus panel with an Eaton CH panel and planning on a 100a/80a ev charger. Need to more research on available hardware available and costs to decide on final rating but 80a would be the minimum.

208V is only on three phase if you are in an apartment or commercial building. OP is not in an apartment, so its single split phase 240V with 200A service.

I'm in the slow process of rewiring my house, so I am going from 100A to 200A service
I chose to use a 60A breaker for Ford's 48A charger. Not sure how well a 100A breaker will work in that panel, I'd have to rearrange things. (light blue is things I've completed)

Will be going from.

To this:

 

[EVBill]

Yeah it's a pretty huge load for most residential installations. People with older wiring and a 100A panel are completely SOL. Most with 200A will have capacity and cut it close, but I for example for 2 bays left in my 200A panel, and would be heavily oversubscribed if I were to fill those with 100A breakers for a charger.

No gas where I live so I have an electric range (50A), well (30A), 2 heat pumps/ACs (One at 30A, one at 25A), dryer (30A), and hot water heater (30A) all at 240v. Would be interested to see if the 200A main would take it or not... Won't be looking for an EV for another 3 or 4 years most likely, but it's already on my mind.

What will be most interesting is when people try to install 2 chargers. Sounds excessive now, but picture having 3 or 4 cars in a household when there are 2 adults plus some teens with cars, and in 10 years or so it won't be that out of the ordinary for all of those to be EVs. That'll be 160A of constant pull just from those two running concurrently.

I am looking at that situation myself with a 200A service and already one level 2 charger for a Chevrolet Volt that doesn't pull near the 40A that the charger is capable of supplying. One option that I very may need to consider is having a second service put in with a second power panel just for charging vehicles.

 

[Lamrith]

208V is only on three phase if you are in an apartment or commercial building. OP is not in an apartment, so its single split phase 240V with 200A service.

I'm in the slow process of rewiring my house, so I am going from 100A to 200A service
I chose to use a 60A breaker for Ford's 48A charger. Not sure how well a 100A breaker will work in that panel, I'd have to rearrange things. (light blue is things I've completed)

Will be going from.

To this:

IMHO - (I am not an electrician, just been bit in the butt enough with my recent garage remodel to offer my input) If you are installing new wire/breakers for the Ford 48A charger as part of your upgrade to 200A, I would HIGHLY recommend you go ahead and build that run out for 100A. Sure right now you only have 48A. But I do not believe Ford will be the only Co rollling out higher amp setups moving forward. The cost of the heavier wire and breaker now will pale in comparison to having to try and rerun with heaver wire later when the new hotness EV hits the market in 2yrs and requires 70-80-90A. Consider it futureproofing.

Case in point I just rewired my garage 2yrs ago now, ran 30A 230V to a few places, wishing I had run a heavier run for one of them to be able to handle the 48A charger. THankfully I have room on wall under the panel and next to it, so I will just have to have electrician run a new shorty run to connect the Ford chargers

 

[Brian Head Yankee]

You guys are in a panic for no reason. While you sleep from 10 PM to 6 AM, you can charge for an 80 mile drive. Who drives more than 80 miles per day. Calm down. The little charger plugged into a 120 outlet will be perfectly fine for 95% of your daily trips. A L2 48 amp will charge you up in one night.

 

[sotek2345]

You guys are in a panic for no reason. While you sleep from 10 PM to 6 AM, you can charge for an 80 mile drive. Who drives more than 80 miles per day. Calm down. The little charger plugged into a 120 outlet will be perfectly fine for 95% of your daily trips. A L2 48 amp will charge you up in one night.

Yeah - but then you don't get the home power backup.

 

[Lamrith]

You guys are in a panic for no reason. While you sleep from 10 PM to 6 AM, you can charge for an 80 mile drive. Who drives more than 80 miles per day. Calm down. The little charger plugged into a 120 outlet will be perfectly fine for 95% of your daily trips. A L2 48 amp will charge you up in one night.

Not sure how you are figuring the 110V being fine, tesla who has done this a while and has smaller batteries only gets you 3Mi/hr of charge time. That is 24 whole miles overnight...

You must not live in a big urban sprawl metropolis. Plenty if not a majority of people where I live commute to Seattle and back daily. 45mi+ one way, then add soccer practice, dance recitals, home depot runs after work and you are maxing it out at best.. Thus the 48A which is higher than most people have available with the common 30A circuit. Plus as mentioned the whole battery backup of your home situation which requires 80A circuit.

 

[shutterbug]

Plus as mentioned the whole battery backup of your home situation which requires 80A circuit.

Actually, the 80A charger should require a 100A circuit.

You must not live in a big urban sprawl metropolis. Plenty if not a majority of people where I live commute to Seattle and back daily. 45mi+ one way, then add soccer practice, dance recitals, home depot runs after work and you are maxing it out at best..

Average daily miles in US is about 35 miles per day. For everyone like you, who may need to drive 100-150 miles per day, there is a whole bunch that drives a lot less.

 

[rjhedrich]

i am op and have had two electrical contractor review my current set up . Using the nerc rules I don’t have the headroom in my current set up. I have 200 service to my house and my house mostly electric with two 5 ton ac units, electric stove, double oven , washer dryer and pool pump i have head room for 48 amp charger only . The only way I can get the 80 amp which needs headroom of 100 I would have to run a 400 run from the street. The cost been quote $15,000 to $18,000 and that not in the budget. I wanted the platinum ext battery is able to be charged with a 48 charger . I assume I would loose the automatic back up to the house. I just looking for directions.

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