How to Prepare Your Home For an Electric Vehicle

If you’ve just bought your first electric vehicle like the Ford F-150 Lightning in the Stephenville area, you might be surprised to know that there’s some prep work involved. After all, you don’t really have to do anything to your home or garage when you buy a traditional gas-powered car, but electric vehicles require a bit of extra maintenance. This prep work includes installing an electric vehicle home charger and assessing your home electricity use to make sure you can charge your EV without blowing out the power grid. Luckily, the team at Bayer Ford has everything you need to know about how to prep your home for an EV in our guide below, so you can be ready when your new ride arrives!

1. Decide on a Charging Type

The first thing you should do is decide which type of electric vehicle charging station you want in your home. While you don’t technically have to install an electric vehicle home charger, relying solely on public charging stations can be a bit risky. Most of your charging should be done from the convenience of your home, using either a Level 1 or Level 2 home charger. How do these types of chargers differ? Here’s a quick overview:

• Level 1 chargers use the same three-pronged outlets you find throughout your house and beyond. While they’re capable of charging your EV, they’re designed to power much smaller objects, so they can often take days to get your car up to a full charge.
• Level 2 chargers are designed specifically to recharge EVs, so they can fully charge your vehicle in a matter of hours. Level 2 DC (direct-current) charging is even faster, often capable of generating 60-200 miles of range in just half an hour! 

2. Prepare Your Garage

This may sound like an obvious one, but it’s a good idea to clear out your garage to make room for a new car and an electric vehicle charging station, both of which will take up a fair amount of space.

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

The next thing you’ll want to do is locate your home’s power pane, which is in charge of distributing electricity throughout your property. The power panel is rated for a maximum amount of current flow, usually around 100 amperes. You can find your home’s specific rating printed on the main circuit breaker. Once you’ve located the power panel, you’ll want to determine how much electricity you use per month by performing a self-assessment, to make sure that adding an electric vehicle home charger won’t overload your power grid.

4. Hire an Electrician

Find a reliable electrician that you trust and discuss any concerns you may have about adding an electric vehicle charging station to your home’s power grid. The electrician can also install either a dedicated 240-volt plug or a hardwired circuit to your home power panel to prepare for the charger’s installation. Installation costs vary greatly depending on whether your power panel is sufficient for adding an EV charger or not. It can be a couple hundred dollars for a standard installation, but if the power panel needs to be upgraded in the process, it can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000.

5. Buy Your Charger & Have it Installed

The last thing to do – if you haven’t done it already – is to research and purchase the electric vehicle charging station of your choice, then have it professionally installed by an electrician. That’s all you need to know to prepare your home for an electric vehicle!

Contact Bayer Ford For All Things Electric

Now that you know how to prep your home for an EV, you might be interested in other tips for driving and maintaining an EV on the Weatherford streets. Contact our office for more information, or stop by our dealership near Granbury to talk to a member of our team in person! Our service center also offers plenty of general maintenance tips, many of which apply to EVs and traditional gas-powered vehicles alike.