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EV-Ready Garage Wiring
Level 1 needs an outlet. Level 2 needs a plan. An EV charger is a continuous load, which means it is sized differently from an outlet you plug a tool into.
EV-Ready Garage Wiring in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
Clint Ehman does the work himself. Seventeen years in the trade, Infinity Electric since June 2022.
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.
Nothing gets quoted off a description. The reading comes first, because a symptom has several possible causes at very different prices and only a measurement separates them.
Where a permit and an inspection are required they happen, and the site is left ready for them. One person carries the job from the first call to the final test.
When people call about this
- A charger moved from an old house
- A new EV on order
- A charger that trips mid-session
- A panel with no spare double-pole space
Why people choose Clint for it
The diagnosis and the repair are the same person’s work, which is why the explanation you get is first-hand rather than relayed.
Five point zero from 94 Google reviews, A+ with the BBB since December 2022, and seventeen years in the trade behind it.
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.
Continuous load, and why it changes the maths
Code treats EV charging as a continuous load, which means the circuit is sized at 125 percent of the charger’s rating. A 40 amp charger wants a 50 amp circuit. That single rule explains most of the difference between an EV install and an ordinary outlet.
It also explains why a charger that worked at an old house trips at a new one. The charger did not change; the circuit behind it did.
Where the charger should actually go
Cable length and mounting height decide whether you still like the install a year later. The cable has to reach the car’s port on the side it is parked, with slack to hang without dragging.
Future second cars matter too. Running conduit for a second charger while the wall is open costs very little; adding it later means opening the wall again.
What a garage circuit has to handle
Garages carry cold, damp, dust and the largest tools in the house. Receptacles there need GFCI protection, and anything feeding a compressor or a saw wants its own circuit rather than sharing with the door opener.
Boxes and devices get the right listing for the location, and the run is planned so the car and the storage do not sit on it.
What gets left behind when the work is done
A labeled panel, accessible junctions, the old parts if you want to see them, and a straight account of anything found along the way that was not part of the call.
Where something else was found, you get told what it is and whether it needs doing now, later or not at all. That third answer is a real answer and it gets used.
Permits, inspections and why they vary here
Requirements genuinely differ across this metro. O’Fallon, St. Charles, St. Peters, the St. Louis County municipalities and St. Louis City each run their own process, and what one treats as a minor repair another permits and inspects.
Work that needs a permit gets one, and work that needs an inspection is left ready for it with the panel labeled and the junctions accessible. That matters most before a closing, when an inspector’s written item becomes someone’s negotiating position.
“Infinity came out for same day service after an electric line had been cut in my yard. He was able to locate and correct it very quickly, eliminating any risk of injury or additional power outage.”
Melissa Johnson · 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
If the fix belongs to another trade, you get the name of one rather than a price from this one. Finished work is in the gallery. To book, pick a day.
Related ev charging work
EV-Ready Garage Wiring 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.
Warren County
Two kinds of work share the same ZIP codes here: recent subdivisions with modern wiring and tight services, and farm properties carrying several eras at once.
St. Charles County
Out here the panels are not old, they are full. Houses built through the 1990s and 2000s got services sized for the loads of their decade, and the loads have since changed.
St. Louis County
Older stock that has been worked on repeatedly, so a panel here has often been added to three or four times by different hands.
Every municipality covered is listed 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.
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.
Do you pull permits?
Where the municipality requires one, yes, and the work is left ready for inspection with the panel labeled and junctions accessible. Requirements genuinely differ across this metro, which is why it is established per address rather than assumed.
Get the measurement first.
The reading comes before the number, so you know what you are deciding about. EV-Ready Garage Wiring in O’Fallon and across the metro.
Mon-Thu 8-5 · Fri 8-4 · Sat 10-3. A written note works too.