Hi everyone,
I'm here to try get some help and gain some electrical understanding as we seem to be having never ending issues trying to get a 7kW charger installed to our home.
For those who find the below far too long to read, my question basically comes down to:
I thought a 7kW charger would come off a 32A RCD protector within the usual consumer unit? Is this the case or do they run higher than this? If so, what do they require, a 100A protector?
So, we applied to ChargedEV back in November to have a Smart+ meter installed to our property.
After an initial application an engineer arrived to inspect our electrical supply and said our property was looped with our neighbour and had a mains fuse which was too old to be relied upon. So Electricity NW Ltd (ENWL) would need to be contacted to install an independent connection to our neighbour, replace our fuse and install an isolation switch in order to allow our car charger installation to go ahead.
ChargedEV contacted ENWL for us and the works were prompty arranged. Luckily we got on with our neighbours very well and they agreed to the works which involved considerable disruption to their driveway.
Anyway, this was arranged and programmed in and was completed on Saturday (01st Feb). New mains lines installed, new 100A mains fuse and a new isolator switch just above it leading to our traditional electric meter.
While this was being arranged I had contacted my energy supplier (Octopus) to move over to the OctopusGO tariff. As this required a smart meter, they arranged to replace our meter on Monday after the ENWL had been completed. A rather miserable chap turned up to do this on Monday (03rd) and made no comments about anything to do with our installation. He simply installed the new electricity meter after the isolator switch. I thought this was all OK.
He then installed the gas meter and said he would have to return as the time of the day had got too late and he couldn't commission the unit.
Then the ChargedEV guy arrived today to install our charger after I believed all the required works had been completed to allow this to go ahead. He arrived and immediately informed me he still couldn't complete the work as the isolator switch is located before the meter. Meaning when he spurs off it, all the electricity would be un-metered.
He said that the smart meter installer should have identified this and moved the isolator so that it was AFTER the meter (before the consumer unit). I appreciate why he wasn't willing to do this as he isn't the supplier of the meter and they are all security protected.
I think he could see I was frustrated then so he installed the unit to the outside of the home and wired it all back to the meter cupboard ready for connection. He has left a blank trip switch box and some other gubbins in there to finish the installation after the issues he's identified have been solved.
So I had then to try and contact my supplier and the installer of the smart meter. Cutting out some long conversations, this basically means a new order with a 16day lead-in time. So this now won't be rectified until 21st and I then need to arrange to get the charger installer back to finish his installation.
So as I'm sure you can tell I'm finding this whole process rather frustrating.
[RANT]
If the Gov't want to roll out more EV's home charging is going to be a key element of this and we can't all be using granny chargers. Yet if old homes need to go through all this to get a 7kW charger installed then it will put everybody off. [/RANT]
Anyway, I thought that the charger would simply run off a 32A connection (like a cooker or shower) and so with some blanks left in our consumer unit I thought they would just install a new RCD switch in there and run a power line to the charger?
I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand why this isn't the case and why the charger can't be fed off the existing supply coming out of my new (not fully operational) smart meter before it goes into my CCU?
Or why it can't just be formed off a new RCD switch in the consumer unit?
Many thanks,
Rob
I'm here to try get some help and gain some electrical understanding as we seem to be having never ending issues trying to get a 7kW charger installed to our home.
For those who find the below far too long to read, my question basically comes down to:
I thought a 7kW charger would come off a 32A RCD protector within the usual consumer unit? Is this the case or do they run higher than this? If so, what do they require, a 100A protector?
So, we applied to ChargedEV back in November to have a Smart+ meter installed to our property.
After an initial application an engineer arrived to inspect our electrical supply and said our property was looped with our neighbour and had a mains fuse which was too old to be relied upon. So Electricity NW Ltd (ENWL) would need to be contacted to install an independent connection to our neighbour, replace our fuse and install an isolation switch in order to allow our car charger installation to go ahead.
ChargedEV contacted ENWL for us and the works were prompty arranged. Luckily we got on with our neighbours very well and they agreed to the works which involved considerable disruption to their driveway.
Anyway, this was arranged and programmed in and was completed on Saturday (01st Feb). New mains lines installed, new 100A mains fuse and a new isolator switch just above it leading to our traditional electric meter.

While this was being arranged I had contacted my energy supplier (Octopus) to move over to the OctopusGO tariff. As this required a smart meter, they arranged to replace our meter on Monday after the ENWL had been completed. A rather miserable chap turned up to do this on Monday (03rd) and made no comments about anything to do with our installation. He simply installed the new electricity meter after the isolator switch. I thought this was all OK.
He then installed the gas meter and said he would have to return as the time of the day had got too late and he couldn't commission the unit.
Then the ChargedEV guy arrived today to install our charger after I believed all the required works had been completed to allow this to go ahead. He arrived and immediately informed me he still couldn't complete the work as the isolator switch is located before the meter. Meaning when he spurs off it, all the electricity would be un-metered.
He said that the smart meter installer should have identified this and moved the isolator so that it was AFTER the meter (before the consumer unit). I appreciate why he wasn't willing to do this as he isn't the supplier of the meter and they are all security protected.
I think he could see I was frustrated then so he installed the unit to the outside of the home and wired it all back to the meter cupboard ready for connection. He has left a blank trip switch box and some other gubbins in there to finish the installation after the issues he's identified have been solved.
So I had then to try and contact my supplier and the installer of the smart meter. Cutting out some long conversations, this basically means a new order with a 16day lead-in time. So this now won't be rectified until 21st and I then need to arrange to get the charger installer back to finish his installation.
So as I'm sure you can tell I'm finding this whole process rather frustrating.
[RANT]
If the Gov't want to roll out more EV's home charging is going to be a key element of this and we can't all be using granny chargers. Yet if old homes need to go through all this to get a 7kW charger installed then it will put everybody off. [/RANT]
Anyway, I thought that the charger would simply run off a 32A connection (like a cooker or shower) and so with some blanks left in our consumer unit I thought they would just install a new RCD switch in there and run a power line to the charger?

I'm wondering if anyone can help me understand why this isn't the case and why the charger can't be fed off the existing supply coming out of my new (not fully operational) smart meter before it goes into my CCU?
Or why it can't just be formed off a new RCD switch in the consumer unit?
Many thanks,
Rob