Home Car Charger

[Hopkirk]

If an electrician fits a car charger outside your house, how complicated is it?

Does he or she just drill through and connect to the nearest ring main, or do they have to run a new cable from the consumer unit?

[sunny-dave]

New cable to consumer unit, Hoppy - ring main won't have enough amperage - at least that was the case with mine.

[The Builder]

Dave's right.

However.................. there are systems that can run on a standard power circuit, but they'll take much longer to charge.

[sddsddean]

Lots of info here

[Hopkirk]

Probably a couple of years until I do it, so time available to consider where the cable would be routed.

Thanks everyone.

[mjwman]

Just looked into it.
First you need a 100amp main fuse. Older ones are usuassl 60 amp so the main power supplier needs to do this.
Then you need thicker cables to the mete, and from the meter to consumer unit. Your elecricity provider needs to do this, also ensure the meter is up to 100amps.
Then you need an up to date consumer unit with spare fuses.
After all that its simple!

[Ryzen]

...and make sure you're not on a shared supply.

[gulliver1]

Then compare the price of Electricity to the cost of Petrol/Diesel......?

[gulliver1]

The more electric you use, the more the add ons increase on your electric bill.

[bednobs]

no shoot sherlock!
this just in ... the more electricity you use, the bigger your bill

[ToraToraTora]

do they still do cheap lecky overnight?

[gulliver1]

10.56 If they do, the Gov will soon put a stop to it when everyone starts using overnight cheap electric ,, Boris will probably call it overnight charging.

[barry1010]

Yes, they do - some energy companies offer 7 hours of cheaper electricity overnight, others 10 hours. The day rate is usually slightly more expensive than other tariffs.
When I first had Economy 7 the night rate was one-fifth of the day right, so it was a massive saving for us. Now the difference between day and night rate is much smaller.

[barry1010]

I watched Guy Martin's programme about electric cars the other day - he travelled from Grimsby to John O'Groats and back in a small electric car. He had problems with broken charges and because he was using 'super fast' chargers where possible the cost was far higher than the same journey in a diesel car.
It all seemed very stressful.

[bednobs]

i think to begin with, our family will probably have 1 electric car we both use for localish stuff and 1 other that we use for longer journeys

[gness]

I don't where you looked that up, mjwman. Our main fuse is 60 amps.
No extra cabling between the meter and consumer unit was needed.
Our existing consumer unit was used and a 40 amp RCD added with new cable to the charging point.

Our overnight electricity is exactly half the price of daytime.

Go for it, Hoppy! We've been driving a PHEV for two years, saved a fortune in fuel costs and have a super car to drive.

[The Builder]

I think I'm right in saying that most home chargers are up to 7kw.
(Less than most electric showers.)
An electrician will work out your domestic load, but in most cases, a normal domestic supply can easily provide this.

The "cut-out" (main fuse) provided by your supplier will be 80A (old systems) and 100A in most newer systems. That should not be a problem.

Commercial "Rapid chargers" have very much higher ratings which will invariably be supplied from 3-phase.
You may well have 3-phase available to your house, Hoppers, but it really wouldn't be worth the cost of converting.

[Ryzen]

Many EV chargers will monitor the total current draw of the installation whilst the charger is operating. If you have a 60a or 100a service fuse and you operate heavy loads whilst the charger is on, the CT circuitry will reduce the charge current until the loads are switched off.