Bought a 1959 rambler last year and inherited whatever electrical setup the previous owner left behind, which turned out to be a 60A main panel that nobody had touched since probably the Carter administration. Didn't think much of it when we moved in. I've been charging the Model Y off the mobile connector plugged into a regular 120V outlet in the garage the whole first year, which mostly works fine because my commute to the trailheads isn't that far most weeks.
Where it's starting to fall apart: any week I'm doing back-to-back mountain trips, topping off overnight on 120V doesn't keep up, and I'm leaving the house at 60% more than I'd like. Had an electrician out last month for an unrelated panel inspection (previous owner's DIY work in the crawlspace, different story entirely) and asked him to eyeball what a real Level 2 circuit would take. His answer: the panel's basically maxed out already between the electric water heater, central AC, and the dryer. He ran a load calc and there's only about 10A of headroom on paper, not enough for even a modest 32A EVSE on a 40A breaker without something giving.
He gave me two options. One, a Wallbox with the built-in energy meter that manages the EVSE draw against the rest of the house, pulling the car down when the AC or dryer kicks on and running full 32A otherwise. Quoted about $275 more than a plain non-monitoring unit. Asked him what happens if the meter craps out on its own — does the EVSE just stop charging or default back to full draw — and he said that's genuinely down to the specific unit, not something he'd promise either way without pulling the spec sheet. Two, upgrade to a 200A panel outright: new meter socket, has to go through Xcel for the service change, one full day with the power off, quoted just under $2,700.
The portable's fine for regular weeks but this mountain-town-adjacent life means I keep hitting the wall on the bigger trips. Anyone actually lived with a load-managed setup day to day, not just on paper? Trying to figure out if the throttling is a real problem in practice or a theoretical one, and whether the panel upgrade is worth it for reasons beyond just the car.
