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[jasonphoto01]

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[CommodoreAmiga]

That wiring looks pretty thin! What is that, 8awg?

I wouldn't add an EVSE circuit there.

 

[Jhawk]

You don’t have enough room on that bus bar for a double pole breaker. And it looks pretty well loaded already with what you have there. My advice, call an electrician.

 

[ebellinder2]

If the panel with the 125 amp breaker is your main panel which is connected to your utility. 125 amps is usually sufficient to charge a single EV level 2 charger at max of 48 amps

concern I have is you have multiple panels that could have significant loads.

a 48 amp Ev circuit requires a 60 amp breaker and associated wire just for the EV

need to evaluate all loads currently connected my guess is that it may calculate out to a 200 amp main panel being required. Not sure

what concerns me is that there is more than one wire on the terminals of the 125 amp breaker. That is not allowed by NEC
As those appear to be single wire terminals. I would suggest bringing in a licensed electrician

 

[connoisseurr]

You don’t have enough room on that bus bar for a double pole breaker. And it looks pretty well loaded already with what you have there. My advice, call an electrician.

Room COULD be made by moving the 20 SPB to a single side, however it comes down AWG of service wires that feed the box.

However, if this panel is a main panel at 125A rating, which also feeds another sub-panel, I'd be cautious about throwing an EV charging circuit into there.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

You've got multiple panels and your wiring is a bit of a mess. You need to do a full assessment and load calc before you decide to do something that may burn your house down.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Already see a couple code violations. If you live somewhere you don't need permits and electrical inspections, you can probably get away with adding a 40A circuit on that sub panel, but I wouldn't do it.

I can't tell where those wires are going off the main lugs. It's not a great idea to do that since they aren't being protected by the main there and it probably means you're overloading the service feeder lines, potentially by a lot.

 

[chrismc]

At best your electrical situation is not straightforward and way more complex than it need to be, at worst it’s a shitshow of code violations and fire hazards. You need to hire a good electrician to nail it down before proceeding. You likely can accommodate an EVSE (perhaps at a lower amperage rating) but it will require deciphering some wiring spaghetti and measuring loads to be certain how to do it safely.

 

[ebellinder2]

Jason

The system isn’t making sense to me. We know we have two separate double pole 125A breakers directly off the meter possibly disconnects only required by codes. Possibly one of those 125A breakers is supplying power to the 125A breaker in the breaker panel to the right. Not sure what the other 125A breaker is supplying. Do you have solar or a backup generator as part of your system. I am seeing too many 125A breakers. Anyone else making sense of this one?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Everyone calm down and stop scaring the OP. Yes, there are code violations, but that doesn't mean it is overloaded.

Could you pull the safety panels off the two exterior panels and give us pictures of that?

BTW, no one seems to have noticed that in the small panel that has four double pole breakers, that the single pole breakers aren't connected to anything. They can be taken out and you'd have room for a new double pole breaker. But yes, you'd want to do a load calculation because that is a lot of load there already.

How many amps do you want, the full 48A that the Rivian can handle?

 

[supernu8]

I don't think this forum will be able to give you a real solution. With the amount of daisy-chained subpanels you have going on it's not as simple as making space for a breaker and running a new circuit. You have some funky wiring going on.

Get some quotes from electricians and see what their reactions are to your setup and their cost for a EVSE circuit. They may be able to move stuff around to make it work with minimal impact or consolidate some of the mess or decide that they won't touch it because they'll have to bring it up to code.. Either way, not something you will be able to diy unless you have some experience.

 

[RivianR1TinSFL]

Everyone calm down and stop scaring the OP. Yes, there are code violations, but that doesn't mean it is overloaded.

Could you pull the safety panels off the two exterior panels and give us pictures of that?

BTW, no one seems to have noticed that in the small panel that has four double pole breakers, that the single pole breakers aren't connected to anything. They can be taken out and you'd have room for a new double pole breaker. But yes, you'd want to do a load calculation because that is a lot of load there already.

How many amps do you want, the full 48A that the Rivian can handle?

Well said

 

[chrismc]

additional details for the mystery box

I wouldn’t touch adding any load to that box until the conductors feeding the main lugs are fixed.

 

[Cosmacelf]

additional details for the mystery box

Oops, I didn't even notice that a) this was your outside box (I had asked to see a picture of it before!) and b) those breakers on the left were OFF (but to be fair no one else is noticing much either ?).

So is this box's feed connected to one of those 125 amp breakers in the adjacent box? Assuming yes, this has plenty of capacity for a 60A breaker. I do agree that I would swap out those doubled up feeder wires with a short run of 2 gauge wire (assuming a 125A breaker). While parallel wires aren't horrible, they aren't code for these smaller wires, and even if you did double up wires, you should use the exact same gauge for both wires, and this set up violates both those rules. And and you shouldn't tie multiple wires to the same lug nut either. So three no-nos.

Anyhoo, you originally asked about the indoor subpanel. What is the breaker rating and/or the wire gauge of the feed for that small sub-panel?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Which would mean the hot tub is not protected by a breaker. Which is actually the least of your worries. That red glowing connection has been deteriorating for a while which is why it is now glowing, there is too much resistance there. Maybe at some point in the past it wasn’t tightened correctly or got loose. At any rate, this needs attention RIGHT AWAY. New buss bars are needed, and connect that hot tub to a breaker!

id also check what your service is. Right now, you could draw 375 amps, which I am guessing is more than your actual service. And maybe that’s why the buss bar is burnt out, you are trying to draw too much current through it. I’ll bet it is only rated for 200A max.

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