[Paul5464]

Hi All
Advice please!
My brother is having extensive works done on his house. Effectively a complete rebuild inside and out including total rewiring.

He isn’t yet an EV driver but thinks he is likely to convert in the coming years and asked me as a current EV driver for advice as to whether he should at least get the wiring done now and what would be the best future proof solution.

While I can’t see any harm in getting an armoured cable put down to where in the future he might want his home charge to be, does anyone have any thoughts of what else he might consider? I know there is talk and some people actually having 3 phase charging installed today - is this the way of the future and if you are knowledgeable about this what kind of cables does it use?

thanks in advance to all crystal ball gazers!

 

[Mrklaw]

data - couple of ethernet cables, one can be used for connection to a network if you aren’t close enough to a wifi point, the other can be used for eg current clamps for measuring usage

 

[freddym]

Hi All
Advice please!
My brother is having extensive works done on his house. Effectively a complete rebuild inside and out including total rewiring.

He isn’t yet an EV driver but thinks he is likely to convert in the coming years and asked me as a current EV driver for advice as to whether he should at least get the wiring done now and what would be the best future proof solution.

While I can’t see any harm in getting an armoured cable put down to where in the future he might want his home charge to be, does anyone have any thoughts of what else he might consider? I know there is talk and some people actually having 3 phase charging installed today - is this the way of the future and if you are knowledgeable about this what kind of cables does it use?

thanks in advance to all crystal ball gazers!

3 phase charging would require 2 additional cores: it's easy enough to procure and install a suitable 5 core cable if your crystal ball includes a future 3 phase supply to the house.

 

[andrew*debbie]

While I can’t see any harm in getting an armoured cable put down to where in the future he might want his home charge to be, does anyone have any thoughts of what else he might consider? I know there is talk and some people actually having 3 phase charging installed today - is this the way of the future and if you are knowledgeable about this what kind of cables does it use?

thanks in advance to all crystal ball gazers!

If he has 3-phase service at the house, absolutely install a 3-phase charger. If not, then wire up for single phase 32A, 7kW. Best to plan for two EV chargers, since that is where we are headed.


Many EVs are now 3-phase capable. With Octopus Go you want to get as much power as you can into the car during the 4-hour 5p/kWh price window. So yes, absolutely put in a 3 phase charger if you can.

Whoever does the work needs to be current on EV charging requirements. Needs a lot more than a 5 wire cable run.

 

[mikeselectricstuff]

As this is a future requirement, there's little point doing any more than just running the cable at this stage, leaving enough slack at each end. Seal up the ends to avoid corrosion. A 5-core cable would give the option of 3-phase or two single-phase units. The cable rating requirements aren't likely to change in the near future, so choose the cable size based on 32A ( per phase), and as above, also run a couple of cat-5s.

 

[mad_rich]

The trouble with future proofing, is that when the future arrives, inevitably it doesn't arrive quite how and when you'd imagined it would!

I don't foresee 3 phase becoming very common in the near future, except maybe in new builds. I do foresee multi EV households. I do foresee the regulations changing between now and then. I do foresee hungrier vehicles with bigger batteries.

I would certainly run a suitable cable between the parking location and the meter cupboard or consumer unit if I could do it easily. There are some with a data cable. If I was replacing the consumer unit anyway, I'd consider one big enough for two new 32A circuits. But unless you know exactly how it's going to be installed, there's a limit to what you can plan for.

 

[freddym]

The trouble with future proofing, is that when the future arrives, inevitably it doesn't arrive quite how and when you'd imagined it would!

I don't foresee 3 phase becoming very common in the near future, except maybe in new builds. I do foresee multi EV households. I do foresee the regulations changing between now and then. I do foresee hungrier vehicles with bigger batteries.

I would certainly run a suitable cable between the parking location and the meter cupboard or consumer unit if I could do it easily. There are some with a data cable. If I was replacing the consumer unit anyway, I'd consider one big enough for two new 32A circuits. But unless you know exactly how it's going to be installed, there's a limit to what you can plan for.

Just run the 3 phase cable. Those extra cores will come in handy one way or another and the cost difference will only be pounds. For example a 2nd charger overall installation load limited might well take advantage of the extra current carrying capacity. Etc.

 

[blueacid]

Yep, it's crucial to note that unless the house already has a three phase supply, that's going to be the limiting factor. Upgrades from single to three-phase are, at the moment, quite expensive. We're talking, on average, a few thousand pounds. So unless it's already present, or a particularly cheap upgrade, it's more likely that the future may well hold a dual-car load-sharing charger in store.

To answer your question about what to do now, I'd suggest running some ducting or conduit with draw-lines in it, so that you can later pull through whatever is required on a later date.

 

[freddym]

Yep, it's crucial to note that unless the house already has a three phase supply, that's going to be the limiting factor. Upgrades from single to three-phase are, at the moment, quite expensive. We're talking, on average, a few thousand pounds. So unless it's already present, or a particularly cheap upgrade, it's more likely that the future may well hold a dual-car load-sharing charger in store.

To answer your question about what to do now, I'd suggest running some ducting or conduit with draw-lines in it, so that you can later pull through whatever is required on a later date.

These suggestions to run conduit drawstrings etc are all very good for outside or underground situations but for property refurbishments, sometimes there is no clear path for the correct size of conduit, restrictions on bend radii etc. Sometimes one is forced to just pre-install the cable(s).

 

[Paul5464]

I would like to thank you all for taking the time to write these replies. All comments are most helpful and appreciated.

 

[blueacid]

These suggestions to run conduit drawstrings etc are all very good for outside or underground situations but for property refurbishments, sometimes there is no clear path for the correct size of conduit, restrictions on bend radii etc. Sometimes one is forced to just pre-install the cable(s).

Ah yes, in my mind I had the consumer unit being in the garage and the desired charger being somewhere on a driveway, where a conduit would be sensible. If the route would be through the house then yes, you're quite right.

To the original poster: I suppose, price up the difference between a single-phase 32A-capable cable to the charging location, and a 3x32A cable (so 5-pole I guess, for 3 phases, plus Neutral and Earth). Like other commenters in this thread have said, the other conductors will potentially come in useful for other applications.

Definitely look at running decent networking throughout the house too; not only to the charging port, but elsewhere as well. Getting things cabled in makes such a difference to the performance of any wireless network. Particularly if you can run 2 (or preferably, 4) cables to any office.

 

[Gt6k]

There is only one future proof solution and that is a duct with a pull through in it. I have a relative who 'future proofed' his new house by embedding multiple scart cables in the walls wherever he might want to put a TV, guess how much use they are?

 

[Hilltop Dave]

To the original poster: I suppose, price up the difference between a single-phase 32A-capable cable to the charging location, and a 3x32A cable (so 5-pole I guess, for 3 phases, plus Neutral and Earth). Like other commenters in this thread have said, the other conductors will potentially come in useful for other applications.

For the supply to my garage I had a 4-core 10mm2 Steel Wire Armoured cable installed, initially to give continuous and off-peak switched supplies. As the expected off-peak heaters were never installed, the second pair of wires came in useful for feeding the Pod-Point charging point independent of the supply to the garage Consumer Unit. Earthing was by a combination of the Steel Wire Armouring and a separate earth conductor.