Load Center Sizing... will a 220 car charger "fit"?

[Vintage Veloce]

Our small home (1300 sq ft) has a 200A panel. And I have two separate detached garages that are fed from it. The washer and electric dryer are in the "old garage" and the other garage (called the "Shed") is my workshop and has 220 in case I ever want a welder or charger out there.
There are two slots left in the panel covered with blanks. And of course I could double up some slots to open more.
The questions...
- Do I dare add a 50A EV Charging station to the main panel /load center?
- How do you determine how much load you can put in a 200A panel? Turn everything on in the house and watch the meter?

 

[u2slow]

At a glance, I'd say go for it.

Your biggest loads appear to be the shed and old garage... I assume you have some common sense about how much power you use in those spaces at a given time.

 

[sparky 1971]

It will be fine. 200 amps is a lot of available power and it's nearly impossible to run everything at max load at once.

 

[alfredeneuman]

The EV charging station will have to be on the main house to use the 200 amp panel for power.
If is in one of the auxiliary buildings you'd need to take it off their respective panels.
You're only able to run 1 feeder to a building by the 2017 NEC (California's electrical code)

 

[Vintage Veloce]

The EV charging station will have to be on the main house to use the 200 amp panel for power.
If is in one of the auxiliary buildings you'd need to take it off their respective panels.
You're only able to run 1 feeder to a building by the 2017 NEC (California's electrical code)

Good point. I should have mentioned this... Because of the driveway arrangement and the planned outdoor driveway parking of the EV, the charging station would be on the main house. Or perhaps on a post closest to the main house.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

If you’re really concerned about it you could do a load Calc. Mike holt has a good load Calc spreadsheet that you can fill in

 

[dcg9381]

Big items are you've pulled off 100 amps x 2 for "shed" and "old garage" - based on you post, not much in those structures other than an electric dryer, so their 100 amp feeds are pretty underutilized. Everything else looks "very reasonable" - I'd drop a 50-60A circuit in there for an EV.

Some POCs can give you minute/hourly load information. They won't give you peak amps, but they'll get you in the ballpark of what you draw...

And the load calc is another good idea, I just find them to be very ambitious...