[Andy-Zoé-User]

about a month ago i bought a 13a (well what I thought was 13a) Duosida Granny Cable of an irish selling site - came through with a 13a 3 pin plug on , used it a few times and thought 'that plug gets quite hot' but then I thought well it is 10amps at the end of the day and it has been on a while.

Then going through my workshop I come across my LCD energy plug in thingy just for the crack , was surprised to see :

15.09 A on a 13a 3 pin plug (where I thought was going to be something like 10a)
3,187watts (when I was expecting 2400w)

Now I think apparently a 230v AC 13a plug can take 2990W - (is that right?) - I just automatically thought the granny cables took 10a power at around 2400w ?

I might get in touch in touch with the seller see what he says, see if he can get in touch with the suppliers/manufacturers and get the score. - I have my suspicions that maybe the unit was made for europe with 16a europe round pin plugs and then adapted it to UK/Ireland by putting on 13a 3 pin plug? but I am not sure.

Has tripped in the fuseboard a couple of times halfway through charging my Zoe - but the other issue I am thinking is that if those pins of the 13a plug keep getting so hot it wont be so long the pins overhead in the plug and could break off?

If you have a Duosida type 2 charger like this - just might be worth being aware of it.

 

[freddym]

Have you calibrated your plugin energy monitor thingy?

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

Have you calibrated your plugin energy monitor thingy?

I pressed the red reset thing on it with a pen and the display went 0000 - would that be enough to callibrate it?

 

[ElectricBeagle]

Mine is the same. It even has 16 amp. on the label if I remember correctly.

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

Mine is the same. It even has 16 amp. on the label if I remember correctly.

I shall have to have a look on my label - so yours marked 16amp but has a 13a plug on it yes?.
What wattage is on your one?

 

[Gavin Taylor]

Very dangerous !!, some of those type of chargers have a way of altering the charge rate

 

[mikegs]

It does look iffy, but car chargers (the bit inside the car, not this granny lead which is not an actual charger) probably draws a non-sinusoidal current. That can cause some measuring instruments to read quite inaccurately.
If possible I'd try and check it with a second, different, device as well.

 

[Carty]

Do you know a friendly spark who can put a professional "Amp" clamp meter around the cable to get an accurate reading ?.

 

[ElectricBeagle]

I shall have to have a look on my label - so yours marked 16amp but has a 13a plug on it yes?.
What wattage is on your one?

It puts about 3kW into the car according to CanZE. (from memory).

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

It does look iffy, but car chargers (the bit inside the car, not this granny lead which is not an actual charger) probably draws a non-sinusoidal current. That can cause some measuring instruments to read quite inaccurately.
If possible I'd try and check it with a second, different, device as well.

yep of course I always get mixed up . of course on the zoe 22kw AC, the charger is under the bonnet isnt it.

so (am not 100% up on this) the charger in the car is then recognising the granny cable I have plugged in as a 16a one then , is that what it is? - so its handshaking with the box of electronics on the granny cable and the GC is telling the zoe to pull 15 (or 16amp) from the GC is it instead of pulling 10a ?.. is that how it works? - is the granny cable electronics telling the zoe that its 16a??

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

Do you know a friendly spark who can put a professional "Amp" clamp meter around the cable to get an accurate reading ?.

Not off-hand no, but i'm sure I have one of these knocking around somewhere and that has a clamp on it - would this be up to the job? - although its just designed to clamp around the live wire in the meter box, but do you think it would work same way?

 

[freddym]

I pressed the red reset thing on it with a pen and the display went 0000 - would that be enough to callibrate it?

That's a good start. Do you have an electric kettle. Usually power rating is on the base. What does your energy meter read?

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

It puts about 3kW into the car according to CanZE. (from memory).

same GC as mine then - yep just looked at the rating on the back of mine 16a , but naughty putting 16a cable on a 13a 3pin plug no wonder plug gets quite hot - got a feeling maybe the GC's are manufactred for the (Shoco is it called) 16a round plugs without a fuse in them and them must have got adapted along the way with a 13a plug fitted.

am I right in saying if it were a OEM cable it would be a 10amp 2.4kw granny cable they use?

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

That's a good start. Do you have an electric kettle. Usually power rating is on the base. What does your energy meter read?

well the plug in energy meter reads 2630w on a 3kw kettle and voltage from socket is 230vac without kettle on and 225vac when kettle is on

 

[mikegs]

yep of course I always get mixed up . of course on the zoe 22kw AC, the charger is under the bonnet isnt it.

The AC charger of all cars is in the car. All AC 'chargers' on walls, posts, etc, are actually charge-points that simply supply AC.
DC rapids are different.

so (am not 100% up on this) the charger in the car is then recognising the granny cable I have plugged in as a 16a one then , is that what it is? - so its handshaking with the box of electronics on the granny cable and the GC is telling the zoe to pull 15 (or 16amp) from the GC is it instead of pulling 10a ?.. is that how it works? - is the granny cable electronics telling the zoe that its 16a??

The charge-point tells the car the maximum current it's permitted to draw. The car then takes what it wants up to that maximum.

The 16A on the plate may just be what the unit is capable of handling. With only a 13A plug fitted it should have been set to signal a lower current limit to the car.
"Should" and "have been" are of course nice ideas ...

 

[freddym]

well the plug in energy meter reads 2630w on a 3kw kettle and voltage from socket is 230vac without kettle on and 225vac when kettle is on
View attachment 134534

View attachment 134535

The 2630 reading is probably just the tolerance on the nominal 3000 watt rating.
So yes, within the limits of the crude test, your power meter is confirming that the portable EVSE is pulling a huge amount of current. I'd be tempted to instal a 16A commando socket and convert your portable EVSE to the same.

 

[DBMandrake]

It does look iffy, but car chargers (the bit inside the car, not this granny lead which is not an actual charger) probably draws a non-sinusoidal current. That can cause some measuring instruments to read quite inaccurately.
If possible I'd try and check it with a second, different, device as well.

For what it's worth - the cheap 3 pin kWh meter I have measured the charge rate of my Peugeot Ion through the factory granny EVSE accurately. (9 amps or about 2kW) I haven't tried it on the Leaf though.

I don't think the OBC on most EV's is as "bad" a load as you're suggesting. The one in the Ion had a full power factor correction stage as part of the charger design. I don't know how universal that is among EV's though and whether some (Zoe, ahem) cut corners in this regard.

 

[KenB]

I believe/was told, In the early days of EVs in Eire you could only have/get a 16A/3 pin plug and 10A were not allowed !

 

[Andy-Zoé-User]

if I was a bit better on electronics I'd try splitting open my electronics box on my GC (unless its all moulded) and see if there is something i could adjust in there to drop it down to 10a 2.4kw , i'd feel better/safer than that. Maybe there might be a potentiometer in there that could be adjusted (doubt it though, its most probably all regulated by IC chips and resistors and regulators and diods.

kicking myself in a way because I wanted a granny cable quick and then I saw this on DD at a good price , but at the same time i looked at what looked like a much better one on amazon and was cheaper but would take 4 weeks delivery (most probably come from China) but it had a lighted LCD display and whats more it was selectable output. i think 6amp (well the Zoe wont recognise 6a) and then i think the next one was 10a, then 13a I think and finally 16a ... wish i would have bought that now instead at least with a press of a button i could set 10a .

 

[mikegs]

kicking myself in a way because I wanted a granny cable quick

Yeah. Been there, done that.
We have a saying: "Act in haste, repent at leisure." It's true more often than I'd like