Just got mine installed. Hopefully, a car to go with it in the coming months.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Anderson A2 Charger
- Thread starter JupiterMan
- Start date
Getting ready to ship yesterday, arrived today.
Just need their install team to phone now.
Just need their install team to phone now.
lookatbowen
Member
Hi all, first post here,
I am in the process of getting an Andersen A2 wall charger. I've put the order in, done the survey and I got Andersen telling me I need some an adaptive fuse to prevent overloading of the circuit. I have an 80a fuse/circuit board and a separate CU for a 40a Electric Shower.
They have given me all sorts of worst-case scenarios such as:
So is this request from them viable? They said as the installation is non-standard, and thus they want a further £99 for this adaptive fuse. They also told me if I said no, they will cap the A2 to 22a.
Is this acceptable and or normal? What has your experience being? Do I need this adaptive fuse?
Kind regards,
Mike
I am in the process of getting an Andersen A2 wall charger. I've put the order in, done the survey and I got Andersen telling me I need some an adaptive fuse to prevent overloading of the circuit. I have an 80a fuse/circuit board and a separate CU for a 40a Electric Shower.
They have given me all sorts of worst-case scenarios such as:
- Charging neighbours, relatives or friends cars during the day.
- Charging the car during the day (which I would never do) + running the electric shower at the same time + everything else in the house at the same time.
- I've got an 80a fuse and know their wall charger runs at max 32a. My electric shower is 40a, which still leaves 8a remaining, and I also know LED lights etc don't use a lot of amps.
So is this request from them viable? They said as the installation is non-standard, and thus they want a further £99 for this adaptive fuse. They also told me if I said no, they will cap the A2 to 22a.
Is this acceptable and or normal? What has your experience being? Do I need this adaptive fuse?
Kind regards,
Mike
lookatbowen
Member
Yes, they said they would only go up to 80 amp as part of a free upgrade.
Andersen said the following:
Our engineer has said that due to the mini CU having a 40a shower supplied from it, with a 60a or 80a incoming supply, the adaptive fuse is required - £99. This will safely balance your EV charging power against your home consumption. It automatically ensures that your EV gets power without overloading the fuse and causing a potential outage.
The adaptive fuse will allow the charge point to recognise how much power can safely be drawn from your 80a incoming supply. So if you plug your vehicle in to charge and the other appliances in your house are using 60a of the 80a supply, the adaptive fuse will cap what the charge point draws at 20a, rather than the full 32a. This will stop it from blowing your incoming supply.
I understand this completely if we had 60 amps only, but we are upgrading it to 80 amps on Monday. It makes no sense if the car is charging at night, because nothing is in use, even on a 60 amp, it would leave 28 amps free.
Unfortunately, the main issue is not using appliances at night when the car charges it is when/if you charge a car during the day, or if you have friends/ relatives that want to charge when visiting. Unfortunately, we have to cater to the worst-case as it is a safety concern.
We don't plan to ever charge the car during the day, never have to date (because we know the tariff), let alone have friends or relatives with EV's.
We would not be able to make the unit live without the adaptive fuse being fitted as a safety precaution, however, it is something that an electrician can fit themselves. An alternative is to slightly de-rate the charger to prevent any potential overload, however, I think this would be a less desirable option as it will slow down the charge speed slightly.
lookatbowen
Member
Sorry, what is a DNO?
We contacted our energy supplier (EON-Next) and they noted that the meter should always have higher capacity than the fuse and our meter goes up to 80 amps and we currently have a 60 amp fuse. Therefore we can only upgrade the fuse to a max. of 80 amps and not 100 amps.
We don't share our supply with our neighbour.
I will contact them again and see if we can get this 100 amp, maybe the meter needs to be upgraded. Now if that costs more than £99, then I guess I should tell Andersen to go ahead and put this adaptive fuse in.
We contacted our energy supplier (EON-Next) and they noted that the meter should always have higher capacity than the fuse and our meter goes up to 80 amps and we currently have a 60 amp fuse. Therefore we can only upgrade the fuse to a max. of 80 amps and not 100 amps.
We don't share our supply with our neighbour.
I will contact them again and see if we can get this 100 amp, maybe the meter needs to be upgraded. Now if that costs more than £99, then I guess I should tell Andersen to go ahead and put this adaptive fuse in.
Attachments
I’ve never heard of a meter having a limit.
They may only upgrade the fuse to 80A as a policy thing, but that would be an improvement and would probably resolve the problem. They would do the meter tails (the wires from the fuse to the meter) as well if needed.
This work should all be done for free.
EDIT: Just realised you’ve got an old school meter. Any reason you haven’t got a smart one?
They may only upgrade the fuse to 80A as a policy thing, but that would be an improvement and would probably resolve the problem. They would do the meter tails (the wires from the fuse to the meter) as well if needed.
This work should all be done for free.
EDIT: Just realised you’ve got an old school meter. Any reason you haven’t got a smart one?
The DNO (your network operator not your supplier) for Bletchingley is UK Power Networks 0800 029 4285
lookatbowen
Member
Yes, I agree with you. I am no electrician, but the electrician I hired to add extra sockets into my garage said we have enough amps if upgraded to 80 amps from our existing 60 amps to run most things including EV without any trouble. Andersen though, seems to have other ideas, and it is this that I would like to understand.
Has anyone else had this adaptive fuse installed and if so what meter board do you have or better still what is your maximum amps?
As @Adopado said the DNO is different from your electricity supplier. The DNO manages the network that your electricity is supplied over. Its a bit like Network Rail running and managing the rail track infrastructure that the rail operators such as Virgin run their trains over.
The backing chipboard that the meter and incoming main fuse sits on was falling apart. My electricity supplier told me to report it to the DNO (Electricity NorthWest) who repaired it free of charge. Although the actual box is considered part of the fabric of the building and my responsibility, the meter, backboard and main fuse are the responsibility of the DNO.
Similar threads
