Distance from house to car
Author
Discussion

Drawweight

Original Poster:

3,377 posts

134 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all

Like many motorists I live in a terrace and don’t have a driveway.

However I’ve got a designated parking space a bit from the house and could theoretically wire it up.

Is there a limit to how far away the charger can be from the house? Also presumably it has to be wired from either where the power goes into the house or from the fuse box which would be another problem.

phil4

1,527 posts

256 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
The charger is in two parts. One part, "the box" goes on the wall and connects to your incoming mains feed. Then there's a cable, which goes to the car. That cable comes at least 7m for most common wallboxes, but have seen them as long as 50m.

HTH

JQ

6,404 posts

197 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
Drawweight said:
Like many motorists I live in a terrace and don t have a driveway.

However I ve got a designated parking space a bit from the house and could theoretically wire it up.

Is there a limit to how far away the charger can be from the house? Also presumably it has to be wired from either where the power goes into the house or from the fuse box which would be another problem.
Do you own all the land between your house and the parking space, if not, I suspect that will be your biggest stumbling block.

Drawweight

Original Poster:

3,377 posts

134 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
JQ said:
Drawweight said:
Like many motorists I live in a terrace and don t have a driveway.

However I ve got a designated parking space a bit from the house and could theoretically wire it up.

Is there a limit to how far away the charger can be from the house? Also presumably it has to be wired from either where the power goes into the house or from the fuse box which would be another problem.
Do you own all the land between your house and the parking space, if not, I suspect that will be your biggest stumbling block.
I can get it out the rear of the house directly to the car but the only really accessible power supply is a 13 amp socket.

I could get power from the meter box at the front of the house but that means taking it over next doors property. (Not that they would object)

Tom8

4,955 posts

172 months

Friday 25th July
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Do people who live in terraces run cables across foot paths to their cars? What happens if someone trips on it and breaks their arm, I would be worried about the suing or pissed people trying to rip the cables out.

ashenfie

1,723 posts

64 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
If you want something that meeting the regs an electrician would easily route cabling from the front to the back of the terrace. The charger would then be on the edge of your property and if the car can be charged with a 7.5m charge lead then that could be workable. Anything else is really bodgery

phil4

1,527 posts

256 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
Drawweight said:
I can get it out the rear of the house directly to the car but the only really accessible power supply is a 13 amp socket.

I could get power from the meter box at the front of the house but that means taking it over next doors property. (Not that they would object)
The electrician will run the cables you need to where they're needed, usually from the meter box, to where you want the box part.

Somebody

1,490 posts

101 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
Where do you live? Some councils are trialing grooves in pavements for charging cables. May be useful?

| **Council / Area** | **Trial Type** | **Technology / Provider** | **Status** |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| Enfield (London) | Through‑pavement channel | Kerbo Charge | Live pilot |
| Milton Keynes | Through‑pavement extension | Kerbo Charge | Expanded pilot |
| Stirling (Scotland) | Gully channel trial | Kerbo Charge | Completed pilot |
| Bedford Borough | Pavement charging gully trial | Various (infrastructure types) | Ongoing pilot |
| Suffolk (Ipswich) | Multi-product pilot | Gul‑E, Kerbo Charge, Charge Gully | Ongoing pilot |
| Coventry | Lockable cross‑pavement gully | Duct channel system | Ongoing (to 2026) |
| BCP Council | Proposed cross‑pavement trial | Charging gullies (various) | Under consideration |

DonkeyApple

64,350 posts

187 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
Somebody said:
Where do you live? Some councils are trialing grooves in pavements for charging cables. May be useful?

