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Why can you not get a grant on the tesla charger?

Because Tesla have not got around to doing the paperwork to get their unit on the official list of hardware that qualifies for the grant. I have been urging them to do so for some while; initially they thought it wasn't worth the bother (which was almost true at the time), then the grant rules changed and a couple of months ago they told me they were intending to go ahead, but nothing seems to have happened - OLEV have just re-issued the list and Tesla is still not on it.

Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme approved chargepoint model list - Publications - GOV.UK
 
Tesla still not on the list... crazy.... Still, I. Sure they are not that bothered about making a few hundred quid here and there with the prices they charge.. Sha,e as their unit is nice looking and all being equal would much prefer that.. Hey ho.. Ta btw arg.
 
Sure they are not that bothered about making a few hundred quid here and there with the prices they charge.

When i installed my charger, less than a year ago, the grant-provided stuff was not that great and at that time Tesla provided a voucher for two installations - in my case Home and Work - so I very much doubt that Tesla don't care about the Punter's money. At that time the Tesla charger was, sadly, not available, i.e. "not approved for install", in UK. Its a superior beast - handles 3-phase and shared charging of two vehicles. From memory there have been problems with the OLEV ones tripping, so if I was doing it now I'd go with the Tesla one.

My best guess is that either Tesla are busy on too many fronts, or the paperwork is "in process" - who knows what Politics is at play ... - rather than that they can't be bothered ...
 
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If you are planning for the future at work depending on your situation it may be possible to install a more powerful charge point and also more than one charging point. Planning ahead will minimise extra costs in the future if there is likely to be more than one EV car at your office/factory.

Currently we are running a heavy cable from our plant room and installing a dual 22KW charge point and a dual 7kw charge point (the cable is capable of charging the 7kw to 22kw at a later date if necessary). They are all type 2 sockets and key operated. The government grant for installation of charge points by companies is different to the home one.
 
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Planning ahead will minimise extra costs in the future

Sadly didn't work in our case :(

When the car park was redone a few years ago I had the foresight (or so I though!) to consider that we might need charging points in the car park, so I asked the contractors to lay a duct from the plant room (3-Phase supply) across to the parking bays.

Ordered the Tesla, got a nice guy out to install a pair of charging points for starters ... turned out that the duct the contractors had laid was too small and they couldn't get a 3-Phase cable through, let alone a cable man-enough for a pair of chargers :( so I've had to settle for a single cable and 20 MPH charging ...

... until the next time we have a need to dig up the car park! Then I'm going to run an appropriate cable all the way around the car park.
 
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One thing, how old is your consumer unit? Mine was a really old one and needed replacing which is a long job as the whole house electrics must be tested, so EVERYTHING needs to be unplugged. That also increased the cost some what. Some grant installers wouldn't touch installing the replacement consumer unit and others wanted to charge a fortune. I got a local sparks to do the consumer unit , cable to the garage and install the commando socket. He also helped out on the Tesla wall charger install which is really simple.

Oh, from what I have read, the Rolec unit has proved to be unreliable for some people with the internal RCB unit burning out. They may have fixed it by now.
 
So....just got a quote back from Eastbourne Electrical to install the Tesla Wall Connector. Thought it was a relatively straightforward install but they're quoting £850 (inc. VAT). Apparently as it's an Outdoor installation and the place I want it isn't right next to the fuse box it's a bigger job than I thought. Apparently I need a whole separate Earth pit and stake as they can't use the system's current one.

Seem pricey and over complicated to me. Should be as simple as installing a new circuit in the fuse box, running a cable c.5m out of the wall the fuse box is on and around the house into the Wall Connector.

Anyone else had any quotes for an outdoor installation?
 
So....just got a quote back from Eastbourne Electrical to install the Tesla Wall Connector. Thought it was a relatively straightforward install but they're quoting £850 (inc. VAT). Apparently as it's an Outdoor installation and the place I want it isn't right next to the fuse box it's a bigger job than I thought. Apparently I need a whole separate Earth pit and stake as they can't use the system's current one.

