5 Steps to Preparing for an Electric Vehicle Home Charger

Are you ready to get into your brand new Chevy Bolt EV or EUV to enjoy a potential reduction in your carbon footprint and lower maintenance costs? Before you do so, you’ll need to prepare your home for an electric vehicle, which mainly includes setting up the electric vehicle home charger. While you’ll be able to use public electric vehicle charging stations when you’re out and about, you’ll still heavily rely on charging your vehicle at home. See how you can get it all set up in the following 5 steps! 

1. Decide on a Charging Type or Charging Level

Most home car charging systems either fall into Level 1 or Level 2. Here’s more information:

• Level 1 EV charging often takes days to fully charge an electric car. 
• Level 2 EV charging often takes several hours to fully charge an electric car. You can often get between 60-200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging, though. For this reason, most people intermix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

For more information on how long it takes to charge an EV via different chargers, read our guide. 

2. Get Your Garage Ready 

Clean out and organized your garage so there is space for your electric vehicle home charger. When it arrives, you’ll be able to set it up as soon as possible and also use it immediately for your Valrico drives! 

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

You’ll also have to see if your building can take on an electric vehicle home charger. The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the entire building. It should be rated for a maximum amount of current flow measured in Amperes and most new homes come with a 100 Amp power panel though there should be an amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker. Then, figure out how much electrical energy you consistently use in your house by performing a self-assessment of your electricity use before you install an EV charging system. You do not want to overload your electric distribution panel! 

4. Hire an Electrician

Hire a trusted electrician and make sure to discuss any concerns you have about your power consumption and adding EV charging. You can also have them install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. Usually, this costs a couple of hundred dollars but could be up to $1,000 or $3,000 if your power panel is not sufficient as-is and requires upgrading. 

5. Buy Your Charger & Have It Installed

Lastly, buy an electric vehicle home charger of your choice, and once it arrives at your home near the Brandon area, get it installed. 

Learn More About EVs with Stingray Chevrolet 

If you have any questions about EVs, feel free to reach out to us! We can tell you some of the public electric charging stations in the Plant City area as well as if EVs use oil and more.