Did not realise how tough getting a wall box installed was
Discussion
Wow, its been and still is a lot more complicated than we first thought - the dream, buy an electric car, charge at home with a wall box. So we have a shinny new MINI Electric collected back in June, part of the deal was a BP Pulse wall box.
So fill out all the forms and take photos of every part of our electrical system. Sent off but did not hear anything for ages - chased a few times and got a bit of the run around. Turns out after checking 3 times they had inputted our email wrong.
Changed energy supplier to Octopus so we can use the Octopus GO cheap tariff overnight for charging. Need a smart metre installed. Chased and chased for an appointment and nothing.
Finally told by BP Pulse that they cannot install until they have a Dual Pole Isolator installed by the energy company, spoke to Octopus and three different call handlers had no idea what I was talking about. Finally after a small rant on twitter they have confirmed that they know what I am talking about and will install with the smart metre. Date now booked at the end of the month.
Back to BP Pulse to let them know and try and arrange a date, but now we need to chase up the network to get agreement from National Power that our feed is ok to have a wall box - was told they respond better to us than BP Pulse!!!!
Called national Power to be told they cannot talk to us and will only talk to BP Pulse!! back to BP Pulse and now we have that sorted. Finally waiting for the scheduling team to get a date to install the box, but they will not schedule until they have a photo of the isolation switch.
We are getting close, hopefully sometime in October the dream of easy to live with electric car charging will be complete.
My wife is now questioning the decision to change from a conventional ICE car as she says it is so easy to use and this electric is a real challenge.
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
So fill out all the forms and take photos of every part of our electrical system. Sent off but did not hear anything for ages - chased a few times and got a bit of the run around. Turns out after checking 3 times they had inputted our email wrong.
Changed energy supplier to Octopus so we can use the Octopus GO cheap tariff overnight for charging. Need a smart metre installed. Chased and chased for an appointment and nothing.
Finally told by BP Pulse that they cannot install until they have a Dual Pole Isolator installed by the energy company, spoke to Octopus and three different call handlers had no idea what I was talking about. Finally after a small rant on twitter they have confirmed that they know what I am talking about and will install with the smart metre. Date now booked at the end of the month.
Back to BP Pulse to let them know and try and arrange a date, but now we need to chase up the network to get agreement from National Power that our feed is ok to have a wall box - was told they respond better to us than BP Pulse!!!!
Called national Power to be told they cannot talk to us and will only talk to BP Pulse!! back to BP Pulse and now we have that sorted. Finally waiting for the scheduling team to get a date to install the box, but they will not schedule until they have a photo of the isolation switch.
We are getting close, hopefully sometime in October the dream of easy to live with electric car charging will be complete.
My wife is now questioning the decision to change from a conventional ICE car as she says it is so easy to use and this electric is a real challenge.
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
Chargemaster used to be good, then BP took over. They're abysmal now, both for installations and for public charging. A cynic would say they're trying to kill off EV's!
Our Chargemaster installer just pulled the main fuse and installed a henley block to split the meter tails between our consumer unit and the mini unit they installed to supply the charger. Sounds like we dodged a bullet if they now want to see an isolator.
Our Chargemaster installer just pulled the main fuse and installed a henley block to split the meter tails between our consumer unit and the mini unit they installed to supply the charger. Sounds like we dodged a bullet if they now want to see an isolator.
Thanks guys - nice to have a virtual ear here
Granny charger - we don't have an outside socket anywhere near our drive - have used once but had to plug it in to the hall way and have the doors open all day!!!
I sold the wife on the car to be easy!!! she loves driving it, but public charging can be so difficult. Last night for instance went to the local GeniePoint (A close, B fast and C car buy food while we wait). Checked on Zap-Maps to see if it was free and working, all good - arrived to find a delivery van on charge, but parked diagonally across both bays. This meant that we could not use the 2nd charge point. OK not brilliant but frustrating, drove to the next DC charging point and found it would not connect to the app. Spoke to the help desk and basically they said tough. Drove to the 3rd and final DC point locally and this did work. We past (wife counted) 6 different petrol stations!!!!!
