In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you - this makes a ton of sense. And yes, while there's a very slight chance that I might be pulling a late night wrenching session and charging the cars at the same time, the reality is that the rest of the house will probably be powered down. 99.9% of the time, the barn and house would be quiet during late night hours. I'm not 18 any more and I fall asleep early. :)
Is there a recommendation for how to best calculate actual amperage load? Did some internet searching and most of it seems designed around "how big of a main panel do you need" versus "how little am I actually drawing from my current panel"? I'm assuming it's just a product of finding all the junk that could be on simultaneously when we would/would not be charging, determine consumption from each device, and add it all up?
Rotaryracer said:
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you - this makes a ton of sense. And yes, while there's a very slight chance that I might be pulling a late night wrenching session and charging the cars at the same time, the reality is that the rest of the house will probably be powered down. 99.9% of the time, the barn and house would be quiet during late night hours. I'm not 18 any more and I fall asleep early. :)
Is there a recommendation for how to best calculate actual amperage load? Did some internet searching and most of it seems designed around "how big of a main panel do you need" versus "how little am I actually drawing from my current panel"? I'm assuming it's just a product of finding all the junk that could be on simultaneously when we would/would not be charging, determine consumption from each device, and add it all up?
How I do it -- calculate all the major appliances and HVAC for max load on home runs, add in lighting, then reasonable guess on 15a per string of outlets. Once I have a plan that makes sense to me, I hire an electrician. Got high marks for my best-guess design, but I didn't know that all refrigerators had to be on dedicated circuits, etc. I just don't want to fly blind when hiring contractors.
For just adding a circuit or two myself, I Google it and use common sense.
If you do a search on 'load sheet calculation', a number of links should show up with a standard load calculation form for your total electrical load. You go down the sheet and fill in the blanks, it's fairly straightforward.
