Which home charging point?

Author
Discussion

mathmos

720 posts

174 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Ah grant reduction...ignore me

anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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If my experience is anything to go by the price doesn’t matter, you can’t get anything installed in the first place.

I’ve contacted 4 different suppliers. One I’ve spoken to, he’s supposed to have been calling me with a date and price since last Thursday.

The others have all been mailed, responded with cheery messages that they’ll be in touch, then nothing.

A shambles.

Moley RUFC

3,616 posts

189 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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mathmos said:
Have the cost of these chargers gone up recently? Was just reading the OP and he had the podpoint at £359 after the grant....the podpoint website is now saying the 7Kw charger is £529 with the OLEV grant....seems like a big jump in a short amount of time?
The grant was reduced from £500 to £350 in April.

robbieduncan

1,981 posts

236 months

Friday 10th July 2020
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Easee charger installed. Very impressed with the installation: nice and neat. Unit itself is small and seems well made. The app surprised me by working first time, connecting to the charger straight away and generally not being crap!

NeilMick

153 posts

129 months

Friday 10th July 2020
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Can anyone recommend a dual 7kw charger which can split the supply but also charge at the full 7kw if only one vehicle is plugged in?

robbieduncan

1,981 posts

236 months

Friday 10th July 2020
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NeilMick said:
Can anyone recommend a dual 7kw charger which can split the supply but also charge at the full 7kw if only one vehicle is plugged in?
One charger with two outputs or two chargers that can balance between themselves?

RichardM5

1,738 posts

136 months

Saturday 11th July 2020
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You can link two (or more) Zappi chargers so that they work in that way. You set a maximum grid limit and a priority for each Zappi (which can be equal), they then take the maximum they can within the grid limit.

jason61c

5,978 posts

174 months

Saturday 11th July 2020
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So is there a ‘clear’ best charger? I’ve a 63amp supply running to my garage, charger would go on the side of there.

Or do they need to be on their own supply from the consumer unit? I’ve a consumer unit in the garage for power in there

anonymous-user

54 months

Saturday 11th July 2020
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jason61c said:
So is there a ‘clear’ best charger? I’ve a 63amp supply running to my garage, charger would go on the side of there.

Or do they need to be on their own supply from the consumer unit? I’ve a consumer unit in the garage for power in there
If you’ve got enough capacity overall and from that 63A supply/cu you can go from there. May need a dedicated RCBO.

Mine is being done this week. I too have a 63A feed from the house to garage, a CU in there which has a spare 32A breaker.

I’ve gone for an Ohme.

jason61c

5,978 posts

174 months

Saturday 11th July 2020
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the only other juice heavy bits in there are a lathe/mill/car ramp, however they only ever get used one at a time.

What made you choose that one?

anonymous-user

54 months

Saturday 11th July 2020
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jason61c said:
the only other juice heavy bits in there are a lathe/mill/car ramp, however they only ever get used one at a time.

What made you choose that one?
Recommended to me on the basis of its app and its tie up with Octopus.

Mefster

27 posts

96 months

Sunday 12th July 2020
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So we finally collected our first plug in car yesterday: a Mini Countryman SE. Currently charging via the supplied 3 pin charging cable as I wanted to wait until I was certain that we physically were in possession of the car before committing to the charge point installation.

I’ve been checking all the advice and comments on this thread regarding charge point options. I’ve narrowed it down but have yet to make a final decision. I did start completing the Pod Point form but realised that they wanted the installation booked and paid for without any ability to ask questions. From what I’ve seen it seems all providers that use the olev grant seem to work like this: you don’t know exactly what the position or cost of any extra cabling will be until they are on site and fitting it.

I was wondering if the location of the charge point is needs to be close to a consumer unit or where the main supply enters the property? I have 2 consumer units: one next to the meter where the supply enters and another in a room above our brick car port (it used to be a separate flat).

Ideally I’d like the charge point on the inside wall of the car port ( below the consumer unit in the old flat) as it would be hidden from view. In this case I’d go for a tethered charge point for convenience.

If it has to be near the main consumer unit if would be on a wall on the front of the house, so a coiled cable on a tethered unit would look unsightly.

This is the consumer unit in the old flat. I’m pretty sure the supply for the oven is no longer used (as there isn’t an oven there anymore!)

aestetix1

868 posts

51 months

Sunday 12th July 2020
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Mefster said:
So we finally collected our first plug in car yesterday: a Mini Countryman SE. Currently charging via the supplied 3 pin charging cable as I wanted to wait until I was certain that we physically were in possession of the car before committing to the charge point installation.

I’ve been checking all the advice and comments on this thread regarding charge point options. I’ve narrowed it down but have yet to make a final decision. I did start completing the Pod Point form but realised that they wanted the installation booked and paid for without any ability to ask questions. From what I’ve seen it seems all providers that use the olev grant seem to work like this: you don’t know exactly what the position or cost of any extra cabling will be until they are on site and fitting it.

I was wondering if the location of the charge point is needs to be close to a consumer unit or where the main supply enters the property? I have 2 consumer units: one next to the meter where the supply enters and another in a room above our brick car port (it used to be a separate flat).

Ideally I’d like the charge point on the inside wall of the car port ( below the consumer unit in the old flat) as it would be hidden from view. In this case I’d go for a tethered charge point for convenience.

If it has to be near the main consumer unit if would be on a wall on the front of the house, so a coiled cable on a tethered unit would look unsightly.

