Home charger woes...

[Fellsteruk]

Hey,

Thought I’d share as I’m sure others will find themselves in same situation if they don’t own massive detached houses.

So I’ve been worrying about how I’m gonna get a home charger fitted and a super nice helpful chap came out today “one of the approved installers for Tesla” and essentially said my only option is to run the cable inside the house and use a conduit to hide it, a solution for sure but means I’ll have this running the length of my house from front door where consumer unit is, through the lounge, kitchen/diner out the back then along the garden.

Not shared this news with the wife yet but I’m guessing I know her thoughts “no way” and honestly it would be an eye sore, also not yet got a quote for this, that’s to follow this week.

Now for plan B...
Spoke to the local council today about getting a dropped kerb and if there are any issues from a highway regulation POV about me having a dropped kerb on a road which has a bus lane “getting back to me in the week” the reason this wasn’t plan A is that for this to work I have to get planning permission from my council and because my house is leasehold, I’ll have to get permission from them also which I’m guessing will be impossible and looking at terms of the ground lease I’m unable to do anything without permission

Obviously this would make more sense, sure it’s gonna cost me best part of £3k to get the kerb dropped and pave or gravel my drive but actually the extra parking would be very useful and add to value of property but being a new build I’m not hopeful.

Plan C
I’ve been advised against going over my house but I’ve got another installer I’m gonna try get out next week to see if he would be open to the idea... so watch this space.

Also could someone tell me what the diameter of the wire is on the Tesla chargers? For plan A I’ve got to find “something” to cover the part of the wire that will cross my neighbours parking space so she can drive over it OR can she just drive over it, I’m guessing not

Reality is that I won’t be plugging in u til after she’s in for the night and will be leaving at 6am before she’s up so unlikely but being a public space I need to attempt to mitigate tripping and damage to my cable.

 

[unbelievable]

So with plan A where are you going to park the car? You say the cable would go from your front door to the back of your garden so presumably you have parking behind your garden?

It doesn't have to go through your house, although 4mm cable is enough for a 32a supply so you wouldn't need massive conduit. Have you got access to the side of your house?

You mention your neighbour, do you share a drive or parking area?

Sounds like plan A is probably the best option. You don't have to use a tesla installer. I used a local electrician to fit a 32a commando socket.

 

[arg]

Why were they against going up the wall, through the attic, and down the other side? That's a very common way to solve the problem.

You certainly don't want anybody driving over a trailing cable. I don't have a Tesla unit to hand, but a similar 3-phase type2 cable is 17mm. It'll be too big for the simple 'rubber bump' style protectors, but the solid plastic style with a lid would be OK. Something like this would do the job (but this particular one fiercely expensive since you'd need several lengths).

Personally, I'd be trying hard to get a supply into the garage by one means or another (power/light in the garage adding value to the house aside from allowing EV charging).

 

[WannabeOwner]

if they don’t own massive detached houses

Hehehe ...

run the cable inside the house and use a conduit to hide it,

Could you not chase it in , instead? Not sure if there a a heat-dissipation issue that requires conduit?

Still a big make-good-afterwards issue ...

Not shared this news with the wife yet

The cost of the away-day(s) for Spa-and-Pampering is going to cost a lot more than the £3K for the dropped curbs!

I think the council will, at some point, be amenable to changes to street infrastructure to accommodate EV recharging ... but I'll eat my hat if they are already at that cross-roads. You could ask them though?

 

[WannabeOwner]

So with plan A where are you going to park the car?

@Fellsteruk included a plan in another thread:

Interior ??

 

[Fellsteruk]

Thanks for all the comment s guys will try and answer all but sorry if I miss any

unbelievable
My house is essentially a mid terraced so no access from sides, I do have parking at the rear of my house but not directly behind the house as my garage and space is about 3meters away.

Arg
It’s a 3 story house but the 3rd floor is in the roof so I don’t really have an attic as such, my ask of them was could you go over the roof but that didn’t seem like a goer for them.

Power to the garage is technically possible but I’d have to get permission from 4 parties and whilst I’m lookin at this I don’t think it’s going to pan out or could be costly but it’s definetly what I’d want to do but I’d still have the challenge of getting the supply from the front of my house.

