Home charger advise

[the-norseman]

Hi all,

My mums got a Toyota Bz4x on Motability and as part of it they installed a home charger for her, she charges it overnight when needed 0001-0659 on Eon Next EV tariff. I live 2.5 hours away and mum will be making the journey down to mine quite a lot. She came down last weekend and had about 46% charge left when she got here, the day she was due to go back we went to the nearest fast charger which was 120kw and charged from 41% to 94% but it cost £30, the car park its in also has a maximum stay of 45 minutes during "normal hours". There are quite a lot of chargers around the city but that means dropping the car off somewhere and leaving it.

Apparently the car will take 32 hours to charge if I plug it into my normal 3 pin plug at home, so I'm wondering if it would be worth her getting a second charger installed at my house? looks to be circa £1000 from Eon Next (I'm with them), as a plus I could then move onto the cheaper rate at night tariff, I work from home including night shifts so that could work out well.

Anybody got any recommendations from chargers and places that supply/fit? I see Screwfix sell them now, can any qualified electrician fit them?

Mum is the only person in the family with a EV, id considered a Cupra Born myself but the £££ just didn't work.

[RobbyJ]

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value. That said it's amazing how much you can charge on a 3 pin plug.

Her car has a 64kwh useable battery so if you add 2kw/h on a 3 pin plug in say a 6hr visit you're adding 10-12kw/h, more than enough for her to get home. If she's staying overnight say 3pm to 8am with losses you'd add around 30kw/h which given she arrived at 46% should put you at over 90% for the return home.

I've done this for years when I go to my folks house in Devon and it works perfectly, even if I'm using my car while I'm there.

[the-norseman]

Next time shes down I will plug it in and see how we get on.

[SpidersWeb]

RobbyJ said:

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value.

I don't.

Sure having a drive where you can have the ability to have a charger if you need one is certainly is something that will make a property more attractive, but even then that is marginal as most of that attractiveness is simply having your own parking space.

As for the charger itself, that's like saying a house with a boiler or built in oven adds resale value - it doesn't.

[ucb]

RobbyJ said:

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value. That said it's amazing how much you can charge on a 3 pin plug.

Her car has a 64kwh useable battery so if you add 2kw/h on a 3 pin plug in say a 6hr visit you're adding 10-12kw/h, more than enough for her to get home. If she's staying overnight say 3pm to 8am with losses you'd add around 30kw/h which given she arrived at 46% should put you at over 90% for the return home.

I've done this for years when I go to my folks house in Devon and it works perfectly, even if I'm using my car while I'm there.

Fully agree with this post.
Home charger a big expense but very useful when you are EV dependent
We survived for a couple of months 3-pin charging our Leaf and it worked ok but we had to plan carefully the car's use. We had to leave it plugged in maybe twice in that 2 months for big charge and we used my diesel car instead.
With our Zappi daily use is just not an issue.

You could still switch to Octopus Go without an EV (or presumably a different tariff) if you are working nights from home.

[TheDrownedApe]

I regularly drive to houses and arrive on empty, plug in my 3 pin and come back a day later without issue.

A couple of things to note.

My C40 came with granny charger and i used it once instead of my aftermarket one....it only charges at 2.2kw per hour versus 3kw from my usual one (check the label).

At my relatives house, if i charge they can't have two ovens on as it overloads the grid

I wouldn't bother with installing a wall charger.

[ucb]

TheDrownedApe said:

I regularly drive to houses and arrive on empty, plug in my 3 pin and come back a day later without issue.

Presumably you know the owners/occupants?
Or is it some sort of EV roulette you chance your arm at???

[Gone fishing]

TheDrownedApe said:

I regularly drive to houses and arrive on empty, plug in my 3 pin and come back a day later without issue.

A couple of things to note.

My C40 came with granny charger and i used it once instead of my aftermarket one....it only charges at 2.2kw per hour versus 3kw from my usual one (check the label).

At my relatives house, if i charge they can't have two ovens on as it overloads the grid

I wouldn't bother with installing a wall charger.

Any charger pluigged into a 3 pin socket should only charge at 10 amps continuously as that is what the regulations allow (in the UK). 10amps, 230v is 2.3kw. If you are getting 3kw then you're either not in the UK and using a continental charger (they can charge at 13a as their nominal max current ius 16a unlike our 13a), or you're doing somthing you may regret at somepoint.

[plfrench]

SpidersWeb said:

RobbyJ said:

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value.

I don't.

Sure having a drive where you can have the ability to have a charger if you need one is certainly is something that will make a property more attractive, but even then that is marginal as most of that attractiveness is simply having your own parking space.

As for the charger itself, that's like saying a house with a boiler or built in oven adds resale value - it doesn't.

I think it will become increasingly expected though with most new-builds having to come with them now. Having one installed and functioning (along with appropriate installation certificate) does give confidence that there won't be any issues to a potential house purchaser I guess.

[SpidersWeb]

plfrench said:

SpidersWeb said:

RobbyJ said:

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value.

I don't.

Sure having a drive where you can have the ability to have a charger if you need one is certainly is something that will make a property more attractive, but even then that is marginal as most of that attractiveness is simply having your own parking space.

