The current regs may require some kind of mechanical cable protection.

 

So you may need an armored cable or some suitable conduit adding to protect the T+E.

4 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Your existing commando socket (the blue one in your OP photo) will allow full speed 7 kW charging using "temporary" charge points. As discussed, if your car were remain dry in the garage, the chance of requiring O-PEN fault protection is low, so the cheapest way to achieve EV charging is what I've posted earlier, for £220. But you must be aware of the risks.

 Hold on, sorry I just reread this.

So I can buy an official Tesla adaptor cable and portable charger, for £220 and it will give me 7kw charging ... at the risk of electrocution ... hmm Being an American firm I am suprised they sell that at the risk of being sued 😁 

But how is it different to using a UK 3 pin plug charger in terms of safety, surely thats the same risk ?

Edited 5 December, 20223 yr by Mr Grump

Presumably, these also comes with the same risks ?

 

GEN-2 - EV Charging Cable | Type 2 to 32A Commando | 7.2 kW | 5 Metre - EV OneStop

 

Ohme Go - Commando to Type 2 (UK) | Ohme (odoo.com)

Edited 5 December, 20223 yr by Mr Grump

Neither mention PENS fault protection so yes, I'd expect both to carry a risk of electrocution in that circumstance.

 

They probably count as portable appliances so are subject to different regs to a permanent wired EV charger.

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much in a dry garage, it's not uncommon to find other metal bodied appliances like fridges or tumble driers in that area. If there is a power cut, make sure you unplug the charger from the wall first using only plastic parts 

Well first estimate in, at nearly 2k I think I will keep shopping !

 

I had been looking for a charger I can specify to start/stop in my energy suppliers low rate times, and someone mentioned that this can be done in the cars system, is that right ?

1. All smart chargers offer charge scheduling, so finding one should be easy.
2. All EVs I have heard of offer charge scheduling within their infotainment systems and often also through the companion phone app. Research your specific car to see if the scheduling works in practice as not all do. E.G. VW ID cars offer this but it does not work properly unless on the latest versions of the software (V3.1 or higher). Weirdly the scheduled charging on the E-Golf and e-UP is flawless.

I seriously suggest that people get a loan of a demonstrator or hire an EV for a couple of days at least before anyone buys or orders an EV for their personal / private use.

Use it for a couple of days and public charging in your home area and maybe away for a trip outwith your area. 

That is after doing a bit of pre planning and research on chargers / types / tariffs using the various sites including the likes of ZapMap / PlugShare.

Not all cars offer stop charging though, so you either set end percentage by calculating how much 4 hours EV tariff low rates time can charge, or use other methods to stop the charge. 

 

Nissan Leaf 1st gen can do start and stop time in the schedule, so I set it to be 0:30 to 4:30 for Octopus Go. Typically as long as it's above 30%, I'd get pretty much 100%, above 40% 100% is guaranteed. This is on a car with just 3.3 kW charger. 

Tesla only gives start time in its schedule, but their control API is a LOT more useful. So I use Home Assistant to start/stop its charging and do many other things. The car timer is set to start at 0:45 as backup. 

 

It is now mandatory to install smart charge points, hence all major charge point manufacturer's package deals have ~£600 charge point cost built-in. Mr Sparky probably doesn't care but they also shouldn't supply a dumb charge point. The one you linked earlier looks like a dumb unit, so check with Sparkey to make sure they are happy to install this. 

Main reasons for smart charger are for grid stability: 

Quote

1. Default off-peak charging
2. A random delay at the start and end of the charge
3. Steps to promote customers to sign up to Demand Response Services

Explainer here: 

https://myenergi.com/guides/smart-charge-point-regulations-explained/

http://www.pod-point.com/guides/smart-charge-point-regulations

http://whichev.net/2022/12/02/ohme-warns-consumers-about-non-compliant-ev-chargers-ahead-of-new-december-regulations

 

 

I know nothing really and the 'Express' newspaper article today flashing on my phone helps me little being any the wiser. 

Loads of info and it goes right over my head probably because could not care less.

Edited 14 December, 20223 yr by toot

My 2 pence worth concerning home EV chargers.

 

After pulling the trigger on a solar PV & battery system for my house (currently at 0% vat) I thought I may as well add in a new consumer unit since the existing plastic one is not up to current code & is full up. I also decided to add an EV charger (Zappi) for a future EV. Both of these items would also be 0% vat rated if they were done at the same time & as part of the solar PV system installation works. 

All good then. Well, no.

