The worlds best home charger!!

smac · Jan 12, 2015

Paraphrasing a familiar advert "If Carling made home chargers"

I posted a couple of pics earlier, but after some initial compatibility issues that have now been fully worked through with the guys at Etrel and Chris @ evchargingsolutions.co.uk .....

If you want THE best home/ SME office charger for your Tesla, this one has to take the crown!

Firstly it looks beautiful, no more nasty plastic hastily bolted to the side of your house by Chargemaster. Oh and it has fancy lights :biggrin:

Secondly it works with a Model S up to 22kW!! (Obviously, or I wouldn't be posting)

But then we get into the BIG benefits over the normal OLEV tat... it's a browser manageable device:

Here's how much I've spent charging. (My accountant, and ICE driving business partners are happy)

I can even set when and who can charge, and at what level.

If I had multiple units, I could even get them to coordinate. Two Model S's no problem, plug both in as soon as you arrive, and tell them to share the available power until one has completed it's charge!!!!

PaulMac · Jan 12, 2015

very jel...as my kids say! It looks great and I love the portal....how much did the install cost?

smac · Jan 12, 2015

@PaulMac

All told around £2k, but our office manager got some funding from the local council toward the majority of it. (Or a refund on our Workplace Parking Levy as I prefer to look at it

)

It is overkill for a "back of the garage" install, but for an office or an external mounting on a high end property, I think you could justify the price on the aesthetics alone. That's before you have the feature set required for a semi-public station. For example you get RFID cards for staff, and you can allow certain cards to charge at different rates, or set quotas.

They also have the ability to load share, so if you had spare capacity for only one charger to go at full power, you could have two of these, and they'd communicate between each other allowing you to leave two cars plugged in and allow you to determine a pairing a bit like how Superchargers work, and so not blow your main incoming fuse. I'm not aware of any other unit at this sort of price level that can do that.

Kribensa · Jan 13, 2015

Very nice Simon - especially in an office environment as you say. I'll have to come over and try it out one day

However you may want to report that they spelled "because" AS "becasue" in the first of the "We've noticed" messages and "minimum" as "mimimum" on the Manual Charging Schedule page ;-)

FWIW you can get a report of usage on the home ChargeMaster units although I don't think they tell many people because it's ... well..not very accurate at times!

medved · Jan 13, 2015

smac said:
Paraphrasing a familiar advert "If Carling made home chargers"

I posted a couple of pics earlier, but after some initial compatibility issues that have now been fully worked through with the guys .....

That is very expensive. And it is not a charger, it is just a connector. Charger is what you have in the car. The best solution is a simple 3-phase 32A red socket for 45 Euros like this one:

You only need to get a mobile connector for 32A.

simonog · Jan 13, 2015

medved said:
That is very expensive.

You only need to get a mobile connector for 32A.

You actually need a mobile EVSE to convert a CEE32 (sometimes called commando) socket to a Type 2 intelligent feed into the car. 32 A three phase is only worthwhile if you have dual chargers enabled and then there are few mobile units. The most popular is probably the JuiceBuster which I can personally recommend.

Puslinch · Jan 13, 2015

That's what I did at our plant in Longbridge, purchased a UMC and the plant boys dropped a 32A 3 phase connector (I have dual chargers) in the parking area. This way I have the UMC to travel with and the cost was almost zero for the install.

Gary

medved · Jan 13, 2015

simonog said:
You actually need a mobile EVSE to convert a CEE32 (sometimes called commando) socket to a Type 2 intelligent feed into the car....

A mobile connector for 32A actually does that.

simonog · Jan 13, 2015

medved said:
A mobile connector for 32A actually does that.

Important no one thinks it is simple a cable with two plugs on it. There's an expensive box in the middle!

smac · Jan 13, 2015

medved said:
That is very expensive. And it is not a charger, it is just a connector. Charger is what you have in the car. The best solution is a simple 3-phase 32A red socket for 45 Euros like this one:

You only need to get a mobile connector for 32A.

You are right it is expensive, but being snobbish about it, the commando stuff in a grey plastic box stuck on the front of a "prestige" property looks rubbish. I suspect we spent as much on sign-age as we did on this point, so it's all relative.

The other downside of the commando is you also have to consider how it's "secured" for semi-public usage. Maybe a simple padlock, but again it doesn't shout professional to visitors. So at least this one gives you the benefit of RFID cards, and time based lockout.

The other thing is my accountant/ business partners did want to monitor the usage / cost (not that it's material against our bill, but it does set minds at ease), so I would have had to add a secondary meter to the unit somehow, and remember to record the readings periodically.

