Which home charging point?

[5s Alive]

Lord Flashheart said:

Pic of the EO by my glasses for scale.

For comparison [may be helpful to others] my reading glasses atop the SyncEv. Can barely turn them sideways as it's fairly shallow which is a consideration where space is at a premium.

[ZesPak]

This thread is turning into a real spectacle.

[Lord Flashheart]

ZesPak said:

This thread is turning into a real spectacle.

[5s Alive]

Lord Flashheart said:

ZesPak said:

This thread is turning into a real spectacle.

[Jonny_]

C63sxb said:

Lord Flashheart said:

C63sxb said:

Lord Flashheart said:

Just an update on my charger situation. I have run an armoured cable and bought an EO Mini Pro 2 with a Garo dedicated consumer unit. Materials were around £500 and I'm just waiting on a sparky to make the connections, which I expect will cost around £250 -£300. I'm very happy with that considering the pain in the arse run for the cable.
Pic of the EO by my glasses for scale.

Just to make you aware, you need to be EO accredited to commission their chargers.

I don’t know why, they are a very basic unit.

Customer support is non-existent, check out the reviews on trust pilot. The worst score of any charging company

I didn't know that and definitely didn't see anything about dedicated commissioning. I'd better look through the instructions!

You have to set up the customer site, before install

They don’t advertise the fact

https://www.speakev.com/threads/eo-approved-instal...

Yes, I had been quite pleased with my EO charger until recently, when it started playing up and I discovered just how little control over the damn thing I actually have as the owner/end user.

Certainly would not have another, and should mine fail completely outside of warranty it's getting junked in favour of something like an OpenEVSE kit.

[Dan_1981]

We now find ourselves in a position where we require a type 2 charger.

Obviously have now missed the boat on the grant, so my question is what's my 'cheapest' option?

Work have a partnership with pod point who have quoted £779 for a tethered unit vs the website price of £949 -

Is this a decent price? Can I do better?

[andburg]

be wary, that quote may be for standard install which probably is to a spare 32a breaker on your consumer unit and up to 3ft of cable, real installs rarely seem to fit the standard they specify

[Dan_1981]

andburg said:

be wary, that quote may be for standard install which probably is to a spare 32a breaker on your consumer unit and up to 3ft of cable, real installs rarely seem to fit the standard they specify

This is what's included....

Fitting of a Pod Point on a brick or plaster wall, or to another suitable permanent structure.

Up to 15 metres (50 feet) of cable, run and neatly clipped to the wall between the electricity supply meter / distribution board and the Pod Point.

Routing of the cable through a drilled hole in a wall up to 500mm (20 inches) thick, if this is needed.

The fitting and testing of electrical connections and protections required for the Pod Point.

An additional three way consumer unit, if required.

Installation of a Type C MCB and a Type A RCD in an RCBO enclosure.

Up to 3 metres (10 feet) of plastic conduit to conceal interior wiring.

An earth rod in soft ground, if required.

[andburg]

sorted then

layout dependent I'd rather they ran the cable internally than have it clipped to an exterior wall but that's just me.

[Dan_1981]

andburg said:

sorted then

layout dependent I'd rather they ran the cable internally than have it clipped to an exterior wall but that's just me.

Thanks Andburg & pricing is reasonable?

[Frimley111R]

Dan_1981 said:

We now find ourselves in a position where we require a type 2 charger.

Obviously have now missed the boat on the grant, so my question is what's my 'cheapest' option?

Work have a partnership with pod point who have quoted £779 for a tethered unit vs the website price of £949 -

Is this a decent price? Can I do better?

Yep, go with that, you won't get much cheaper tbh (assume it includes VAT?).

[hepy]

Frimley111R said:

Dan_1981 said:

We now find ourselves in a position where we require a type 2 charger.

Obviously have now missed the boat on the grant, so my question is what's my 'cheapest' option?

Work have a partnership with pod point who have quoted £779 for a tethered unit vs the website price of £949 -

Is this a decent price? Can I do better?

Yep, go with that, you won't get much cheaper tbh (assume it includes VAT?).

Had a Podpoint for almost two years and now you do timed charging via the Podpoint app rather than having to mess with your car settings (Kia E Niro timed charging is a nightmare) it's a really decent outfit.

However, an EO looks much neater.

[Frimley111R]

hepy said:

Had a Podpoint for almost two years and now you do timed charging via the Podpoint app rather than having to mess with your car settings (Kia E Niro timed charging is a nightmare) it's a really decent outfit.

However, an EO looks much neater.

They changed the design since yours was fitted. It's better to use your car's scheduling than the chargers too.

The EO/SyncEV are the smallest on the market and sell well because of this (SyncEV smallest of the two and more advanced currently). Most others are much larger.

[Billigmeister]

we have just ordered our first EV - an E-C4 with the 11kw facility.

