Any EV Home Charger Installers?

Any EV Home Charger Installers?

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cts1975

Original Poster:

358 posts

182 months

We renovated a house last year and we asked our electrician to fit a juntion box at the front of the house in case we get an EV in the future. We wanted to reduce the amount of mess once we required the EV home charger to be installed.
Fast forward 8 months and we have decided to get an EV. I contacted the previous electrician and he told me that they will still need to run a new 'data' cable to the meter as the regualtions have changed. I'm possibly confused on what the data cable is used for but the Ohme EV charger I have looked at uses 4/5G data with a built in multi SIM.
Can anybody offer any advice or knowledge on this?
Thanks

rcg733

29 posts

120 months

I think this is referring to a 'clamp' meter that needs to be fixed around the incoming electricity supply. The charger then monitors the total load coming into the house and backs off if you are getting close to the supply limit. My charged would only run at 3.6kw when the meter was not connected ( but can be disabled in the setup menu)

biggiles

1,917 posts

239 months

Some chargers require/want/prefer a proper Ethernet connection, some are happy with wifi. Depends on how sophisticated your setup is. My "Wallbox" is happy enough with Wifi (though I had an ethernet connection laid in for any future needs as well).


cts1975

Original Poster:

358 posts

182 months

biggiles said:
Some chargers require/want/prefer a proper Ethernet connection, some are happy with wifi. Depends on how sophisticated your setup is. My "Wallbox" is happy enough with Wifi (though I had an ethernet connection laid in for any future needs as well).
Ye I have been researching wifi and 4/5G chargers. It seems from further investigation a data cable is required to monitor/control/shut off the supply at the Smart meter if needed.

Sheepshanks

36,776 posts

133 months

We're in the same position - had the supply cable and RCBO in the new consumer unit with surge protector, put it about 3yrs ago during a refurb as the meter and the charger locations are pretty well diagonal corners of the house.

Now there needa to be a 2 core cable for the current transformer. Annoying, as it would have been so easy to fit while the house was shell.

Seems like there ought to be a wireless current transformer solution, and I do recall seeing a charger that had that built in but I don't think it's made now.

I think the RBCO spec has changed too, althought there's space in the consumer unit for a two pole one.

Sheepshanks

36,776 posts

133 months

cts1975 said:
Ye I have been researching wifi and 4/5G chargers. It seems from further investigation a data cable is required to monitor/control/shut off the supply at the Smart meter if needed.
It doesn't do that - it backs off the charging current if the whole house loads exceeds certain limits.

cts1975

Original Poster:

358 posts

182 months

Sheepshanks said:
It doesn't do that - it backs off the charging current if the whole house loads exceeds certain limits.
Ah right thanks for clarifiying.
So do you think an new cble will have to be run from the exterior wall to the smart meter?

Sheepshanks

36,776 posts

133 months

cts1975 said:
So do you think an new cble will have to be run from the exterior wall to the smart meter?
Yes. Unless there's some other solution I don't know about.

Mostly installers use a combined cable now that has both power and data (for the current transformer) cores.

DorsetSparky

302 posts

24 months

If you fit a Zappi you can pair it with a Harvi (a wireless CT transformer).

This is an option we often fit if we're limited with our cable runs.

In an ideal world I now use EV Ultra cable (6mm combined with shielded data cable) however in the situation you're describing, or in my home indeed which has the same setup (prewired 6mm cable but with no data cores) you're limited to a wireless CT solution.

Sheepshanks

36,776 posts

133 months

Yesterday (05:07)
quotequote all
DorsetSparky said:
If you fit a Zappi you can pair it with a Harvi (a wireless CT transformer).

This is an option we often fit if we're limited with our cable runs.

In an ideal world I now use EV Ultra cable (6mm combined with shielded data cable) however in the situation you're describing, or in my home indeed which has the same setup (prewired 6mm cable but with no data cores) you're limited to a wireless CT solution.
In practice, is the wireless range ever an issue? I Googled the Harvi and saw a comment saying avoid metal between the transmitter and charger - in my house an American fridge/freezer is smack in the way.

In my case could take a 2 core (I think it basically only needs to be bell wire, doesn’t it?) up into the loft from the CU area, across the house and back down to my data cupboard just above where the charger would go. From there there’s an Ethernet cable to the charger location so I could join to that.

cml24

1,479 posts

161 months

Yesterday (06:56)
quotequote all
There will be a limit in regards to distance (using a certain cable size) that is acceptable. Worth checking as up to the loft and back down the other side of the house could well be over the limit.

DorsetSparky

302 posts

24 months

Yesterday (19:06)
quotequote all
It can be an issue. We actually had to move a Harvi the other day as it was struggling to communicate with the Zappi (but this was in a carport, past an outbuilding, well away from the meter tails).

DorsetSparky

302 posts

24 months

Yesterday (19:07)
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
In practice, is the wireless range ever an issue? I Googled the Harvi and saw a comment saying avoid metal between the transmitter and charger - in my house an American fridge/freezer is smack in the way.

In my case could take a 2 core (I think it basically only needs to be bell wire, doesn t it?) up into the loft from the CU area, across the house and back down to my data cupboard just above where the charger would go. From there there s an Ethernet cable to the charger location so I could join to that.
Yeah it can be as thin as you like really, you just Wago it on to the cable which is super thin. Bell wire is fine.