EV Charger Location and Wiring

[J5hort]

Hi All, Prepping garage with open wall and ceiling framing for EV chargers. It is a 2 car garage and will be finished with drywall or similar and I want to get some wiring run for EV chargers. I am running 6/3 Romex from a 100 subpanel located in the garage. I have two questions for comments and recommendations.

1. Where should the receptacles be located in the garage? I have 2 bays where cars park nose in. I would like to future proof and allow flexibility for different EV's. I also do lots of work in the garage and would not want charging cables all over the floor.. especially high voltage ones. Also thinking that inductive, drive over chargers will become more popular. My thought right now is to place directly in front of each car on the front wall. Thoughts?

2. I currently have 120v standard outlets in the exact same place (4' high) and was thinking of either combining into one box or nailing box to opposite side of same stud at the same height. So single gang on one side of stud, double gang on other. I'd like to keep things at 4' as I may have benches or other equipment along wall. Chargers will not be hardwired, just plug in units. Side by side boxes and receptacles anyone?

PS. I do not own EV or charger yet, just wiring and finishing garage and want to wire before things are buttoned up.

What do you all think?

 

[59 wagon man]

why waste the time technology is changing and there doesn't seem to be a standard location for charging port.plus did you see the new road and track i think it was on the ev trip cross country. something like 24 hrs on a 110 charger

 

[cleanspg]

Hi All, Prepping garage with open wall and ceiling framing for EV chargers. It is a 2 car garage and will be finished with drywall or similar and I want to get some wiring run for EV chargers. I am running 6/3 Romex from a 100 subpanel located in the garage. I have two questions for comments and recommendations.

1. Where should the receptacles be located in the garage? I have 2 bays where cars park nose in. I would like to future proof and allow flexibility for different EV's. I also do lots of work in the garage and would not want charging cables all over the floor.. especially high voltage ones. Also thinking that inductive, drive over chargers will become more popular. My thought right now is to place directly in front of each car on the front wall. Thoughts?

2. I currently have 120v standard outlets in the exact same place (4' high) and was thinking of either combining into one box or nailing box to opposite side of same stud at the same height. So single gang on one side of stud, double gang on other. I'd like to keep things at 4' as I may have benches or other equipment along wall. Chargers will not be hardwired, just plug in units. Side by side boxes and receptacles anyone?

PS. I do not own EV or charger yet, just wiring and finishing garage and want to wire before things are buttoned up.

What do you all think?

Some have charge ports in the front, some in the rear left or right. You might park nose in you might back in. Doesn't matter since the charge cable is going to be long enough to reach the back of the car either way and needs to be rolled up and hung up on the wall when not in use. The only reason I can think of to put a charger at the front of the garage instead of the back is to allow your cable to reach easily while the car is parked outside. (Don't want to have to move the table saw setup to get your car in to charge for the night.)

Or I suppose you wouldn't want them at the back if you have a deep garage and a walkway/work area at the back and would be tripping over them when plugged in.

So basically put them somewhat near where you will park the cars, in a place that is accessible to you when plugging in while parked, but not in the way most of the time. Since you don't have the cars now, you are just guessing one way or another.

I have a single 50 amp in the center rear of my garage. The charger is plugged in there and the cord follows the rear wall, around the base of some shelves and is stored rolled up on a hanger on the front of the shelves. I park face in on the left side of the garage and my charge port is right rear. In my case a having the charger at the front left side of the garage would be handier, but only for this car (Fiat 500e) and only with the current shelf setup.

