Best home charger

[interbear]

Is there no way to hide the black supply cable to the charging box?
You pay good money for an attractive charger and then the overall appearance is marred by the black supply cable.
You don't see them in their adverts. Why black? Can you get brick/brown coloured cable?

It’s a fair point. I didn’t ask. But I’d imagine everything is available if you want to pay for it.

The alternative for us was drilling though a wall next to the meter, running the cable along an internal wall through the dining room and then out through the wall on the other side to the charger. We concluded that a black cable around the outside of the house was preferable to that. I don’t think it looks too bad to be honest, I always expected to see cabling into the unit itself and it will also be easier to access if any issues arise in future.

 

[interbear]

A striking colour choice too, looks nice.

Mind if I ask how long your cable run ended up being? I note that standard installation is 10 metres with 10 metres of plastic trunking (which it doesn't look like they've used for yours?). Since you said yours was wired to the other side of the house did it end up being much longer than 10m? If so, did you get charged much extra on the installation?

At a glance I'd say the length of the barn that I was going to situate mine on is probably around 20m from where the meter is going to be.

The cable run was less than 10 metres for us so no issues on that front. It was effectively around the dining room which is at the front of our house. The meter cabinet is on the external wall of that room. So it was a standard Andersen install other than the additional consumer unit / RCD in the meter cabinet.

 

[Keeper]

A striking colour choice too, looks nice.

Mind if I ask how long your cable run ended up being? I note that standard installation is 10 metres with 10 metres of plastic trunking (which it doesn't look like they've used for yours?). Since you said yours was wired to the other side of the house did it end up being much longer than 10m? If so, did you get charged much extra on the installation?

At a glance I'd say the length of the barn that I was going to situate mine on is probably around 20m from where the meter is going to be.

The cable will be armoured which means that the cable run could conceivably be buried i.e. vertically down from the charge unit into a small trench and then pop up where it needs to connect into. The picture of the cable fixed to the wall where there was a gravel margin could possibly have been hidden in this way (provided there was a bit of depth able to be excavated). This could be done prior to installation and backfilled afterwards. Maybe?

 

[Durzel]

Did they provide the additional consumer unit then as part of the install? My CU next to where the meter is going to be is full but a couple of ports (?) are switched off and could be reused.

 

[dan223]

Where I park it will be rather visible, as I will need to mount it on the front of a barn or on the side of the house.

I'm also a bit of a aesthetics snob. If I'm instaling something on the extremities of the house I want it to look half decent.

The EO looks alright but I wanted a tethered charger.

Thanks

EO offer a tethered option to, although it then makes it a bit bulkier and not as nice to look at as the your wrapping the cable around the unit, but this was what I went for.

 

[interbear]

Did they provide the additional consumer unit then as part of the install? My CU next to where the meter is going to be is full but a couple of ports (?) are switched off and could be reused.

No the additional consumer unit was another £150 ish. I have spare slots in the main consumer unit but that’s in the utility room some distance from the meter cabinet and would have entailed much drilling and cabling, so I decided that a specific unit within the meter cabinet for the charger was a better option.

Andersen’s installers do a video site survey with you and discuss all of the options on that call. It’s a pretty good way of doing it as they can advise on the best way forward and you quickly know what is standard vs additional options.

 

[booyaka76]

Had a Mains isolator Switch installed today ahead of full install of Rolec on 20th September. That was done by a sub contractor of the main install company.

My cabling will be going along the outside of my house - otherwise it would have to go through the hallway, and full length of the garage conversion and out to the charger point. Not that bothered as no one sees the side of the house.

 

[interbear]

Very nice! We're still waiting until October for our Andersen to be installed so it's nice to see some photos.

How do you find taking out and replacing the charger? It's not too much of a PITA? Do you use the app to lock the lid, and does the app work nicely?

I do have the app downloaded, and after a very frustrating setup of course it's useless right now with no charger.

Quick update for you on this. I've got the app working now and tried the lock/unlock feature. Locking the charger does not physically lock the lid to prevent access to the charger cable. I assume therefore that is a software lock that disables the actual charging capability, as indicated by the red light on the unit itself.

