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Which Home Charger Supplier
- Thread starter PaulMac
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- Ireland United Kingdom
I went for untethered. I was (mis/up)sold on the "future proofing" aspect.
The reality is I just left the Tesla supplied cable plugged in permanently. Bear in mind it isn't locked like this, so anyone could just walk off with it. (I'm fortunate, as you'd need an O/S survey map to find my drive, so opportune theft isn't a concern to me.)
In the end I got a cheap single phase cable, that's lighter, and shorter than the Tesla cable. This cost me about £150, I now leave this plugged into my home point permanently, so it might as well now be a tethered point.
The heavy duty 3 phase Tesla cable lives in the boot in case I want to charge when out and about (this has happened, but I don't do many miles so it's very rare)
Personally I have no plans to get another EV, and even if I did, it would be something with a Type2 / CCS port, not type 1 (J1772), so actually I could have saved myself £150+ by going tethered.
IOW Unless you see a Leaf or Outlander in your near future, I would go tethered and save yourself the £150, or the pain of getting your suit dirty coiling up your cable into the boot every morning.
(And FWIW, I suspect at some point even the Japanese cars will come equipped with Type 2 ports too in the UK, even if not CCS, but CCS + CHAdeMO, it's very likely to become an EU directive for type approval.)
The reality is I just left the Tesla supplied cable plugged in permanently. Bear in mind it isn't locked like this, so anyone could just walk off with it. (I'm fortunate, as you'd need an O/S survey map to find my drive, so opportune theft isn't a concern to me.)
In the end I got a cheap single phase cable, that's lighter, and shorter than the Tesla cable. This cost me about £150, I now leave this plugged into my home point permanently, so it might as well now be a tethered point.
The heavy duty 3 phase Tesla cable lives in the boot in case I want to charge when out and about (this has happened, but I don't do many miles so it's very rare)
Personally I have no plans to get another EV, and even if I did, it would be something with a Type2 / CCS port, not type 1 (J1772), so actually I could have saved myself £150+ by going tethered.
IOW Unless you see a Leaf or Outlander in your near future, I would go tethered and save yourself the £150, or the pain of getting your suit dirty coiling up your cable into the boot every morning.
(And FWIW, I suspect at some point even the Japanese cars will come equipped with Type 2 ports too in the UK, even if not CCS, but CCS + CHAdeMO, it's very likely to become an EU directive for type approval.)
Thanks HHudson. I spoke directly to Rolec and they gave me an approved installer that got it done within 3 days . This was finally after starting the process last Nov and two prior installers dragging their feet.
bp1000 I went for socketed to future proof myself but it is a hassle to have to get the cable out each time to plug in. I'm thinking of getting another charger installed but this time tethered for my regular runner - the Leaf.
bp1000 I went for socketed to future proof myself but it is a hassle to have to get the cable out each time to plug in. I'm thinking of getting another charger installed but this time tethered for my regular runner - the Leaf.
I think you always want a cable effectively tethered - getting a cable in and out of the car every day is tedious, especially as your daily use cable will get dirty: just handling it by the plug and draping it over a hook/the EVSE is much easier than winding it up and having to clean your hands..
The ideal is probably smac's setup: socketed charger permanently paired with a cable of just the right length (though I'm lucky that my Chargemaster tethered cable turns out to be just right for where my car is parked). As well as the ideal length, socketed means you can welcome Leaf/Ampera-driving friends, and makes for easy replacement of the cable if it gets damaged (run over?). Debatable whether the extra cost is worth it however.
The ideal is probably smac's setup: socketed charger permanently paired with a cable of just the right length (though I'm lucky that my Chargemaster tethered cable turns out to be just right for where my car is parked). As well as the ideal length, socketed means you can welcome Leaf/Ampera-driving friends, and makes for easy replacement of the cable if it gets damaged (run over?). Debatable whether the extra cost is worth it however.
Whilst we are on the topic... anyone got a picture / idea of a neat way to secure a Type-2 cable to a wall?
I have a socketed point at the office, and TBH I don't bother using it as I'm basically too lazy to get the cable out of the boot :redface:
I'm thinking of buying yet another cable for there, but whilst we do have CCTV, etc. I have a strong suspicion it would go walkies unless I can bolt it down
One thought I had was a padlock big enough to go over the cable, but not big enough for the plugs to pass through, and a chain loop bolted to the wall, just worried it might look a bit naff.
I have a socketed point at the office, and TBH I don't bother using it as I'm basically too lazy to get the cable out of the boot :redface:
I'm thinking of buying yet another cable for there, but whilst we do have CCTV, etc. I have a strong suspicion it would go walkies unless I can bolt it down
One thought I had was a padlock big enough to go over the cable, but not big enough for the plugs to pass through, and a chain loop bolted to the wall, just worried it might look a bit naff.
