[Ambassador Spock]

Hi everyone, I'm planning on purchasing a 2018 Renault Zoe R110 with a 40 kWh battery sometime this week. I plan on buying a "granny cable" right away since the Zoe doesn't come with one, and using that while I research home charging station options. The more I read online, however, the more I wonder how necessary a home charger is for my use case. The Zoe will be my commuter car - roughly 25 miles roundtrip each day. The 40 kWh battery should easily last all week, and I was planning on charging it over the weekend, hoping for sunny skies since I have a decent array of solar panels on the roof. It'll be parked in a garage with easy access to a dedicated plug. If I want to take a longer trip I will keep it charged overnight. My thinking is that since I'm only driving ~25 miles per day, even a 13a standard UK plug won't take that long to top it off during the week if I want to keep it at 100%, and for longer family trips we'll likely take our petrol Qashqai anyway. Plus, we are renting at the moment, and though we have a great relationship with our landlords I'm wary of paying to install anything I'd have to pay to uninstall when we leave...

So is there something I am missing? Do I really need a home charging station?

 

[Jrtev]

No not really.

If your happy doing it that way and don't want the added benefits a smart charger can bring then run with the granny. Although they might be a warning about their not recommend for continued use, but I'm not sure.

 

[E7EV]

Hi everyone, I'm planning on purchasing a 2018 Renault Zoe R110 with a 40 kWh battery sometime this week. I plan on buying a "granny cable" right away since the Zoe doesn't come with one, and using that while I research home charging station options. The more I read online, however, the more I wonder how necessary a home charger is for my use case. The Zoe will be my commuter car - roughly 25 miles roundtrip each day. The 40 kWh battery should easily last all week, and I was planning on charging it over the weekend, hoping for sunny skies since I have a decent array of solar panels on the roof. It'll be parked in a garage with easy access to a dedicated plug. If I want to take a longer trip I will keep it charged overnight. My thinking is that since I'm only driving ~25 miles per day, even a 13a standard UK plug won't take that long to top it off during the week if I want to keep it at 100%, and for longer family trips we'll likely take our petrol Qashqai anyway. Plus, we are renting at the moment, and though we have a great relationship with our landlords I'm wary of paying to install anything I'd have to pay to uninstall when we leave...

So is there something I am missing? Do I really need a home charging station?

Sounds like a good plan. Just remember because Zoe has a chameleon charger and not the traditional on board charger, it is very inefficient charging at low power. I’d have to check, but I believe at 10amps you’re only going to be putting in to the battery about 1.5kW of the 2.3kW you draw from your array or the grid.

Also you’d need to check that the socket is up to the job. Otherwise it could get too hot and melt or cause a fire. If you have public chargers nearby, may be better and cheaper to charge there once a week.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

Sounds like a good plan. Just remember because Zoe has a chameleon charger and not the traditional on board charger, it is very inefficient charging at low power. I’d have to check, but I believe at 10amps you’re only going to be putting in to the battery about 1.5kW of the 2.3kW you draw from your array or the grid.

Hmm... I did not know about the low efficiency. Maybe I will put one in after all. I'm hoping I can get the dealership to throw in a home charger and installation for free if I pay full sticker price (I'm not sure how common negotiating extras into a sale is here in the UK, it happens a lot in the US.)

 

[sammyzak]

Hmm... I did not know about the low efficiency. Maybe I will put one in after all. I'm hoping I can get the dealership to throw in a home charger and installation for free if I pay full sticker price (I'm not sure how common negotiating extras into a sale is here in the UK, it happens a lot in the US.)

I think it affected the Q motors more, you'd basically end up with 59% efficiency when charging from 10 amp. Believe it was one of the many reasons why Renault removed the 43kw charging in favour of more efficient home charging speeds.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

I think it affected the Q motors more, you'd basically end up with 59% efficiency when charging from 10 amp. Believe it was one of the many reasons why Renault removed the 43kw charging in favour of more efficient home charging speeds.

Forgive my ignorance, I'm still new to EVs - does that mean it might not be as big of an issue with an R110 motor?

 

[sammyzak]

Forgive my ignorance, I'm still new to EVs - does that mean it might not be as big of an issue with an R110 motor?

No worries, each make/model has its little quirks. Yes, a comparable R motor was giving 71% efficiency at 10 amp. Once you get into 7kw charging you’d be hitting about 90%.

These numbers are from the R90 and Q90 motors but I’d expect them to be similar or a little better on newer motors like yours.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

Random question: do the charging stations need to be installed outdoors? All the websites I've read talk about having access to an exterior wall for installation, but I have a rather large garage and I park inside every night, so I'd want it on an interior wall.

 

[Jrtev]

Insides fine

 

[sammyzak]

No, I had mine inside the garage. You will only want to insure that the cable coming from your meter box to the destination where the charge resides is within 15 meters in length if I recall, otherwise they tend to charge extra. But they’ll drill through at least a wall to get there.

 

[freddym]

Random question: do the charging stations need to be installed outdoors? All the websites I've read talk about having access to an exterior wall for installation, but I have a rather large garage and I park inside every night, so I'd want it on an interior wall.