Wannabe
I thought that myself but apparently not and even asked if I could lay the cable myself “take the time to hide it” but they need to see it to sign it off. I’m speaking with the council about the kerb and other solutions for street charging but everything is just super slow

With regards to your suggestion for a route it’s possible if I get everyone to agree but then still need to find a better way to get the supply from the house other than along the walls

 

[WannabeOwner]

Nightmare ... sadly a lot of people are going to have these issues with EV charging as the infrastructure needs to be adapted ... although maybe FSD will bring an end to on-street parking in terraced streets before the lack of infrastructure becomes a problem?

Sorry (but glad ) that you are an early adopter

 

[Webeevdrivers]

Nightmare ... sadly a lot of people are going to have these issues with EV charging as the infrastructure needs to be adapted ... although maybe FSD will bring an end to on-street parking in terraced streets before the lack of infrastructure becomes a problem?

Sorry (but glad ) that you are an early adopter

Where i

Thanks for all the comment s guys will try and answer all but sorry if I miss any

unbelievable
My house is essentially a mid terraced so no access from sides, I do have parking at the rear of my house but not directly behind the house as my garage and space is about 3meters away.

Arg
It’s a 3 story house but the 3rd floor is in the roof so I don’t really have an attic as such, my ask of them was could you go over the roof but that didn’t seem like a goer for them.

Power to the garage is technically possible but I’d have to get permission from 4 parties and whilst I’m lookin at this I don’t think it’s going to pan out or could be costly but it’s definetly what I’d want to do but I’d still have the challenge of getting the supply from the front of my house.

Wannabe
I thought that myself but apparently not and even asked if I could lay the cable myself “take the time to hide it” but they need to see it to sign it off. I’m speaking with the council about the kerb and other solutions for street charging but everything is just super slow

With regards to your suggestion for a route it’s possible if I get everyone to agree but then still need to find a better way to get the supply from the house other than along the walls

Where is your washer dryer? Can you use a “Dryer buddy” and an RV 50 amp extension cord? Where is your stove? Same idea.

How about a ”Quick 220” device. You”ll only have 12 amps at 220 but better than nothing.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Where is your washer dryer? Can you use a “Dryer buddy” and an RV 50 amp extension cord? Where is your stove? Same idea.

How about a ”Quick 220” device. You”ll only have 12 amps at 220 but better than nothing.

As this is the UK forum ... I don't think any of that applies. We have 240V throughout the house, we don't need special sockets for driers etc., and tend to have those "White Goods" in the house, not the garage ... and for "Stove" we burn Oil or Gas, rarely electric, and we don't have/need Air Con. (central or otherwise)

 

[arg]

It’s a 3 story house but the 3rd floor is in the roof so I don’t really have an attic as such, my ask of them was could you go over the roof but that didn’t seem like a goer for them.

Ah ok. Going over the top of the roof is theoretically possible with suitable cable, but you can't just sling it over and hope in the way Sky seem to regard as acceptable for their antenna cables - it would need to be fixed in place. So the effort of doing that and the issues of working-at-height on a 3-storey roof probably does render it impractical.

In the less-hassle-but-very-expensive category, there's always the option of getting a separate supply (ie. your own supplier's meter) in the garage. Still not entirely hassle-free as they'd probably need to dig up somewhere to intercept the main in the street, and by the sound of things a lot of that land is neither yours nor public highway. Maybe worth asking for a quote.

 

[WannabeOwner]

"mole" under the house not a thing that is doable presumably?

 

[MagicMagicD]

I've been having a different set of woes getting a home charger sorted. In my case it's been one obscure problem after another, with the current one being a 'looped' electricity connection on my mid-fifties built semi-detached house.

I do think charging, both public and private, will be the main barrier to greater EV adoption...

 

[anonymouse]

It certainly isn't easy to find an approach which minimises disruption in the house.

Our electrician is proposing a different approach for our wall charger - rather than route through the house from the distribution panel he is going to tee off from the meter cupboard outside, cutting an additional outside box into the wall alongside and putting a small separate distribution / circuit breaker panel in there. This outdoor supply will run the Tesla charger, plus later another charger, plus some new outside lighting.

An unresolved question is how much current we are drawing in our large house already (induction hob, halogen lights, dryer etc) and what happens if we add two cars - we wonder whether we might hit the 100A limit and blow the main fuse (which requires an electrician to visit). That would be a bit of a nightmare!

