How to Prepare Your Home for an Electric Vehicle

When it comes to buying a new car, the last thing that most people probably think about is how to prepare their home for it. While EVs have many benefits, one aspect of them that requires a bit of preparation is taking delivery of them. Namely, when you buy a new EV, you want to make sure that your home is ready to charge it. While EV charging stations are becoming more popular, having an electric vehicle home charger will be your best bet to keep your EV charged if you can’t find a charging station around State College. 

If you don’t have an electric vehicle charging station, then don’t worry! Stuckey GMC will show you everything you need to know about electric vehicle charging batteries, charging speeds, and more. 

1. Decide on a Charging Type (AKA Charging Level)

If you haven’t already researched types of electric vehicle charging stations, now is a good time to start. As a refresher, most electric vehicle home chargers fall into Level 1 or Level 2. Here’s more information:

• Level 1 EV charging often takes days to fully charge an electric car. 
• Level 2 EV charging often takes several hours to fully charge an electric car. You can often get between 60-200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging, though. For this reason, most people intermix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

2. Ready Your Garage

If you haven’t cleaned out or organized your garage, now is the time to do that. Make sure that you get your garage ready for an EV before you take delivery! You may wish to clean out clutter first if your garage has been used as a storage space for a long time. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to prepare your home for an electric vehicle. 

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the entire building. It should be rated for a maximum amount of current flow measured in amperes or amps. Most new homes come with a 100-amp power panel, but there should be an amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker.

Next, you’ll want to get a handle on how much electrical energy you consistently use in your house by performing a self-assessment of your electricity use before you install an electric vehicle home charger system. You don’t want to overload your electric distribution panel or damage your electric vehicle charging batteries. 

4. Hire an Electrician

Next, hire an electrician near Johnstown or wherever is closest to you. You can discuss any concerns you have about your power consumption and adding EV charging. You can also have them install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. Usually, this costs a couple hundred dollars, but it could be up to $1,000 or $3,000 if it’s found that your power panel is not sufficient as-is and requires upgrading. 

5. Buy Your Charger and Have It Installed

If you haven’t already researched and purchased an EV charging station at this point, it would be the time to do so and have it professionally installed by the electrician of your choice. There are plenty of options around Huntingdon, but to save you time, rely on Stuckey GMC to help you find the right charger for your EV. Reach out to our finance center for any other questions you have!

Prepare Your Home for an Electric Vehicle With Stuckey GMC!

Do you have additional questions or concerns about getting your home ready for an electric vehicle, electric vehicle charging batteries, or anything else? Contact us anytime to have your questions answered, or visit us at our dealership in Altoona. Meanwhile, browse our current selection of GMC electric vehicles!