 

Upon inspection the incoming mains electric cable from the street comes into my attached garage outside wall box / meter cupboard & then loops across our side pathway to my neighbours meter cupboard directly opposite. This means both of our houses are sharing the same incoming supply cable from the street & are both fused at only 60amps each. This is not compatible with a 7.4kW 240v 1phase home car charger (32amp) which, in addition to other household appliances, could overload the main cut out fuse in my house (60amp) &/or the mains cable size shared by both houses. E.g. EV charger 32amp + oven(s) 32amp + tumble dryer 16amp + immersion heater 16amp or combinations thereof = main fuse bang.

Solution.

National Grid (my Distribution Network Operator - DNO) need to un-loop the two houses & lay in a new cable to my neighbours house. This will involve digging up the street & a strip of grass between our two houses & part of my neighbours driveway! National Grid also have to upgrade the meter box cut out fuse to 80 or possibly 100amp & upgrade the meter cables on both houses. This work is scheduled for the end of January '23 before the rest of the works start. Thankfully this N.Grid work is at no cost to me or my neighbour who is fully OK with having the work done because it means he gets a totally independent mains supply which is fully up to spec for a future EV charger if he wants one. Just a bit of inconvenience while the work is being done & new cable connected. It seems that the practice of looping adjacent house electric supplies was common practice when the houses were built in 1986 (money saving) when the average electrical consumption of houses was way lower than it is today. 

It's been a bit of a journey but National Grid have been great & our solar system installer got involved to make it all got organised in a timely fashion. The fact that they are waiting for batteries means they cannot do the PV system install for another 2 months at least (been waiting for 3 months already). 

 

This is just an example of how much our aging UK electrical infrastructure needs to be modified to embrace home charging for EV's & electrical driven heat pump heating systems to replace gas central heating. I have no plans to have an Air to Water heat pump system installed because my existing CH system uses 10mm microbore pipes which are not suitable for an A2W HP system. However, an Air to Air Heat Pump system (my old line of work) may be an option to replace my Gas CH system. Either way even more electrical capacity would be needed than I currently have. However I digress. The NG engineer that I spoke to admitted that if a few more people in our street wanted to have EV chargers &/or heat Pump systems installed then the local electrical substation would have to be replaced or upgraded to coup with the increased demand.     

  

Not just Renault 5,s,

many different electric vehicles or their drivers are having home charging issues. Car or charger or user fault! Well it can be all 3 or mainly chargers and car manufacturers and compatibility.

Skoda BEV owners have issues.

Home cheap charging becomes needing to Public charging, or get into your ICE vehicle to get where you knew you had to be by a certain time. Or bus or taxi maybe.

Edited 25 June, 202525 Jun by Ootohere

There has been a lot of issues between Intelligent Octopus and OHME chargers reported recently. I've seen this in the VW and Skoda FB groups and EV forums. Not sure what's going on.

Often these sort of issues are caused by people over complicating the IOG charging process by setting schedules in the charger and car or having both charger and car defined as devices to Octopus. With IOG you should only have one device defined and no schedules set up - then let IOG schedule your charging.

My Wallbox Pulsar charger is my defined IOG device and it runs almost perfectly. I've had one issue of the charge not starting.

Same, apart from untethered port issue (probably due to me stretching the 5m Type 1 cable to reach Leaf), I've not had any problems with IOG controlling my Indra smart pro. (touch wood)

But with changes to free sessions for IOG, I feel Octopus are perhaps experimenting with type of use tariff like OVO charge anytime. This type of tariff is utterly useless for home battery or multiple EV and multiple charge point. If they change IOG from time of use to type of use, I'd be the first one to jump ship. Currently EOn next drive smart looks the best: https://www.eonnext.com/tariffs/next-drive/smart

.

WTF, a total carry on.

Ah yes, my parents had that problem on IOG with their Zappi. I remember now when video says the car goes into deep sleep and that it only works for the first intelligent charging session, subsequent charging sessions doesn't work. It's 100% a Renault car problem. After my parents' Megane done a firmware update, it was fixed. Now all works seamlessly.

https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/21802420976657-Troubleshooting-Charge-Delayed-Notification-on-the-Renault-Megane

Problem was reported within first month of ownership, I had to get this escalated as a fix or reject problem. The dealership was totally clueless and it took lots of Emails to get them to accept it is a car problem. I even had to do their research and send them the issue ID.

Traditional dealers are clueless with EV's. Don't trust anything they say.

But end of the day, video guy can always revert to timer based charging even if he's on IOG, off-peak tariff 11:30-5:30. That never failed.