Anderson A2 Charger

[Durzel]

To be honest it sounds like they're trying to fleece you for some extra money. They are already referring to your incoming supply as 80A (which is wrong) in several places, and still telling you that you need this "adaptive fuse".

Re-reading your posts, it sounds like the DNO is going to fit a 80A fuse. This is my DNO's policy now for residential properties, so that bit isn't unusual.

I would also get a smart meter installed by EON-Next. You will need one if you want to use a smart (changeable) tariff like Octopus Go or Agile down the line. Just had a look at my smart meter and it does say 100A on it as the max voltage, so with an 80A master fuse and 100A smart meter - both of which should be done for free for you - you would not need this "adaptive fuse".

 

[lookatbowen]

Okay, thank you for that @

To be honest it sounds like they're trying to fleece you for some extra money. They are already referring to your incoming supply as 80A (which is wrong) in several places, and still telling you that you need this "adaptive fuse".

Re-reading your posts, it sounds like the DNO is going to fit an 80A fuse. This is my DNO's policy now for residential properties so that bit isn't unusual.

I would also get a smart meter installed by EON-Next. You will need one if you want to use a smart (changeable) tariff like Octopus Go or Agile down the line. Just had a look at my smart meter and it does say 100A on it as the max voltage, so with an 80A master fuse and 100A smart meter - both of which should be done for free for you - you would not need this "adaptive fuse".

• Yes, Andresen is trying to fleece me for sure.
• Yes UK Power is visiting Monday to install 80A master fuse. It was them who said they can only do 80A because the board says max of 80A. There are quite a few references to 80A on the board on the wall in my garage, so I think they are telling the truth.
• We called EON, they can upgrade the board from 80A to 100A for a cost of £157.
• We will call UK Power and ask them to postpone their visit until we have the board upgraded to 100A then they can fit a 100A fuse.

Thanks for your help @Durzel @Zakalwe @Adopado

Mike

 

[Jagdipa]

I love the look of the A2, but its too expensive for me.

I was planning on surrounding whichever charger I get with something like below (£95). Just need to cut a whole at the back, and a small gap in the top for the wire to come out of when charging:

 

[Durzel]

Hopefully someone with more electrical knowledge should come along and provide more useful info than me...

I don't know what the large black box to the right of your meter is, or what it does. I don't have one of those. I have a master fuse (DNO owned) that comes into a smart meter (energy supplier owned & fitted), an isolator switch and then the mini CU for my charger.

A smart meter should be installed by EON for free, in fact they say they do on their website - Getting set up | Smart meters | E.ON. I don't know where this £157 is coming from or what it is they think they're replacing. This "board" you/they mention might be that big black box I mentioned above, but because I have no clue what that does - maybe it's something else.

Your current (non smart) meter does indeed say 80A on the front, so that's theoretically all it can handle.

In summary, if it were me I'd:

1. Get a smart meter (SMETS2) fitted by EON, and decommission the big black box if it's redundant
   
2. Get UKPN in to install a 100A after this is fitted (as you say, they won't fit a fuse thats a higher rating than the meter)
3. Go back to Andersen installers with your new improved setup.

EDIT: Googling "teleswitch" suggests that the purpose of that big black box is to switch your old school meter to different tariffs, per Radio teleswitch - Wikipedia. This means its redundant with a smart meter and could be removed.

 

[lookatbowen]

Hopefully someone with more electrical knowledge should come along and provide more useful info than me...

I don't know what the large black box to the right of your meter is, or what it does. I don't have one of those. I have a master fuse (DNO owned) that comes into a smart meter (energy supplier owned & fitted), an isolator switch and then the mini CU for my charger.

A smart meter should be installed by EON for free, in fact, they say they do on their website - Getting set up | Smart meters | E.ON. I don't know where this £157 is coming from or what it is they think they're replacing. This "board" you/they mention might be the that big black box I mentioned above, but because I have no clue what that does - maybe it's something else.

Your current (non-smart) meter does indeed say 80A on the front, so that's theoretically all it can handle.

In summary, if it were me I'd:

1. Get a smart meter fitted by EON, and decommission the big black box if it's redundant
   
2. Get UKPN in to install a 100A after this is fitted (as you say, they won't fit a fuse that's a higher rating than the meter)
3. Go back to Andersen installers with your new improved setup.

RE: smart meter - The board upgrade or black box upgrade is what costs £157, not switching to a smart meter. Who are we to argue, that is what EON said. Everything else I understand is free (fuse upgrade etc).

Re: smart meter - Can we continue this discussion here, or do I need to create a new post? I guess it is related to my Andersen A2 question.
Currently, we don't have a smart meter, and I have looked at them, and compared our current tariff with various smart-meter tariffs as recommended by many on here, and we seem to be on a good tariff for both peak and non-peak times. For the few pennies difference, is it totally necessary to switch to a smart meter? What struck me with a lot of the smart meter tariffs was that the Standing Charge was a lot higher than what we are on, thus where we save on the Night rate, we effectively lose on the standing charge. Also, the night hours are shorter, whereas currently, we have 00:30 AM to 07:30 AM.

My Electricity Tariff
Unit Rate (Day) 18.06p per kW/h
Unit Rate (Night) 9.19p per kW/h
Standing Charge 18.20p/day

A case in point is the cheapest Octopus Go, Where I save on the Night rate, I lose on the Standing charge, making it 2p more expensive and I get a shorter night hour. It only gets worse with all the other smart meter options, which is why I would prefer to stay on our non-smart meter tariff.

Unit Rate (Day) 5p per kW/h
Unit Rate (Night) 13.45p per kW/h
Standing Charge 25p/day

 

[Adopado]

My Electricity Tariff
Unit Rate (Day) 18.06p per kW/h
Unit Rate (Night) 9.19p per kW/h
Standing Charge 18.20p/day

A case in point is the cheapest Octopus Go, Where I save on the Night rate, I lose on the Standing charge, making it 2p more expensive and I get a shorter night hour. It only gets worse with all the other smart meter options, which is why I would prefer to stay on our non-smart meter tariff.

Unit Rate (Day) 5p per kW/h
Unit Rate (Night) 13.45p per kW/h
Standing Charge 25p/day

The standing charge is almost irrelevant in this comparison ... the amount you will save on Go will be substantial. (and you got your day and night mixed up )

 

[Durzel]

Only you can say whether or not a smart meter & associated tariffs would work out for you.

I'd suggest that unless your electrical usage is miniscule, the difference in standing charge would be comfortably eclipsed by the reduction in unit rate.

Also - if we're being pedantic. If EON will fit a smart meter for free, which they should do, that £157 you save is many, many 6.8p worth of standing charge difference

 

[Jibjab]

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?

I had the fuse installed. Advised by Andersen after completing the survey. We have three air conditioning units drawing circa 6amps each on a max load. We recently upgraded to an 80amp fuse, the DNO wouldn’t fit a 100amp for free (it would be at our cost to dig up the drive etc etc). I’m not sure why Andersen ‘demanded’ an adaptive fuse based on a few extra amps from the aircon.