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Charging point install when living in a static home

4K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  cgiAlexis 
#1 ·
Hello fellow EV citizens

Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction and/or can share some experiences they may have had.

To set the scene, we are looking at getting a Zoe which comes with a free home charge point for my Mother in law who lives in a static home. Now I am aware of the fact that it might be possible to mount the charging point to the caravan itself, or that a post could be erected if needed. However what I would like to know is how successful an install has anyone had in the same sort of situation. I realise that my captive audience is probably quite low, however you don't know till you ask!

My mother in law is a bit worried that sometimes they have power issues on site and that this might be an ongoing issue with regards to the draw the car might make on power but my argument is that she could set the car to charge overnight whereby the useage would be minimal and there would not be an issue, assuming the installation could take place in the first place of course!

Your thoughts community?

Cheers

Phill
 
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#2 ·
My parents have a static as a holiday home. 1st thing you'll need to check is what supply it is... theirs is only 16amps via a blue commando socket which connects to the meter box alongside the caravan. If you have one of those your options are probably limited to plugging in a 13 amp socket with the car set to charge on low. (6amps) unless you know for sure you aren't going to be running the electric shower while the car is charging! I've done that several times at theirs... its a bit slow taking from about 11pm one night to 1pm the following afternoon to fill up my i3 - from completely empty, as I arrvied by REX. I've given it a run at full 10amps too without any issues - once everyone has gone to bed. Just make sure there aren't a lot of otehr EV owners doing the same - or you could wake up finding there's no site power :(

The cheapest option would be to have an external IP65 rated plug socket fitted.. which can also be used to power a jet washer, vacuum cleaner or a patio heater :(.

Of course you could try and get a grant for a wall pod/post but given that you mentioned power supply problems - I'd be worried you can 't reliably pull 16amps, let alone 32.
 
#3 ·
@Deadphill

She'll need a survey to see what power is available, this can be cheap and easy.

Our colleague here @EVPotential mentioned that there are many charging options, including 3 pin mains, 3 pin blue commando, and wall mountings.

You might not know this but you don't have to use British Gas/Polar-Chargemaster with the Zoe, you can use any EV charger installer. I mention this because maybe she could get a post charger installed instead of a wall charger.

This is where the Zoe is great, it's designed to take almost any voltage, amperage, and frequency under the sun and turn that into usable DC so essentially all she has to chose is how fast it charges at home.

This is where the next step comes in, use openchargemap.org to check out the skinny on the local chargers, she might have a rapid nearby that she could use. Then the home charging can be for slow top ups and pre conditioning.

To summarise:
1. Survey.
2. Check out many companies (Polar, Pod Point, Rolex...) and select as required.
3. Double check for local chargers.
4. Buy the right Zoe for the job, old Zoe for long distances in short periods and new Zoe for lots of short trips with regular charging.

Hope this helps!
 
#4 ·
Hi guys

Thanks for the responses, its really helpful.

What I was thinking is what difficulties people may have had in this kind of situation. Im aware you can get many different chargers installed but this exercise is about getting her a better car and to reap a few rewards of cheaper driving, so in the Zoe deal the issue is that they provide a free install of the charger from chargemaster, whereas the rest you get the government grant but it will cost.

What I had not considered is getting the survey done. That is probably most likely the number 1 thing that needs to be done in this situation. Do you know if chargemaster do this for you and if so if it costs?

Cheers

Phill
 
#5 ·
@Deadphill

Many of these companies offer a free survey, but often on the understanding that you'll get their gear. Best to email them with the circumstances and IIRC you send some pictures and plans via a web form and they'll contact you back for a installation date.

WRT the charger unit, you'll find that actually all pricing is conveniently set so that the base unit is about £10 with grant (3.7kW) and the rapid 1 phase unit is £110 with grant (7kW) and that I've found this is true from the three installers I mentioned (though there are probably more options available).

I say this because I used the free 'included' service the first time then "shopped around" the second time both for a new Renault Zoe. The paperwork was in fact less painful for PodPoint than it was for Brit Gas.

Good luck in your search!
 
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