OT: Electric Car Charger

[The Natural Philosopher]

Use your brain. If you half wave rectify an AC waveform you actually end up drawing DC out of the mains.

Keeping it pure AC needs a completely symmetrical rectifier circuit.

[Theo]

The OZEV rules change in April so that the grants for installing charging points are focused towards shared premises like flats, B&Bs and workplaces. It might be advantageous to look at the criteria for after April and see if you qualify.

Theo

[nothanks]

I've had one with a tethered cable since 2017, no problems and much more convenient. The car's a PHEV so I (very) rarely charge away from home but the cable that came with the car lives in the boot for those rare times.

I put a cheap meter in the feed to the charger so I can record the electricity being used and then use this, with the car's MPG and mileage info, to calculate an equivalent total MPG figure.

I've also modified the pod to include a waterproof 13A socket for other uses, it looks good and saves having another wart on the external wall. If I wanted to control charging time I would fit an external timer, or use the car's controls.

BTW 10m is a helluvalot of cable to have hanging around, mine is 5m and is perfectly adequate. FWIW I removed the "holster" from the pod and fixed it to the wall in a convenient place.

[Andrew]

Someone posted here that he had received the grant for installation but when he moved house the new buyer said he didn't want it, so the seller took it with him. THis doesn't seem right. The grant should have been linked to the property, not the person.

[nothanks]

I may have a "friend" that did that (your honour). A house that didn't have a charger would still have one and, surely, that was the purpose of the scheme. The fact that the charger moved would be irrelevant.

[Theo]

If the new buyer doesn't want the charger, are you going to force them to keep it on the wall, to charge an EV they don't have? You could make the seller repay some of the grant, but you can't enforce that condition on the buyer (if you tried it would cause conveyancing complications, like rented solar panels)

Much of the cost is in installation, so taking the charger box away doesn't mean another one can't be reinstalled later using the same wiring/etc. Assuming that hasn't been 'tidied' too.

Theo

[Andy Burns]

I thought it would be linked to the car, given you have to show EV ownership to get it?

[Roger Mills]

I've just ordered an Easee One charge point, which will hopefully get connected in time to qualify for the grant.

This device is untethered, but the cable can be locked into it using the App - thus (allegedly - I haven't yet seen for myself) giving the best of both worlds. You can use it like a tethered device most of the time but then remove the cable and take it with you if you need to charge anywhere else. This device also has built-in PEN protection, so an earth spike is not needed. It can use both WiFi and 4G for communication, with the 4G connection being free for life (until it isn't!). You can use the App to schedule when charging takes place - useful if on a tariff with different unit prices at different times of day/night. It can apparently tell you how much you've spent on electricity for charging.

Have you checked that you qualify for the grant? You need either already to have a qualifying vehicle or to be able to prove that you have one on order. You also need to have suitable off-road parking space.

As part of the process, your DNO (electrical Distribution Network Operator - not your energy supplier) has to be notified and to give permission for the installation. In my case, they have deemed a main fuse upgrade (60 to 100 amps) to be necessary, and will do this without charge.

There are lots of companies out there which supply and install these things - at quite a wide range of prices for essentially the same service. I have found the national companies to be significantly cheaper than local ones. I have ended up with Smart Home Charge (owned by Response EPR Ltd.) but there are lots of others.

You have to submit quite a lot of information - including photos of the installation site and of your consumer unit and main fuse, etc. - before you can get an accurate quote, so you'll need to get on with it if it's to be done by the end of March. It took me over two weeks of to-ing and fro-ing with potential suppliers before I placed my order.

[ARW]

Even worse if the charger - with it's own RCD protection is fed from an AC type RCD at the house end

[ARW]

So you have seen the video of his nearly flat electric van then:-)

[Chris J Dixon]

My issue is that the caravan sits on the drive nearest to the house, so even 10 m limits my options for charger location.

The ideal solution would probably be a pillar mount, but I don't want to have to dig up a heap of block paving, and being open-plan, there are no handy fence lines to follow.

Chris

[Chris J Dixon]

That's not an issue, my partner is buying the car, but has delegated the technical stuff. ;-)

Looks like I will be busy!

Chris

[Andy Burns]

No, but I saw Nick Bundy taking the piss.

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail]>, at 16:29:19 on Thu, 27 Jan 2022, Roger Mills [e-mail] remarked:

They'll change the fuse for free, but if the tails need uprating (mine would) that's something the householder has to pay for and arrange independently.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Are you saying they do not use an isolating transformer? If its an outside device and has to be rugged surely it has to be isolated in some way. Brian

[Andy Burns]

At 7 or 21 kW that wouldn't be small or cheap ...

[Theo]

I got that done for free as part of a smart meter installation. Unfortunately it's down to your electricity supplier - I switched because it was free at Octopus, whereas my existing supplier was hopeless (and subsequently went bust). If you don't want to change supplier you're at the mercy of your existing supplier's pricelist and competence, which varies quite a bit.

Theo

[Fredxx]

Given it would already have a DC-DC converter in there it wouldn't be much extra effort to make that part isolated using a suitable inductor/transformer arrangement.

[fred]

I took the simple approach and mounted an external 13 amp socket and use the cable supplied by BMW. I made a small wall mouned box with a door to contain the charger and the lead when its not in use. The socket is fed from a socket in the garage and fed through a proprietory meter/reader. This only gives AC charging of course but an overnight charge is sufficient for me. I keep a note of the usage to allow me calculate the cost. This setup has worked fine for over two years. No doubt the cognoscenti among you will be horrified with his approach

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], fred [e-mail] writes

Snip

TLC do a single phase refurbished meter for £25 or so.

I can arrange to monitor the consumption but have no means of recording users or individual amounts.

Stick with the existing set up is easy but I was hoping for something to give me a leg up with planning.