This is the consumer unit in the old flat. I’m pretty sure the supply for the oven is no longer used (as there isn’t an oven there anymore!)
Mine is a long way from the consumer unit. You just need to talk to the installer about having a nice long cable, and either get them to put it under the floorboards or along the outside of the house.

Frimley111R

15,663 posts

234 months

Monday 13th July 2020
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Mefster said:
I did start completing the Pod Point form but realised that they wanted the installation booked and paid for without any ability to ask questions. From what I’ve seen it seems all providers that use the olev grant seem to work like this: you don’t know exactly what the position or cost of any extra cabling will be until they are on site and fitting it.

I was wondering if the location of the charge point is needs to be close to a consumer unit or where the main supply enters the property? I have 2 consumer units: one next to the meter where the supply enters and another in a room above our brick car port (it used to be a separate flat).

Ideally I’d like the charge point on the inside wall of the car port ( below the consumer unit in the old flat) as it would be hidden from view. In this case I’d go for a tethered charge point for convenience.

If it has to be near the main consumer unit if would be on a wall on the front of the house, so a coiled cable on a tethered unit would look unsightly.
You can have your charger almost wherever you like but bear in mind that the further away it is from your consumer unit the longer the cabling, which, once over a std installation spec, will cost more (although usually not too much). A key consideration is where to run the cabling, imagine doing it yourself, where would it run and would you be ok with a thick black cable running there?

If you want it in a carport that's fine but if it needs an earth spike it will need soft ground nearby ideally.

I can't comment on other installers working methods. Almost all will work through OLEV (nightmare!).

Frimley111R

15,663 posts

234 months

Monday 13th July 2020
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REALIST123 said:
If my experience is anything to go by the price doesn’t matter, you can’t get anything installed in the first place.

I’ve contacted 4 different suppliers. One I’ve spoken to, he’s supposed to have been calling me with a date and price since last Thursday.

The others have all been mailed, responded with cheery messages that they’ll be in touch, then nothing.

A shambles.
Home installations can be complex and involve a lot of paperwork and lengthy delays getting paid by OLEV. I suspect many want to do the work but have since found out that it just isn't worth the admin or waiting so long to get paid by OLEV. It's an evolving industry, not like gas boiler installations or similar.

robbieduncan

1,981 posts

236 months

Monday 13th July 2020
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Frimley111R said:
Home installations can be complex and involve a lot of paperwork and lengthy delays getting paid by OLEV. I suspect many want to do the work but have since found out that it just isn't worth the admin or waiting so long to get paid by OLEV. It's an evolving industry, not like gas boiler installations or similar.
I was talking to the installer last Friday. He said it takes 3 months right not to get paid the OLEV. However he is still issuing the invoice with the OLEV already taken off and will just wait for the payment from the government!

Frimley111R

15,663 posts

234 months

Monday 13th July 2020
quotequote all
robbieduncan said:
Frimley111R said:
Home installations can be complex and involve a lot of paperwork and lengthy delays getting paid by OLEV. I suspect many want to do the work but have since found out that it just isn't worth the admin or waiting so long to get paid by OLEV. It's an evolving industry, not like gas boiler installations or similar.
I was talking to the installer last Friday. He said it takes 3 months right not to get paid the OLEV. However he is still issuing the invoice with the OLEV already taken off and will just wait for the payment from the government!
Yes, that's how we do it but it is a big cashflow issue when you install a lot of them. The big boys can be waiting on hundreds of thousands of pounds for many months... I see, more clearly than ever, why government should never be involved in business!

anonymous-user

54 months

Monday 13th July 2020
quotequote all
Frimley111R said:
REALIST123 said:
If my experience is anything to go by the price doesn’t matter, you can’t get anything installed in the first place.

I’ve contacted 4 different suppliers. One I’ve spoken to, he’s supposed to have been calling me with a date and price since last Thursday.

The others have all been mailed, responded with cheery messages that they’ll be in touch, then nothing.

A shambles.
Home installations can be complex and involve a lot of paperwork and lengthy delays getting paid by OLEV. I suspect many want to do the work but have since found out that it just isn't worth the admin or waiting so long to get paid by OLEV. It's an evolving industry, not like gas boiler installations or similar.
How does that justify not responding to customer enquiries? If they don’t want the business don’t be in the business.

Still haven’t heard from Podpoint, two weeks on.

The guy who promised to “call me tomorrow” still hasn’t, despite a prompt.

Anyway, their loss, the 5th supplier responded in two hours, last Wednesday, and is fitting tomorrow.

I do agree about the paperwork, it seems needlessly contrived and long winded. Job being justified somewhere.

Mefster

27 posts

96 months

Monday 13th July 2020
quotequote all
Thanks for all the advice re: the installation. I think it sounds like placement on the inside wall of the car point should be a viable option (as long as the installer is happy to crawl to drop a cable through the eaves).
If it’s a little less on display I think (after ploughing through countless options) I’m going to plump for an Ohme Intelligent Tethered wall charger. Seems to integrate well with energy suppliers such as octopus and is SIM connected rather than WiFi (poor WiFi in the corner I’m planning on locating the charger.
Just need to try to book an install now!

Frimley111R

15,663 posts

234 months

Tuesday 14th July 2020
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REALIST123 said:
How does that justify not responding to customer enquiries? If they don’t want the business don’t be in the business.
It doesn't, they should just take down their marketing. Many seem to be general electrical companies hoping to add on EV charging but who have found it to be a bit of a nightmare and are just not sharp enough to take themselves out of the sector