Home charging point

Mark Irwin

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I have all manner of EV trip and solar CT clamps in my meter board; was thinking of changing to NIE for a cheaper tariff but would not want additional hassle. They do come out to read the meter and have never raised this issue when I had the meter changed to E7.
 

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Deezer-D

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Just ordered an electric Mini (won’t be here until new year) but need to work out what I need. Next door have a pod charger the same as @Coog has but they’ve an armoured cable tacked round the front of the house that looks like **** all. We could put one at the front door and hide it behind a plant and go straight into the meter cupboard.
I’m just not sure we even need one. I’d say it’ll be charged one per week so maybe charging with the 3 pin plug might work for us? Not sure how long the Mini would take to charge using this method.
Any links to the government gran for installation?
 

Marc

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3 pin plug charger charges at 2.5- 3kw per hour.

So say the mini has a 30kwh battery it would take 10 hours for full charge.

But you will find that is is much better to be charging it every night to keep it full. Means you don’t get any range issues.
 

Daviddunlop83

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Just ordered an electric Mini (won’t be here until new year) but need to work out what I need. Next door have a pod charger the same as @Coog has but they’ve an armoured cable tacked round the front of the house that looks like **** all. We could put one at the front door and hide it behind a plant and go straight into the meter cupboard.
I’m just not sure we even need one. I’d say it’ll be charged one per week so maybe charging with the 3 pin plug might work for us? Not sure how long the Mini would take to charge using this method.
Any links to the government gran for installation?

My advice is just get it fitted. If you go with an approved installer from the grant scheme even with the money back it’ll cost you more

It doesn’t need to be armoured cable. Hituf should be fine.
 

gcon45

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Just ordered an electric Mini (won’t be here until new year) but need to work out what I need. Next door have a pod charger the same as @Coog has but they’ve an armoured cable tacked round the front of the house that looks like **** all. We could put one at the front door and hide it behind a plant and go straight into the meter cupboard.
I’m just not sure we even need one. I’d say it’ll be charged one per week so maybe charging with the 3 pin plug might work for us? Not sure how long the Mini would take to charge using this method.
Any links to the government gran for installation?

I had toyed with the idea of surviving on just the granny (3 pin) charger but was advised against it as apparently home wiring isn’t designed for that sort of load over a prolonged period on a regular basis. Danger of overheating.

I’ve heard of people fitting a dedicated updated socket with its own surge protector. If you were going down that road I’d consider that at a minimum.
 

davyk31

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So is it cheaper just to buy a charger yourself and get an electrician to fit it rather than go for the grant and have to use an approved supplier?
 

stevieturbo

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3 pin plug charger charges at 2.5- 3kw per hour.

So say the mini has a 30kwh battery it would take 10 hours for full charge.

But you will find that is is much better to be charging it every night to keep it full. Means you don’t get any range issues.

I would not be recommending anyone plug anything at that load solid for long periods on a standard 3 pin plug. At an absolute minimum a 16A commando style socket would be needed.

A standard plug/socket will heat up or worse.

The actual fixed wiring in the house might be fine for it though, just not a 3 pin plug.
 

Apis

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I had toyed with the idea of surviving on just the granny (3 pin) charger but was advised against it as apparently home wiring isn’t designed for that sort of load over a prolonged period on a regular basis. Danger of overheating.

I’ve heard of people fitting a dedicated updated socket with its own surge protector. If you were going down that road I’d consider that at a minimum.
I've been using a granny charger for over 2 years with no problems, although it's just for a PHEV about 4hrs a night. Most problems with them overheating the plug, is actually because of an old or bad quality wall socket giving poor connection. So change to a new, quality brand, wall socket as a minimum. Next best would be the 16A.
 

Mark Irwin

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Eventually they are going to do away with all grants if history tells us anything so better to future proof things and get the proper job fitted. I did this while I drove a PHEV for 2 years/40k and then moved to fully electric. If you did have a problem the insurance company (house) could get awkward.
 

Coog

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I've been using a granny charger for over 2 years with no problems, although it's just for a PHEV about 4hrs a night. Most problems with them overheating the plug, is actually because of an old or bad quality wall socket giving poor connection. So change to a new, quality brand, wall socket as a minimum. Next best would be the 16A.

Is that an external plug or do you run it into the garage or something?

I think that with the grant we pay less than a fiver a month for the charger which will be cleared once the car goes back. Can't remember it was about a year ago but certainly nothing much in the grand scheme of things.

@big_pete what happens if/when you buy a non Tesla EV in a year or two? Does that work with other cars?
 

Apis

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Is that an external plug or do you run it into the garage or something?

I think that with the grant we pay less than a fiver a month for the charger which will be cleared once the car goes back. Can't remember it was about a year ago but certainly nothing much in the grand scheme of things.

@big_pete what happens if/when you buy a non Tesla EV in a year or two? Does that work with other cars?
It's in the garage but granny cable runs out under gap at one end of rubber seal on roller door. Cable is long enough to reach . You don't want to be using extension cables with these.
 

big_pete

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Is that an external plug or do you run it into the garage or something?

I think that with the grant we pay less than a fiver a month for the charger which will be cleared once the car goes back. Can't remember it was about a year ago but certainly nothing much in the grand scheme of things.

@big_pete what happens if/when you buy a non Tesla EV in a year or two? Does that work with other cars?

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it 😂 but I’ve this for 4 years on HP lol. They seem to sell second hand for decent money too.

From speaking to owners they all said they are the best at “talking” to the car so I wanted as hassle free an experience as possible. Putting on in work too as we probably get at least 5 Tesla’s a month now so will be nice to charge them up for clients ready for collection too
 

Deezer-D

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They seem great value.
Level 2 is £28K including the government grant of £2500. Level of spec is very good - CarPlay, Nav, folding mirrors, half leather (I really like this), auto, cruise, 17” alloys, rear camera and parking sensors and its really nippy.
We won’t HP or buy outright (Mrs Deezer prefers to own her cars outright) this as I’m not sure we want to own it. I think leasing or PCP is the way to go for EVs until there’s a recognisable second hand market for them.
I know there’s the cons for PCP but we’ll look at it against personal lease.
 

Deezer-D

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The lease deals on them are decent, £249/month for 5k miles.
Is that for Level 2?
PCP is £270 ish but £5k down (3.9% APR). Haven’t had a lease price yet from Mini but our trade in is good.
Need to decide if we go low deposit / higher monthly and dump the trade in money into the mortgage or higher deposit / lower monthly. We haven’t had to make any car payments for nearly 4 years so it needs a bit of number crunching.
 

Deezer-D

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Anyone got an EO Mini Pro 2?


I want to go straight from my meter cupboard in the hall out through the wall and have the charging point at the front door under my porch. Can place a nice bay tree in front to hide it. Next door got a Pod installed and they ran an armoured cable at ground level around the front of the house to the gable that looks like **** all. I’ve just had the house repointed and a sand/cement rendered plinth done so really don’t want a cable clipped along the plinth.
 

Coog

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Plus you’re not rolling a dirty or wet cable back up by hand and throwing into the boot or frunk. They’re a bit ugly looking mind you.
 

Deezer-D

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I'd personally much rather a charger with a tethered cable as it will save rooting the cable out of the boot etc and plugging in both ends in the pouring rain.

Plus you’re not rolling a dirty or wet cable back up by hand and throwing into the boot or frunk. They’re a bit ugly looking mind you.
The EO comes with a tethered option too.
 

davyk31

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Are there several approved fitters in Northern Ireland as I think I may install a point at home. Remember arranging one a few years back for a colleague and at that time Baird Electrical were the only option.
 
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