Ford Mobile Charger

[p52Ranch]

Now that I have a 6/6 build date, it's time to get the plans off the drawing board and implement.

Plan 1, second 200 amp service drop to our stand-alone garage, 200 amp LC with circuit for the Ford Charger Pro and the rest of garage loads move to the new panel, then remove existing 2 x 15amp wiring coming from the house.

Plan 2, if the utility refuses to allow a second service drop to our property, then we need a 100 to 400 upgrade on our house feed line, all new service entrance on the house, 200 amp upgrade inside the house, then a 200 amp second tap (through an external in cabinet 200 amp breaker) to new underground conduit from house to garage, then another 200 amp load center in the garage, servicing all garage loads and the new Ford Charger Pro.

Either way is going to cost a lot and absorb the value of my federal credit!

Anyone else out there considering a second service drop?

Good luck. Hopefully the two service lines work out for you. I have four service lines off of two different meters to our property. One to the small guest house and one to the detached garage (on the same meter as the guest house). One to the pier on the pond and one to the main house.

I have a SR so no need for 80 amp service. I'm going to add the ChargePoint in the garage on the main house (200 amp service). I'll probably add a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the detached garage at some point just because.

Edit: To clarify all of my service lines are underground from the power pole. That may make it easier to have multiple lines off of a meter.

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[ShirBlackspots]

I understand what he is saying in the video, but we live in a 1946 Cape 900 sq ft with a 100 amp panel to start with, running a 80 amp continuous load to my Ford Charger Pro might be an issue with the city electrical inspector.

Granted, my highest energy using appliances in the house are, Fridge, Washing machine, steam boiler, microwave and 48" LED flat screen, I'm not shutting down the house to charge the truck!

So the plan includes upgrades to accommodates future proofing additional green mandates adopted by the Commonwealth of Mass Legislature a few years ago NET ZERO policies.

These rules are making it harder for us to replace aged natural gas equipment in our house, some day we will not be able to replace our gas fired range, cloths dryer or water heater, think about the amps involved with those upgrades.

My wife loves her gas appliances, but bureaucrats might get in our way, so I'm planning around these possibilities.

Then I have the detached garage with work shop and more power hungry equipment, it's not unreasonable to have an upgraded LC in the house for 200 amps, and then some how get 100 to 200 amps to the garage.

Well, in that case, upgrade to a 225A main breaker panel, and put in a 100A breaker for the subpanel in the garage for the 80A Ford Charge Station Pro. I assume you plan on using the truck's V2H ability (which BTW, requires a SunRun solar panel system to use)?

 

[data003]

Now that I have a 6/6 build date, it's time to get the plans off the drawing board and implement.

Plan 1, second 200 amp service drop to our stand-alone garage, 200 amp LC with circuit for the Ford Charger Pro and the rest of garage loads move to the new panel, then remove existing 2 x 15amp wiring coming from the house.

Plan 2, if the utility refuses to allow a second service drop to our property, then we need a 100 to 400 upgrade on our house feed line, all new service entrance on the house, 200 amp upgrade inside the house, then a 200 amp second tap (through an external in cabinet 200 amp breaker) to new underground conduit from house to garage, then another 200 amp load center in the garage, servicing all garage loads and the new Ford Charger Pro.

Either way is going to cost a lot and absorb the value of my federal credit!

Anyone else out there considering a second service drop?

Yes, this is exactly what I’m doing. I have 100A service currently. The utility company agreed to install a second meter with 200A service. Now I’m just waiting for the ground to thaw.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Well, in that case, upgrade to a 225A main breaker panel, and put in a 100A breaker for the subpanel in the garage for the 80A Ford Charge Station Pro. I assume you plan on using the truck's V2H ability (which BTW, requires a SunRun solar panel system to use)?

Nope, I have an EcoFlow system to be installed, 14.4KWH for instant backup through a Smart Home Panel (Transfer Switch) and future 2023 PV going on my roof to replenish the system, it's for minor load shaving and emergency coverage.

