A careful route.
A considered installation.

Start with the home.
Then plan the charging.

We began by looking at two things—the home’s electrical demand and the route to the garage. The existing 100-amp Cutler-Hammer panel supplied an electric range, dryer, air conditioning and spa. It also sat nearly 100 feet across the house from the garage.

We chose the Emporia Classic paired with Emporia Vue Gen 3 monitoring and PowerSmart load management. This setup uses Wi-Fi and an internet connection for load management, avoiding a separate communication cable along the 96-foot route. Current transformers inside the main panel track household demand. Together, the monitoring and load management allowed this home’s existing 100-amp supply to be retained.

The hardwired charger can provide up to 48 amps when household demand, configured limits and the vehicle allow, adjusting charging power automatically as capacity changes.

A careful 96-foot route.
A tidy garage finish.

The biggest physical challenge on this install was getting the cable neatly from the basement panel across the house into the garage. The 96-foot path had to traverse a finished bedroom, a mechanical room, and a bathroom before navigating a really awkward entry into the garage because the garage is offset from the main house. Getting into the house structure, up the wall, and through those finished rooms cleanly—with zero holes cut in the drywall—took careful planning and patience.

The long cable run also shaped two practical installation choices, balancing material costs with flexibility for future garage work.

• #4 aluminum ACWU and a copper connection at the disconnect. Because copper is much more expensive over a long distance, we chose #4 aluminum ACWU from the main panel to the garage sub-panel and over to the 60A disconnect to reduce material costs. Since the Emporia charger requires a copper connection, we transitioned inside the disconnect enclosure to the charger’s included copper hardwire whip.
• A garage sub-panel for future flexibility. After discussing future garage needs with the homeowner, Alex, our master electrician, recommended a sub-panel where the feeder enters the garage. This provides space for separate garage circuits and may avoid repeating the difficult cable route for future work, depending on the additional loads and available feeder and service capacity.