Taking a closer look at my main fuse I see it's 60amp, Searching for who is my DNO to ask for an upgrade I find it's Scottish Power ( . . . hmm, OK, fair enough we're all still a part of the UK) I called the none emergency number and a scotish voice says "we're not open today please call back on Tuesday" . . . . . must be that 1" of snow that fell last night!
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Home Charge Points Discussion and Suggestions [megathread]
- Thread starter Bootneckshuffl
- Start date
This was invaluable when I started to consider a charge point - I had to upgrade my meter to a smart meter, get my tails done and *isolator* switch fitted through bulb (god bless them)
HenryT
Active Member
If you plan on leaving the cable in the charge box then tethered takes away any theft risk.
For me, tethered was an obvious choice - no need to faff about with a wet cable in the dark, no risk of having forgotten to put it back in the car when arriving at a public charger, one less exposed connection and of course no theft risk.
Reading around it depends on the DNO. Where I am, it's SSE and they do charge, but I cannot tell you how much - If you look at the Speak EV forum this question comes up alot.
MrBadger
Badger out
You presume wrong. The fuse will be protecting the cables and the consumer unit and its quite possible that since the property only has a 60A fuse (what is written on the carrier is not always what is inside although its normally the other way around when the carrier says 100A its really an 80A) then the 'tails' will need upgrading and possibly the consumer unit need changing/protection - see what the isolation switch in consumer unit says but even if it is 100A it doesn't mean that the tails are rated for 100A.
SpareHeadOne
Member
Sounds like another Tesla vagary then, mine is a little under 3m and it looks like anyone taking delivery from about December 2020 to at least May 2021 got that length. Tesla did say there were shortages, I wonder if it was the actual cable rather than the plugs?
(Yes, digging around it looks like before that the supplied cable was about 6m.)
For me I switched from an untethered to tethered home charger so that I can leave my cable in the car and never worry about accidentally leaving it at home when I go for a long journey and might have to use an untethered public charger.
Well it seems to be a bit of a minefield fo rme. My garage is 60M away from the consumer unit and I have quite a bit of load already on my 100A supply. My electrician can install but doesn't know how to get the grant, and he wants £300 / day for him and his apprantice. Crikey - It's 1/2 a day for one person at best. So as the car is coming on Saturday and I will need to juice it up a bit for a trip on Monday, I've got the 32A Commando adapter for the UMC and I'll be fitting an interlocking socket in the garage sometime today / tomorrow. However, I am a little bit uncomfortable with it as it is a requirement to notify Building Regs and the DNO when fitting a dedicated EV charge point. Hmmm, maybe I should read up on what they define as dedicated. I mean, a Commando socket can be used for all sorts of thinngs, right?
Either way, this will be temporary, as I intend on fitting a Zappi with load balancing to protect my supply.
Either way, this will be temporary, as I intend on fitting a Zappi with load balancing to protect my supply.
I haven't seen a charger with a self winding lead and I don't expect to. They should not be coiled up when in use. The Anderson box allows you to wrap the cable round it and hide the plug in a compartment in the top, very neat, but you pay a premium. Most of them seem to incorporate a curved flange that allows you to put the coiled cable on top like a wound up hose pipe.
You could always build a little cupboard to hide the whole assembly in (and give added protection from the weather). Make it out of tanalised wood with close board sides like a shed, paint with wood preserver, and no one would give it a second glance.
HenryT
Active Member
with a commando socket its not a dedicated charge point, its a multi use point/socket....
It's not related to the type of socket it's related to the reason/purpose you have it installed. If even one of your intended purposes is for EV charging then it's supposed to meet the relevant regs ... which isn't to say that I haven't used a non-EV spec commando ... ! ... it's just a stop gap after all.
So how do they square using a Tesla granny charger on a 3 pin socket (which has no PEN fault detection)? I mean, you are usin a general purpose socket for EV charging, same situation surely. The only difference I see is increased current which the Commando handles better than a constant 10A on a 3 pin (which gets warm).
You are correct. I have made that exact same point on this forum many times over the past couple of years. There is no difference in terms of electrical safety. However, if you installed a new 13amp socket because you specifically needed to use it for EV charging it is my understanding that it would have to meet the standard EV regs. (I can search out the old discussions on the forum with people much better informed than me if you can bear going through it all!) Personally I'm quite happy to use a 32amp commando socket occasionally with the UMC on the basis that it's as electrically safe as for the people using a standard 13amp socket ... whether it meets regs or not ... but then I'm a wild renegade risk taker and couldn't possibly recommend the same approach to anyone else.
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