I think we are going to go for a standard 7kw unit - probably tethered. But i have a couple of questions

1 - if you choose tethered - there is little or no flexibility in making changes to that arrangement. For example if you have a 5/7.5m tethered cable, if you had access issues (building work/skips etc) then you are not able to use a form of "extension charging cable" to extend your tethered cable?

2 - Is the 11kw or 22kw 3 ph approach likely to be the standard in years to come or is that also likely to be superseded by the next iteration?

I think there are many questions and i guess i am looking for something that will at least be relevant for the next 10 years or so?

thanks

[Frimley111R]

Billigmeister said:

we have just ordered our first EV - an E-C4 with the 11kw facility.

I think we are going to go for a standard 7kw unit - probably tethered. But i have a couple of questions

1 - if you choose tethered - there is little or no flexibility in making changes to that arrangement. For example if you have a 5/7.5m tethered cable, if you had access issues (building work/skips etc) then you are not able to use a form of "extension charging cable" to extend your tethered cable?

2 - Is the 11kw or 22kw 3 ph approach likely to be the standard in years to come or is that also likely to be superseded by the next iteration?

1. Correct. It's a fairly unlikely scenario though.

2. No. You'd need a 3Ph supply for 11/22kW and generally only very large homes/properties and businesses have 3Ph. 7kW is plenty for an EV, 7kW is a a third of the total power to your home. With any current standard home charger you won't need to worry about future proofing.

[Billigmeister]

much appreciated

[FiF]

Billigmeister said:

we have just ordered our first EV - an E-C4 with the 11kw facility.

I think we are going to go for a standard 7kw unit - probably tethered. But i have a couple of questions

1 - if you choose tethered - there is little or no flexibility in making changes to that arrangement. For example if you have a 5/7.5m tethered cable, if you had access issues (building work/skips etc) then you are not able to use a form of "extension charging cable" to extend your tethered cable?

2 - Is the 11kw or 22kw 3 ph approach likely to be the standard in years to come or is that also likely to be superseded by the next iteration?

I think there are many questions and i guess i am looking for something that will at least be relevant for the next 10 years or so?

thanks

Bit confused why you've picked the 11kw charger option.

When I was looking at one of these the notes from Citroen attached to that option were as follows

4 Offers faster charging only where three-phase power is available. We do not recommend this option unless you intend to charge your New ë-C4 primarily from a source connected to three-phase power (unlikely if a home charge point). Using this charger in conjunction with a single-phase power source will actually charge your vehicle more slowly than the standard 7 kW single-phase onboard charger.

??

[No ideas for a name]

FiF said:

Bit confused why you've picked the 11kw charger option.

When I was looking at one of these the notes from Citroen attached to that option were as follows

4 Offers faster charging only where three-phase power is available. We do not recommend this option unless you intend to charge your New ë-C4 primarily from a source connected to three-phase power (unlikely if a home charge point). Using this charger in conjunction with a single-phase power source will actually charge your vehicle more slowly than the standard 7 kW single-phase onboard charger.

??

Mostly in relation to the '??' ...
11kW EVSE will be supplying 16A per phase, so if you choose only single phase you would be limited to 3.6kW.
Choose a 22kW EVSE and it should allow the 7kW, 11kW and 22kW options.
So it does make sense.

Our DNO is now doing 3 phase connections as standard - so the normal will definitely be 3 phase for 'normal' households going forwards.

The argument that 7kW is 'enough' always misses the point that you may have a decent deal with the electricity supplier for say 4 hours at half price... you want to make sure you consume all your charging currents in that time window, so a higher rate is sometimes a good plan.

As it happens, I think AC charging will fall by the wayside in the comming years. DC charging where the EV can provide Vehicle to grid will be the way it works out.

[Billigmeister]

FiF said:

Bit confused why you've picked the 11kw charger option.

When I was looking at one of these the notes from Citroen attached to that option were as follows

4 Offers faster charging only where three-phase power is available. We do not recommend this option unless you intend to charge your New ë-C4 primarily from a source connected to three-phase power (unlikely if a home charge point). Using this charger in conjunction with a single-phase power source will actually charge your vehicle more slowly than the standard 7 kW single-phase onboard charger.

??

in terms of price it is practially the same and i think they have focussed their supply on 11kw models in terms of supply/delivery....so the cheaper option (by £300 wasnt available)

[No ideas for a name]

Billigmeister said:

in terms of price it is practially the same and i think they have focussed their supply on 11kw models in terms of supply/delivery....so the cheaper option (by £300 wasnt available)

Yes, but if I understand this right - the 11kW model isn't very useful.
If I get what you mean properly - you are specifying the VEHICLE with an 11kW on-board charger option in preference to a VEHICLE with a 7kW on-board charger.

So, unless you have 3 phase, you are stuffed and going to be limited to 3.6kW charging.

Previously I thought you were choosing an 11kW EVSE (which still wouldn't be a great idea).
It isn't all that clear, but it looks like Citroen aren't giving great advice. The average consumer isn't going to 'get' the detail until they are already committed and had their fingers burned.