I have entertained the possibility of a special run of wiring from the garage back to the house which would allow me to V-2-ecoflow for extended support in a major SHTF event.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Yes, this is exactly what I’m doing. I have 100A service currently. The utility company agreed to install a second meter with 200A service. Now I’m just waiting for the ground to thaw.

This is inspiring, I'll be calling my utility [National Grid Mass] to see what they will do for me, it would be SO much simpler to go this route.

 

[jefro]

Getting the ground to thaw is much easier than upgrading a service for most people.

In my mothers neighborhood there appears to be zero ability to upgrade a home if one looks at the lines and transformers in back of the homes. Those homes are 100 years old almost and the power lines look to be from 1950 when 30 A was in the fuse box.

 

[data003]

FWIW, I had my electrician sort this out. They know who to talk to at the utility company…

 

[TheVirtualTim]

The utilities pole mounted transformer is 125 feet from our house (at opposite corner of our corner lot) this transformer services 18 personal residences, a mix of new construction 200A and old 100A, That is another issue the utility might need to rebalance the 4 direction pole runs with a second transformer.

In addition to the two car garage, I have a work shop for my road & race motorcycles, planning to install HVAC in the work shop portion, that is where the additional capacity is going, along with compressor, machine tools, lathe, lighting, door openers, at the moment I'm struggling with 2 15amp feeds.

The house LC is 100amp at the moment, but I want to do Mini-splits in the house as well, if I am constrained to one pole to house feed, vs a second feed direct to the garage, then it will go through this 400 amp pan, with two 200 amp breakers, one to the house the second to 60 foot overhead or underground conduit to the stand alone garage.

Red is an existing over head 200a feeder to 200a meter to 100a LC, to change to 400a feed to 400a weatherhead/pan, split 200a to house and 200a to garage

Blue UG is proposed underground from house to garage

Blue A is proposed second service drop direct to the work shop/garage

When I upgraded our house & detached garage, the city inspector told us that all power meters MUST be installed in the same physical location. Can't have power come to the property in two different locations.

Turns out it's not electric code ... but fire code.

If there's an emergency and the fire department needs to kill power, they'll find the electric meter, open the meter socket and pull out the meter to kill all power. If there needs to be more than one feed to the property, the 2nd meter MUST be installed in the same location as the first ... so they can kill that power as well.

They want to know that when they kill the power, there is zero possibility of anything on the property still being electrified because power came from any other source.

My power comes to my property from a pole located about 3' away from my detached garage and was an overhead wire to the house -- with a single 20amp underground circuit going back to the garage. I just needed to add service to the garage and didn't want to touch the house.

But to comply with the rules, I would have had to install a 2nd meter on the house and then trench back to the garage. So instead I had both meters moved to the garage and just a single trench going to the house. My electric utility offers a significantly reduced rate for off-peak charging IF I had a 2nd meter installed which is dedicated to EV charging only. I was going to just power the garage with the EV meter but they told me I can't run so much as a night light off that meter -- ONLY EV charging is permitted.

While I had the trench open, the city inspector encouraged me to totally take advantage of it. In addition to the power (24"+ bury depth in its own conduit) I filled in 6" of dirt and then at an 18" bury depth I moved my internet/cable/phone/ethernet to the garage ... and then a bit shallower than that is a water irrigation line so I can FINALLY water the grass on the far side of my driveway (that normally just goes yellow in the hottest days of summer.) As a bonus, the FIVE overhead wires (would have been six) that ran over my back patio are now gone. Place looks MUCH nicer.

As for the path of your underground ... if you plan to run anything other than power, the fewer the turns the easier it is to pull stuff through the conduits. I sprayed all the lines that had to be pulled with silicone spray lubricant to make it easier to pull. Without the lubricant ... it's amazing how hard it is to pull a wire.

 

[VTbuckeye]

When I upgraded our house & detached garage, the city inspector told us that all power meters MUST be installed in the same physical location. Can't have power come to the property in two different locations.