Your also right I used the "slang term" charger which is not technically correct. I think I need a mod to change the thread title to "Chargepoint" or EVSE, but I doubt many on here are confused. (It isn't a "connector" either btw

)

- - - Updated - - -

Kribensa said:
Very nice Simon - especially in an office environment as you say. I'll have to come over and try it out one day

However you may want to report that they spelled "because" AS "becasue" in the first of the "We've noticed" messages and "minimum" as "mimimum" on the Manual Charging Schedule page ;-)

FWIW you can get a report of usage on the home ChargeMaster units although I don't think they tell many people because it's ... well..not very accurate at times!

You are more than welcome to have a look, I might be holding an EV meeting at the office in the not too distant future, your more than welcome to pop over.

Thanks for the tip on the ChargeMaster unit... though TBH I won't be using mine any more, electricity at work is much cheaper

spark32a · Jan 13, 2015

This thread looks to me like a hidden commercial for a JUICE BOOSTER 1.

smac said:
You are right it is expensive, but being snobbish about it, the commando stuff in a grey plastic box stuck on the front of a "prestige" property looks rubbish.

You call this thread "The worlds best home charger!!" I don't know what kind of prestige you need in your garage. For home use is definitely commando much better and much cheaper solution.

mgboyes · Jan 13, 2015

spark32a said:
This thread looks to me like a hidden commercial for a JUICE BOOSTER 1.

You call this thread "The worlds best home charger!!" I don't know what kind of prestige you need in your garage. For home use is definitely commando much better and much cheaper solution.

With respect you are posting in the UK forum but do not appear to be based in the UK.

In the UK the Model S is not supplied with a mobile charging cable so in order to use a commando point you need to buy one, for £500-£1000.

And in the UK there is a generous government grant available to install a 32A Type 2 charge point at your home completely for £0 (absolutely nothing - even the installation is paid for).

So installing a commando socket and buying a third party universal mobile connector would be very expensive and completely silly here.

smac · Jan 13, 2015

mgboyes is correct.

For other non-uk owners reading this thread, pretty much all public charging is moving over to Type-2 "Mennekes" or Rapid here. A model S is supplied only with a Type 2-Type 2 cable. So it's not just my car, but any visitors car that turns up, should be able to use the point. This is the big plus to installing a socketed Type-2 EVSE vs Commando.

There's a wider debate about how many cars can actually make use of a 22kW charge point, which is limited to the Tesla (with dual chargers) or a Zoe. I can't see the other manufacturers going over 7kW for quite a while yet, with such small batteries for home charging this is fine.

It's also worth pointing out grants toward charge points don't apply to businesses here generally. It's region specific, and very limited (I was lucky)

We had a few quotes, and semi-public grade points (they are more robust, and somewhat vandal proof) are generally in the £1000-£1500 before fitting. Proper public posts are even more to buy and more to install.

In fairness the confusion is my fault for saying "the world's best", sorry

gdavison · Jan 13, 2015

I do like that Dashboard

RS-MAC · Jan 14, 2015

That looks great, especially the browser/management access!

roym · Jan 16, 2015

Does anyone know if there's any way to get that type of reporting on a "normal" home install. I have a 32a Rolec point with an EM Lite meter (Automatic Meter Reading by GPRS) but I don't think there's any way at getting at the data. Is it possible to put an additional meter inline that will report back to see when charging starts, stops, daily consumption etc??

thanks

Roy

StephanG · Jan 19, 2015

Hi All

Looking at the comment from MEDEV I agree this is a very cost effective installation and you just need additionally a Juice Booster 1 and you can charge 22kW... (if you have 3-phase power)
English - Mobile Chargebox JUICE BOOSTER 1 - e-driver.net - THE HOME OF ELECTRIC DRIVING

Hope this helps

Kribensa · Jan 19, 2015

roym said:
Does anyone know if there's any way to get that type of reporting on a "normal" home install. I have a 32a Rolec point with an EM Lite meter (Automatic Meter Reading by GPRS) but I don't think there's any way at getting at the data. Is it possible to put an additional meter inline that will report back to see when charging starts, stops, daily consumption etc??

thanks

Roy

I don't know about Rolec, but for a ChargeMaster installation, there is this website: Login | Polar - ChargeVision (Use the "Forgotten password" with the email address you gave them at install, or phone them up for access details)
However it's not as accurate or as comprehensive as Simon's. I doubt an accountant would be happy with the data on it

mgboyes · Jan 25, 2015

StephanG said:
Hi All

Looking at the comment from MEDEV I agree this is a very cost effective installation and you just need additionally a Juice Booster 1 and you can charge 22kW... (if you have 3-phase power)
English - Mobile Chargebox JUICE BOOSTER 1 - e-driver.net - THE HOME OF ELECTRIC DRIVING

View attachment 69675 View attachment 69676

Hope this helps

But you can have a 22kW 3 phase Type 2 point installed under the OLEV grant scheme in the UK for around £500, total, which is less than half the cost of having a red commando installed and buying a Juice Booster.

(Of course the JB is useful on the road as well, but it is definitely not the cheapest solution for 3 phase home charging).

The worlds best home charger!!

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