5 Steps to Preparing for an Electric Vehicle Home Charger

When buying an electric vehicle, it’s important to first prepare your home with an electric vehicle home charger. There are many benefits to EVs, such as reducing your carbon footprint and a reduced maintenance cost, however, many don’t consider preparing their home with a charger. 

Although there are various EV charging stations available throughout the New Haven and Wallingford area, you should make home charging your primary means of EV charging. Let’s take a closer look at how to prepare your home for an electric vehicle with Wallingford Buick GMC today! For more information, feel free to contact us anytime!

1. Decide on a Charging Type 

There are quite a few different EV charging options available, so it’s important to begin research on which ones would be best for you. Most of the home charging options fall into Level 1 or Level 2. Let’s check out some additional information below for installing an EV charger in your Cheshire home:

• 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. With this method, you could easily get 60-200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging, though. This is why many mix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

2. Get Your Garage Ready

One of the most important parts to prepare your home for an electric vehicle is getting your garage ready for an electric vehicle charging station. You should clean out any mess and make sure there’s plenty of room to fit your vehicle. 

3. Locate a Power Panel & Consider Consumption

The average power panel in a home would be able to handle up to 100 Amps, as you should see the amperage rating located on the main circuit breaker. The power panel sends electricity throughout your home and should be enough to power your electric vehicle charging station. 

It’s also important to consider how much electricity you’ll be using when charging your vehicle. Therefore, we recommend performing a self-assessment of your electricity usage prior to installing your electric vehicle charging station.

4. Find an Electrician

The next step is to hire an experienced electrician to install your electric vehicle charging station. You could have them install a 240-volt plug or hardwire the circuit to your power panel. The average cost of installing your electric vehicle home charger should be around a few hundred dollars, however, if you need a new power panel, it could increase your expense to between $1,000 to $3,000.

5. Buy Your Charger & Have it Installed

It you have not yet purchased your electric vehicle home charger, it’s important to do this now and have it installed prior to bringing your vehicle home.

Learn More About EV Charging Station at Wallingford Buick GMC!

Now that you know more about electric vehicle charging batteries at home, and how to prepare your home for an electric vehicle, come see the impressive EVs available at Wallingford Buick GMC today! Browse our new vehicle inventory, and apply for financing to start the buying process! Be sure to use our new vehicle specials to save near Hamden!