EV Charger Installation in Kittery, Maine

Interstate 95 enters Maine in Kittery over the Piscataqua River Bridge, and Route 1, Route 103 and Route 236 carry much of the town to work, whether that means the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth itself or points north on the Maine Turnpike. Those are short, predictable drives, which is exactly the pattern where an electric vehicle charged at home each night never needs a public charger on a weekday. The trouble spots are winter mornings, when a cold battery gives up part of its range, and homes where the car has nowhere to charge except a shared driveway.

That second problem is common in Kittery. With about a third of households renting and nearly one home in five in a small multifamily building, the charger often has to reach a parking spot that belongs to one unit of a duplex or triplex, fed from that unit’s own panel and metered to that tenant. Running a 240-volt circuit to the right spot, sometimes across a shared basement or up a detached garage, takes planning with the building owner. In a single-family house the job is simpler: a hardwired Tesla Wall Connector or universal unit in the garage, or an outdoor-rated charger on the exterior wall near the driveway.

Either way, the panel comes first. Kittery’s older houses often run 100-amp services already loaded with electric heat, since about 13 percent of homes here heat with electricity, so a load calculation decides whether a 40- or 48-amp charging circuit fits or whether the service needs to grow. Efficiency Maine offers $400 toward a qualifying off-peak charger, $200 off at purchase and $200 after setup, and those chargers stop drawing from 5 to 9 p.m. on weekdays. Kittery issues its own electrical permits, and Goodnow Electric pulls that permit, installs the circuit and schedules the inspection with the town’s code office. Wiring the circuit for 48 amps even when the first charger is a smaller one saves opening the walls again when the next car arrives, and in a rental, the landlord and tenant should agree in writing on who pays for the charging electricity.