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Wanted: Electrician recommendations for Sammamish

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brianman

Burrito Founder
Nov 10, 2011
17,620
3,227
I think I want the following estimates:
1. Getting everything up to code ("required")
2. Additional recommendations ("not required but a good idea")
3. Pre-HPWC installation for decent Model S charging rate
4. HPWC installation

I'm assuming this means 3 visits:
A. General electrical inspection of the house (hopefully less than an hour)
B. General electrical work done (hopefully less than a day)
C. HPWC installation (hopefully less than a day)

Ideally 2, 3 can both occur with B. Potentially visits A and B could be combined, or most of B with A and some done with C.


I'm leaning toward preferring a big outfit rather than a sole proprieter situation so that they have some standard guarantee or whatever that either -A- everything will pass inspection or -B- they will fix at their expense anything that fails inspection.


Tesla or general EV experience would be great too. Not sure that matters as my impression is that the HPWC installation is "general electrician" work.
 
brianman, I just went with at 50A Nema 14-50 plug and it's charging fast enough for me. Did you already order the HPWC? Unless you are driving 200+ miles a day and need to do a full charge every night, isn't the HPWC overkill? I'm going 40 or so miles a day from Sammamish into Seattle and plug it in when I get home and it's already fully charged soon after dinner.
 
brianman, I just went with at 50A Nema 14-50 plug and it's charging fast enough for me. Did you already order the HPWC? Unless you are driving 200+ miles a day and need to do a full charge every night, isn't the HPWC overkill? I'm going 40 or so miles a day from Sammamish into Seattle and plug it in when I get home and it's already fully charged soon after dinner.
The HPWC is probably overkill for my usage, but I'm getting it nonetheless. You could say the same for the Performance package. ;)

- - - Updated - - -

I'm just getting the 14-50 plug too, via Solar City. Last I talked to them they were still a couple weeks away from doing Seattle area installations though (or i'm late in the queue since I don't have a Sig and can wait)
I got a different response when I contacted them:
Solar City said:
Unfortunately you are currently outside of our installation area. However, we will be expanding our operations within the next 6-12 months and we will make sure to keep you informed if our expansion plans bring us to your community.
 
Sounds like I should reply to their e-mail to see if they'll service my location ahead of previously expected expansion.

Discoducky - If/when you have them do yours, I'd love to hear your thoughts on pricing, quality of work, customer experience, etc.
 
I just have an estimate from them, which was 750$ all up for the 14-50, including it being 25' from the main panel. (I think it was 600 if right next to it). They're still operating out of Portland to do this, so we'll likely see it contracted through some local electrician anyway...
 
Solar City install

Solar City did our installation in Redmond last week, a temporary 14-50 until the HWPC is available. They did a nice job, all permits were received, passed inspection. I am not sure if was a local contractor since my wife handled it. They were kind of slow to respond during the preliminaries.
 
Solar City did our installation in Redmond last week, a temporary 14-50 until the HWPC is available. They did a nice job, all permits were received, passed inspection. I am not sure if was a local contractor since my wife handled it. They were kind of slow to respond during the preliminaries.
If your wife is willing to offer more details, feel free to private message to me. Thanks!
 
I used Hill Electric in Woodinville for both of my 14-50's. It was about $275 each time. That included breaker (the second time involved making another breaker half-size to make room), 30' of conduit (the first time), and the outlet. These were both in 2009. They were prompt, did neat work, had good recommendations online (checkbook.org), and seemed to know what they were doing.
 
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Solarcity install was today, I wasn't home so I missed some of the details. For some reason they installed a NEMA 6-50 instead of 14-50 and left a note to make sure to get the 3-prong connector from Tesla as some other customers they installed in the area had gotten the wrong connector from Tesla to work with it. Not sure if they had to do the 6-50 for some reason instead of the 14-50 but not what I expected since I specifically had asked for a 14-50... but looking at the paperwork it didn't say that, it just said 50A. Guess I'll have to pay to get an extra connector now for a more likely travel/RV connector.

the location is not exactly where I would have expected it either. there area it was installed in was at a corner (outside corner), and they positioned it flush with the edge of the corner instead of in a bit (the little segment of wall between the garage doors there is a few feet wide).

And now I just need the car! (and the right adapter :))
 
Solarcity install was today, I wasn't home so I missed some of the details. For some reason they installed a NEMA 6-50 instead of 14-50 and left a note to make sure to get the 3-prong connector from Tesla as some other customers they installed in the area had gotten the wrong connector from Tesla to work with it. Not sure if they had to do the 6-50 for some reason instead of the 14-50 but not what I expected since I specifically had asked for a 14-50... but looking at the paperwork it didn't say that, it just said 50A. Guess I'll have to pay to get an extra connector now for a more likely travel/RV connector.

the location is not exactly where I would have expected it either. there area it was installed in was at a corner (outside corner), and they positioned it flush with the edge of the corner instead of in a bit (the little segment of wall between the garage doors there is a few feet wide).

And now I just need the car! (and the right adapter :))

SolarCity did my install in Sammamish this week as well. I ended up with a 6-50 too.. not sure why. On the plus side, the Tesla site says a 6-50 is for welding equipment... that sounds way cooler than RVs and camp sites.
 
SolarCity did my install in Sammamish this week as well. I ended up with a 6-50 too.. not sure why. On the plus side, the Tesla site says a 6-50 is for welding equipment... that sounds way cooler than RVs and camp sites.
Wish they would reply to my email. :(
What's the best way to reach them? The web site was...unsatisfying.

If it's the Portland visitor, maybe I can catch him before he leaves.
 
they contacted me after I checked 'yes' to have solar city contact me with the pre-mvpa paperwork -- and they called within a day or two. I can PM you my contact at solarcity maybe that will help -- the phone number of the electrician I also have but probably too far from proper procedure