 

[justsam]

Charge port location on the vehicle is not a standard, just like fuel ports on ICE cars which also has no standard. If you can not pick your EV than perhaps install more in the center and select a wall connector, ("charger"), that has a long cord such as 20 feet. All US Teslas are at the left rear as that is how their "SuperCharger" stations are layed out. Using receptacles, such as a NEMA 14/50 may limit your charge rate. For example, maximum charging current on newer Tesla's is 48 Amps. That requires you to have a 60 Amp circuit, since it is rated continuous, so 80% rule applies. All new Tesla wall connectors require hard wiring, as none are plug ended. Other wall connectors can be plug ended but they will have lower charge rates.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Every side port I've seen is on the driver's side. Tesla, Volt, Pacifica. So if you nose into the garage, and you want to speculatively place power for them, I'd put one in the middle of the rear wall (for a front or front-left port of the right bay car) and one on the left side (to reach the nose, left side or left rear of the left bay car). They may not end up being optimal if you end up with two Teslas.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, with a long enough umbilical cable, you can make almost anything work.

 

[tyme2par4]

If you are going to wire one in each bay, I would put them close to the garage door. That way if you happen to have to park outside, you can still run the cable under out/under the door and charge the car outside.
I have 1 wired between the 2 garage doors, so it will reach either bay, or either spot outside the garage.
Plus if you ever wanted to locate it more towards the front, you can always just cut a hole in the drywall and tap into the wire at that point. If you wire them at the front, and then want to move them, you then need to open all the drywall to run the new wire.

 

[AntonLargiader]

If there's a room between separate garage doors then pull a cable to there also. No need to limit it to two.

4' off the ground sound fine. That's where ours is. The EVSE hangs a bit lower. I don't see any reason to combine it with other receps; you just end up with crowding.

And to the original point about "I also do lots of work in the garage and would not want charging cables all over the floor.. especially high voltage ones" that's not really an issue. It's no higher voltage than a 240V extension cord and it isn't even on unless it's plugged into a car. But yeah, you should keep them from being walked on and driven over.

 

[J5hort]

All good replies here, much appreciated. A couple of givens here. 1 is that all charging will be done in garage and cars are always parked nose in.

59 Wagon, got the Dec 2020 issue of R&T here and will read thru the Future Imperfect article. Just a note that the plan for the first EV will be for my wife who just drives locally, so range will not be a big issue. I used to have a 30 mile RT commute to work, but still think most if not all charging will be done at our home overnight for daily use.

 

[J5hort]

cleanspg, I like the recommendation to run the cable around the wall to the left, especially for cars with left rear charging ports. There will be lots of mobility in the garage by persons as it is used as my home auto shop. The car on the right facing in will have a challenge if car has left charging port as there is no wall between cars. I was thinking of using the ceiling and an overhead system to hang the charging cord also.

Future proofing is the idea behind this inquiry and I want to take into consideration increased power capacity (I have about 60' of 6/3 Romex that will accommodate 2 runs from my subpanel if I place receptacles dead center at 4' high in front of both bays. Copper wire prices are not trivial, running to the far left wall near garage opening and center wall between garage opening would be a big expense. Also, thinking inductive charging from front underside of vehicle will be more common in future, so receptacles front dead center help that as well.

 

[Gotcha640]

Any chance you could run to the ceiling?

I would probably lean toward close to the driveway, as above for when the garage is being used for a project.

I would also consider keeping the money in my pocket for now. I understand retrofit is more expensive than including it now, but if you aren't actively shopping for an EV, why build to support? Will this be a long term house? Estimates I got for sub panel and outlets were in the ~$1500 range, I'll do my own drywall repairs, so not something I'm going to do before the EV hits the driveway.

 

[J5hort]

Anton, I use the garage as entry to home and passage for lawn tractor, etc. Without a pic it is hard to imagine but looking into garage there a door on the left from outside and 2 doors on the right side for access to house and basement. This may prove to be an obstacle so I may have to disqualify this option. That and there will be little need to charge outside. The left front and rear charging ports on cars always bothered me. I can imagine future parallel parking on city streets where chargers would exist like parking meters. In the US this means the cord would need to be inserted on the traffic side vs the curbside. I think wireless/inductive charging helps this, but presents its own bunch of issues.

 

[J5hort]

Hey Gotcha, I have a subpanel that was installed when I added garage and room above. Tore down some old drywall from ceiling as it was mildewed from an ice dam issue. So ceiling is available and all walls. Just installed 16, 5K recessed LEDs, lots of light. I'll need to insulate and cover walls/ceiling so getting wiring in now would make most sense. That is about right for the $ to install subpanel. My house will be my forever house as I have been here since 1991. Maybe buy another once I retire (someplace warmer!). EV will come in 2021.

