How to Prep Your Home for an EV

Looking to schedule the delivery of your brand-new electric vehicle to your Bardstown home? Congratulations! To ensure that the delivery goes smoothly, it’s important to prepare your home for an electric vehicle. While there may be a plethora of charging stations available in Shepherdsville, we strongly recommend that you have an electric vehicle home charger so you can charge overnight or during down time. Learn more about how to prep your home for an EV below and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

1. Decide on a Charging Type (AKA Charging Level)

One of the first things you need to do is decide on your charging type. If you don’t know the types of electric vehicle home chargers available, here is a quick summary:

• Level 1 EV charging is slower and usually takes days to fully charge an electric car.
• Level 2 EV charging is much faster. While it only takes a few hours to fully charge an electric car, you can get up to 200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging. For this reason, most people intermix daytime top-off charging with overnight charging.

2. Clean Your Garage

You don’t want to have the delivery person stumbling through your cluttered garage. Make sure to clear a pathway and section for your charger so you can have a smooth installation experience. This will also make the process go by faster so you can start charging your vehicle.

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the whole house. It should be rated for a maximum amount of current flow measured in Amperes. Many newer homes have a 100 Amp power panel, but there should be an amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker for your specific house.

Once you find the max current flow, it’s time to get a handle on how much electrical energy you consistently use in your house. The process is simple. Perform a self-assessment of your electricity use before you install an EV charging system. This is important because you do not want to overload your electric distribution panel.

4. Hire an Electrician

Now it’s time to hire an electrician to install your electric vehicle home charger. They can answer specific questions about how your house will handle the home charger and give you tips on how to manage the new current going through your house. You can also ask them to install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. This can cost as little as a couple hundred dollars, but could be up to $1,000 or $3,000 if it’s found that your power panel is not sufficient as-is and requires serious upgrading.

Contact Bob Swope Ford to Learn More!

Now that you know how to prepare your home for an electric vehicle, you’re one step closer to freedom from rising gas prices! If you haven’t purchased your electric vehicle, what are you waiting for? Apply for financing online and use our payment calculator to get an estimate on your monthly payments. We look forward to seeing you!