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Best home charger

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Supply/meter is inside the outbuilding which is pretty big. Plenty of space and access to put anything on the same board.

I hadn't planned to have anything other than the charger on it really, as that's it's singular purpose.

The EV charger is going to be situated about 20m away, on a completely separate and detached building (a barn). The power cable from whatever equipment gets added will have to go out the same wall as the incoming supply cable, down the wall, underground and then either come up somewhere and go into the barn and be run on the inside of the barn to the charger, or come out of the ground very close to the charger, I guess. The minimum underground part is probably about 5 metres.

OK, so your original plan is perfectly sound if that's what you want to do: isolator switch after meter to give flexibility in modifying the installation, small CU next to it with initially just one circuit for the chargepoint, which exits the building and terminates at the chargepoint on the adjacent barn. Might put an earth electrode directly below the chargepoint, with the cable armour using the supplier's earth, or alternatively make the entire installation TT: ignore the supplier's earth and have an earth electrode somewhere near where the meter/CU are.

However, I'd be asking whether you need a supply to the barn for any other purpose (lighting? perhaps it already has it from another source), and also what you might do when you want a 2nd EV chargepoint - one EV tends to lead to another, at least if forum members here are typical.

So as a bare minimum I'd be planning a duct where you've dug up the ground so you can easily run in a second cable for a second chargepoint later (rather than just burying this cable directly so you have to dig it up again to add another); the alternative being to run a heavier cable now and have a CU at the barn end if that's appropriate (it may well not be, I'm just guessing at your circumstances).

(Ignore the CU on the left, it is connected up to the main house supply and is irrelevant to this install)

You might hope so. However:
  • Where is that green/yellow wire going from the earth terminal on the new supply?? It looks like it goes into the CU supplied from the house supply, but that is extremely unsound if so.
  • There may be some concern over earthing in general if you've got appliances supplied from the old system within touching reach of the car on charge. If this is a farm or similar, I'd expect all the outbuildings to be using TT earth (ie. earth electrodes in the ground, not using an earth from the supply system), but seeing that connection makes me wonder. Certainly if I was installing the chargepoint I'd be poking my nose into the earthing arrangements of the existing system to be sure there's no problem.
 
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Is the earth rod needed if I have an earth wire connected to my gas pipe from the CU? I know how long the gas pipe is (probably 20m) as it was replaced a few months back. Or is this earth rod meant to be close to the wall connector?

That's unrelated. The gas pipe is BONDED to the earth terminal of the house, to avoid the gas metalwork bringing in a different voltage from outside. It is no longer permitted to use gas pipes for earthing - ie. as the source of the main earth terminal of the house (hasn't been for 30+ years).

The earth rod is needed to create a separate earthing system for the chargepoint, if it is not appropriate to use the house's earthing system for the chargepoint. It is no longer permitted to use a PME earth (derived from the supplier's neutral rather than your own earth rods) for an outdoor chargepoint (discouraged since 2012, outright prohibited since 2019, except for certain special cases).

So the most common arrangement is that the house continues to use PME earth, while the chargepoint is given a private TT (derived from earth rod) earth. Other things are possible, such as your house not being PME in the first place due to age or situation.

The reason for all this is the risk of your car body becoming live if there is an open-neutral fault on the supplier's network. There has been lots of discussion of it here before; if you can't find the old discussions and want to know the details, let me know.
 
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Sorry to be a bit slow on this but are you saying that if the house uses a PME earth then the charger must have an earth rod?

If the chargepoint is outside, or can be used outside, yes.

PodPoint claim to have a piece of magic which avoids this need. Their magic may well be relatively effective, but IMO it does not meet the letter of the regulations.
 
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OK, so your original plan is perfectly sound if that's what you want to do: isolator switch after meter to give flexibility in modifying the installation, small CU next to it with initially just one circuit for the chargepoint, which exits the building and terminates at the chargepoint on the adjacent barn. Might put an earth electrode directly below the chargepoint, with the cable armour using the supplier's earth, or alternatively make the entire installation TT: ignore the supplier's earth and have an earth electrode somewhere near where the meter/CU are.

However, I'd be asking whether you need a supply to the barn for any other purpose (lighting? perhaps it already has it from another source), and also what you might do when you want a 2nd EV chargepoint - one EV tends to lead to another, at least if forum members here are typical.

So as a bare minimum I'd be planning a duct where you've dug up the ground so you can easily run in a second cable for a second chargepoint later (rather than just burying this cable directly so you have to dig it up again to add another); the alternative being to run a heavier cable now and have a CU at the barn end if that's appropriate (it may well not be, I'm just guessing at your circumstances).



You might hope so. However:
  • Where is that green/yellow wire going from the earth terminal on the new supply?? It looks like it goes into the CU supplied from the house supply, but that is extremely unsound if so.
  • There may be some concern over earthing in general if you've got appliances supplied from the old system within touching reach of the car on charge. If this is a farm or similar, I'd expect all the outbuildings to be using TT earth (ie. earth electrodes in the ground, not using an earth from the supply system), but seeing that connection makes me wonder. Certainly if I was installing the chargepoint I'd be poking my nose into the earthing arrangements of the existing system to be sure there's no problem.
Thanks very much.

