The Solar Company's master electrician is saying we are maxed out and they cannot/will not add the car charger as required by code.
Because he doesn't know what he's doing with EVs and should stick to solar.
There's a technology called EVEMS that makes it easy and cheap to add EV charging to any "maxed out" panel. Further, it plays extremely well with solar, allowing a mode I call "solar capture". Which makes it pretty unconscionable for a solar electrician to not know about it, IMO.
I would consider either a Wallbox Pulsar Plus with its power meter, or the Tesla [Universal] Wall Connector with its Neurio meter. Both these meters clamp onto your service wires and communicate with the EVSE ("wall charger") to tell the car to adjust charge to avoid service overload. If you boggle at how that's possible, read the above link. Now if you don't want data cables and love delivering stable WiFi to everywhere in the house and your appliances coordinating via "the cloud", Emporia makes a slightly cheaper solution in their Load Management bundle.
Solar capture is this: Your house's loads are very variable through the day. Most of the day, the house takes little, and almost 100% of your solar production is exported. Solar capture monitors this and tells the car to take exactly the current that you would otherwise be exporting. That way, the solar power goes into the car's battery instead of being sold back to the utility. Why would that matter? Because very few people are getting "net metering" deals anymore - you're being paid far less for the solar you're exporting by day than you pay for the power you charge your EV with at night. So solar capture is a win anytime it's possible.
Car charger 50 amp...... 12,000 VA
Existing amp load: 147.06 amp... with EV 169.56 amp
WRONG! So the EV only adds 22 amps even though he flat out says it's 50 amps? No. The guy completely botched the Load Calculation there. If you look at the common NEC 220.82 Load Calculation, most loads get a 40% fold-down, which you see the guy doing above. E.G. adding a 5000W water heater only adds 40% of that (2000W) to the Load Calculation. This guy incorrectly applied that fold-down to the EV load. EV loads are so extreme they do not get a fold-down at all, and are treated at 100% (actually 125%) -- meaning a "50A circuit" 9600W EV station should actually add 50 amps, not 22 amps to the Load Calc. But again, EVEMS makes this entirely moot, and EVEMS is such a smart play for you for 2 reasons that you'd be a fool not to do it. Now you just need an electrician who actually knows the topic.
A second extreme falsehood here is that EV charging requires 50A. No it doesn't! That's appropriate for overnight enroute charging e.g. at a hotel, but bonkers overkill for almost anyone's home charging. Technology Connections' video, linked in the above article, discusses this at length. But again, with EVEMS we don't need to care, since we are able to game around the house loads.
SMH wow, the solar guy doesn't know about EVEMS. Alrighty!
My understanding now is that the service line into the house from the feeder box is only rated at 150amps. So Solar electrician is recommending a sub panel to split line to house from solar and car charger.
Well, that is absolutely correct, and there's the guy's solar competence shining through all their EV ignorance. Not a subpanel exactly, but you insert a panel between the meter and the so-called "main panel with all your breakers". This breaks you out of the "120% of panel bus rating" limit you would otherwise have, if the solar fed the existing panel.
My understanding now is that the service line into the house from the feeder box is only rated at 150amps. So Solar electrician is recommending a sub panel to split line to house from solar and car charger.
– Jon Feb 29 '24 at 04:30