Charging, extension leads, and other questions...

[S11Steve]

I have an Outlander PHEV on loan from Mitsubishi at the moment, but the 13amp plug charge lead it comes with is not long enough to reach to the socket at the back of the garage, or into the house, but there are warning labels all over the unit to say not to use an extension lead.
I've got it for a week, at the moment anyway, so fitting a dedicated charge point is not an option so what alternatives are there for extending the reach?

Besides this small issue, I am impressed with the car and will probably order one in a week or two. If I wanted a charger fitted to the outside wall of the house, what is the typical lead time to get it installed, and what sort of proof of ownership do the installers require to enable the free fitting?

Finally, I'm planning to move house within the next three months, are there any limitations on getting the charge point moved, or getting a charge point installed at the new house as well?

[TooMany2cvs]

S11Steve said:

I have an Outlander PHEV on loan from Mitsubishi at the moment, but the 13amp plug charge lead it comes with is not long enough to reach to the socket at the back of the garage, or into the house, but there are warning labels all over the unit to say not to use an extension lead.

I've got it for a week, at the moment anyway, so fitting a dedicated charge point is not an option so what alternatives are there for extending the reach?

It's going to be pulling pretty damn close to the full 13A for an extended period of time. Your average extension leads really aren't designed for that, and there's a very high chance of it getting somewhat warmer than ideal...

Quickest, easiest and cheapest safe way to do it would be to just make your own, using a length of proper 32A 2.5mm2 T&E cable - the same stuff your house wiring's made from. 1.5mm2 (lighting circuit cable) is rated to 14.5A - so, yes, it'd do it, but a little bit of headroom would be nice. Get a socket and some kind of housing (a plastic surface-mount backbox would be fine, but you should be able to find a ruggedised socket easily enough) The proper way would to pop the front off the socket on the back wall, and wire it straight in to the back of that, then screw the socket to the wall - so you've got a totally normal socket on a spur - but I can't see a great issue with putting a plug on it and plugging it in...

It might look a bit rough'n'ready, but it's a far better option than just any old four-way splitter that you happened to find kicking about.

[Roo]

If you do have to use an extension lead make sure it is fully unwound and spread out on the floor. It'll get very hot otherwise.

[jkh112]

I have charged my PHEV using the supplied charger connected to the mains by an extension lead many times without problem. My lead is
1.5mm2 cable and I always fully unwind it before use.

I have read somewhere that the mitsubishi supplied charger actually draws a max of 10 amps, but I am not sure if this is true.

[lost in espace]

Can I just emphasise the need to unwind, it can cause a fire if you don't.

[amstrange1]

It'll draw 10A max, so an extension lead is fine if it's rated correctly and not going to get piss wet through.

The guidelines come from people using an extension reel - most of which are 3kW rated uncoiled, but can be only 1.2kW if left wound on the reel - so to mitigate for stupid people they tell you not to use one.

[Bee_Jay]

Can confirm - ran mine on a 13A extension lead for the first month while I waited for my driveway to be finished and the necessary armoured cable laid to where I wanted my charging point fitted.

I actually used this one (fully unwound) and it worked very well, never got hot - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterplug-HLP2013-2IP-Out... Made sure it was on an RCD to be safe.

The charger only draws just under 10A as someone said earlier, so it is fine - just make sure the cable is unwound and even then not just lying in coils on the floor (have we said that enough?? ;-)

It will take about 5 hours to charge like that. When you get a 16A point put in, that goes down to just over 3 hours. I had a 32A untethered point fitted as we will replace my wife's car with a leaf when it is due and I wanted to future proof, though now I am thinking of getting a second charging point fitted anyway when the time comes...

[mids]

That's the one I've used with my i3, works well and has a thermal cutout.

£14 at Screwfix, bargain !

http://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-case-reel-spl...

[S11Steve]

Thanks all - I've borrowed a heavy duty extension lead with an RCD on one end, and a waterproof socket on the other to run through the garage. It's rated at 13Amp, so a constant 10amp for a few hours each night shouldn't be a problem. It's not going to be coiled either - I've seen the youtube videos of induction heaters!

I've ordered a charge point to be fitted as well, and just waiting confirmation of the PHEV delivery date now.