 

[J5hort]

Also, just for notation. I was reading electrical codes and comments and it is possible to house a 120 receptacle and 240 receptacle in one box. I was actually thinking of just mounting the box for the 240 receptacle right next to the existing 120 at the same height. I also have 120 receptacles on the left wall coincidentally where front left and rear charging port on some EV's are.

 

[Syberia]

I just purchased an EV charger and will be purchasing an EV within the next week or two. Since I'll be getting a Chevy Bolt which has its charge port in the front, that made my decision easy and I'll be putting the charger on the back wall of the garage, directly opposite my subpanel which is installed outside. I did get a charger with a 25' cord, so that should cover any future vehicles that might have the port in a different location, but for all I know, I'll need a different charger by then.

 

[AP514]

If you are going to wire one in each bay, I would put them close to the garage door. That way if you happen to have to park outside, you can still run the cable under out/under the door and charge the car outside.
I have 1 wired between the 2 garage doors, so it will reach either bay, or either spot outside the garage.
Plus if you ever wanted to locate it more towards the front, you can always just cut a hole in the drywall and tap into the wire at that point. If you wire them at the front, and then want to move them, you then need to open all the drywall to run the new wire.

I agree Up front Bewtween the Doors or at door sides

 

[AntonLargiader]

Also, just for notation. I was reading electrical codes and comments and it is possible to house a 120 receptacle and 240 receptacle in one box...

Yes, but do you want to? There's no benefit in having them that close together. I suppose it depends on the EVSE you will be using, but we have the typical Voltec-style wraparound units and it's just easier if they're by themselves, away from other dangling cords if you are going to hang the cord on the charger when you disconnect.

Why not give us a sketch of the floor plan with your anticipated workbenches and so forth?

 

[jeepxj]

why waste the time technology is changing and there doesn't seem to be a standard location for charging port.plus did you see the new road and track i think it was on the ev trip cross country. something like 24 hrs on a 110 charger

don't be that guy talking about stuff you don't know about. I just did 4,000 miles in my EV on a road trip. my avg charge time was 12 minutes.


pull the wire in now for 50a charging possibility. I would put it on opposite walls. my charge cable is suspended from the ceiling by hooks so its always in the right spot. if i got a new car with it in a new location I would just move the hooks to the new spot. NBD and no tripping over the wire.

 

[jeepxj]

I just purchased an EV charger and will be purchasing an EV within the next week or two. Since I'll be getting a Chevy Bolt which has its charge port in the front, that made my decision easy and I'll be putting the charger on the back wall of the garage, directly opposite my subpanel which is installed outside. I did get a charger with a 25' cord, so that should cover any future vehicles that might have the port in a different location, but for all I know, I'll need a different charger by then.

j1772 will be around a long time IMO. it puts out plenty of power for home charging use.
i got the 25' cord as well. its currently mounted on the post between the two doors but i can get it to anywhere they would put a port on a car.


edit: this is my setup currently. I want to 3d print a half moon to stress relief the cable but frankly its been a year at least this way. looks fine.
https://i.imgur.com/OfmzYVWl.jpg

 

[Noltz]

I just ran a 14-50 outlet to my garage for the same reason. Because I wasn't sure what car I did know that all the electrics I'm looking at are drivers side charging & I always back into the garage, so it went on the appropriate wall, half-way down, and 5' off the ground. That offers the most versatility. I chose to surface mount though, running along the foundation walls in 1" PVC neatly secured and all that. I installed an appropriate conduit box that I can pull the wires back out of the conduit from if I need to change anything.

 

[AP514]

@jeepxj -- your link is bad in post #19

 

[jeepxj]

@jeepxj -- your link is bad in post #19

huh thats odd.

how about now?
https://i.imgur.com/AgYK2Yh.jpg