As for the charger itself, that's like saying a house with a boiler or built in oven adds resale value - it doesn't.

I think it will become increasingly expected though with most new-builds having to come with them now. Having one installed and functioning (along with appropriate installation certificate) does give confidence that there won't be any issues to a potential house purchaser I guess.

But how much extra would you be prepared to pay for a house that had a three / five / eight year old charger compared to the identical house next door that didn't?

£100? £50? Nothing? After all you have no idea how long the used one will continue to work and it isn't a fortune to get a new one installed that has a warranty.

The ability to install a charger is valuable but the charger itself - no.

[TheDrownedApe]

Gone fishing said:

Any charger pluigged into a 3 pin socket should only charge at 10 amps continuously as that is what the regulations allow (in the UK). 10amps, 230v is 2.3kw. If you are getting 3kw then you're either not in the UK and using a continental charger (they can charge at 13a as their nominal max current ius 16a unlike our 13a), or you're doing somthing you may regret at somepoint.

hmm thanks; i didn't know that. UK based and only realised the c40 cable was slower when it didn't meet my charging expectations. I plugged the other one in and it was quicker (looked at "time to full charge" info).

weird

[LaserTam]

SpidersWeb said:

plfrench said:

SpidersWeb said:

RobbyJ said:

I personally think having an EV charger installed on your house can only be a good thing in terms of resale value.

I don't.

Sure having a drive where you can have the ability to have a charger if you need one is certainly is something that will make a property more attractive, but even then that is marginal as most of that attractiveness is simply having your own parking space.

As for the charger itself, that's like saying a house with a boiler or built in oven adds resale value - it doesn't.

I think it will become increasingly expected though with most new-builds having to come with them now. Having one installed and functioning (along with appropriate installation certificate) does give confidence that there won't be any issues to a potential house purchaser I guess.

But how much extra would you be prepared to pay for a house that had a three / five / eight year old charger compared to the identical house next door that didn't?

£100? £50? Nothing? After all you have no idea how long the used one will continue to work and it isn't a fortune to get a new one installed that has a warranty.

The ability to install a charger is valuable but the charger itself - no.

I agree. Recently sold a house and the buyers didn't want the charge point, not interested in keeping even to future proof, so I took it with me to our new house. This may change in time.

[PBCD]

TheDrownedApe said:

hmm thanks; i didn't know that. UK based and only realised the c40 cable was slower when it didn't meet my charging expectations. I plugged the other one in and it was quicker (looked at "time to full charge" info).

Out of curiosity, do you have a link to this 'aftermarket' charger you bought?

[SpidersWeb]

LaserTam said:

SpidersWeb said:

But how much extra would you be prepared to pay for a house that had a three / five / eight year old charger compared to the identical house next door that didn't?

£100? £50? Nothing? After all you have no idea how long the used one will continue to work and it isn't a fortune to get a new one installed that has a warranty.

The ability to install a charger is valuable but the charger itself - no.

I agree. Recently sold a house and the buyers didn't want the charge point, not interested in keeping even to future proof, so I took it with me to our new house. This may change in time.

Were you trying to charge extra for the charger?

Surely it was 'fixtures' and was included with the price of the property, and so it seems odd that the buyers demanded that you remove it.

[wassap]

Having a charger might not add a lot of value to a house, but if it has one and its an old one, it should cost much to upgrade it if required, the hard work is done assumung it was done to regs in the 1st place, it should be a relatively simple case of swapping a charger and setting it up, any sparky could do this as the DNO notification and suitability assesment was done at the time of original install.

[TheDrownedApe]

PBCD said:

Out of curiosity, do you have a link to this 'aftermarket' charger you bought?

this one but bought from thirdrock energy about 4 years ago

https://www.teison.com/Protable_MINI.html

[JD]

TheDrownedApe said:

PBCD said:

Out of curiosity, do you have a link to this 'aftermarket' charger you bought?

this one but bought from thirdrock energy about 4 years ago

https://www.teison.com/Protable_MINI.html

Running at 10A continuously for a few hours, a 13A socket/plug will get extremely hot to the touch, and the pins can sometimes scorch the socket.

As above mentioned, you should not be running 13A continuously from a socket, it invites disaster.

[gmaz]

JD said:

TheDrownedApe said:

PBCD said:

Out of curiosity, do you have a link to this 'aftermarket' charger you bought?

this one but bought from thirdrock energy about 4 years ago

https://www.teison.com/Protable_MINI.html

Running at 10A continuously for a few hours, a 13A socket/plug will get extremely hot to the touch, and the pins can sometimes scorch the socket.

As above mentioned, you should not be running 13A continuously from a socket, it invites disaster.

No it won't, as long as the electrics are in good condition, and you avoid cheap extension leads.

[JD]

gmaz said:

No it won't, as long as the electrics are in good condition

Isn't that then the crux of the matter, how does one check their electrics are in good condition?

[SpidersWeb]

wassap said:

Having a charger might not add a lot of value to a house, but if it has one and its an old one, it shouldn't cost much to upgrade it if required, the hard work is done assumung it was done to regs in the 1st place, it should be a relatively simple case of swapping a charger and setting it up, any sparky could do this as the DNO notification and suitability assesment was done at the time of original install.

Have you ever encountered any electricians?