Communal Electric Charger for Rented Flat - Advise!

[IAmBoony]

Morning all,

I have a couple of questions.I cannot seem to find the answer to on here:

I Live in a rented block of flats that have 6 apartments and a private car park, my landlord is happy to have an EV charger installed, but wants it of the communal electric (for future proofing)

1) Is it possible to know which car is using the electric (if someone else gets an EV too)
2) Is there a supplier that locks the charger, so you need a card or PIN to use?
3) Does Octopus cover a scenario like this?

Would love to hear from anyone else in a similar situation and how you resolved it.

Thanks

 

[MrT3]

You would need a commercial grade destination charger. At my place of work we have ones that require an RFID tag to start it - in this case the fobs are shared and held at reception but no reason why a more advanced charger couldn't allow multiple fobs that keeps track of usage against each one.

 

[MrBadger]

You probably want to be looking at managed devices like you might find at an office setup.

Good that your landlord is looking at the bigger picture. We had one installed in a block, but landlord/management company (consortium of the owners) and they were not interested in a shared scenario, but allowed us to install our own dedicated one. More fool them as the block is only going to take another at that capacity (another one also installed, so just one phase remaining) as the phases are shared amongst a number of flats so there is not an unlimited capacity for numerous constant high power devices.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

For a small block, there are some relatively cheap chargers that can be controlled via an app. As long as they have logging it should be OK.

 

[NewbieT]

EO do load sharing between multiple chargers and have an app to restrict to authorised user accounts/measure consumption. If I were a landlord I’d go down a concession/managed route and have a charge point operator install and manage it all for me. E.g pod point.

 

[WannabeOwner]

At work we have a QR code on each charger, and then in the APP you start the charge.

All sorts of options available to the "landlord"

Anyone can charge "Free vend"
Anyone registered can charge (and Admin has an override, e.g. for a Visitor)
Anyone registered can charge and then they will be billed per kWh / whatever

The chargers were not expensive (compared to domestic) [that I remember] and we got a grant of some sort for about 50% of the cost (back then ... country is broke now!)

Only piece of info I have to hand is that the APP is called "EO"

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

EO do load sharing between multiple chargers and have an app to restrict to authorised user accounts/measure consumption. If I were a landlord I’d go down a concession/managed route and have a charge point operator install and manage it all for me. E.g pod point.

If I were a tenant I'd prefer the landlord not to use a fully managed service as they tend to be expensive, which has knock on effects. I'd prefer that they find something that can easily and cheaply handle access and billing, and then use their regular electricians to replace it in case of failure. EVSEs aren't anything special.

 

[MrBadger]

and then use their regular electricians to replace it in case of failure. EVSEs aren't anything special.

A regular electrician isn't likely going to be able to install in a communal block. Its very likely going to be classified as an industrial installation so will need an electrician with the relevant industrial (rather than domestic) certifications as they will be working on the supply of multiple occupants.

 

[Kansalis]

My work has 20 BP Pulse chargers that need a specially-provisioned BP Pulse card to use. My company sets the cost per kWh (15p I think, at the moment). I don't know how the contract works, but suspect there's a maintenance fee for the upkeep of the charging service rather than a per-kWh fee to the landlord. Then the landlord is responsible for the power, and the provider just for their EVSE & payment system. To the user, the chargers work the same way as a normal 11kW BP Pulse unit, including being supported by BP on their phone line if they are not working.

My daughter is moving into a new build flat soon & they have around 25% of the allocated parking spaces fitted with chargers. If someone has an EV, they get allocated a space with a charger fed from the communal power. They have a separate app and payment system which we were told works in a similar way to the other public charger brands. I forget the brand, it was one I haven't heard of.

I expect there are quite a few providers who would do the managed-service setup. It just depends how much the landlord is willing to pay for the service. I wouldn't be surprised if there are very low-cost options due to grants etc too.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

A regular electrician isn't likely going to be able to install in a communal block. Its very likely going to be classified as an industrial installation so will need an electrician with the relevant industrial (rather than domestic) certifications as they will be working on the supply of multiple occupants.

It'd still be whoever the landlord uses for any other communal electrical work.

 

[qwickshot]

Morning all,

I have a couple of questions.I cannot seem to find the answer to on here:

I Live in a rented block of flats that have 6 apartments and a private car park, my landlord is happy to have an EV charger installed, but wants it of the communal electric (for future proofing)

1) Is it possible to know which car is using the electric (if someone else gets an EV too)
2) Is there a supplier that locks the charger, so you need a card or PIN to use?
3) Does Octopus cover a scenario like this?

Would love to hear from anyone else in a similar situation and how you resolved it.

Thanks

To directly contradict other responses here.

As it’s a small block, I’m going to strongly recommend you push for your own charger on your designated parking space which is wired back to your flats supply for a few reasons:

A communal charger will be more expensive and the landlord will no doubt add on service charges on top.

You’ll not have access to domestic time of use charging rates and will therefore be paying over the odds for charging.

The communal supply will probably not be large enough to run more than 2 charge points. It’s only sized to run lights, door access and perhaps heat for the lobby. You’ll be lucky if it’s 100A single phase. It will cost big money to have that upgraded.

