And yes while the Mini E will be a lot of fun, that Tesla Sedan looks awfully compelling . . .

The electrical contractor who visited me for the initial site inspection said MINI would be picking up all costs related to the installation of the Clipper Creek MINI E charge station. Of course if you allow them to make the long run to your electrical panel they’ll probably only run 6awg wiring in a smaller conduit. A year or two or three from now when you’re on to your future EV (possibly a Tesla Model S sedan?) as MINI only allows a 1 year lease on the MINI E, you’re going to want a much larger gauge wire run to your garage. You definitely want at minimum 2awg for 100amp support and if you’re interested in least voltage drop and future proofing as much as you can, I’d go ahead and install 1/0 cable in a 1.5″ conduit. Copper wire is cheaper than it has been in a long time. $1 per foot for 1/0 (last year it was selling for $2.50+ a foot). You might consider installing a 1/0 feed from your main panel to a kWhr meter box in your garage (just for data monitoring purposes). Then allow MINI to wire their Clipper Creek MINI E charge station to the kWhr meter box with their 6awg wire. A year or more from now you can wire what you want to that meter box such as a Tesla charge station, or we are hoping for some finalized J1772 level 2 finalized 70-100amp charge station/connector standard if they eventually materialize. If they don’t materialize you could install a Milbank power panel with NEMA14-50R (50amp 240VAC) outlets and utilize the 240VAC charge cables like Tesla’s MC240 and others that we require since there is no finalized or adopted “standard” for modern EV 240VAC charging (yet).

http://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/charging

Anyway, I’m waiting on my inspection, but I’m a little worried. My house is 2005 vintage so I think I’ll be alright capacity-wise, but my main panel is at the opposite end of the house from my garage. Did you get the sense from the contractor that Mini would cover the cost of a long run from panel to garage?

Give Maggie a call at http://www.bbelec.com/ for all your Milbank needs. I’ve found bbelec to be the best/easiest source of Milbank equipment. Toll Free 888-391-3802

The Milbank sourced meter was $17 but is sold as part of a 4 pack (Milbank #CL200). I only needed 2 at the time. Trying to purchase just 2 meters elsewhere with an additional separate shipping charge negated any savings. In the end, I used all 4 meters including giving one to a friend for his submetering effort.

-Stefano

I can’t find pricing info on the Milbank kWhr meter on their website. Would you mind sharing the cost of the meter?

Thanks.

David