Noob home charging questions

[dan223]

Grant based charger wasn't possible here - none of the options wanted to plod out to the sticks and local sparky (understandably) didn't want to go though hassle of licence for a one-off job. Hence I went with the tesla charger and local sparky install. St Neots shoudn't have those issues (nostalgic used to row in the annual regatta 50+years ago) however a little depends on where the charger might get installed and power line availability. In other words it may/may not be cheaper to get local sparky to run power to where the charger will be installed and then get the grant guys to do the rest as opposed to having them do it all...?

I guess it is an option, but I suppose some people may not want to tag onto the end of someone elses work, or at least if there are any problems they may just blame it back on them.

 

[Palros]

Thank you for all your help guys. Nice to find a forum where the first answer is not rude.

Gives me food for thought.

Does the Tesla charger have to be fitted by an approved installer?

 

[Martinb999]

I bought a Tesla charger from the Dukes Road, London offices and it was £469.60 (they sent it to me by courier). I found a local electrician who has fitted a few different car chargers and he charged me £315.00 to fit it (although it is in the garage at one side of the house and the supply box is nearly 25 meters away on the other side of the house!). I thought this was a good deal and no, he isn't an approved installer. I couldn't get the grant as strangely they (the Tesla chargers) are not covered by that scheme but it works well and he did a good job for me. This was completed about four weeks ago now.

 

[MrBadger]

Did that price include the specialised RCD to allow it to confirm to latest regulations that came into force in January?

 

[Martinb999]

Yes VanillaAir, it did. He got another guy (who has fitted Tesla chargers before) over and he inspected it when all was finished. Apparently they have to inform the Council so he just had his mate check it before he did it.

 

[MrBadger]

How far afield does your fitter go? 2 hours?

 

[Dan77]

I am having a zappi installed in a few weeks, it's olev grant compliant and works with my solar panels to take the excess I would otherwise export to the grid. It's costing me £500 after the olev grant, don't think it looks too bad either.

Definitely worth a look if you have solar...works like a normal charger as well if you don't.

Hi Epico,

We're shortlisting home chargers for an October install, and Zappi is on the list. Does your £500 after the OLEV grant include installation, or is that extra?

Cheers,
D

 

[fuzzywuzzy]

Does the M3 have any protection built in to stop you driving off with it still plugged in? I have to say I'm slightly nervous about doing this first thing on a Monday morning...

 

[alexp2]

Does the M3 have any protection built in to stop you driving off with it still plugged in? I have to say I'm slightly nervous about doing this first thing on a Monday morning...

Yes, it won't let you shift into drive while a cable is connected to the chargeport (even if it's not charging or the cable is connected to nothing)

 

[Martinb999]

Hi VanillaAir. I rang the sparky this morning and asked him how far he would travel. He wouldn't go as far as two hours away, one hour is his max and then he would have to add it to the job charge.In our conversation he was telling me that he has 9 installs for electric vehicles (various units) this month. Nice work if you can get it!

 

[MrBadger]

Thanks for checking that. My friendly sparky has deregistered from NICEIC since I last used him, so would be unable to sign off the install. So I am left with trying to find a trustworthy installer who is not going to inflate install charges. I'm guessing 2, maybe 3 hours work, plus admittedly expensive parts (which is why I asked) and some people must be paying in excess of £550/600 for the installation alone. Your chap seemed very reasonable. I'm tempted to see if my sparky is willing to reregister and concentrate on EV installations - I guess though there is a big difference between being NICEIC registered and OLEV certified and tbh, he is concentrating on his band now so probably would not.