Home EV charging stations done right.
The first time.

Yes! Your local permit authority decides what needs a permit, and we permit every charger we install.

A charger inside your garage, within sight of the panel, can use a minor label permit. Anything that leaves the garage needs a full permit and a full inspection, which costs about ten times as much as a minor label permit.

Any electrician who tells you different isn't informed of the nuances of EV charger permitting. It's not worth saving a few bucks to face uncomfortable questions from inspectors or insurance companies if there's ever a problem.

If we need to pull a full permit, there will be an inspection. This will require you to commit to being home the full day of the inspection. In Portland they post the inspection windows the morning of on PortlandMaps.com. Once the inspector comes, you are free to go about your day.

Hardwiring is the standard at Milwaukie EV Charging. Most NEMA 14-50R receptacles aren't EV rated, and they've been causing lots of problems. A $10 NEMA 14-50 isn't built for a steady 40-amp draw for hours at a time.

If you do use a 14-50R, the bare minimum is an EV-rated one, which costs about 5x as much, and we still don't recommend it if it can be avoided. A plug adds a couple of possible failure points that don't need to be there.

A hardwired charger can run faster, and it's safer and more reliable. Think of it like a bridge: would you rather cross on two boards scabbed together, or on one solid timber?

Legally, yes. Anyone with an electrical journeyman's license who works for an insured electrical contractor can install a charger, as long as the work is permitted. If any of that is missing and there's ever a major problem, verifying that those things were done is the first thing your insurance company is going to do.

EV charging is our specialty. Quality, knowledge and experience are what we're selling. We help you design your system so you won't have to redo it when your second EV shows up, help you pick the right connector for your vehicle, commission the charger, and help you get the app going.

We use high-quality materials, like EMT (electrical metallic tubing) instead of PVC, all-copper conductors instead of aluminum, and Polaris mechanical connectors instead of blue wire nuts, and we stand behind our work.

We'll walk you through possible rebates. And if your service is maxed out or on the small side, we have a few tricks for fitting in a full-sized charging circuit, which can save you money and help you avoid an expensive upgrade. That's hard to promise from someone who was hanging a ceiling fan yesterday.

Most homes land between $950 and $2,500. The big variables are the distance to your panel, the complexity of the run, and the number of transitions between wiring methods, like going from conduit through a wall to a trench outside. We price it after a site visit, so you get a real number, not a guess.

Yes. You can do it yourself, if you own your own home and you get it permitted and inspected through your local jurisdiction. Doing it yourself doesn't mean doing it alone. Ask about our consulting services.

Not usually. You need a panel upgrade when your panel is out of physical space, has reached the end of its life, or in some cases has been recalled. A panel typically lasts 20 to 40 years.

We'll check yours at the site assessment and explain it in clear, plain terms so you can make the decision. And if adding an EV charger is what pushes you into a panel upgrade, we'll check what incentives may apply.

It depends on how big your service is. Older homes often have smaller services.

In the early days of electricity, power companies were hustling to get people to use more of it, selling toasters and irons door to door, and a few small appliances were about all a home plugged in. Now it's the opposite. Between hot tubs, saunas, kilns, double ovens, and washers and dryers, homes are drawing more power than ever. And with recent health concerns with natural gas, lots of people are switching to all-electric heat and cooking.

Americans are using more electricity than ever, and it's still climbing: a 2026 University of Houston report projects U.S. electricity demand could rise as much as 32% by 2030. So if your electrical service dates from the '50s, '60s or '70s, it may be much smaller than what you need now.

Today's standard is a 200 amp service, and it's hard to fit a full-sized charging circuit onto a 60 or 100 amp service. Sometimes we can turn down the charging circuit or use a few tricks with special chargers. But in some cases, while we're already in there, it just makes sense to change the whole thing out.

A brand new 200 amp service prepares your home for more electrical use down the road, and it can be a real selling point if you're planning to sell in the near future. It may make really good sense, because it will never be cheaper than it is today. We'll talk it through at your on-site assessment, and we'll check what incentives may apply to help with the cost.

Most EV charger and critical loads panel installs take less than a day. Panel upgrades usually take about a day, and service upgrades about two. We'll tell you what to expect at your site assessment.

Often, yes. Your EV's battery holds roughly 60 to 100 kilowatt hours, and one kilowatt hour is 1,000 watts for one hour of run time.

For perspective: a gas furnace's blower and igniter use about 300 watts, a refrigerator or chest freezer about 150 watts each, a big flatscreen TV about 200 watts, a microwave about 1,000 watts, an internet router about 20 watts, and a single LED bulb about 7 watts. Many EVs can put out 1,000 to 1,800 watts or more for you to use as you see fit.

In many cases that won't back up your whole house, but we can install a critical loads panel to keep the heartbeat of your house running. With some careful load shedding and prioritizing, you can keep it going for several days. The more power you use, the faster the battery drains.

There are a few different ways to set this up, and we'll walk you through them. Being warm, entertained and eating hot food is a whole lot better than sitting in the dark.