How to Prep Your Home for an EV

When it comes to buying a new Ford, the last thing that you’re probably thinking about is how to prepare your home for an electric vehicle. While EVs have many benefits — among them, a potential reduction in your carbon footprint and lower maintenance costs than most gasoline cars — one aspect of them that requires a bit of preparation is taking delivery of them. 

Namely, when you buy a new Ford EV, you want to make sure that your home is ready to charge it. While there are electric vehicle charging stations in the Royal Palm Beach area, as well as electric vehicle charging batteries you can utilize, an electric vehicle home charger will still probably be your primary method of EV charging for the foreseeable future, anyway. With that said, let’s delve into five easy steps you can take to prepare your home for an electric vehicle, like the newest Ford F-150 Lightning or Mustang Mach-E!

1. Decide on a Charging Level

If you haven’t already researched types of electric vehicle home chargers, now is a good time to start. As a refresher, most home car charging systems 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. Prepare 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. 

3. Locate 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. Most new homes throughout the Greenacres region 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 EV charging system. You do not want to overload your electric distribution panel.

4. Hire an Electrician

Next, you’ll want to hire an electrician. 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 of hundred dollars, but 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 & Have it Installed

If you haven’t already researched and purchased an EV charger at this point, it would be the time to do so. Afterward, you’ll want to have your at-home electric vehicle charging station professionally installed by the electrician of your choice.

Get DIY EV Tips from the Team at Al Packer Ford Royal Palm Beach

Do you have additional maintenance-related questions or concerns about getting your home ready for an electric vehicle? Intrigued by the idea of purchasing an electric vehicle charging battery? If so, you’ll want to reach out to the service experts at Al Packer Ford Royal Palm Beach for more information about how to properly maintain an EV from either our new or pre-owned Ford inventories!