the installer turned up last week and stared putting the charger, he ran the cable all the way to the fuse box then....

How many electric showers do you have? We have 2 (house came with a silly amount of bathrooms and we spit the showers half electric half mixer).
And you cooker is electric? Yes we've no gas.
And you heating is electric? Yes we've no gas
Ah sorry the potential load is too high I need to get it signed off.

At no point before this did anyone ask, "what electrical appliances do you have in your house?"

they only asked for a picture of the fuse cuboard and a video of the location for the charger.

We've the max 100A domestic supply so upgrading isn't an option.

started making enquiries about canceling the order.

Tell Mr Milliband, all electric will not work. The amount of money needed for the average consumer to go electric rises all the time.

In practice you are unlikely to be running all your electric appliances at the same time and charging your car.

Actually. 6-7 am there will be many Eon Next customers charging car maybe pre conditioning for 7 am departure. Shower being used, maybe finishing the off-peak use of oven, dish washer , tumble dryer. Toaster and kettle going on. Well in Politician world where nearly everyone has a house with a drive and charges there one or several EV,s at home. Plus all have a smart phone, smart watch WiFi hub smart TV, passport and a 2nd home for holidays.

41 minutes ago, Aspman said:

the installer turned up last week and stared putting the charger, he ran the cable all the way to the fuse box then....

How many electric showers do you have? We have 2 (house came with a silly amount of bathrooms and we spit the showers half electric half mixer).
And you cooker is electric? Yes we've no gas.
And you heating is electric? Yes we've no gas
Ah sorry the potential load is too high I need to get it signed off.

At no point before this did anyone ask, "what electrical appliances do you have in your house?"

they only asked for a picture of the fuse cuboard and a video of the location for the charger.

We've the max 100A domestic supply so upgrading isn't an option.

started making enquiries about canceling the order.

Had the guys from The Grid come around a few months ago when I had my second EV charger fitted.

Why it takes two of them to come around but then their office is only a mile away.

They downgraded my main fuses from 100A to 80A.

Someone on here said it is now Grid policy to do this as UK houses, maybe especially here in the Midlands due to the temperatures we are getting ie 35C, that the house ring main etc are getting too hot due to the higher ambient temperatures and homes are running more power in the summer than they use to when it was mainly winter that the electrical load was usually higher.

In practical terms it is no issue. Even with an 80A fuse the load would have to be north of 100A for more than 4 hours, see National Grid document attached.

Most I tend to see is around 15 kWs, voltage can between 220v and 240v of course.

One of my EV chargers is only 3.6 KW, the other is 7.2 KWs and I can be charging home batteries with 2KWs an immersion heated with about 4 KWs and sometimes tumble drying but rarely at the same time and I have my Octopus Mini to tell me live power consumption and give me an idea of how much I am saving when I am running multiple heavy loads in my 5 hours of 8.5p per KW/hour.

Be a same to miss out of super cheap home charging and car running costs.

Our lecky bill is currently under £75 a month, gas less than £25 so paying £133 a month, 4 bedroom house, 3 EVs we are building up credit for the winter and with gas at 5.71p per KWH and the cheap 5 hours of lecky, I have a couple of solar arrays that track the sun, when there is some, and with the home batteries, lecky in the day is almost nothing.

80A or 100A is nominal, these "fuses" will run much more that without blowing for long periods as the graph on the attached shows.

Standardisation to 80A.pdf

Is it Octopus Energy who's fronting the install? With some random subcontractor doing the work?

This is very poor show from the installer. Even worse from the person doing the work, should have checked everything before starting.

But it shouldn't be any problem. All EV charge points these days will curtail output if it detects high house load. For example, my one would slow down as my overall house consumption go over 20 kW (80 amps) during free electricity session. Took quite a lot of fiddling to get to that point (3 kW oven, 2 kW dishwasher, 5 kW battery, 5 kW V2H, 7 kW EV)

EV charge point install is normally not notifiable work. But I can see why 2nd charge point or electric-only household would be notifiable.

