Do I Need 200 Amp Service for an EV Charger?

Short answer: not always

A Level 2 home EV charger typically needs a dedicated 40 to 60 amp circuit — but that doesn't automatically mean you need to upgrade to 200 amp service. What matters is how much spare capacity your panel already has once you account for everything else running in the house: central air, electric heat, a dryer, a hot tub, and so on.

We see three outcomes on a typical assessment:

• ✓ Enough spare capacity already exists — the charger gets added on a new dedicated circuit, no upgrade needed.
• ✓ It's tight but workable — an energy management device automatically reduces charger output when other big loads (like AC) kick in, so you never exceed your panel's rating.
• ✓ Not enough room — a panel upgrade to 200A is the straightforward, permanent fix, especially useful if you're also planning other additions down the line.

How we figure out which one applies to you

We do a proper load calculation — not a guess. That means totalling the amperage of your major existing circuits against your panel's rated capacity, factoring in Ontario Electrical Safety Code demand factors (not every circuit draws its full rated load at the same time). This gets filed as part of the ESA notification for the install regardless of which path you take.