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Comment by dpark | Hacker News Reader

> But even just charging such an EV over old wires is worrying. It may cost thirty thousand to get the house rewired.

Why would you rewire the house to run a 240V plug for your car? That's nuts. You'd add a dedicated 240 circuit. You're probably still looking at a a minimum of $1k and likely in the $3-5K range, especially if your panel needs to be updated/expanded, but there's no reason you'd need to rewire your whole house for this. As for the outdoor outlet, there are exterior rated outlets (and presumably exterior rated chargers). Code isn't the concern.

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Yep, you just run a fresh 240 line direct from your panel to your parking space, bypassing the aging interior wiring all-together. The plug is also not really an issue, as if you're fresh-running a line for this, you'd just hardwire a weather-resistant EVSE (like the ClipperCreek HCS-40) into that circuit, and you're golden.

Assuming you have a free breaker spot. ~50 year old circuit breaker is probably already tied up 100%.

It is full and old 100A I think. Like I say it's an old house early 1970s.

My reasoning is I may as well change the panel and house wiring while the electrician is there. It's a small house so really it would be more efficient to get it all done at once.

My other concern is the growing number of things using power. When the house was built TV, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, lights, furnace and water heater. Now there's Xbox consoles, big TVs, computers, cellphones charging, A/C units.

This is small town Canada too probably more expensive than the US unless I can get a good buddy electrician after hours deal.

I hear you on changing it out. My house was built in 85, with 100A service, only about 20 circuits total. Going to put in a 200A box before I finish the basement and slowly re-allocate to separate circuits over time.

I haven't gotten bids yet to know for myself, but assuming you feel confident enough to do the wiring after the new box install, it shouldn't be outlandish price-wise, even in CA.

I'm only doing that because I don't want to mess with the live feed from the street, though I did watch some electricians replace my mains breaker. Their solution was being very careful with rubber gloves and rubber-handled-pliers, but I just don't think that's for me :).

Probably $500 or so if you need a breakout panel installed. Unless you need a full panel replacement or a service upgrade, getting a spot for the breaker probably isn't prohibitively expensive.

Yeah. In our area, 50-year old panels are often discovered to be Zinsco-brand, and should be replaced for safety reasons.

In which case you should budget for that regardless of the new 240 line, of course. :)

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