The house used to be owned by a vet, and the outbuildings were used for veterinary work. I don't entirely know the genesis of how it came to be that there were two incoming electrical connections, at a guess he wanted to keep his business expenses (including electricity) separate from his personal ones.

A 2nd chargepoint in the same location is a distinct possibility, but I can't see it happening for a while (years) if at all (famous last words). Will bear that in mind though.

Definitely don't need power from this supply for anything else in barn. It is already supplied from the main supply (via a CU in a utility room, which is what the outbuildings are also connected to).

A new CU could go in the barn, although I am hoping to renovate and maybe repurpose it to some extent down the line. In my simplistic mind I thought it would be simpler if all of the electrical equipment was at one end.

I couldn't comment with any authority of competency on the earth situation. I guess I will have to deal with that as and when it comes up. There's every chance that you're absolutely right and the earth from the master fuse is going to the CU on the left on the basis that it used to be connected to it.
 
Ok. I was pretty much set on a rolec smart charger until I tried out there app today. It pretty poor, it does not seem to work properly (in demo mode) and half the text on the buttons does not seem to render. Anybody else seen this? Does anybody have a good experience with the app?
 
Ok. I was pretty much set on a rolec smart charger until I tried out there app today. It pretty poor, it does not seem to work properly (in demo mode) and half the text on the buttons does not seem to render. Anybody else seen this? Does anybody have a good experience with the app?

Just to make sure, the app you're talking about is it called ev.energy? If so, only done the demo but seems spot on to me.
 
@Christiez yeah that's the one. I am running on Android and it just looks dreadful.
 

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A new CU could go in the barn, although I am hoping to renovate and maybe repurpose it to some extent down the line. In my simplistic mind I thought it would be simpler if all of the electrical equipment was at one end.

Fair enough - that's certainly a reasonable way to go.

I couldn't comment with any authority of competency on the earth situation. I guess I will have to deal with that as and when it comes up. There's every chance that you're absolutely right and the earth from the master fuse is going to the CU on the left on the basis that it used to be connected to it.

Earthing for the chargepoints will need to be sorted out when installed, but as you say that will come out in the wash. While I always try to give advice with a view to getting things 100% right, it has to be admitted that some of the points we discuss here are about relatively obscure fault conditions and the risks are low.

On the other hand, if that stray wire really is cross-connecting two PME earths, then that is potentially serious - it can give bad results even under normal no-fault conditions, so does want looking into and rectifying if necessary.
 
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Another email today, requesting I move my slot to later in the day. Very polite, very apologetic, and a few hours doesn't matter to me (especially given 9 days notice).......all is still positive.

Called last night by Scott the engineer, just checking was still OK for install today, he then came a little earlier to us (which worked better) and an hour and a half later all was done. Cannot praise Scott or Pod Point enough - and very pleased with the look of it.

Now all I need is a car to plug it into......


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Called last night by Scott the engineer, just checking was still OK for install today, he then came a little earlier to us (which worked better) and an hour and a half later all was done. Cannot praise Scott or Pod Point enough - and very pleased with the look of it.

Now all I need is a car to plug it into......


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I certainly prefer the Pod-Point to the Rolec chargers nowadays.
 
I wonder if someone qualified could alleviate a concern I have in regards to having a charger installed. The route from the garage where I would want it installed to the CU is troublesome to say the least ( as the only tidy way is up through the floorboards and down into the cupboard under the stairs where the CU sits which would involved carpets and floorboards being lifted which I really want to avoid). However, I have a bank of wall sockets in the garage which sit on their own ring main that I don’t really need. Am I correct in thinking then cabling for this could be repurposed to simplify the charge point install ? The ring main is from the RCB protected half of the CU if that helps.

Sorry - I know absolutely nothing about electrics.

I’m leaning towards to Rolec too - it looks less conspicuous in the right ( black) colour.
 
I wonder if someone qualified could alleviate a concern I have in regards to having a charger installed. The route from the garage where I would want it installed to the CU is troublesome to say the least ( as the only tidy way is up through the floorboards and down into the cupboard under the stairs where the CU sits which would involved carpets and floorboards being lifted which I really want to avoid). However, I have a bank of wall sockets in the garage which sit on their own ring main that I don’t really need. Am I correct in thinking then cabling for this could be repurposed to simplify the charge point install ? The ring main is from the RCB protected half of the CU if that helps.

Sorry - I know absolutely nothing about electrics.

I’m leaning towards to Rolec too - it looks less conspicuous in the right ( black) colour.

i would doubt it - Ring mains usually run on 2.5 mm2 cable and protected by a 30 A fuse.

Therefore the cabling and the fuse are not high enough rated. I think they require their own dedicated circuit/setup.

I'm no electrician - My rolec is getting installed on Friday and they have already fitted a 100amp fuse breaker in preparation.
 
I know there is an issue with zappi 2 supply at the moment...has anyone actually had one installed yet? I had a date for the install but that got canned as the installer couldn't get hold of the unit

Yes I had one installed the other week, however I've not been able to test it yet as my car has not arrived.

I understood there to be an issue with the supply of black versions, but white ones were available.