Multiple outlets from a single charger?

[kambites]

If we get an EV I want to be able to easily charge it both in the garage and on the drive, but since we will only have one EV, never both at once. Is there a standard way of wiring this from a single charge point or would the normal approach be to have two independent charge points?

I could obviously create something by wiring the whole charger outlet through a big high-current multi-pole (is it seven cores in an type-2 cable?) switch which switches between two type-2 cables, one for inside and one for outside, but it feels like this must be a problem which has already been solved without me bodging something.

[jonathan_roberts]

I had the same issue. I had the electrician mount the charger on the inside wall space to the right of the door. This means the car can be charged inside, and the cable fits under the closed door and can easily reach the car outside. The cable is 6m long.

I now have two EVs so need to buy a split charger which unfortunately means charging at half the speed when two cars are connected. 5.5kw and not 11kw. I had a look at having another 11kw line put in but it was well over €6000 and quickly decided against it.

[GT6k]

No and a switch would be dangerous. Either get a single cable long enough or have two cables to a non tethered charger and swap them. I have my charger in the garage and just feed the cable under the door for charging outside.

[kambites]

Sounds a bit rubbish for general quality of life because you need to open and re-close the garage door in order to charge the car outside. Surely OCPP might have been designed to support this somehow?

I don't see why a suitable switch would be dangerous. There's plenty of far higher current applications which use mechanical switches. The consumer unit the thing is wired into for one!

ETA: It doesn't look like true twin-outlet chargers are much more expensive so I guess that's the path most people go down.

Edited by kambites on Friday 9th August 10:44

[TheRainMaker]

Our charger has a nine-meter cable, which can reach both cars without having to move them around.

[GT6k]

You wouldn't switch off lathe or a running welder from the wall switch though. Also you really don't know what effect an arcing stop would have on the cars or the chargers electronics or whether either might decide it's still charging and get locked into a none working state.

[phil4]

While that makes sense, it's highly unlikely the OP would be switching while it's charging, due to the fact he only has the one EV to worry about.

Yes, possible, and yes arctastic if it does, but possibly doesn't mean it's likely, or even ever going to happen.

[kambites]

GT6k said:

You wouldn't switch off lathe or a running welder from the wall switch though. Also you really don't know what effect an arcing stop would have on the cars or the chargers electronics or whether either might decide it's still charging and get locked into a none working state.

Well yeah, but there's switches and there's switches. It's not particularly hard to build a switch which can't transition unless there's no current flowing on one of the conductors, for example. I wasn't suggesting using a 50p light switch from B&Q.

Edited by kambites on Friday 9th August 14:32

[phil4]

kambites said:

Well yeah, but there's switches and there's switches. It's not particularly hard to build a switch which can't transition unless there's no current flowing on one of the conductors, for example. I wasn't suggesting using a 50p light switch from B&Q.

Edited by kambites on Friday 9th August 14:32

If you can go down the Commando socket route (and use 32Amp capable granny charger) you can easily and cheaply wire in two Interlocking sockets. The EVSE then gets moved to the charging brick that often comes with the car. Depending which you have it may be a dead end as can't do 32Amp.