 

[dst87]

Quick update for you on this. I've got the app working now and tried the lock/unlock feature. Locking the charger does not physically lock the lid to prevent access to the charger cable. I assume therefore that is a software lock that disables the actual charging capability, as indicated by the red light on the unit itself.

Interesting, thanks!

 

[dazzleh]

That's similar to the units I have with physical locks (British Gas/ Polar and PodPoint), in that they don't lock the cable in place but just disable the charging.

 

[Drmouse]

Hey all, just ordered my M3 today and am now looking at chargers. As I'm blowing all my moola on the M3, I'm going to have to try to keep costs down a bit for the charger. The Andersen looks great, but it's pretty expensive (tempting though). I've asked Octopus to give some info about the Zappi, but I think my main two options are going to be PodPoint or EO.

Does anyone know if these units can be sunk into the wall, for instance in something like an external meter box? My driveway is a little narrow an it would make things easier if nothing was sticking out.

 

[Epico]

Has anybody had a zappi2 installed yet...my install was scheduled in 2 weeks but just had the installer email to say they couldn't do that as they can't get hold of the units. I did think that install date was a bit ambitious as I only ordered a month ago (website was quoting 12 weeks though). Just curious if anyone has had the same sort of issue with it?

 

[kevuwk]

Has anybody had a zappi2 installed yet...my install was scheduled in 2 weeks but just had the installer email to say they couldn't do that as they can't get hold of the units. I did think that install date was a bit ambitious as I only ordered a month ago (website was quoting 12 weeks though). Just curious if anyone has had the same sort of issue with it?

I've seen the 12 week wait on their website and my installer didn't mention any delays for them but have mysteriously gone quiet since I agreed the quote

 

[Epico]

I've seen the 12 week wait on their website and my installer didn't mention any delays for them but have mysteriously gone quiet since I agreed the quote

Yeah, I asked about 8 installers, 3 came back to me...some were trying to charge me over a grand AFTER the olev grant. Uuh...I'm alright thanks!
Just hoping they can do it in a few months...I can live off slow charging for a bit

 

[kevuwk]

Yeah, I asked about 8 installers, 3 came back to me...some were trying to charge me over a grand AFTER the olev grant. Uuh...I'm alright thanks!
Just hoping they can do it in a few months...I can live off slow charging for a bit

3 days of silence and then a phone call asking if they can fit it next week

 

[BelfastEV]

I have a VIN now so good chance of a car by late Sept. need to get home charger installed and have had two quotes. Anyone know anything about either of these two chargers .

First quote was based on installing an untethered 7.4kw Growatt. It’s an unusual install with charger quite far from the fuse box/ rest of house and install quote is £658 after OLEV.

Second quote is another company quoting £760 after OLEV based on a 7.2kw Rolec Wallpod.

Anyone with experience able to separate the two quotes ??

Both companies were first class so can’t separate them.

Thanks

 

[booyaka76]

Rolec sounds similar to mine. I'm £447 after OLEV grant and additional Energy Trust grant of £300 (Scotland only).

I'm about 12-14m from fuse box to charger point and cabling will run outside.

I still do think that they are bumping the prices up some what due to the grants. I don't see how it's a £1250 job if you take the grants out of it.

 

[BelfastEV]

I’ve got the Rolec quote down to £710 so will prob go with that . Is it the Rolec Wallpod ur going for looks a decent wee charger.

Are people’s prices including an annual service or I assume excluding ? Guys are talking £50 a year to come back and service it once a year to keep it to its guarantee .

 

[ThrustSSC]

We had about 30m of cable to carry 32A, plus a Rolec chargepoint, installed about 3.5yrs ago. So about £100 of cable, a £400-ish device, and 3hrs of work to run the cable all over the place around the back of the house, through a fence, etc.

The bill after OLEV was £200-300.

Anyone charging much more than that - given that this was on the costly end of the range of installs - is overcharging.

I'm thinking of putting in a second point for the Tesla. The Zappi is attractive as solar is planned in the next couple of years. I'm thinking I'll run all the cables myself and use the OLEV money for the chargepoint and terminating only, if this is the sort of numbers being asked for!

 

[fredsoneya]

I went with PodPoint due to the price in the end - £395 after OLEV fully installed.