Bought a 2017 Bolt EV

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by JSH

You are trying to find a deal on a vehicle in high demand with a waiting list.

It sounds like all the stars have to align for it to happen like people say it could.

Oh well, it doesn't matter. I'm not needing a new vehicle yet anyways.

[redpoint5]

As I stated, the Bolt was selling new for ~$22k at one point, and that was without any federal tax subsidy. The subsidies are mostly fake discounts anyhow, as the manufacturer and dealer are going to price the car with that factored into the price and capture most of the subsidy.

When Tesla lost the federal tax credit, they responded by lowering price.

Don't fall for the "discount", simply evaluate the total cost and determine if that is worth it.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Don't fall for the "discount", simply evaluate the total cost and determine if that is worth it.

Nope. Definitely not worth it. Unless gasoline is going to triple and electricity stays the same.

The appeal of the "discounts" is they put the Bolt in my price range. Without them, the Bolt is overpriced.

$27,500 MSRP
-$7,500 Fed credit
$20,000

$20,000
-$5,000 Colorado credit
$15,000 Total price

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Nope. Definitely not worth it. Unless gasoline is going to triple and electricity stays the same.

The appeal of the "discounts" is they put the Bolt in my price range. Without them, the Bolt is overpriced.

$27,500 MSRP
-$7,500 Fed credit
$20,000

$20,000
-$5,000 Colorado credit
$15,000 Total price

What was the dealer markup back then? I guarantee they weren't going for $15k after incentives for more than a couple lucky folk. Manufacturers and dealers don't leave free money on the table.

In other words, that sounds like a theoretical price, not an actual one.

I'd have floated the loan if it was that good of a deal.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

195 amps worth of breakers doesn't imply the 200 amp box is near capacity. Your 200 amp box simply means that's the most it will provide before probably the main breakers open. If you total up all the breakers in my 70 year old box, it is double the 100 amp rating but the probability of drawing 100 amps at one time is miniscule since the stove, water heater, HVAC, dryer only total up to 75 amps. That gives me the availability of 25 + amps for surge on start.

Oddly, here in Reno it is space for breakers that determines whether or not you can expand. Most everyone adds a sub box and moves a pair of breakers to that

I'm curious - what happens if you exceed the total amperage of the box - and there is no master breaker?

The box in this house is unlike any other house I've lived in as the breaker box doesn't have a master breaker[/B] that feeds power to the rest of the panel. Instead there is a 200 amp line that comes straight into the box to the hot bus bar. The top of that box has 6 openings for the 220 circuits. One of those 220 circuits has a 60 amp breaker that connects to the bottom half of the box and connects to 2 sets of bus bars for 12 110v circuits. If that bottom half is overloaded it will trip the 60 amp breaker.

As far as I know there is no protection on the top half of the box. There is space for 1 more 220 circuit. I could run a new 60 amp circuit to the 48 amp EVSE. That would be 255 amps of breakers. If I decided to run the charger, dryer, stove, heat pump, and hot water heater at once I could exceed the 200 amp service coming into the house but never trip any of the individual breakers. I would just overheat the main service line and risk a fire.

I can't image that meets code. (It also creeps me out a bit that work done on the top half is done live)

[redpoint5]

Sounds like it's not to code, or there's another panel feeding it that has the main breaker.

My parents have the meter outside that feeds a panel. From that panel it feeds the well and the main panel in the house. Both the main feed and the house panel have main breakers.



Here's the mess that fed the house I grew up in.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Sounds like it's not to code, or there's another panel feeding it that has the main breaker.

There is not another panel with a main breaker. The home inspector didn't say anything about the breaker box (but found plenty of other electrical problems created by the "handy" previous owner). The electrician that put in the heat pump said my kind of box is pretty common in my age of house (70's) and that it was fine as long as the top half of the box stayed below 200 amps. (Which makes me think installing more than 200 amps of 220 breakers would be a code violation even if the chances of actually drawing 200 amps is quite low)

The lower half of the box with 110V circuits has 220 amps of breakers fed by one 60 amp breaker. That breaker has never tripped.

[Piotrsko]

Your box was common pre WW2 in large cities and is closer to pushing 100 years old. Yup nothing to protect the house from catching fire if you overload it today except the fast blow fuses. Back in the day it was inconceivable that you could overload and stuff was fused on the transformer on the pole which is no longer the case.
Otoh, they were aware of this threat which is why the down feed is in a heavy metal pipe whose main purpose is to pop the transformer fusing and keep the arc/fire start contained to the pipe. Those fuses are pretty much gone anymore as they need men & equipment to replace them. The power company does protect it's equipment.

I would suspect if you have a meter there should be a mains disconnect close by but it could be just a knife switch instead of breakers , I am not familiar with ancient odd requirements in rural communities. Good news, the meter is somewhat current limiting. Mine is good to 200 amps, anything above that fries the meter to an open condition. When they swapped it, I looked and pestered the installer.