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cost of charge point installation
- Thread starter slonger
- Start date
Compuguide
Member
Before you go to the expense of a charger, think carefully about your usage case.
I'm semi retired, so fast charging is not important to me. Likewise high daily mileage is not the norm.
This means that a heavy duty 20m 13amp extension lead into my garage, delivering 10amps (or about 9 miles per hour) is perfect.
I put the car away in the evening and plug the UMC in and wake up the next morning with the car at 90%.
I'm semi retired, so fast charging is not important to me. Likewise high daily mileage is not the norm.
This means that a heavy duty 20m 13amp extension lead into my garage, delivering 10amps (or about 9 miles per hour) is perfect.
I put the car away in the evening and plug the UMC in and wake up the next morning with the car at 90%.
navt
Member
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
I don;t have any proper comparison figures, but 13AMP is less efficient than 7kW wall charger. TeslaFi reports quite a significant difference (but I have no idea how it could monitor the Supply Side ...)
Whether it would ever pay back I don't know
Perhaps Bjorn or similar has done a proper test of [Supply-side] kWh to charge 13AMP vs. 7kW
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
Not had an idle moment until now ...
I haven't put a lot of effort into finding cheapest, but 5 minutes Googling came up with something as a basis for a starting point for "cheap Commando route" ('tis only 16A ...)
£279.00 16A / 3.6kW 5M Commando to Type 2 with EVSE EV Chargers Direct (Not sure if Postage is extra)
£22.95 16A Wall Mounted Commando Socket with Interlock from eBay - seller is TeslaSupplies - no relation
Dunno if that can be significantly beaten? or if there is a wall-charger that matches it?
I suppose if you can get a tethered OLEV wall charger which costs less than the grant, and allowing something for installer to do the paperwork, that would work out cheaper (assuming rest of installation cost is same-for-all)
My Rolec install has come in at £500 after the OLEV grant. That includes £90 for an additional 2 switch consumer unit which I don’t believe I will need as there are spare ways in the current one. So, £410 once I have convinced them I don’t need it . The quote includes 2m of trunking and an additional 3m of cabling over the included 10m.
MrBadger
Badger out
Depending on how its wired, it may be worth playing safe and having the separate consumer unit to keep EV side of things away from house side. I want a separate unit for this reason even though I have a couple of spare slots spread across two existing consumer units. No point having an EV charge issue blowing other house circuits - I say this from experience
£279.00 16A / 3.6kW 5M Commando to Type 2 with EVSE EV Chargers Direct (Not sure if Postage is extra)
£22.95 16A Wall Mounted Commando Socket with Interlock from eBay - seller is TeslaSupplies - no relation
Dunno if that can be significantly beaten? or if there is a wall-charger that matches it?
OK, if you limit yourself to 16A then yes it is cheaper - mainly because nobody makes 16A wallmount chargepoints (the ones that you can buy are typically 32A designs that have just been set for the lower current).
At 32A, that same site gives you this at £495. They don't seem to stock a tethered chargepoint, but their cheapest socketed one is £445. Meantime you can get a tethered Rolec here for £460. Not sure what Tesla charge now for the V2 UMC, but I think it is similar.
So at the 32A level they are about the same price - as you would expect since it's exactly the same stuff inside (in fact if you go for the Rolec it gives you the RCD inside which you'd need to add separately for a Commando socket).
If you intend to leave the UMC or equivalent plugged in permanently, then there's really no point in getting a commando socket rather than a proper chargepoint. The one good argument for commando sockets is as a cheap way of enabling charging at locations which you visit only occasionally and want to charge a bit faster/more reliably than using a 13A socket - using your UMC that you carry in the car for such purposes.
The OLEV grant adds for the cost of the "smart" features and for the cost of paperwork, and subtracts £500. So probably cheaper in most cases but not by a huge margin. Somewhat depends how valuable you think "smart" is going to be - I think it will be very important in a few years time, but the question is whether the device you install now will turn out to have the right sort of "smart" and whether it will already be worn out and in need of replacement by the time you get around to needing it.