 

[arg]

we add two cars

Unless you do a huge daily mileage and need to charge both cars all night, you can simply get two Tesla wall connectors and configure them to share the power. Or other chargepoints like Zappi that can monitor the current draw in the rest of the house and dial up the charge rate when you've switched off other things.

(induction hob, halogen lights, dryer etc)

Induction hobs sometimes spook electricians, but they don't actually use any more energy than a conventional hob to do the same amount of cooking (they just use it a bit more quickly), hence not a big deal for blowing the main fuse unless it's a commercial kitchen. If you've got enough halogen lights to be material in comparison to charging the car, then switching them for LEDs should probably be a priority...

 

[WannabeOwner]

@anonymouse like your handle, but wonder if it should have been autonomouse ?!

they just use it a bit more quickly

Can't find what the power consumption of my hob is ... if there are any, the Sparky Docs are not posted online.

It has double-boost on the rings (although that can only be used on two rings at once), we also have regular oven and a "big one" ... I reckon they soak up some power when on full tilt.

Actually, I suppose I could see what the voltage drop is, on the car charger screen, when I turn the whole lot on?

, then switching them for LEDs should probably be a priority

I have a friend with many halogen lights in his house. They blow often and don't have much lifespan. He told me it is considerably cheaper to replace them than consider changing to LEDs ...

I'm replacing all the LED strips we have here (in cabinets and under kitchen units) with better quality ones. One of the cabinet LEDs failed in "shorted" state over a holiday weekend, and that circuit shared all the main kitchen lights, and couldn't re-engage breaker ...

I'm also having all the LED strips moved to share same controller as I don't care if one-fails all-fail, compared to losing kitchen lights, and also where kitchen lights are multiple circuits then split them over controllers. (Why would the installer not have done this? seems obvious to me, now I am confronted with the problem.)

(This is a Lutron lighting system, not some cheap-and-cheerful sparky-daisy-chained-some-lights)

 

[Terry_B58]

OK. Long shot this, but would it be possible to run a catenary wire from a 'substantial' support above your roof direct to another structure at your charging area?

This will alleviate any internal damage/unsightly cables but would not be a cheap solution.

Similar to this pic, but above your house.

 

[culverwood]

Landmark moment for electric vehicles with first lampost chargers switched on | News | Wandsworth Council
I work in the street lighting industry but have no financial interest in Ubitricity,

 

[Fellsteruk]

Thanks for all the suggestions... Quick Update...

Plan B - Officially dead, local council just sent me a letter and said they wont lower the kerb, i've asked for them to look again but It's going nowhere however had another guy out today and now I have a solid alternative...

Plan C...
Looks like going over the house is almost possible, gonna go out the front of the house up into the bedroom ceiling “it’s in the loft” across and out through the back, down the house along the back of the garden to a socket on the fence and best of all I can lay the cable

Gonna be around 35meters of cable which is going to be fun laying and around £120 just for the cable which will be 6mm 3core armoured

In terms of chargers, I’m starting to lean towards one of these EO MINI HOME CHARGER.

Anyone using one, got any thoughts?

 

[Fellsteruk]

Do these figures seem right:

 

[arg]

6mm 3core armoured

Challenge him on that. Why 3-core? Nearly always, 2-core is what you want (armour serves as the CPC).

Some people use 3-core on 2-core jobs just so they don't have to keep 2-core on the van, but here you are paying for a substantial length and care about the weight/diameter as you are trying to hide it.

(the clue here is that 2-core is sold in normal brown/blue colours for single phase use; 3-core is brown/black/grey for three-phase use; neither has a green/yellow in it as you don't need one).

Do these figures seem right:

No, they must be for some other car (Zoe maybe?). The miles/hour are mildly optimistic for a Tesla, but the time-to-charge are much too short so presumably assuming a smaller battery.

Anyhow, unless you have a 3-phase supply at home you haven't told us about, the only one worth considering is the 7.2kW (and anybody's 7.2kW charger will charge at the same speed). Chargemaster and I think PodPoint are 30A rather than 32A so 6.9kW rather than 7.2kW, but the difference isn't enough to be a big consideration.