[Peirpoint]

Hi,

Recently purchased a Citroen e-C4 E-series with a 54kwh battery from Arnold Clark. Car sale and car items led is excellent, first EV.

They recommended their sister company Bumblebee EV to fit the charger, they offer an EVEC charger which is fine but I paid slightly more and got a Ohme Epod.

The charger was installed and a day later I received an email from the DNO energy network to advise the charger can’t be installed until unlooping and a cut-out upgrade is done. They are visiting on the 3rd of September.

Nevertheless the charger has already been installed but without the CT load balance clamp, it’s still in the box but the me installer kept load balance on so charge is limited. They couldn't and haven’t yet provided an explanation.

Their electrician has taken a feed from the main switch inside our existing CU by sticking the wiring in the same holes as the meter tails within it and put that into a separate surge protected CU for the charger. This seems unsafe and I understand the meter cable feed should be 25mm2 and they should be split with one set going to out original CU and another to the new CU. The meter tails are not 25mm2, possible only 10mm2 or 16mm2 but they are feeding both full house and the EV CU. Again this seems unsafe.

I’ve not received a certificate to confirm the installation is up to standard and been given no explanation of why the electrician broke the main fuse security wire (it’s not been replaced) without permission from the DNO or didn’t upgrade the meter tails, recognise the my needed upgraded or indeed wait until the DNO did their checks.

I’ve not received a receipt for the purchase nor have a been given details the warranty has been activated.

I have sent a email of complaint which has been acknowledged by their Operations Director and I await full response.

Has anyone else had issues with Bumblebee EV? The do use contractors and are quick to take payment and they seem to have lack any controls and have a cavalier attitude to safety. I’ll also be contacting Trading Standards to.

I am considering requesting they remove what they’ve installed and refund and I’ll use Octopus instead. Also thinking of a heat pump and/or battery storage to so everything needs to be safe and to up to standard.

I've had a number of chargepoint installs prior to the DNO being informed.
My ePod prompted the DNO man to come and tell me they would be unlooping me in December or January at the latest. Nothing has been done.

Your account seems a little confusing and I can't quite picture what the installer has left you with but you'll be limited to charging at 16 amps rather than 32.

From your meter or hopefully isolation switch you should have some blocks which split the tails, one set of tails to your house CU, the other which are going to usually be much smaller would go to the new mini CU it only needs to handle 32A but should have protective devices labelled as 40A and include an RCBO and SPD. At least you should be able to get a decent picture or two of the contents of the new CU and the arrangement of tails feeding it and where they come from.

It's quite possible that something is iffy enough to complain about it but it's difficult to say with any certainty if things are a complete bodge or not. A picture should provide some certainty.

Gaz

 

[Peirpoint]

I’m no electrician but did do some research on how the EV chargers are installed, what to expect installation wise and to help which charger to purchase. Being our first EV this forum has really help with this.

This started with noticing the load balance clamp was still in the box and the charger working on a lower amps along with the next day receiving the email from the DNO.

Hoping for a response from them early next week, hopefully they’ll put things right.

Hopefully you've paid by credit card.

For the sake of it you might as well supply pics of the mini CU and its contents along with the connection to the Ohme.

The more which is identified as wrong now the better chance you'll have at getting it corrected.

If it were me I'd put a section 75 claim in with the credit card right away and I'd be speaking with Arnold Clark along the lines of how dare they recommend a cowboy firm to install the chargepoint and suggesting they contact all their customers who took up the recommendation with a view to having them (Arnold Clark) pay for a comptent electrician to go and document the state of the installations, decommissioning anything dangerous and for them to put pressure on bumblebee to send a thind party contractor round to rectify all their crap.

Gaz