Of course, an interior installation is perfectly OK and is inherently safer.

 

[donald]

Hi everyone, I'm planning on purchasing a 2018 Renault Zoe R110 with a 40 kWh battery sometime this week. I plan on buying a "granny cable" right away since the Zoe doesn't come with one, and using that while I research home charging station options. The more I read online, however, the more I wonder how necessary a home charger is for my use case. The Zoe will be my commuter car - roughly 25 miles roundtrip each day. The 40 kWh battery should easily last all week, and I was planning on charging it over the weekend, hoping for sunny skies since I have a decent array of solar panels on the roof. It'll be parked in a garage with easy access to a dedicated plug. If I want to take a longer trip I will keep it charged overnight. My thinking is that since I'm only driving ~25 miles per day, even a 13a standard UK plug won't take that long to top it off during the week if I want to keep it at 100%, and for longer family trips we'll likely take our petrol Qashqai anyway. Plus, we are renting at the moment, and though we have a great relationship with our landlords I'm wary of paying to install anything I'd have to pay to uninstall when we leave...

So is there something I am missing? Do I really need a home charging station?

@Ambassador Spock

Join Octopus using my link in my signature.

Buy an 'Ohme' smart lead for a discount of £199 to Octopus customers. This will be cheaper, better and more useful than buying a low power 'granny'.

Order a '32A commando to type 2' lead.

Order a shuttered 32A socket, and replace your 3-pin socket with that.

If your 3-pin circuit can take a 32A load (i.e. has a 30A breaker and has 4mm^2 cable) then you're all set.

If your 3-pin circuit can take a 16A load (i.e. has a 16 or 20A breaker and 2.5mm^2 cable) then ask Ohme to set the charge rate to 16A.

If your 3-pin circuit cannot take a 16A load, then you probably need to modernise your wiring even before trying to use a granny at 10A.

The limit will be your socket, not wiring, so just spend £20 on a shuttered socket off ebay and swap it out. You will then benefit from faster charge times, a dependable connection without risking thermal runaway issues .... and other stuff ...

If you don't take my advice, then take some money out of the cash point and just cut it up and burn it, because that's what you would seem to prefer to do.

all yours !!

Live long and prosper.

 

[Kingpleb1]

As above, home charging isnt always needed but the caveat being... It depends on your local resources and your usage profile.
I live in a flat and thanks to local infrastructure and that of the network across the countries, i have been fine doing 30k+ a year in each of my leaf's

 

[E7EV]

i have been fine doing 30k+ a year in each of my leaf's

You travel 60,000 miles a year! No wonder you don’t need home charging. You’re obviously rarely there!

 

[Mark Cornwall]

Worth mentioning if you just use the granny and it packs up your stuck with public charging somewhere. With a home charger you could keep the granny as a back up. Personally I would just use the granny, especially as you use it inside a garage and rig it up so as to leave the lead plugged into the wall to save wear and tear. As for charging effiency if your going to charge at weekends on solar does it really matter if you were not going to use the surplus solar anyway?

 

[Ambassador Spock]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I think I will stick with just the granny charger at first (mostly because as someone pointed out, my solar panels only produce ~3 kw at peak, so if I got a 7 kw home charger I'd still be pulling most of my draw from the grid even on a sunny day...

Now I am trying to decide what cable length to get. I found a well-reviewed granny cable that comes in 5, 7.5 and 10m lengths ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/EV-Electric-Vehicle-Charging-Cable/dp/B07SSTD6R4/ ). I am aware that you lose efficiency with length, which makes me lean towards the 5m (I really only need 3m max in my garage), but at the same time you never know when a longer cable would be helpful (at an air b&b, for example). Does anyone know how much the efficiency would actually drop when going from 5m to 10m?

 

[phproxy]

I'd personally look into Ohme + commando socket, rather than paying ~£200 for a granny.

Octopus Energy

octopus.energy

You can play around with Voltage drop %'s here:

Voltage Drop Calculator

This free voltage drop calculator estimates the voltage drop of an electrical circuit based on the wire size, distance, and anticipated load current. In addition, experiment with the resistor and Ohm's Law calculator, or explore hundreds of other calculators addressing math, finance, fitness...

www.calculator.net

 

[Ambassador Spock]

I'd personally look into Ohme + commando socket, rather than paying ~£200 for a granny.

What exactly would Ohme+commando get me? The price is roughly the same (£199 for octopus customers, which I am not and have no plans to switch).

 

[Kingpleb1]

You travel 60,000 miles a year! No wonder you don’t need home charging. You’re obviously rarely there!

Ha ha, im technically on my 3rd leaf now and this is the longest i've kept one as i generally swap out at a year old to keep the mileage down on them

 

[Kingpleb1]

What exactly would Ohme+commando get me? The price is roughly the same (£199 for octopus customers, which I am not and have no plans to switch).

The OHME commando version still requires a 32amp commando socket be installed.
This can technically be easier than a normal charge point install but its a bit iffy really.

if you can get a sparkie to install a 32amp commando cheaply in your garage then the Ohme is a cheap way to get a 7kw charger.

Otherwise for 25miles a day the granny charger once every few days overnight would do the job