1 hour ago, gumdrop said:

Tell Mr Milliband, all electric will not work. The amount of money needed for the average consumer to go electric rises all the time.

In practice you are unlikely to be running all your electric appliances at the same time and charging your car.

Even so, you are asking quite a lot from diversity factor.

1 minute ago, wyx087 said:

Is it Octopus Energy who's fronting the install? With some random subcontractor doing the work?

This is very poor show from the installer. Even worse from the person doing the work, should have checked everything before starting.

But it shouldn't be any problem. All EV charge points these days will curtail output if it detects high house load. For example, my one would slow down as my overall house consumption go over 20 kW (80 amps) during free electricity session. Took quite a lot of fiddling to get to that point (3 kW oven, 2 kW dishwasher, 5 kW battery, 5 kW V2H, 7 kW EV)

EV charge point install is normally not notifiable work. But I can see why 2nd charge point or electric-only household would be notifiable.

Reading the National Grid document it reads like they are quite happy to allow hones with low carbon tech like heat pumps have 100A fuses but standard is now 80A.

Will probably get a quote for 3 phases when I retire on a few weeks as 80A per phase would not be a problem but in fact be very nice for the Renault EVs which can charge up to 22 kws on 3 phase. Quotes seem to vary so much, bit of a lottery.

1 hour ago, gumdrop said:

Tell Mr Milliband, all electric will not work. The amount of money needed for the average consumer to go electric rises all the time.

In practice you are unlikely to be running all your electric appliances at the same time and charging your car.

When gas can be had for less than 6p per kwh it is hard for lecky to compete.

Many of us are in to generating our own lecky, storing it too and only using the grid for top off and during low sun days.

I can see tea time peak being charged at a super rate in the not too distant future like in the US. Peaker plants charge an absolute fortune to bring on line.

80A ie 18 kw is fine for most normal sized uk homes especially if they have some even smallish home batteries and these quite quickly pay for themselves by paying 20p a kwh less for lecky.

1 hour ago, wyx087 said:

Is it Octopus Energy who's fronting the install? With some random subcontractor doing the work?

This is very poor show from the installer. Even worse from the person doing the work, should have checked everything before starting.

But it shouldn't be any problem. All EV charge points these days will curtail output if it detects high house load. For example, my one would slow down as my overall house consumption go over 20 kW (80 amps) during free electricity session. Took quite a lot of fiddling to get to that point (3 kW oven, 2 kW dishwasher, 5 kW battery, 5 kW V2H, 7 kW EV)

EV charge point install is normally not notifiable work. But I can see why 2nd charge point or electric-only household would be notifiable.

48 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

When gas can be had for less than 6p per kwh it is hard for lecky to compete.

Many of us are in to generating our own lecky, storing it too and only using the grid for top off and during low sun days.

I can see tea time peak being charged at a super rate in the not too distant future like in the US. Peaker plants charge an absolute fortune to bring on line.

80A ie 18 kw is fine for most normal sized uk homes especially if they have some even smallish home batteries and these quite quickly pay for themselves by paying 20p a kwh less for lecky.

It's octopus all the way. They supply the car, the charger and the leccy. Fitter turned up in an Octopus van.
We have heat pump which might be why we have the 100A.

We've actuall got 3 electric showers. We have one in the garage, as said stupid number of bathrooms but we'd have got nothing back by removing one.

I agree that the price of leccy is the big blocker to green energy adoption. It's stupid if not immoral to try to push people onto energy that is 4x as expensive as what they aready have and arguably less suited to the changeable british climate.

However..all going ahead I will get an EV charging rate of 6.5p kWh for 5hr a night. At that point it starts to make sense.

If the UK woud invest in infrastructure and not allow the energy shareholders to milk us dry, if we could supply leccy at gas prices then suddenly heat pumps etc will start to make sense and you'll get universal adoption, zero carbon in sight immediately. But the chance of that is 0%.

