Car Charging Station

[yomellamoHelly]

Has anyone installed one at home? - We would like to redo our front garden and included one in the list of works so that we're ready to buy an electric car.
Quote we've had leaves it as a 'client supplied' item.
Does it matter which one we get? It looks like we'd want a 7 Kw charging point (pod point?), but other than that it doesn't seem to matter what we get.

Is that correct?

Tia

Just a few decisions to make.

First, smart or not smart. Smart means you get app control, plus potentially access to automatic cheaper charging overnight on smart eV tariffs, dumb means no chance the government can dictate when you can charge (load balancing) in the future.

Second, tethered (cable permanently attached) of not. Tethered is less of a faff when it's raining and wet having to wrap a wet cable to put in the boot. Untethered looks neater.

Thirdly, special circumstances, if you want to charge from solar or connect to battery storage you'll need a particular type of setup to do it.

Other than that get a 7kW one with PEN protection built into the device, safer and makes installation easier, and get s specialist to install it, no point installing something for a few quid less if it could potentially burn your house down...

Not got one or an ev, but was in halfords on the weekend with husband and they had some ev chargers on display. Various options and prices, but seemed reasonable

We installed one when we bought an electric car, and got a grant towards the price.
I'm not sure if you qualify for this grant if you don't own an EV

Personally I'd just lay the cabling only (assuming the reason for doing it now is the ease of digging trenches etc) then fit the actual charger when you have an EV. Maybe get a cheap commando socket put on the end in the interim so it is finished/useable.

If you fit a charger now but don't use it, if it breaks/goes faulty you might not know about it until long after the warranty has expired.

Tech moves on - in a few years the brand of harger you fit now might have gone bust so no more updates, or there will probably be a new must-have feature e.g. some standard that allows the EV to act as a home battery when parked, and you'll want a new charger anyway.

Personally I'd just lay the cabling only (assuming the reason for doing it now is the ease of digging trenches etc) then fit the actual charger when you have an EV.

This is what I'd do. By far the most difficult and disruptive bit is getting the right sort of cable to the right place. Sticking a charging point on the end is trivial and can be done any time. Just get them to put some sort of small waterproof enclosure in the right location with the cable coiled up inside until you actually need it.

The artisan electrics Channel on YouTube.
you might have to search a bit through the videos but as they install EV charging points they have preferred models.
if it’s good enough for them?

We just bought a hybrid today so this thread couldn't have come at a better time for me so ty! X

I agree with this too. We had to get the cable laid to install our EV charger and this was done separately to the installation of our charger. I would just get the cable/groundworks sorted whilst you do the other work.

Don't get the charger installed until you're getting a car, then look for the best one. We've got the Ohme and it works well, especially with the Octopus Go tariff.

I'd also recommend speaking to this company: www.romatech.co.uk The bloke who owns it spent ages talking me through our options and explaining everything in detail. He was very good.

Thanks everyone. Hadn't thought about not fitting the actual box at this stage. Will have a think and talk to dh

Yes. We have done this, garage was rebuilt a couple of years ago and it's ready for a charger to be installed when we get an EV.

Not all chargers are exactly the same. Buy one that suits the car when you get it. Don’t expect to get the mileage the manufacturer says. Going on holiday or driving longer distances is a total faff! Is there a charger at all. Only 35 in Cornwall!

Well that's not true. I've just checked Zap Map. Of course there could be far more and the ones that are there need to be maintained to make sure they're always active but there are certainly more than 35!

As for mileage, our E Niro is pretty accurate with 280 miles unless it's really cold. Motorway driving drains the battery quicker of course, just like petrol/diesel in an ICE car. But I'd easily go 200-220 miles into a journey without worrying about charging. Happily taking ours over to France next month.

I’d agree with doing ground works. We have a podpoint and it’s great.

Do make sure that you thoroughly check the type of cut out you have though. Our installation was approved by Western Power but we immediately noticed a smell from the Cut Out when it was in use. We’ve now had it entirely replaced (our house is 120 years old so no real surprise the electrics were not up to charging a Tesla).

And of course there are many more chargers in Cornwall than 35. I can think of about 10 in Newquay alone.

Regarding Cornwall, I can assure visitors that the majority of charging points are in private hotels and similar businesses. We have to go 12 miles to get to a public charger! They are not easy to find if you are rural. That’s why the ekectruc car revolution isn’t happening in Cornwall. In many rural areas you need you’d orb charger.

I live in a very rural county. Loads of EVs around here, often every third or fourth car I pass some days. Rural drivers often drive far further than urban drivers and an EV is much cheaper to run. Also people are less likely to live in flats or tight terraced streets so people can more easily have home chargers installed.

That's not to say there aren't other issues in rural locations, but rural does not equal EV unfriendly in my experience.

The last time there was a survey, just over 1000 Evs in Cornwall. A poor area cannot afford them.

In Scotland I've noticed a lot of EVs in rural areas. Easier to charge the car at home than drive 15 miles or more to a petrol station...

Less easy if your on holiday admittedly but there's a good number of public charging points too (Scotland, not been in Devon/Cornwall for ages but certainly cursed the substantial distance to the nearest petrol station that was open after 5pm when I lived there)

I don't think it matters much. We had a wall pod one installed last month and it works fine on DH's Tesla. Was very easy to organise. He found a company that installed them and they told him what measurements and photos they needed. Then after he sent photos they had a few more requests for where to stand and photograph. We needed some sort of upgrade to our power supply. The company told DH what to ask our electricity supplier for and after we had a date from the electricity supplier, they booked us in for the day after. The electric bit took an hour or so. The charger was a few hours.

Forgot to add that ours isn't cabled under the ground. It's on the side of the house and a blue cable on the wall goes up over the side fence and into the house through the cupboard where our fuse box is.

I tried to find out about his because the amount of EVs in each area isn't something I've really thought about before - unsurprisingly!

The RAC reported in 2021 that Cornwall is one of the top 10 local authorities for privately licensed EVs. Other areas include 4 London boroughs, Wiltshire, etc. There are also reports of a target of 360 public charging points in Cornwall by 2023. I can find that in 2019 there were 115, not sure on the current stats.

Absolutely this! I'm not so rural that going to petrol station is a long journey but it is definitely something I used to have to plan in a bit, especially as there is no petrol station on journey to work.

I love plugging in at home and not having been to petrol station in nearly 18 months now. It's hugely more convenient when you don't have amenities on your doorstep. (And yes I understand the challenges of charging for those living in towns and cities! This is purely from my perspective)

I reiterate what a PP said and have a commando socket installed. That’s what I’ve got, it was a fraction of the price of installing a “proper” point, and I then use an ohme cable which gives me the smart benefits if I wish to use them.

Currently it’s much easier using the car timer and it just starts and stops during the cheap electric period.

I had a charger fitted to my last home. When we moved we had it removed and reinstalled in our new home.

There has been some changes to what is allowed etc in the install since our first install. We now have a cut off between the house fuse board and the unit which we didnt have before. Seems a bit overkill seeing as the household fuse is there as well.

Anyhow, my suggestion is get your cable laid/fitted like others have stated (To the speficiations of the EV charger) and have a outdoor plug fitted instead. That way its still useful, stops me worrying about unused cables laying dormant and an outside plug socket is always useful.

There's a reason the commando socket is much cheaper though, besides not having any built in smart features, it also lacks some safety features, main one being PEN protection.

I think it's still a decent option, but need to have some awareness of the potential limitations...