Hello! I currently have a model X that I charge at home, using a NEMA 14-50 type plug, so no fancy Tesla wall charger for me. It works great, and gives me a full charge overnight. Here in the US, I have 110 voltage, of course, and have a 50amp fuse on my breaker box for this line. Now, I'm moving to the UK, and want to get another model X and charge it at home. What I'm a bit lost on, since it's a different electrical standard over there, is what type of home charging is available to me. I saw on another post that there are multiple manufacturers of home chargers that can be used with Teslas (see, e.g.,Charging at home guide ). But this doesn't quite answer what I'm asking: Do I need to get a wall charger, whether a Tesla, or a Rolec, or whichever? Any suggestions/comments/insights are welcome!
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Yankee moving to UK and wants to home charge
- Thread starter ElTel5
- Start date
theoceanwaves
Banned
hi congrats on your move to the UK! the model X will come with a UMC which you can plug into your household 3 pin plug it will take a long time to charge the car up. I would suggest you get a dedicated wall charger and the brands I would recommend are pod point, zappi by myenergu (solar) and tesla wall connector. The government also give £500 off installation when you buy an electric car so you will probably only pay £200-300. I would avoid roles they are a bit unreliable.
Here is a good resource: Charging at home guide
Here is a good resource: Charging at home guide
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A standard wall plug will give you 240v @ 13amps : 3.1KW ~6mph
A high amp line (like you’d have for an electric oven or shower) would give you 240v @ 32amps : 7.6KW You could get these installed with a generic commando socket, or a dedicated & subsidised EV charger Domestic charge point funding
Your house overall is likely to have a 100amp max load (24KW) or lower, so the electrician will check if you’re likely to overload
110v @ 50amps : 5.5KW
A high amp line (like you’d have for an electric oven or shower) would give you 240v @ 32amps : 7.6KW You could get these installed with a generic commando socket, or a dedicated & subsidised EV charger Domestic charge point funding
Your house overall is likely to have a 100amp max load (24KW) or lower, so the electrician will check if you’re likely to overload
110v @ 50amps : 5.5KW
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Welcome to the UK. I am going with Podpoint for my charger. I am about to take out a lease on a Model 3.
Note you cannot get the government grant if you get the Tesla Wall Connector but if you’re getting a Model X you probably won’t mind. My boss got one for his Model S, money wasn’t an issue.
I am told that there is only about 20-24 amp room on the board. Will that be enough? Any idea what it might cost to run a new, dedicated line from the city mains to my garage? (about 100 ft)
Jason71
Well-Known Member
24 amps not really enough. a dedicated charger is usually 32 amps. As for getting a new line run in it could be very expensive depends on loads of factors like how far and what it has to run under. Seems unlikely you would really need to draw over 100 amps consistently so maybe NorfolkMustards suggestion is a good one. Not come across that idea before.
Is three-phase power so uncommon in the UK for a home? I have a TWC that's fed from three 16A phases at home (which is enough to max out the Model 3 onbaord charger; I could have installed 3x25A for a Model X if I wanted to, but that depends on the max amperage of the electricity counter).
Or perhaps it's not a 100A fuse. In which case the distribution company may be willing to upgrade it for free. UK power networks (South East) are.
Fuse upgrade | UK Power Networks
Fuse upgrade | UK Power Networks
good info - there's a page on there with costs to upgrade to 3-phase too https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/electricity/upgrade-reduce-electricity/time-and-cost
( likely £3k - £6k )
( likely £3k - £6k )
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
Huge sweeping statement to extrapolate Your Boss to everyone who spends £100K on a car is money-no-object on things such as wall chargers
I suspect you are taking a USA view ... UK wiring is a bit different ... so "best guess" I think you will be fine.
Most houses have some high power draw items - such as cooking hobs and ovens. They aren't on all the time. UK homes don't have AirCon / Furnace big-electricity-users (but your UK home might ...)
Your house might have electric showers - i.e. heat the water "instantly" at the Shower, rather than heating a tank of hot water and circulating that round the house to the tap / shower. If your house has several of those, and teenage kids, then you may be near the limit (when everything is on).
But even then you are most likely to be charging your car overnight when those are all off ...
And if it really is a problem then you could have a device to turn the car charging off when there is other high-load in the house (as described above)
As mentioned above:
We have 13AMP 240V sockets around the house (different to the rest of EU, and definitely different to USA - your phone/laptop will charge faster on 240V than it did on 110V
). In the UK there are no high-power "drier sockets" [i.e.using 2 phases?? I think in USA] in the garage, or anything equivalent; so we just one single phase to each house and a loop(s) of 13 AMP sockets around the house.High power items like Cooker have a dedicated, fat!, cable (and no plug/socket, they are hard-wired into a junction box type thing)
So a wall charger, outside, is basically like a cooker - dedicated cable, 7kW device
13AMP charging speed = 6 miles per hour (might be enough? certainly OK for "fall back" / temporary / visiting friends).
