List Of Certified Contractors To Install Home Charging

It is really hard to find quality workers when it comes to home construction and re-modeling. On top of there are a lot of scams and other shady aspects of the business. I think it would nice if Ford had a list of pre-screened general contractors that they could recommend to install the Ford Focus Electric home based charging systems (or maybe partner with Home Depot or Lowes or something). Not entirely sure how hard they are to set up but I would hate for someone to have miss wired or something. I can see the headlines now. Electric car charger burns garage down. Probably not great press. The safer we can keep our Ford Focus EV's the better!

GreenRPMs said:

It is really hard to find quality workers when it comes to home construction and re-modeling. On top of there are a lot of scams and other shady aspects of the business. I think it would nice if Ford had a list of pre-screened general contractors that they could recommend to install the Ford Focus Electric home based charging systems (or maybe partner with Home Depot or Lowes or something). Not entirely sure how hard they are to set up but I would hate for someone to have miss wired or something. I can see the headlines now. Electric car charger burns garage down. Probably not great press. The safer we can keep our Ford Focus EV's the better!

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Installing the Charger (EVSE) is like installing wiring for an electric dryer, pretty straight forward. It will need a 40 amp circuit to charge the Focus at 6.6kW. Most city inspectors have seen this type of installation already as Nissan LEAF and Mitsubishi i have been installing them for more than a year. Ford is using Leviton, a respected company with lots of experience.
Best Buy to Provide Ford Focus Electric Charging Stations

Ford partnered with Best Buy. Their "Geek squad" to put in I think a Leviton 32 amp home unit. Runs about $1500.

I put in my own and one at my Dad's. Cost me about $1,080 each. Biggest cost is the charger unit, about $850 if you shop around.
Scroll down about half way in this Forum page.
http://insideevs.com/early-ford-focus-electric-owner-is-out-of-gas-and-loving-it/

A good source with actual customer feedback for electrical contractors is Angie's List; as we haven't had the need for an electrical contractor in a number of years we found ours there ... it also turned out that our install was the 3rd EVSE that his guys installed (although we just searched for high rated ones that had worked in our general area) the other two were for Tesla's. We opted for one made by Schneider / Square D that we bought from Home Depot for $679 + ~ $400 to run a new 40A circuit and a fair amount of conduit (hardwired). Similar to Ford, Nissan partnered with a company for installs of EVSE's but they were even more expensive than the Geek squad guys (estimates run $2K + in many cases) so it pays to shop around. If all goes well, we'll use our EVSE for TWO EV's down the line (charge one or the other each night depending on who is driving to where, still checking this FFE forum for news on the C-Max Energi). Our local area doesn't require a permit but our guy guarantees his work and took a half day to bend the conduit fasten to concrete, etc. very 'stealth' install (about a 30' run along a kneewall) as well as provide the breaker, etc. so it was worth it. We've been using it 4+ months and are very happy with it --

https://my.angieslist.com/angieslist/login.aspx

Mr. Electric, in Maryland, installed our Leviton charger yesterday. They were completely professional and reliable!

Now, all I have to do is wait for the car to be delivered. :lol:

b826/redEV,

Thanks for the great ford focus electric battery charging install information. Quick question. Where did your contractors recommend the batter charging station be mounted? I am curious as to what the most optimal position / location of these unites would be. If you could post pictures of your focus electric charging station setup that would be cool as well. Thanks for the insight into this very interesting focus ev topic.

NextGen,

Our unit is attached directly to the outside of our house next to the basement door. No garage available. Since the unit is waterproof, the electrician didn't see this as a problem.
I am sure the optimal position would be on the inside of a garage, but you just need to have a site inspection and the electrician can help you from there.

I would attach a photo, except I am having trouble doing so. Sorry!