Ive seen it all now .... car charging unit.

[Darkwood]

Got a call from one of my customers today who is having a car charging point fitted at home from BG in conjunction with the car suppliers all free of charge, he said they have issues with the existing set up and refuse to fit it so i trundled along and found Main Earth was 6mm to which i said it should really stop them fitting it but after a chat they said they can but with a note on the installation cert' --- ok fair enough...

Now it get good , the supply is PME (TNCS) so they said they cant fit the socket charging point anywhere near earthed metal and for them to fit their charge point i had to remove the metal light fittings around the front, they also put the gas pipe riser on the outside of the garage in plastic trunking ...very aesthetic on stone work and they also created the outlet into a TT by sinking a Rod in.
They told me that they cant have any external metalwork earthed from the mains within 10m of the outlet as the risk of shock if the PME N/E was lost and i assume they were looking at it as outside the equipotential zone hence the TT set-up.

Ps.. the rod was sunk 600mm from the house wall, so not exactly at the end of the garden.

So in effect an external charge port which it basically is a lead and trailer socket has had to be done with its own TT earth set-up and any earthed metal that can be touched at the same time as the car has to be removed or insulated fully..... I understand they have their hands tied behind their back as they have been instructed so and they also expressed a change in regulation to avoid this issue later in the year... but i find it OTT that my customer has had to have all his metal OS lighting remove so he can charge his car!

 

[iamelectric]

was it british gas by any chance

 

[iamelectric]

just notices the BG , you would not believe the price they charge for fitting these sockets

 

[ipf]

Get the lights changed to battery operated so that he can use the charger for them ??? :smug:
OTT to say the least.

 

[Darkwood]

It was free for the my customer so aint a concern in this case .... although my time of course is billable

 

[iamelectric]

yeah i should have read your post properly , we were asked to fit 2 charging points outside a renault garage , BG quoted them 60grand they have the contract for all renault stuff in the uk

 

[Guest55]

reading recent IET commentary the whole car charging industry is up its arse with regards to getting the supply & earthing parameters sorted out.

for example , the regs have decreed that vehical charging points in public places pretty much need to be tns to reduce to risk of metalwork going live from a loss of the pme neutral.
however dno's these days only deal in tncs supplies........

you'll be waiting till the 18th edition regs come out before its all presented in any sort of practical workings by my reckoning.

 

[Guest55]

as a thread high jack , electric cars are a total waste of effort anyway , 120 miles range with several hours recharging time ?
yeah right , i'll wait for hydrogen fuel cells before ditching the combustion engine.
;-)

 

[iamelectric]

aye its a joke , when you buy the car or van you do not own the batteries the car company own them , they only last 6 years and cost 7 grand to replace , only local councils are daft enough to buy them

 

[Darkwood]

I did comment about the car been cleaned with vac while plugged in and the risks you introduce in other ways using that set up .... and expressed it really OTT when your client has to take down anything earthed like light fittings etc .... a really thought out set-up they got!! yes Mr Smith here's your new car but we want your coach lights, the outside tap removed and the council to take away the street lamp too :shame:

They didn't appreciate the street lamp comment lol

 

[iamelectric]

on the hydrogen subject i seen this on top gear a few years ago its the more abundant energy source in the universe , so why are we not using it already?

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Electric cars are a total waste of time unless the power station used to generate the electricity is running on renewables. Simple physics. You can't get something out unless you put something in. What about all the resources used to make the batteries?

 

[amlu]

massive generators are more efficient than the small ones.
yeah current battery technology is not up to the job, but maybe something will move
with ultracapacitors in some future.

 

[Fin170]

on the hydrogen subject i seen this on top gear a few years ago its the more abundant energy source in the universe , so why are we not using it already?

Because it reacts easily with everything which makes it very difficult to store and transport (Current hydrogen vehicles have ranges of about 80 miles and their tanks store at several hundred bar of pressure because the process is also very inefficient), therefore all the stocks we have come from reforming coal and gas (a process using fossil fuels and several times more energy than that of charging an electric car).

And that's before paying out for the entire developed world to put in the infrastructure for production, transport, distribution, storage etc

I'll also point out there are hundreds of old Priuses taxis that have been running over 10 years for thousands of miles on their original cells with no issues and Tesla is producing 300 mile range cars that can be fast charged to full in a hour (which are about the same performance and cost of an M5).

What about all the resources used to make the batteries?

Lots of lithium found in Afghanistan, hows that for the conspiracy senses? :lol:

 

[Sharpend]

Ok so the new amendment due out soon includes a section 722 which relates to electric vehicles.
As for what you described Darkwood that is an install according to the code if practice as set out by the IET.
As due the charging of the batteries, there are several methods available. A standard 13a plug which takes 10-12 hours. A mode 3 system which optimises the charge of the batteries by communicating with the vehicle a higher ampage is used therefore charge tines drop to 6-8hours then there is the fast charge if 1hour which is a DC charging system, these are what are found in some city centres.