At least the wiring is the same for any of these options (smart/non-smart/commando), so it's a relatively easy job to swap the chargepoint sometime down the road, by which time they are hopefully a bit cheaper. So long as you didn't cheap out and go for only 16A...
I may be going about this the wrong way but i got a quote from a local electrician for £320 to install a Tesla wall charger (i supply the charger). This includes a connection from my consumer unit to my garage (cable already exists) into a new small consumer unit with 2 RCD's (one for the car and one for my garage). Not sure if they are Tesla approved though :S
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
No requirement for your Sparky to be approved (to fit Tesla Wallcharger) as there is no OLEV grant involved. Sparky just needs to be competent, and priced reasonably
MrBadger
Badger out
The advantage of a Tesla approved installer is that Tesla give the wall connector a 4 year warranty, 1 year otherwise*. But if a Tesla approved installer charges £500 more for the install, you can get a second charger as a backup for same price !
* one could argue that it’s a premium product so would fall under the 6 year rule.
* one could argue that it’s a premium product so would fall under the 6 year rule.
Thanks for the info. . Guess I'll give the instructions a more thorough read as I doubt the electrician is aware of this.
I still think a 32A commando socket is a good option for those who are not eligible for the OLEV grant. Also, most charge point manufacturers (including Rolec) offer a maximum tethered cable length of 5m. Pod-Point charge a ridiculous £249 to increase the cable length from 4.8m to 7.5m. For those who need a longer cable and cannot get the OLEV grant a commando socket and sourcing their own longer cable could well be the cheaper option by far.
For a 32A solution? The UMC comes in only one length, as do the alternatives that I know of. Extending on the commando side (ie. between your wall-mounted commando socket and the UMC) leaves the UMC and a permanently energized cable at risk of damage/water ingress.
The straightforward solution to needing a longer cable is to get a socketed chargepoint and buy the cable separately. This will probably be marginally more than the UMC + dodgy extension, but not by much. Money saving options include getting a tethered unit with short cable and then swapping the cable for one of the desired length and selling the old one on eBay (for use by somebody who wants to upgrade a Type1 unit or whose cable has worn out).
You can certainly get skewed results by not comparing like-for-like. You can get a very cheap commando install by cutting corners and pretending it's not for EV charging, using not-for-domestic-use parts etc, but equally you could do a corner-cutting install of a standard chargepoint if you wanted to and are unlikely to get caught.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
@arg and I have discussed this over time and have not found a cheaper solution ... if you can find a 32A Commando with Interlock and a 7M 32A EVSE Commando cable for less than, say, the £450 that a Tesla Wall Charger costs I'd be interested in the supplier details. The Rolec would get you the RCD inclusive with the Wall Charger, but not the "Tesla button"
Unless @arg corrects me I think that 32A Commando and Tesla Wall Charger have the same "installation wiring requirements" - e.g. whether an earthing rod would be required, or not, so if I have that right then additional Sparky costs will like-for-like
Make sure you get the extra £300 from EST as well as the OLEV.
On second thoughts, you're from Aberdeen, you won't have missed that one!
Ive just had a quote for a zappi "Dumb" and a "myenergi hub". Does this mean the zappi isnt smart by itself and needs the hub to qualify for the grants? Is this the standard way to go or am i being done here?!
Additional materials were enclosure c/w isolater and 32amp MCB tails and 2mm 6mm cable £65 and £288 labour.
Minus Olev of £500 and EST of £300 leaves £362.
No idea if this is good value or not as its a very simple install located in a garage beside the meter
Additional materials were enclosure c/w isolater and 32amp MCB tails and 2mm 6mm cable £65 and £288 labour.
Minus Olev of £500 and EST of £300 leaves £362.
No idea if this is good value or not as its a very simple install located in a garage beside the meter
The Zappi 1has various smart features integral to it and has short-range radio to connect to other accessories (Harvi etc), but the OLEV grant definition of 'smart' specifically requires remote control (eg. via internet or GSM connection). So in the Zappi system, the hub is what allows the short-range radio network to be bridged to the internet.
