Is it a problem to have EV car charger installed pre-work on the house?

[LaCurandera]

Hi, 

I'm looking at getting an EV this year, and the work on the house wont (in all probability) start until early 2023. 

I'm thinking of getting one installed (~£600-£700), use it for perhaps 12 months, then have a period where the house is a building site so it'll need to be uninstalled, stored and then reinstalled when the work's done. 

I have no idea of how much the disconnecting / reconnecting might be, and whether the £350 government grant will have any issues of there being a gap in when it's "live". 

Has anyone done similar, what costs for disconnecting / reinstalling do I need to account for?
Anything else I haven't thought about? 

I could use public chargers for the period until after the work, but that feels like a hassle and a premium

Thanks!

[RobLe]

We have a 30kWh leaf, had it 2 years.  We used a granny cable for the first 4 months of owning it - that is just a regular 3 pin plug with an inline "EVSE" that uses the internal car charger.  Most things people call "chargers" actually just tell the car internal charger what to do.  Our granny cable charged at 2.5kW, took a while, but always done overnight.  Mind you, the new fancy V2G one we have now is only used at 4kW due to DNO reasons, so it's actually not that much faster.  What car are you thinking of getting?

Sorry can't answer your actual Q 😞

[Iceverge]

+1 for granny cable with the leaf, we used one for over a year. It wasn't an issue and used to get the 24kWh battery topped up on night rate leccy. For under 120km/day it was fine. 

[LaCurandera]

Potentially, a LR Polestar 2, which is 78Kw,

Charge times listed as: 
 

Method	kW	Typical location	Charging time (empty to full)
Standard three-pin plug	2.3	Home	38.5 hours
Dedicated home charging point	7.4	Home	12 hours
Fast charger	22*	Offices, car parks, leisure centres	8.25 hours* (limited to 11kW by the vehicle)
Rapid charger	120	Motorway services, near major roads	32 minutes

 

Although I have no idea if it's right, as never had an EV before! I guess these are all from empty though, and realistically I don't drive the longer ranges day to day so maybe stick with 3pin. 

[Carrerahill]

1 hour ago, LaCurandera said:

Hi, 

I'm looking at getting an EV this year, and the work on the house wont (in all probability) start until early 2023. 

I'm thinking of getting one installed (~£600-£700), use it for perhaps 12 months, then have a period where the house is a building site so it'll need to be uninstalled, stored and then reinstalled when the work's done. 

I have no idea of how much the disconnecting / reconnecting might be, and whether the £350 government grant will have any issues of there being a gap in when it's "live". 

Has anyone done similar, what costs for disconnecting / reinstalling do I need to account for?
Anything else I haven't thought about? 

I could use public chargers for the period until after the work, but that feels like a hassle and a premium

Thanks!

Buy one, have friendly spark install it but use a 32A/65A Ceeform to connect it, when you need rid of it, unplug it and demount it. Or just have it wired in, kill the breaker, and unwire it yourself, have it reinstalled by spark who does your house. Simple. It is just an electrical appliance, nothing fancy.

 

I wouldn't even buy an EV charger to be fair, I would buy the logic module, a big contactor and the charge cable and make it myself! 

 

 

[Thorfun]

how many miles a day do you do? I have a Tesla Model 3 and have been charging it from a 3-pin 13A socket for the 2 years I've had it waiting for our new house to be built so I can install a charger. I'm not a high mileage driver (especially over the last 2 years of lockdown!) and so 3-pin has been fine for me. 

 

I could've got a charger installed in the existing house and then move it to the new house once done but I figured that'd be a waste of money so am waiting patiently.

[Bitpipe]

Had a Pod Point 7Kw installed in Jan on outside of garage. Whole install was free - Audi promo (I have an eTron 55) - but still needed to do the paperwork for the £350 subsidy.

 

My spark had ensured that there was a 40A fused spur to the garage and the Pod Point installer put another 40A breaker on the garage board and then put an isolator next to that to which the armoured cable running to the unit was connected. There is also a current sensing wire and clamp that runs between charger and distribution board.