Whilst we are on the topic... anyone got a picture / idea of a neat way to secure a Type-2 cable to a wall?
I have a socketed point at the office, and TBH I don't bother using it as I'm basically too lazy to get the cable out of the boot :redface:
I'm thinking of buying yet another cable for there, but whilst we do have CCTV, etc. I have a strong suspicion it would go walkies unless I can bolt it down
One thought I had was a padlock big enough to go over the cable, but not big enough for the plugs to pass through, and a chain loop bolted to the wall, just worried it might look a bit naff.
Surely with your fancy Etrel unit there's a configuration option in its web UI somewhere to tell it to lock the connector in the socket and never release it? If not - perhaps ask them if they'd consider adding it as a feature - this does seem like quite an obvious use case!
Thanks guys
sounds like I should go tethered thank you.
No plans for another EV, but thought maybe the untethered was future proof but maybe not such a big deal, I assume tesla will stay as type 2 for now.
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Thanks guys
sounds like I should go tethered thank you.
No plans for another EV, but thought maybe the untethered was future proof but maybe not such a big deal, I assume tesla will stay as type 2 for now.
sounds like I should go tethered thank you.
No plans for another EV, but thought maybe the untethered was future proof but maybe not such a big deal, I assume tesla will stay as type 2 for now.
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Thanks guys
sounds like I should go tethered thank you.
No plans for another EV, but thought maybe the untethered was future proof but maybe not such a big deal, I assume tesla will stay as type 2 for now.
Thanks Martin, I think it's just a little short for me
I think I'll need a 3m one for the office, and my charge point is on the wrong side for this to work at home, where I need 5m.I can actually see that being pretty handy for one of the new owners that has a socket fitted close to the cars charge port. (I'd expect us old hands now all have tethered or a spare, it really doesn't take long to get fed up with it).
It would probably work at all the public stations I've been to, but I can count those on one hand, so the reduction in coiling the cable back up isn't enough for me to pay you what it's worth
<mini rant>
Personally I wish all public charging was tethered. The Ecotricity points are so much more sensible than socketed types that refuse to give you your cable back! (Speaking from experience as you can tell!)
Hopefully EU brings in legislation to the car manufacturers and we can relegate Type-1 to history, and stop all this nonsense. Besides the irretrievable cable problems, faffing about with cables at public points just puts prospective owners off. With more cars than charge points, it is also pretty stupid from a resource point of view.
Type-1's lack of 3 phase really was short sighted, and prevents it being useful in lots of European countries for cars like the Model S with big range and higher power requirements that go with it.
</mini rant>
I think I dodged a bullet - Western Power came back today and they will move my neighbour to their own single phase and give me my own single phase in order to allow 2 wall charge points...plus all they want is a Wayleave permission...no charge. Of course going to take 3-4 weeks to get work done so touch and go whether I fall into next OLEV grant period and price impact. Even if Rolec start charging some amount for the 32 amp with the grant going down to £700, it could have been a lot worse with DNO fees.
I have to hope that if Tesla is now only shipping single chargers in the car they have a fix to allow 32 amp charging.
For those with Rolec units is the blue/green LED quite obvious? I am quite close to the road and do not really want a flashing blue light shouting look at me to someone stumbling back from the pub. :smile:
I have to hope that if Tesla is now only shipping single chargers in the car they have a fix to allow 32 amp charging.
For those with Rolec units is the blue/green LED quite obvious? I am quite close to the road and do not really want a flashing blue light shouting look at me to someone stumbling back from the pub. :smile:
Just don't set your scheduled charge to correspond with last orders. The lights on the car's charge port come on briefly, and they could land a 747
Having tried @mgboyes suggestion with my fancy charger with no success, this is what I'm thinking as plan B.
This bolted to the wall:
Faithfull Hardware | Tooltray.com
With a padlock round the cable and through this ring. My thinking is this would still allow the cable to be somewhat mobile as it will slide through the padlock.
Thank's Lloyd, but I'm not sure that solves our issue.
Here in the UK we have the equivalent of public charging points fitted for free to our houses, normally something like this one:
What we are looking for is a way to keep our Type-2 cables safe whilst the car isn't present (bear in mind the UK Model S secures the cable pretty firmly anyway.)
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Yep, a number of different types. Some are flat-blade but tighten only, some are torx with a special key in them, some are triangular....
... or you can bodge it!! Just use regular screws, then run a large drill bit into them to round them out, or just fill them with epoxy
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