Gas on Octopus tracker is currently 0.045675 GBP/kWh for me. It has been below 5p/kWh for a long time except for a few coldest days when demand was extra high at beginning of this year.

The key for affordable electricity is to allow variability with electricity to reflect real costs as generation and demand varies, both in location and time domain. Basically let the market decide, economics 101.

Electricity becomes very competitive when one can time-shift demands to cheap periods.

For example:

But UK is still operating on old giant fossil fuel supplier plant pricing model, the gas plants needing to cover 4-7pm makes it expensive for everyone at all times due to average nature of price-cap mechanism.

2 minutes ago, Aspman said:

It's octopus all the way. They supply the car, the charger and the leccy. Fitter turned up in an Octopus van.
We have heat pump which might be why we have the 100A.

We've actuall got 3 electric showers. We have one in the garage, as said stupid number of bathrooms but we'd have got nothing back by removing one.

I agree that the price of leccy is the big blocker to green energy adoption. It's stupid if not immoral to try to push people onto energy that is 4x as expensive as what they aready have and arguably less suited to the changeable british climate.

However..all going ahead I will get an EV charging rate of 6.5p kWh for 5hr a night. At that point it starts to make sense.

If the UK woud invest in infrastructure and not allow the energy shareholders to milk us dry, if we could supply leccy at gas prices then suddenly heat pumps etc will start to make sense and you'll get universal adoption, zero carbon in sight immediately. But the chance of that is 0%.

Greg Jackson says that not allowing Regional variation is keeping prices high, for some maybe, or lower for others.

Tesla have just got a UK supply licence so perhaps Tesla will bring to houses what they have done for Public Charging ie significantly cheaper than other suppliers.

I think the future is making your own and European house have adopted this by the millions but a shrinking market of national supply, as with petrol stations, will mean less using it and higher prices for those that do.

2 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Gas on Octopus tracker is currently 0.045675 GBP/kWh for me. It has been below 5p/kWh for a long time except for a few coldest days when demand was extra high at beginning of this year.

The key for affordable electricity is to allow variability with electricity to reflect real costs as generation and demand varies, both in location and time domain. Basically let the market decide, economics 101.

Electricity becomes very competitive when one can time-shift demands to cheap periods.

For example:

But UK is still operating on old giant fossil fuel supplier plant pricing model, the gas plants needing to cover 4-7pm makes it expensive for everyone at all times due to average nature of price-cap mechanism.

Going off topic but UK govs like to talk market then shaft us when the station builders then demand (and get) guaranteed pricing per kWh.
"The market" shouldn't only apply to consumers

And Octopus seem to think I'd be keen to pay to put in 3 phase. Knowing where the nearest supply is I think it'd only cost me about £250,000.

Suggested alternative being to use the local gstation, 1 mile away, no pavements and 47p kWh 4hr minimum. So drive down and pick the car up every 4hr.
Or a 3pin plug which isn't recommended.

11 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Is it Octopus Energy who's fronting the install? With some random subcontractor doing the work?

This is very poor show from the installer. Even worse from the person doing the work, should have checked everything before starting.

But it shouldn't be any problem. All EV charge points these days will curtail output if it detects high house load. For example, my one would slow down as my overall house consumption go over 20 kW (80 amps) during free electricity session. Took quite a lot of fiddling to get to that point (3 kW oven, 2 kW dishwasher, 5 kW battery, 5 kW V2H, 7 kW EV)

EV charge point install is normally not notifiable work. But I can see why 2nd charge point or electric-only household would be notifiable.

they might refuse to install at all, but the main issue is no answer until it's too late and either it all works out or I've a car that's no use/rejection fee to look forward to.

11 hours ago, Aspman said:

And Octopus seem to think I'd be keen to pay to put in 3 phase. Knowing where the nearest supply is I think it'd only cost me about £250,000.

Make sure to push Octopus to get the answer from your DNO. Octopus CS are just suggestions.

The final word comes from your local DNO. If they require upgrade to 3 phase, then you can't have EV charge point without upgrade. But they may allow it provided the charge point derating feature is sufficient.