Seem pricey and over complicated to me. Should be as simple as installing a new circuit in the fuse box, running a cable c.5m out of the wall the fuse box is on and around the house into the Wall Connector.

Anyone else had any quotes for an outdoor installation?

What I know about electrical installations you could write on the back of a tiny stamp, but I do know for an outside install you do need a separate earth rod and pit, I've had one as part of mine.

I've also had a dedicated distribution board with 30maA RCD protection and I think that's pretty standard.

@arg is the man to give you chapter and verse, but I think Eastbourne are Tesla approved installers so wouldn't have thought they'd go OTT.
 
Needing a separate earth electrode for an outside installation is perfectly normal - but in most cases that's £10 of parts and maybe 10 mins to fit it. If they've quoted for a 'pit' and that means any more than the little plastic cover you normally get to stop you tripping over it, maybe you have a hard-surface driveway that they are planning to make a more substantial hole in (with a cover like this - but the labour being more significant). Normally you can avoid that by cabling round the corner and sticking it in a flowerbed instead.

The other thing you need for compliance with regulations is a double-pole type-A RCD; although Tesla's unit has an RCD function of some sort inside it, that one is self-resetting and doesn't appear to meet the regulatory requirement. In principle you could swap an existing RCD in the consumer unit for a type-A equivalent and then just use an MCB way in the consumer unit as you have in mind, though that's not ideal since any fault on the chargepoint would also take out all the other circuits sharing the RCD. Depending on the mix of other circuits and arrangement of RCDs in the existing setup, that might or might not be considered compliant. Most likely, they've quoted to provide a separate RCD external to the consumer unit.

I hope the £850 is including the Tesla WC itself - if it's just for installation it sounds well over the top.
 
Needing a separate earth electrode for an outside installation is perfectly normal - but in most cases that's £10 of parts and maybe 10 mins to fit it. If they've quoted for a 'pit' and that means any more than the little plastic cover you normally get to stop you tripping over it, maybe you have a hard-surface driveway that they are planning to make a more substantial hole in (with a cover like this - but the labour being more significant). Normally you can avoid that by cabling round the corner and sticking it in a flowerbed instead.

The other thing you need for compliance with regulations is a double-pole type-A RCD; although Tesla's unit has an RCD function of some sort inside it, that one is self-resetting and doesn't appear to meet the regulatory requirement. In principle you could swap an existing RCD in the consumer unit for a type-A equivalent and then just use an MCB way in the consumer unit as you have in mind, though that's not ideal since any fault on the chargepoint would also take out all the other circuits sharing the RCD. Depending on the mix of other circuits and arrangement of RCDs in the existing setup, that might or might not be considered compliant. Most likely, they've quoted to provide a separate RCD external to the consumer unit.

I hope the £850 is including the Tesla WC itself - if it's just for installation it sounds well over the top.
Thanks arg. Makes sense on the pit and stake then.

Unfortunately that doesn't include the Tesla WC :(

Guess I need to shop around then!
 
Just had AJM Electric another Telsa approved contractor install a non-Tesla wall point this morning, it was a 2 hour job or thereabouts - all up including grant the price was £420. The wall point is a Rolec and is just around the corner from the front of the house so cannot be seen, I have checked the cable will reach where I park. According to the installer the earth from the supply the used was well within specification so a separate earth was not required and I already had a RCD on that supply.
 
According to the installer the earth from the supply the used was well within specification so a separate earth was not required

That's unusual but does apply in some cases. Note that it's not a case of 'well within specification' - this isn't a case of the 'quality' of the earth in the sense you can measure with a meter, but rather the type of earth - so it is either suitable or not suitable.

and I already had a RCD on that supply.

Extremely unlikely that your existing RCD was Type-A, but the Rolec includes one within the chargepoint so that aspect of the requirement is covered.