Turns out it's not electric code ... but fire code.

If there's an emergency and the fire department needs to kill power, they'll find the electric meter, open the meter socket and pull out the meter to kill all power. If there needs to be more than one feed to the property, the 2nd meter MUST be installed in the same location as the first ... so they can kill that power as well.

They want to know that when they kill the power, there is zero possibility of anything on the property still being electrified because power came from any other source.

My power comes to my property from a pole located about 3' away from my detached garage and was an overhead wire to the house -- with a single 20amp underground circuit going back to the garage. I just needed to add service to the garage and didn't want to touch the house.

But to comply with the rules, I would have had to install a 2nd meter on the house and then trench back to the garage. So instead I had both meters moved to the garage and just a single trench going to the house. My electric utility offers a significantly reduced rate for off-peak charging IF I had a 2nd meter installed which is dedicated to EV charging only. I was going to just power the garage with the EV meter but they told me I can't run so much as a night light off that meter -- ONLY EV charging is permitted.

While I had the trench open, the city inspector encouraged me to totally take advantage of it. In addition to the power (24"+ bury depth in its own conduit) I filled in 6" of dirt and then at an 18" bury depth I moved my internet/cable/phone/ethernet to the garage ... and then a bit shallower than that is a water irrigation line so I can FINALLY water the grass on the far side of my driveway (that normally just goes yellow in the hottest days of summer.) As a bonus, the FIVE overhead wires (would have been six) that ran over my back patio are now gone. Place looks MUCH nicer.

As for the path of your underground ... if you plan to run anything other than power, the fewer the turns the easier it is to pull stuff through the conduits. I sprayed all the lines that had to be pulled with silicone spray lubricant to make it easier to pull. Without the lubricant ... it's amazing how hard it is to pull a wire.

What happens if you have some kind of battery backup? Service is killed at the meter, but in the basement the system sees no power coming in so it immediately powers up and the house is once again electrified? There are automatical transfer switches that protect the grid from your home power when the grid is down, but what stops the home backup system from working as designed?

 

[NCMike]

When I upgraded our house & detached garage, the city inspector told us that all power meters MUST be installed in the same physical location. Can't have power come to the property in two different locations.

Turns out it's not electric code ... but fire code.

just as another data point. I have 3 different meters on my property in 3 different locations. 400 amp on the house, 200 amp on the shop, and 200 amp on the pool house. Each state/city is different for code. I can have an many meters in as many places as I want.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I think local Fire & Electric code, give a lot of variation in each of our applications.

I have considered doing a reverse install, bringing the brand new 400A service to the DETACHED garage then still a trench to carry 200A to the house 60ish feet away.

Then decommission the original front overhead feed wire to the house, weather head and meter pan, leaving only an external emergency disconnect on the side of the house in its place.

 

[TaxmanHog]

What happens if you have some kind of battery backup? Service is killed at the meter, but in the basement the system sees no power coming in so it immediately powers up and the house is once again electrified? There are automatical transfer switches that protect the grid from your home power when the grid is down, but what stops the home backup system from working as designed?

I have an emergency stop switch on my EcoFLow Smart Home Panel, but it's in the basement next to the house load center, I'd like to have a remote switch so that it can be shut down in an emergency outside the house.

 

[jefro]

I'd think that some sort of switch in series with the current e-stop will work. You'd have know how it does stop/protect the devices and go from there.

As mentioned above part of these things are for code and come from things like firefighter access.

The limit on meters to one seems kinda odd. You'd think a detached building could get one.

 

[bewbie]

Can anyone link me to a reliable industrial grade 14-50 NEMA receptacle they have experience with. One to withstand plugging and unplugging if need be

 

[Maquis]

Can anyone link me to a reliable industrial grade 14-50 NEMA receptacle they have experience with. One to withstand plugging and unplugging if need be

This is the one that get the best mentions in the Mach-E forum.

I have no first-hand experience with it.

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