EVs, solar panels, energy storage and heat pumps | UK Power Networks

What a joke. It's less safe to charge from domestic 3-pin than charging properly via charge point that monitors house load. You wouldn't be using anywhere near 80 amps even with constantly running heat pump. Storage heater may be problematic due to its inefficiency and cramming whole day into same period.

3 hours ago, wyx087 said:

Make sure to push Octopus to get the answer from your DNO. Octopus CS are just suggestions.

The final word comes from your local DNO. If they require upgrade to 3 phase, then you can't have EV charge point without upgrade. But they may allow it provided the charge point derating feature is sufficient.

EVs, solar panels, energy storage and heat pumps | UK Power Networks

What a joke. It's less safe to charge from domestic 3-pin than charging properly via charge point that monitors house load. You wouldn't be using anywhere near 80 amps even with constantly running heat pump. Storage heater may be problematic due to its inefficiency and cramming whole day into same period.

Heatpump runs 24/7 pretty much but it's only doing full load for hot water and that would be early morning same as car charging but pretty much nothing else.

I've pushed for an answer but no answer so far today.
I can can car for free at the moment as I have no fixed delivery date. I've told them no answer by Friday and I'll push to delay, no delay and I'll cancel the order until the charging situation is resolved one way or another.

Edited 20 August, 202520 Aug by Aspman

Apparently it's all with the DNO and on their timescales now which are unknown.

Octo EV told I will wait until charges/penalties are about to kick in then cancel the order if the charger isn't approved, unless Octopus agree to wave all fees and penalties in the event of the charger being rejected.

SSEN got in touch.

"we have reviewed we need more information.
We'll be in touch"

Pretty much sums it up.

Email from Octopus, "how did we do 🙂😐🙁 please give us feedback".

[cracks knuckles] Well let me tell you........
Shame it was just a smiley and a one liner

Annnnnnd after submitting some more pictures and a video, incidentally exactly the same pictures and video I was asked to supply at the start of the process, apparently this time it's ok.
No load test, nothing done on site just two months of delays to review the same information again before the same fitter comes back to finish the job he started in August.

No one does bureaucracy like Britain!

Extremely poor messing about by Octopus. Glad that's over. So going ahead with EV then?

My guess is the fitter wanted confirmation that he can install, first time round photos/load wasn't reviewed properly so fitter didn't want to bear the responsibility. Second time round someone at HQ looked at it properly and worked out that charge point auto derating feature is sufficient to deal with household usage.

My installer from Octopus installed the chargepoint without any questions even though I only had a 60A fuse.

And I have quite a lot of air con units etc (though no electric showers).

I managed to get UK Power Networks to upgrade my fuse to 100A which is probably superfluous as the derating feature is set to 60A (and I don't think I can change this myself) but glad I've got it anyway.

I've only used the home charger around a dozen times since having the car (nearly 4 months now) as I charge at work (for free😁) mostly but useful to have around for top ups if necessary over a weekend etc.

21 hours ago, Aspman said:

No one does bureaucracy like Britain!

Have you ever lived in Germany?😅

On 11/09/2025 at 20:34, wyx087 said:

Extremely poor messing about by Octopus. Glad that's over. So going ahead with EV then?

My guess is the fitter wanted confirmation that he can install, first time round photos/load wasn't reviewed properly so fitter didn't want to bear the responsibility. Second time round someone at HQ looked at it properly and worked out that charge point auto derating feature is sufficient to deal with household usage.

It's all Octopus other than the DNO who is SSEN.

But since everything was clearly labelled on the fusebox which they asked for a picture of in the first place they could have raised the issue right at the start to get DNO signoff rather than at the point of connecting up the cables after he's drilled through my walls.

So yes car back on assuming the order wan't cancelled. I've not heard anything tbh. Next week's chase.

Edited 13 September, 202513 Sep by Aspman

Charger now connected. Car scheduled for 12st

21st even