13A sockets useless for charging electric cars?

Farty years ago shurely?

Reply to
Jim K..
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Just came across this topic on another forum:

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or:

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Any comments from the experts here?

Reply to
Terry Casey

Temperature rise of 13A sockets is only tested for 60 minutes at 13A (and double 13A sockets only tested to a combined 20A I think).

Reply to
Andy Burns

If it's okay after 60 minutes, is it not likely still to be okay after

10 hours?

In any case my understanding is that if you buy an electric vehicle you get a 'deal' on a charging point. I only hope it's a better deal than the Brexit one!

I think it gives you 16 amps and speeds up the charging a bit.

Reply to
Scott

A standard plug and socket can carry 13A - but there are provisos. It needs to be well terminated, and the pins etc need to be very clean. It will also still get hot (you will gets several watts of dissipation in the fuse for example).

So its not the ideal connection for long term heave loads near the maximum.

To an extent, its a bit of a moot point, since for a car with any sensible battery capacity, 13A charging is likely to be too slow for practical purposes. Most dedicated home chargers normally need a circuit supplying 6 to 7kW.

Reply to
John Rumm

At 13A for 1 hour a UK socket gets really rather hot. The sort of thing that can happen when you have a 3kW fan heater in a very cold room. I have seen moulded extension blocks melt or deform under such loads.

Ideally you want a custom circuit dedicated to a charger - much like running a welding set or similarly brutal high current device.

Reply to
Martin Brown

Are the new pins (shielded) less efficient than the original solid ones? Is aluminium less efficient than copper?

Does this imply 30A rather than the 16A I suggested in my previous posting?

Reply to
Scott

Are they not sometimes 10 Amps?

That's what my brother has.

Reply to
Scott

brian reay the expert on all things will be along in a minute ....tee hee

Reply to
Jim GM4DHJ ...

I was complaining recently that the 13a socket at my static van heated up alarmingly when I was trying to dry a wet floor with a 3kw electric fire and was asking if the flat twin in a caravan was smaller than in a house.........been on the nissan leaf facebook page for a while and nobody has complained about this when using their granny charger........strange

Reply to
Jim GM4DHJ ...

No, because its only the ends of the L&N pins that make contact with the contacts in the sockets.

Yes, but that's never used in (built to spec) plugs or sockets.

Yup. Note that is for dedicated charging points. Many EV owners may also have a 13A plug in charging lead as well for "emergency" use.

Reply to
John Rumm

My PHEV came with two cables: one for use with 13A sockets and one for use with Type 2 public charge points. I've never used the first, but it has a few current settings. In practice I've always used a dedicated Rolec charge point at home, which is fed from a 32A MCB and has an attached cable. The max current my car will charge at is 16A, but there are some surprising charge currents mentioned here:

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Reply to
nothanks

snipped-for-privacy@aolbin.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I hadn't realised that the car takes AC.. How does it work with 3phase ?

Reply to
DerbyBorn

I would hope copper isn't either. Its too soft to make spring connections.

I suspect most problems are caused by cheap sockets where the springiness is not enough to get a good contact.

Reply to
dennis

Copper alloyed with 2% beryllium and then heat treated after shaping makes excellent connector springs and is widely used.

John

Reply to
jrwalliker

I didn't click on that link, but the article that I read last week was trying to argue that 13A indoor sockets were useless for charging your car, because people daisy-chained "indoor" extension leads to get to the car (even when they knew that was the wrong thing to do).

So ISTM that the solution here is not to install an expensive outside special plug, but to go to a hardware store and buy the correct length outdoor extension lead

simples!

tim

Reply to
tim...

Provided you want a slow charge.

Reply to
Scott

Cheap extensions often do, but a decent plug and socket don't and neither does a decent extension lead.

The trouble is that local shops will only stock the cheap stuff and most people won't know any better and won't go to the trouble of sourcing decent equipment or even better, the parts to make up their own, dedicated lead.

In my case, I might well repurpose the cooker circuit. We use gas these days and on the opposite side of the kitchen to where the electric cooker used to be - and due to getting a good length of free cable whenb I was first wiring it, we have an unused cooker point fed from a 20+' length of 16mm2 T&E and its own MCB.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Well, on a 3kw fan heater on for two hours the plug even on a brand new socket can be warm. I guess it depends what margin of safety you prefer, and of course how well the socket and plug are fitted to the bare wires and how warm the fuse inside is allowed to be without blowing, not to mention the resistance of the dissimilar metals used in their construction these days. For example, just cos a 6 way socket bar has a 13 amp fuse taking the whole drain through one of its sockets makes it get quite warm, as they are in effect supposed to be a shared load. I was led to believe that many Electric vehicles can have the charging current varied and of course the lower the charge rate the longer it will take. A large cooker point might be nearer what is needed here I imagine. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Is there not talk of gas being banned?

Reply to
Scott

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