Every unit is going to want their own charger. You may be the only person now, but eventually your 5 neighbours will want to use it as well. See the point above about the likely limited power available. If they only install one now, what’s going to happen when your neighbour gets an EV and you both want/need to use it at the same time. Someone’s not going to be happy.

Each flat is likely to have an 80a supply, for a small block the best approach is often to wire individual chargers back to the individual flats supply. That owner can take advantage of domestic time of use rates. The biggest issue is usually getting the cables over to the right place and it’s likely there will need to be some groundwork done.

Artisan electrics did a YouTube video prising up an install for a small block of flats. I’d check that out.

There are grants for blocks of flats, including groundwork’s for future installs.

 

[Jason71]

To directly contradict other responses here.

As it’s a small block, I’m going to strongly recommend you push for your own charger on your designated parking space which is wired back to your flats supply for a few reasons:

A communal charger will be more expensive and the landlord will no doubt add on service charges on top.

You’ll not have access to domestic time of use charging rates and will therefore be paying over the odds for charging.

The communal supply will probably not be large enough to run more than 2 charge points. It’s only sized to run lights, door access and perhaps heat for the lobby. You’ll be lucky if it’s 100A single phase. It will cost big money to have that upgraded.

Every unit is going to want their own charger. You may be the only person now, but eventually your 5 neighbours will want to use it as well. See the point above about the likely limited power available. If they only install one now, what’s going to happen when your neighbour gets an EV and you both want/need to use it at the same time. Someone’s not going to be happy.

Each flat is likely to have an 80a supply, for a small block the best approach is often to wire individual chargers back to the individual flats supply. That owner can take advantage of domestic time of use rates. The biggest issue is usually getting the cables over to the right place and it’s likely there will need to be some groundwork done.

Artisan electrics did a YouTube video prising up an install for a small block of flats. I’d check that out.

There are grants for blocks of flats, including groundwork’s for future installs.

 

[WannabeOwner]

You’ll be lucky if it’s 100A single phase. It will cost big money to have that upgraded.

For a block of flats wouldn't the supply be 3-Phase? (IDK)

I understand that the communal bits would be "a thin wire" but for the EVs T-ing off the 3-Phase would be necessary, I reckon.

 

[NewbieT]

With a concession contract you pay for the capital cost, financing, maintenance/testing, repairs and software in the p/kWh. With a landlord owned unit, the landlord pays capital cost, maintains etc, manages, etc and service charges the lot. The point is, either way, there is a cost that’s got to be paid and the landlord isn’t going to foot the bill.

With a poor landlord you might be better off with a charge point operator. With a good landlord you might land on your feet. It also depends on if you’re renting or leaseholder. Rented: you won’t want to pay capital cost (at all). Leaseholder and you might prefer to.

It all depends.

 

[Js1977]

Wallbox has the Features required for this type of use plus already integrates with Intelligent Octopus, Not that it would apply to this case scenario.

 

[Krokkodillo]

I had similar scenario, 8 flats, 1 charger installed, cable run to my consumer unit, Easee one charger installed where you can add users and assign rfids for users. Then you need to manually generate biling report monthly for each user.

 

[Adopado]

At least there are still some grants towards available for installing charge points at flats:

Electric vehicle chargepoint and infrastructure grants for landlords

Apply for an electric vehicle chargepoint grant or an electric vehicle infrastructure grant if you rent out, lease or manage a residential or commercial property in the UK.

www.gov.uk

 

[qwickshot]

For a block of flats wouldn't the supply be 3-Phase? (IDK)

I understand that the communal bits would be "a thin wire" but for the EVs T-ing off the 3-Phase would be necessary, I reckon.

The incoming supply will already be allocated to the flats so there is unlikely to be any spare capacity.

Say there are 6 flats, each phase will already have 2 each running off them and you can’t just take capacity already allocated to others. Remember, each flat has the opportunity to draw 80-100A, EV chargers or not.

The communal supply will be tiny which is why I suggest that each EV charger probably needs to be contained within each flats individual supply and therefore within the overall capacity of the building.

Putting in a new supply will likely cost in excess of £10k given DNO’s don’t have a habit of putting in more capacity than is needed.

 

[NewbieT]

The incoming supply will already be allocated to the flats so there is unlikely to be any spare capacity.

Say there are 6 flats, each phase will already have 2 each running off them and you can’t just take capacity already allocated to others. Remember, each flat has the opportunity to draw 80-100A, EV chargers or not.

The communal supply will be tiny which is why I suggest that each EV charger probably needs to be contained within each flats individual supply and therefore within the overall capacity of the building.

Putting in a new supply will likely cost in excess of £10k given DNO’s don’t have a habit of putting in more capacity than is needed.

That’s a lot of assumptions about a lot of different buildings from different decades, developers, DNOs. If we’re just talking about one or two 7kW chargers there might be no issue. Landlord supply in a small block is probably the same cut-out size as for a flat and all its running a few LED lights and a door entry. 2x7kW w/load balancing might be no issue.

 

[ringi]

But two EV chargers will not be good enough in a few years.