For us the home charger will make it just work for us, second the costs - normally at the DC point run by GeniePoint it is 35p per KW. Had to pay 40p per KW last night. Where at night with Octopus go between 1230 and 0430 its 5p per KW
It will work and we will get it sorted, I am confident. But keeping the boss happy is now becoming the issue.
I am glad I understand the technology.
Granny charger - we don't have an outside socket anywhere near our drive - have used once but had to plug it in to the hall way and have the doors open all day!!!
I sold the wife on the car to be easy!!! she loves driving it, but public charging can be so difficult. Last night for instance went to the local GeniePoint (A close, B fast and C car buy food while we wait). Checked on Zap-Maps to see if it was free and working, all good - arrived to find a delivery van on charge, but parked diagonally across both bays. This meant that we could not use the 2nd charge point. OK not brilliant but frustrating, drove to the next DC charging point and found it would not connect to the app. Spoke to the help desk and basically they said tough. Drove to the 3rd and final DC point locally and this did work. We past (wife counted) 6 different petrol stations!!!!!
For us the home charger will make it just work for us, second the costs - normally at the DC point run by GeniePoint it is 35p per KW. Had to pay 40p per KW last night. Where at night with Octopus go between 1230 and 0430 its 5p per KW
It will work and we will get it sorted, I am confident. But keeping the boss happy is now becoming the issue.
I am glad I understand the technology.
brums evil twin said:
We do but its a narrow on that is to small for the plug to go through - even if the three pin plug would fit through, that side of the cable is not long enough to reach the socket!!!!
Tried it all!!!!!!
Run extension lead through letterbox. Plug in next to mini. Put kettle on.Tried it all!!!!!!
You can find connectors that will fit through the thinnest letterbox, or worst case it takes 2 minutes to take a plug on and off.
First world problem.
I'm sure the wait for the fast charger is annoying, but a thin letterbox is no barrier to running a cable.
Five years ago we spent months trying to get quotes and any kind of solid information/conformation of installing an EVSE at our property after we bought the i3, after manu failed attempts to get installers to call/visit we gave up and have been using the granny charger since then, no issues at all, we are not on a smart meter (and refuse to have one anyway so far) and the charger is on a new mains installation in our holiday annexe (which is not used for holiday makers!) which is only ten years old and tested every year regardless, so very happy it’s all good.
Works fine for us, we do little mileage so four or five hundred pounds on an ESVE we don’t really need seems a waste.
Works fine for us, we do little mileage so four or five hundred pounds on an ESVE we don’t really need seems a waste.
You're not the only one. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/17/bp-p...
Went through it all nearly 4 years ago (different installer, but needed isolator, etc fitting) and at least then there were fewer plug-in cars so the installers and power networks weren't so busy. A new 32A circuit is still a substantial change to your house electrical system, loads of houses have old wiring and need things doing, even if the chargepoint firms like to make it sound easy. Hopefully it's a thing you do once then it just discreetly does its job for many years. Life with an EV is way easier when you just spend a few seconds plugging it in at home when it needs it.
Went through it all nearly 4 years ago (different installer, but needed isolator, etc fitting) and at least then there were fewer plug-in cars so the installers and power networks weren't so busy. A new 32A circuit is still a substantial change to your house electrical system, loads of houses have old wiring and need things doing, even if the chargepoint firms like to make it sound easy. Hopefully it's a thing you do once then it just discreetly does its job for many years. Life with an EV is way easier when you just spend a few seconds plugging it in at home when it needs it.
OP, I had a similar experience with a third party installer, eventually they left me high and dry and cancelled the charge point installation, leaving me back at square one.
Opted for my second choice of PodPoint.
Online survey completed I was given a date three weeks hence for the installation. The guy turned up on time and the installation was done within 3 hrs.
No affiliation to PodPoint but would recommend.
Opted for my second choice of PodPoint.
Online survey completed I was given a date three weeks hence for the installation. The guy turned up on time and the installation was done within 3 hrs.
No affiliation to PodPoint but would recommend.
What you could do, to enable the granny charger, is get an outside socket installed by a sparky. It won't cost much, doesn't need Octopus, BP, the DNO or anyone else involved... then use the granny charger off that.
Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
brums evil twin said:
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
No need to feel sorry, I have just been trying to get prices for two chargers installed, one at the office and one at home, no one would quote, we had a few people turn up and look and never heard from them again, they are not even hard installs.In the end, I contacted a company owned by someone on these pages and a site survey was done at both locations within a week, quote is now in and all I need to do is confirm the job.
For me, I would avoid all the large companies and try and find a local specialist.
I used these guys earlier this year. 2 weeks from contacting them through to install
https://www.smarthomecharge.co.uk/
https://www.smarthomecharge.co.uk/
brums evil twin said:
Wow, its been and still is a lot more complicated than we first thought - the dream, buy an electric car, charge at home with a wall box. So we have a shinny new MINI Electric collected back in June, part of the deal was a BP Pulse wall box.
So fill out all the forms and take photos of every part of our electrical system. Sent off but did not hear anything for ages - chased a few times and got a bit of the run around. Turns out after checking 3 times they had inputted our email wrong.
Changed energy supplier to Octopus so we can use the Octopus GO cheap tariff overnight for charging. Need a smart metre installed. Chased and chased for an appointment and nothing.
Finally told by BP Pulse that they cannot install until they have a Dual Pole Isolator installed by the energy company, spoke to Octopus and three different call handlers had no idea what I was talking about. Finally after a small rant on twitter they have confirmed that they know what I am talking about and will install with the smart metre. Date now booked at the end of the month.
Back to BP Pulse to let them know and try and arrange a date, but now we need to chase up the network to get agreement from National Power that our feed is ok to have a wall box - was told they respond better to us than BP Pulse!!!!
Called national Power to be told they cannot talk to us and will only talk to BP Pulse!! back to BP Pulse and now we have that sorted. Finally waiting for the scheduling team to get a date to install the box, but they will not schedule until they have a photo of the isolation switch.
We are getting close, hopefully sometime in October the dream of easy to live with electric car charging will be complete.
My wife is now questioning the decision to change from a conventional ICE car as she says it is so easy to use and this electric is a real challenge.
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
Very similar to the experience I am having with Western Power and BP Pulse. Ordered ours 5th June, only just got the authorisation from WP to proceed. Have chased constantly BP Pulse so in the end I managed to track down the person responsible at WP (as BP Pulse were saying there's nothing they can do) and finally got them to say yes a week ago.So fill out all the forms and take photos of every part of our electrical system. Sent off but did not hear anything for ages - chased a few times and got a bit of the run around. Turns out after checking 3 times they had inputted our email wrong.
Changed energy supplier to Octopus so we can use the Octopus GO cheap tariff overnight for charging. Need a smart metre installed. Chased and chased for an appointment and nothing.
Finally told by BP Pulse that they cannot install until they have a Dual Pole Isolator installed by the energy company, spoke to Octopus and three different call handlers had no idea what I was talking about. Finally after a small rant on twitter they have confirmed that they know what I am talking about and will install with the smart metre. Date now booked at the end of the month.
Back to BP Pulse to let them know and try and arrange a date, but now we need to chase up the network to get agreement from National Power that our feed is ok to have a wall box - was told they respond better to us than BP Pulse!!!!
Called national Power to be told they cannot talk to us and will only talk to BP Pulse!! back to BP Pulse and now we have that sorted. Finally waiting for the scheduling team to get a date to install the box, but they will not schedule until they have a photo of the isolation switch.
We are getting close, hopefully sometime in October the dream of easy to live with electric car charging will be complete.
My wife is now questioning the decision to change from a conventional ICE car as she says it is so easy to use and this electric is a real challenge.
Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
I forwarded the 'yes' email from WP to BP Pulse and have since heard nothing.
If we had known how difficult this would be, and now still no idea when we can get the box installed, we would not have bought the car. Interestingly the dealer we bought the car from, based on the free charger offer, has not even responded to my calls and emails.
Lesson learnt.
phil4 said:
What you could do, to enable the granny charger, is get an outside socket installed by a sparky. It won't cost much, doesn't need Octopus, BP, the DNO or anyone else involved... then use the granny charger off that.
Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
We've run our leaf off the 3kw charger and an external socket for two years now. A few times we could have done with 7KW but literally only a few times.Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
phil4 said:
What you could do, to enable the granny charger, is get an outside socket installed by a sparky. It won't cost much, doesn't need Octopus, BP, the DNO or anyone else involved... then use the granny charger off that.
Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
Think I'm heading this way too - local spark costs 1/4 of what these companies are charging with their caveat ridden installs and can install a 32a commando socket with no drama. Will need an 80 or 100 amp fuse upgrade though so DNO will need to be involved >heart sinks<. I was also told by current supplier that they can't fit a smart meter (in prep for a switch to Octopus) as I have PV. WTF? So I need to get see if Octopus will fit one so I can get that 5p tariff...Did so for 6 months during Covid.
Then got smart meter, and proper wallbox fitted... but rather than do through something like BP, bought the box, and got local sparky to fit. Didn't get the OLEV grant, but also didn't get a load of hassle.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the outside socket for now. You can use it with the pressure washer etc too.
I went with PodPoint. I ordered and paid online 530 quid (includes a 350 OLEV grant so should have been 880 quid) for a tethered model with an install using a standard set of parts - It's all on their website.
I sent some pictures of my existing consumer unit and incoming supply as requested, answered all their questions and then it went quiet for a week or so. I then got an email to say everything was ok and they will be in touch soon. A couple of days later I got another email with an appointment date for a week later.
It was sub contracted to a company about 40 miles away. They turned up as promised and the job was done without any further electrical work needing doing. I already had the house rewired 2 years ago, so it was up to spec beforehand apart from the incoming main fuse being only 60A (which I didn't realise).
The installer fitted a mini consumer unit with one 40A rcbo in it (thats an rcd and an mcb combined) for the new charge point as my existing fusebox was already full. The cables coming from the meter were split to feed the 2 fuseboxes.
The Podpoint comes with a little device that clips around the meter's live cable and it monitors the total amount of power being used by the whole house. If it gets close to the incoming fuse rating (60A), It will throttle down the car charging until the total load drops.
The fitter advised me to contact my DNO (the people that own the incoming cable supply) for an upgrade to the 60A fuse, but that takes 15 working days for a response (still waiting) and work may incur a charge. Every DNO handles the requests differently so I will have to wait and see. If the main fuse does get upgraded, I will contact Podpoint to do an over the internet update to my charger to adjust the level at which it throttles the charge power.
It seems to be straightforward to operate. Just plug and go. There is one discrete LED on the front which changes colour to indicate status. There is a basic podpoint app that shows simple power usage stats and also lets you schedule on/off times if you want.
I haven't used it yet as my car is still not here, but the status light says everything is ok.
Dave
I sent some pictures of my existing consumer unit and incoming supply as requested, answered all their questions and then it went quiet for a week or so. I then got an email to say everything was ok and they will be in touch soon. A couple of days later I got another email with an appointment date for a week later.
It was sub contracted to a company about 40 miles away. They turned up as promised and the job was done without any further electrical work needing doing. I already had the house rewired 2 years ago, so it was up to spec beforehand apart from the incoming main fuse being only 60A (which I didn't realise).
The installer fitted a mini consumer unit with one 40A rcbo in it (thats an rcd and an mcb combined) for the new charge point as my existing fusebox was already full. The cables coming from the meter were split to feed the 2 fuseboxes.
The Podpoint comes with a little device that clips around the meter's live cable and it monitors the total amount of power being used by the whole house. If it gets close to the incoming fuse rating (60A), It will throttle down the car charging until the total load drops.
The fitter advised me to contact my DNO (the people that own the incoming cable supply) for an upgrade to the 60A fuse, but that takes 15 working days for a response (still waiting) and work may incur a charge. Every DNO handles the requests differently so I will have to wait and see. If the main fuse does get upgraded, I will contact Podpoint to do an over the internet update to my charger to adjust the level at which it throttles the charge power.
It seems to be straightforward to operate. Just plug and go. There is one discrete LED on the front which changes colour to indicate status. There is a basic podpoint app that shows simple power usage stats and also lets you schedule on/off times if you want.
I haven't used it yet as my car is still not here, but the status light says everything is ok.
Dave
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