Electrician in Cheshire to install Tesla charger - recommendation?

[bangtidy]

Hi,

M3P arriving next Wednesday (much sooner than expected) which has caught me out as I don't have a charger installed at home yet.

A friend has a new Tesla wall charger to give me (he got it through referrals) so I just need to get it fitted in the garage.

Can anyone recommend a suitable electrician in Cheshire (Wilmslow, Alderly Edge, Knutsford)?

Thanks!

 

[MrBadger]

watch out, that 'just' word may come back to bite...

Tesla do have an approved list of installers but my experience they quote 2-3x what the job should be.

 

[Jetson Jones]

Thinking of changing career myself as I have found its a licence to print your own money.

 

[pow216]

Good luck. Nobody seems to want to install a charger they don't supply and then bag a grant for. And if you mention hidden cables - ghosted!

 

[NewbieT]

Could try: https://www.applegarth.co.uk did a good job of my podpoint.

 

[bangtidy]

Quick sanity check - I had the following quote for the installation of the Tesla charger that I've been given:-

Labour £230.00+vat.
Cable/Fixings/Cleats. £35.00+vat.
1x Matte protection unit £155.00+vat (If required)

I queried what the Matte unit was for and was told the following:-

"Regulations stipulate that all EV Pods require a separate earth from the building, this is usually done by installing an earth rod, we favour the Matte unit because it’s easier to install. We will check that your charge point doesn’t already have something like this fitted already.

Please see link to Matte website for more details.

Electric Vehicle Connection Units"

From a bit of Googling, I gather that the new regulations only require this if the charger is installed outside or the charging ever takes place outside. My charging will all take place inside the garage.

Also, I read the following in the Tesla charger's installation manual (p6):-

"The Wall Connector has a ground monitoring circuit that continuously checks for the presence of a safe ground connection and automatically recovers from faults. Manual testing and resetting is not required. Temporary problems such as ground faults or utility power surges are overcome automatically. If a residual current fault occurs that interrupts charging, the Wall Connector automatically tries to clear the fault and reattempt charging. If the problem is immediately sensed a second time, the Wall Connector waits 15 minutes before trying to charge. This process repeats 4 times and if all attempts are unsuccessful, power is removed and no further attempts are made. In this case, you will see a red error light on the front panel (refer to Troubleshooting on page 21). It is recommended that when you see a red error light, you power o€ the Wall Connector by switching o€ the upstream circuit breaker, and then power it back on again."

Am I right in thinking that I shouldn't need the Matte unit?

Thanks!

 

[AndyS3]

If you've got a spare MCB slot on your fuse board, fit a C rated 40 Amp MCB. Wire up, straight forward really.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Quick sanity check - I had the following quote for the installation of the Tesla charger that I've been given:-

Labour £230.00+vat.
Cable/Fixings/Cleats. £35.00+vat.
1x Matte protection unit £155.00+vat (If required)

I queried what the Matte unit was for and was told the following:-

"Regulations stipulate that all EV Pods require a separate earth from the building, this is usually done by installing an earth rod, we favour the Matte unit because it’s easier to install. We will check that your charge point doesn’t already have something like this fitted already.

Please see link to Matte website for more details.

Electric Vehicle Connection Units"

From a bit of Googling, I gather that the new regulations only require this if the charger is installed outside or the charging ever takes place outside. My charging will all take place inside the garage.

Also, I read the following in the Tesla charger's installation manual (p6):-

"The Wall Connector has a ground monitoring circuit that continuously checks for the presence of a safe ground connection and automatically recovers from faults. Manual testing and resetting is not required. Temporary problems such as ground faults or utility power surges are overcome automatically. If a residual current fault occurs that interrupts charging, the Wall Connector automatically tries to clear the fault and reattempt charging. If the problem is immediately sensed a second time, the Wall Connector waits 15 minutes before trying to charge. This process repeats 4 times and if all attempts are unsuccessful, power is removed and no further attempts are made. In this case, you will see a red error light on the front panel (refer to Troubleshooting on page 21). It is recommended that when you see a red error light, you power o€ the Wall Connector by switching o€ the upstream circuit breaker, and then power it back on again."

Am I right in thinking that I shouldn't need the Matte unit?

Thanks!

First off, that labour price looks OK, and is probably the first realistic-looking labour price I've seen for a charge point install - some seem to be charging two or three times that much, which is, IMHO, taking the mickey just a bit.

The materials price also looks fine, again very reasonable, and pretty much what I'd expect.

The matt-e device is an alternative to fitting a Type B RCBO plus an earth electrode, although we have debated here (in another thread) as to whether it really provides the degree of protection required by the regs. See this post onwards for some further observations:Home Charging Stations (see post #38 onwards for discussion about the matt-e device).

The Tesla wall charge point does NOT include DC earth leakage current protection, so it must be installed with suitable protection external to the unit. The recommended method, just because it's usually easy and understood by most electricians pretty well (or should be) is to fit a Type B RCBO in the supply cable to the charge point, isolate the charge point CPC ("earth wire") from the house PE (Protective Earth) and install an earth electrode in the ground near to the charge point location, connected to the charge point PE.

The snag with this method is that Type B RCBOs have tended to be very expensive, however, their price is coming down, and I can now buy one for ~£85. That brings the cost of this option (Type B RCBO, earth electrode, clamp, cable, box, etc) down to around £100 to £120, so both cheaper than the matt-e device, and definitely compliant with Section 722 of the regs. If your sparks is having a problem finding an affordable Type B RCBO, then I can probably dig out the link I have buried somewhere for the supplier (they tend to be rarer than hen's teeth).

[edited to fix fat finger typo...]

 

[Glan gluaisne]

If you've got a spare MCB slot on your fuse board, fit a C rated 40 Amp MCB. Wire up, straight forward really.

Sorry, but absolutely, definitely, do NOT do this. Any supply used primarily to charge an EV must comply with the requirements in Section 722 of BS7671:2018, and these requirements stipulate a more stringent level of earth leakage protection than would be provided by any normal RCD within a domestic CU (which will most probably be a Type AC), plus they also stipulate that a charge point that does not have internal DC earth leakage protection (and the TWC does not) should not (except under a difficult to achieve set of conditions) be connected to a TN-C-S/PME earthing system, but should have it's own TT earthing system together with DC sensitive earth leakage protection.

In addition, it is not wise to connect a load that is going to draw ~30 A for long periods of time to an MCB/RCBO within a consumer unit that has lots of other circuits, unless an air gap is left either side. Any protective device like this will generate heat under load, and because a charge point can be drawing current for many hours, that heat needs to be able to dissipate. If you point a thermal camera at a consumer unit you will find that it runs warm internally, even without something like a charge point running.

 

[bangtidy]

Thanks for that Jeremy - really appreciate your info.

I think I may just go with it on the assumption that they will have to install the matte box. As the installation is inside the garage, I suspect it will be easier than having to route an earth cable from a stake in the ground outside.

I found the box a bit cheaper online (£156 delivered) so might just order that myself for them to install on the day (unless they're willing to match the price):-

Matt:e Single Phase EV Voltage Monitoring and Protection Unit with Type A RCBO (SP-EVCP-R) | CEF

Thanks!