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EV Charger Purchase and Installation Feedback

1K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  AnotherJoe 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

I am a student at the new Cornell Tech University in New York City and I am currently working on a project with Con Edison to make EV charging more affordable, accessible and competitive. I would love some feedback from you all regarding the topic.

Specifically:
- What are the challenges that you face when purchasing and installing a new EV charger?
- How tedious and how many visits does it take for an electrician to get the job done?
- Do you have any issues charging in cities as EV owners?

We are currently working on an AR project that would allow owners to use their smartphones to strategically place EV chargers in their homes while measuring distances from the main power supply to that point. These measurements and a video will then be sent to certified electricians closeby and they would be able to provide you with estimates without having to visit. Would this be something that would appeal to you as EV charger owners?

Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
As Spiny said, 90% of the difficulty of getting a home charger is having somewhere to park that can have a private cable run to it from your electricity supply.

As for your specific idea, while really interesting, I do wonder about how useful it would really be. Getting a charge point is more or less a one-off process, and will mainly be decided upon what installers are available, which ones are subsidised buy your car manufacture, which designs and capacity of charge points you prefer etc. Then, in my case at least, the It's also not too much of a pain to take a few photos and make a few measurements if it's going to be years before anything needs to be changed again.

My guess is that the software you are trying to make would be much better sold to big companies and professional electricians for thousands, rather than getting a few dollars kickback from ads (more like less than a cent for that one!) or referrals when each user will barely use the service. I can however imagine people working on big projects loving the ability to quickly map out complex cable runs and minimise the amount they need to spend on materials.

Sorry if that's not what you want to hear, but hope it helps!
 
#4 ·
The key thing that installers seem to want is a photo of the existing consumer unit and meter installation, plus an idea of the distances and route to the planned location of the EVSE. In my case it was very clear from that info and the installation was completed in a couple of hours.

Problems occur if the incoming supply is inadequate (say 60A rather than 100A) or if the connection from the incoming supply to the EVSE is complex (such as a house in the way or digging up 10m of concrete drive). How can your app deal with these?
 
#5 ·
My installation was carried out in 2013 by my power company. I paid the full price and had it refunded by the Scottish Energy Savings Trust a couple of weeks later. My installation was over the cost limit due to the distance from the consumer unit and the charging point. I was expecting to pay the difference and the maximum grant however during a conversation with EST they offered to pay the full amount, around 110% of the grant. The survey was carried out and then the installation on the same day. My house was built and 1986 and because it was my energy provider doing the installation they knew the supply rating of my house.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Are you aware this is principally a UK forum ? Many of the issues installing chargers here will be different to the USA since standard supply is already 240v whereas in the USA it’s my understanding you often need to do something additional to install such a higher voltage supply.
 
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