 

So I see no reason why you could not get it installed now and take advantage of the grant then disconnect and store during the build.

 

Your electrician will be able to recommission it and re-use the supplied materials - I suppose the only variable is of the length of cable from distribution to charter changes significantly (i.e. gets longer).

 

I used an external 13A for the first two months and while slow, it worked fine. Depends how much of a rush you're in to get the car charged - wall charger will be 3x faster (unless you're on 3 phase).

 

For me, main benefit is being able to capitalise from the 4KW solar array on roof when sun is shining as the faster charge means I get more benefit before the sun goes down.

[Bitpipe]

47 minutes ago, LaCurandera said:

Potentially, a LR Polestar 2, which is 78Kw,

Charge times listed as: 
 

Method	kW	Typical location	Charging time (empty to full)
Standard three-pin plug	2.3	Home	38.5 hours
Dedicated home charging point	7.4	Home	12 hours
Fast charger	22*	Offices, car parks, leisure centres	8.25 hours* (limited to 11kW by the vehicle)
Rapid charger	120	Motorway services, near major roads	32 minutes

 

Although I have no idea if it's right, as never had an EV before! I guess these are all from empty though, and realistically I don't drive the longer ranges day to day so maybe stick with 3pin. 

 

Also, you rarely charge from empty to full - recommended is to plug in at 20% and unplug at 80% - unless you have a long journey planned - my eTron settings default to this and you have to override to charge past 80%.

 

The eTron is also limited to 11kW AC (and 155KW DC) so I can use faster chargers but obv. it's limited by the car.

 

What's also interesting is that when you use a rapid or high power DC charger the speed ramps up as the battery warms so can take 15 -20 mins to hit the peak transfer.

[Dreadnaught]

19 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

I would buy the logic module, a big contactor and the charge cable and make it myself!

 

New to me. How do you do such a thing? Where do you buy the bits?

[LaCurandera]

Thanks all, really helpful (as always!)

 

My usage is 50mile commute round trip 2-3 times a week the might be 200 mile visit to family etc every other weekend. 

Looks like 3 pin would be fine as I can leave it charging off road over night then worry about the longer runs with public if I need to. 

[PeterW]

So why not install it somewhere else that is going to be permanent ..??

 

Not sure what work you are planning (demolish / rebuild ..?) but if you install a kiosk or small new structure away from the house then install the charger in that. 
 

When you demolish etc, get the permanent power for the house reinstalled at this point and have the meter moved to the same location, and you can now run whatever power you want for the site and the new house from there. You can also look at 3Ph and have a dedicated car charging phase installed - all options and you’re doing the groundwork once. 

[Carrerahill]

4 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

 

New to me. How do you do such a thing? Where do you buy the bits?

In its simplest terms an EV charger is logic controller switching a contactor, that is is. Yes you get OCPP control stuff with GSM etc. however, as a home owner, paying your own bill you don't need any of this.

 

Within the charge cable is a data pair and the mains. The car tells the logic controller it wants charged and it turns on the contactor, the cable goes live. Simple as that.

 

A friend has a VW ID with a home made charger, he could have got a £350 grant towards it, and the installed cost was about £1100 - he built one for about £250 in a nice stainless steel enclosure. 

 

Google EVSE charge controller, they can be had on eBay, Amazon and more reputable EV equipment outlets like Stegen, some have LCD screens incorporated, some remote so you can panel mount it and some have nothing depends what you want. I just want something to switch a relay on and off. 

 

 

[jack]

On 07/03/2022 at 12:02, Iceverge said:

+1 for granny cable with the leaf, we used one for over a year. It wasn't an issue and used to get the 24kWh battery topped up on night rate leccy. For under 120km/day it was fine. 

 

Two years in May on a granny charger for a 38kWh Hyundai Ioniq.

 

That said, I wouldn't do it unless I was absolutely sure that the external wall socket and cabling were up to the job.