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EV Charger Electrical Panel Installation
Load management exists because not every house needs a bigger service to charge a car. An EV charger is a continuous load, which means it is sized differently from an outlet you plug a tool into.
EV Charger Electrical Panel Installation in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
Owner-operated: the person who answers the phone is the person who measures it.
5.0 from 94 Google reviews · BBB A+ since 2022
What this work actually involves
If the service is tight, load management is an option that costs far less than a service upgrade and does the same job.
Clint measures before he quotes. The reading comes first, then what it means, then the one repair that solves it. If the honest answer is smaller than what you called about, that is the answer you get, even when the bigger job pays better.
Work that needs a permit gets one, and work that needs an inspection is left ready for it. One person does the diagnosis and the repair, so nothing is lost between a salesman and a technician.
When people call about this
- A panel with no spare double-pole space
- A garage with no dedicated circuit
- Wanting a second charger
- A charger moved from an old house
Why people choose Clint for it
One person does the diagnosis and the repair, so nothing is lost between a salesman and a technician, and nobody is paid to sell past the finding.
Seventeen years in the trade, four of them running his own shop, 5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and an A+ BBB accreditation held since 2022.
Where this is done
A roughly fifty mile working radius from O’Fallon, covering thirty municipalities across five jurisdictions in the St. Louis metro.
See the full service area, or the rest of our ev charging work.
Load management instead of new service
Load management lets the charger share capacity with another large appliance rather than adding to it. The charger backs off while the range or the dryer runs, then resumes. For a car sitting in a garage for ten hours, that pause costs nothing.
It is code-compliant, it is far cheaper than a service upgrade, and it is the answer a great many houses around here should be getting instead of a quote for new service.
Load management instead of a service upgrade
Many houses have enough service for a car and not enough on paper. Load management solves that: the charger watches total demand and backs off when the dryer and the air conditioning are both running.
That costs a fraction of a service upgrade and charges a car perfectly well overnight. It is worth asking about before anyone quotes you a new panel.
Panels: full, overloaded, or obsolete
Three different problems get called the same thing. A full panel has no space left but adequate service. An overloaded service cannot carry the house. An obsolete panel has a known defect or no available parts. Each has a different and very differently priced answer.
The load calculation and a look at the bus with the cover off decide which one you have. A sub-panel solves the first for a fraction of the third.
Charging speed versus charging enough
The question is not how fast a charger can go, it is whether it finishes overnight. For most households a charger running at half its maximum still fills the car by morning, and that halves what the circuit has to carry.
Working out your real daily mileage before choosing a unit is the cheapest part of the whole project and the part most often skipped.
Why the diagnosis comes before the quote
A symptom has several possible causes with very different prices, and the only thing that separates them is a measurement. Quoting the expensive one covers the risk; quoting the cheap one and finding the expensive one mid-job is worse.
So the reading happens first, you are told what it says, and then the work is scoped to it. Where the honest answer is the small repair, that is the answer you get, even when the larger job pays better.
“Clint did an excellent job installing two bathroom exhaust fans. He installed high-quality fans that were far superior to the ones I had purchased from a big box store. I highly recommend his services.”
David Hinners · Google review
How the visit goes
- The call
Which car, which charger, and where it parks. Those three answers decide most of the install before anyone visits.
- The measurement
A load calculation against the existing service, plus the run from the panel to the parking spot and what it passes through.
- The finding
Either the service carries it, or load management lets it share, or a service upgrade is genuinely needed. You hear which, with the number behind it.
- The work
Dedicated circuit sized for continuous duty, disconnect where the code and the inspector expect it, charger mounted so the cable reaches with slack, and a test charge before anyone leaves.
What the job includes
- Load calculation to confirm the service can carry the charger
- A dedicated circuit sized for continuous duty, on its own breaker
- Charger mounted where the cable reaches the car with slack to spare
- Disconnect where code and the inspector expect it
- Permit and inspection where required
- Conduit for a second charger while the wall is open, if you want it
What it does not
- Supplying the charger itself, unless you ask
- Utility rebate paperwork, though we will tell you what exists
- Charging network accounts and apps
Anything that is not an electrical problem gets identified as such and handed on. See finished work, or say what the house is doing.
Related ev charging work
EV Charger Electrical Panel Installation across the metro
Five jurisdictions, five different sets of conditions. The housing stock changes as you cross this metro, and so does what the job involves.
St. Charles County
Modern wiring, undersized services. That combination defines most of the work in this county, and it makes the load calculation the deciding document rather than a panel inspection.
St. Louis County
Houses with real history in the walls, and a permit process that changes from one municipality to the next.
St. Louis City
Brick with plaster over lath, party walls that limit where a run can go, and a hundred years of electrical layers in the basement.
County by county coverage is on the service areas page.
Questions worth asking first.
Do I need a 60 amp circuit for a 48 amp charger?
Yes. Charging is a continuous load, so the circuit is sized at 125 percent of the charger’s draw. That is also why dialing the charger back is often what keeps a house off a service upgrade.
Can two cars share one circuit?
With load-managed chargers, yes, and for most two-car households overnight charging still finishes both. It is considerably cheaper than new service.
Can my panel handle a charger?
Often yes. The load calculation checks what the house already runs against the service rating. Where it is tight, load management lets the charger share capacity instead of forcing an upgrade.
Are you licensed and insured?
Licensed, bonded and insured, with workers compensation coverage, and accredited A+ with the BBB since 2022.
Where do you work?
Out of O’Fallon across St. Charles County, St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and Lincoln and Warren counties, roughly a fifty mile radius.
Get the measurement first.
The reading comes before the number, so you know what you are deciding about. EV Charger Electrical Panel Installation in O’Fallon and across the metro.
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