7kW Wall Charger = 22 MPH
13AMP is less efficient (i.e. more losses) than dedicated wall charger.
Typically wall charger cost is £450 - which is the same as the Grant (if you get an OLEV approved device)
Installation cost on top is about £400 unless long cable runs / complicated
UK Tesla comes with UMC cable with connector for 13AMP and also Commando (so you could fit 7kW Commando socket at your house instead of wall charger, but you would have to use your UMC cable, increase the wear-and-tear on it, and if you need to take it with you have to coil it up and put it in the trunk each time, even if it is wet, raining and miserable ...). personally I prefer a tethered cable on a wall charger.
Yup, very rare, and because power company has a monopoly is often extremely expensive to have fitted, even if the 3-Phase is available at a pole-in-the-garden (not uncommon for connection to be £5,000 - £10,000)
In UK we typically have 3-phase available down the street, house 1 = Phase-1, House-2 = Phase 2, ... House-4 = Phase 1 ...
All good advice above. You’re best to wait until you move in to your new UK home and see what your electrical system is actually like.
I’d be surprised if you couldn’t have a 7kW charger by some means. I had a Rolec 7kW (32A) charger installed about 4 years ago in my garage. We had to run a new 40A cable to the garage just for the charger. If you don’t mind doing the cable-burying yourself it’s not that expensive, just get your electrician to advise and connect it up.
I’d advise a charger without a tethered cable, as that gives the ultimate flexibility if you change to a different EV with a different connector in the future. I’ve used my Rolec charger first with a Nissan Leaf, currently with a Kona electric, and hopefully soon with my Model 3!
One other thing in the UK - most utility companies offer an off-peak tariff called Economy 7, giving you 7 hours of cheaper power during the night. This is ideal for charging your EV. For me, it reduces my unit rate from ~14p down to ~9p, so it costs roughly 2p a mile to charge the car.
Good luck with your move to the UK!
I’d be surprised if you couldn’t have a 7kW charger by some means. I had a Rolec 7kW (32A) charger installed about 4 years ago in my garage. We had to run a new 40A cable to the garage just for the charger. If you don’t mind doing the cable-burying yourself it’s not that expensive, just get your electrician to advise and connect it up.
I’d advise a charger without a tethered cable, as that gives the ultimate flexibility if you change to a different EV with a different connector in the future. I’ve used my Rolec charger first with a Nissan Leaf, currently with a Kona electric, and hopefully soon with my Model 3!
One other thing in the UK - most utility companies offer an off-peak tariff called Economy 7, giving you 7 hours of cheaper power during the night. This is ideal for charging your EV. For me, it reduces my unit rate from ~14p down to ~9p, so it costs roughly 2p a mile to charge the car.
Good luck with your move to the UK!
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
There are other tariffs (e.g. Octopus) which use Smart Meter to offer Time-of-Use (instead of the older, fixed, 7-hours off peak rate). The tariff I am thinking of is 4 hours Off Peak (so max 4 x 22 MPH = about 90 miles range added), but that is down around 5-6p ... I think they also have a Premium Rate at the time of cooking evening meals so can be complicated to calculate if it will represent a saving.
I’ve looked at Octopus but based on my historical use it works our slightly more expensive than OVO, my current provider. I was also worried that the 4 hour “cheap” window might not be long enough for me, and so some charging would be at peak rate.
I’ve yet to find a compelling EV tariff...
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
Buy £5K worth of PowerWall and £2.5K worth of installation, and you can save a couple of pence a unit
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Maybe?? Smart Wall Chargers will solve this by charging your car when it suits the power company, and then you will get Best Deal (I might be smoking crack to even think that though ... in principle that is how the market should end up).
I'm going PowerWall plus massively over spec'ing PV (i.e. PV that exceeds permitted export and thus can only benefit me if I store it in a battery [or use it real-time]). But there is no payback maths that work for that decision ...
I have slight upside from avoiding power outages (of which we get several short ones during a year, and probably on average 1-ish 4-hour one) as I work from home
.jg.
Member
It might be best to live with the 6 mph charging of the UMC plugged into a standard socket until you have had a few quotes from electricians (quotes tend to vary a lot). In England or Wales, you would want an electrician who is registered as a Competent Person (Competent Persons Register | Home) - they will provide the legally required certification of their work and perform notifications to the council and/or electricity supplier. Ideally, the electrician will help if you want to claim the government grant.
A wall charger will be able to provide up to 32A => 7.4 kW => 22 mph.
Remember to use Pin to Drive and consider turning off Passive Entry, especially in or near London. A Model S was stolen in London about a week ago.
A wall charger will be able to provide up to 32A => 7.4 kW => 22 mph.
Remember to use Pin to Drive and consider turning off Passive Entry, especially in or near London. A Model S was stolen in London about a week ago.
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