| **Council / Area** | **Trial Type** | **Technology / Provider** | **Status** |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| Enfield (London) | Through?pavement channel | Kerbo?Charge | Live pilot |
| Milton Keynes | Through?pavement extension | Kerbo?Charge | Expanded pilot |
| Stirling (Scotland) | Gully channel trial | Kerbo?Charge | Completed pilot |
| Bedford Borough | Pavement charging gully trial | Various (infrastructure types) | Ongoing pilot |
| Suffolk (Ipswich) | Multi-product pilot | Gul?E, Kerbo?Charge, Charge?Gully | Ongoing pilot |
| Coventry | Lockable cross?pavement gully | Duct channel system | Ongoing (to 2026) |
| BCP Council | Proposed cross?pavement trial | Charging gullies (various) | Under consideration
Seems a pointless trial as the end result is already known. Fat Barry will park his van outside the house after getting Fat Sharron to move Dimwit Beryl and Clive's wheelie bin. They'll all then take to mumsnet demanding compo.

samoht

6,706 posts

164 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all

25m extension cable suitable for three-pin EV charging (2.3 kW)
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev-electric-v...

30m Type 2 cable for use with a home charger (7.4 kW)
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev-electric-v...

As stated an electrician could cable up a charger to the rear of your house, or you can use a (good quality) 13A socket, at a slower rate.

So as long as the distance house to car isn't more than ~25m (five car-lengths), and assuming you're ok to leave the cable running across it, then you're probably good.


FarmyardPants

4,261 posts

236 months

Friday 25th July
quotequote all
samoht said:
25m extension cable suitable for three-pin EV charging (2.3 kW)
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev-electric-v...

30m Type 2 cable for use with a home charger (7.4 kW)
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev-electric-v...

As stated an electrician could cable up a charger to the rear of your house, or you can use a (good quality) 13A socket, at a slower rate.

So as long as the distance house to car isn't more than ~25m (five car-lengths), and assuming you're ok to leave the cable running across it, then you're probably good.
I think the OP is asking how far the charger can be from the house, not how long the cable from the charger can be. I got that impression from reading the original post. They carry the same current but the former implies a permanent/buried cable and the latter a trailing trip hazard.

If I were the OP I would definitely enquire about the possibility of embedding a cable (from the consumer unit) to a charger mounted on a pole near his dedicated parking space. Given the above initiatives/council incentives they might be open to the idea but it s a lottery.


Edited by FarmyardPants on Friday 25th July 20:25

quinny100

996 posts

204 months

Saturday 26th July
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The cable run from the house supply to the charge point can be as long as you need. However the longer the run, the more careful you need to be when sizing the cable as the voltage will drop due to the resistance of the cable and you want a maximum of 5% voltage drop.

Generally you’d use 6mm square cable for a domestic EV charger, buried 6mm SWA would be OK to about a 50M run, 10mm gets you to about 95M, 16mm to about 150M.

If you’re doing long external runs I’d highly recommend installing in corrugated duct rather than burying direct so you can add another cable or replace in future without having to dig again.

FarmyardPants

4,261 posts

236 months

Saturday 26th July
quotequote all
Don’t forget to run an Ethernet cable, too.

Pizzaeatingking

819 posts

89 months

Saturday 26th July
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Mine goes from the incoming supply at the front of the house, up the front, through the loft, down the back, along the wall, through the garden to the back where the driveway is. 40 Meters roughly. As long as there's not someone else's property in the way most runs can be done, get a local sparks round for a look.

delta0

2,445 posts

124 months

Saturday 26th July
quotequote all
FarmyardPants said:
Don t forget to run an Ethernet cable, too.
Usually you get a cable that has both. The electrician that installs the charger should know.

Equilibrium25

671 posts

152 months

Sunday 27th July
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My Andersen A2 - cable run from meter down one side of the house, all the way around the back and halfway down the side to Charger location - maybe 30-40m. It would have been no issue to be longer. Then with Anderson you can spec various cable lengths when ordering - as I recall mine is 10m but 20m was possible.

Equilibrium25

671 posts

152 months

Sunday 27th July
quotequote all
My Andersen A2 - cable run from meter down one side of the house, all the way around the back and halfway down the side to Charger location - maybe 30-40m. It would have been no issue to be longer. Then with Anderson you can spec various cable lengths when ordering - as I recall mine is 10m but 20m was possible.