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Discussion
Looking at this and wondering if some of the issues with car charging could be addressed by some thought on how the electrical system works and some ways applied to make things a bit safer and more structured.
1. PME and its effects on safety - requirement for earthing
2. Load management.
3. Location of charge point and Supply source
1. biggest issue is with PME that there could be a shock hazard generated if the neutral to the house becomes disconnected. Although the house appears to be 'dead' and a power cut prevalent. The live feed to the house is still live and by nature of the different appliances in the house connected and switched on some of this live electricity will appear on the neutral cable in the house raising its potential as it is not connected to neutral. The result is that through the PME neutral link the earth wiring in the house will be at the same potential as the neutral. This will result in the metalwork connected to earth to be at this potential and that would mean that a current would flow through anything that linked the metal work and true earth. a real shock hazard. An earth rod is driven into the ground and connected to the earth wiring adjacent to the charge socket. This is done to try and ensure that the earth wiring stays close to the true earth potential. Looking at this and trying to work out if some form of neutral loss detection could be utilised to ensure that any break in neutral would flag up an issue or even disconnect the supply. Could some form of current flow detection on the earth rod be used to do this ?
2. The main fuse at the house intake will limit what is available for charging. Someone has the microwave on with a turkey in the oven and the shower is switched on.... if the car was on charge could this cause issues ? And if so could the system not be designed to drop out the car charger depending on the house power demand. Basically a form of load shedding that is used in many other locations and provides to be useful, pretty sure that something like this would be relatively easy to organise.
3. location of charge point relative to consumer unit and intake point. If the intake point is closer then why not take the power from there. Loss of neutral detection and load shed function could be incorporated at that point as well.
1. PME and its effects on safety - requirement for earthing
2. Load management.
3. Location of charge point and Supply source
1. biggest issue is with PME that there could be a shock hazard generated if the neutral to the house becomes disconnected. Although the house appears to be 'dead' and a power cut prevalent. The live feed to the house is still live and by nature of the different appliances in the house connected and switched on some of this live electricity will appear on the neutral cable in the house raising its potential as it is not connected to neutral. The result is that through the PME neutral link the earth wiring in the house will be at the same potential as the neutral. This will result in the metalwork connected to earth to be at this potential and that would mean that a current would flow through anything that linked the metal work and true earth. a real shock hazard. An earth rod is driven into the ground and connected to the earth wiring adjacent to the charge socket. This is done to try and ensure that the earth wiring stays close to the true earth potential. Looking at this and trying to work out if some form of neutral loss detection could be utilised to ensure that any break in neutral would flag up an issue or even disconnect the supply. Could some form of current flow detection on the earth rod be used to do this ?
2. The main fuse at the house intake will limit what is available for charging. Someone has the microwave on with a turkey in the oven and the shower is switched on.... if the car was on charge could this cause issues ? And if so could the system not be designed to drop out the car charger depending on the house power demand. Basically a form of load shedding that is used in many other locations and provides to be useful, pretty sure that something like this would be relatively easy to organise.
3. location of charge point relative to consumer unit and intake point. If the intake point is closer then why not take the power from there. Loss of neutral detection and load shed function could be incorporated at that point as well.
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