[benanderson89]

Hi everyone!
I've recently ordered an EV6 (my third Kia and first EV) that is due to arrive next March, and in the meantime I want to install a charger on the front of my garage. Problem is that I live in a flat with a detached garage out back and I'm not sure how to proceed as my head is spinning from the number of opinions, options and conflicting information I've been given from so many people. Plus, brands like Pod Point allegedly skyrocket the price the second you mention trenching.

Cable would have to go through my back garden, and of the two joined garages mine is annoyingly the furthest away. Here's a rough drawing.

(I've not lived here long and I've not yet made the garden all pretty!)
One of the more sensible options I've had suggested is to hire a separate sparky and builder; sparky will obviously do the install, and the builder can work in collaboration to dig the trenching to spec.

If anyone has any suggestions for companies or tradesmen in Tyne and Wear that could do this work for a respectable price to a good standard then I'm all ears!

Ta very much

 

[cah197]

Might not be what you want aesthetics wise, but you can run an armoured cable along the wall and fence.

It did this at my last place.

 

[benanderson89]

Might not be what you want aesthetics wise, but you can run an armoured cable along the wall and fence.

It did this at my last place.

That never even crossed my mind! 😮

I have a sparky coming to visit in a few hours so I'll ask him about pinning the cable instead of trenching. I don't think it can attach to the fence because 1) it's not very stable (it is in dire need of rebuilding) and 2) it's technically not mine (hence why the posts face into my garden) but I'll see what I can do.

 

[Charlas]

Has the garage not got supply already? if so might be worth having a look at the fuse amperage on the circuit, maybe already up to spec?

 

[cah197]

2) it's technically not mine (hence why the posts face into my garden) but I'll see what I can do.

If the posts are on your side, it's probably your responsibility.

Might be cheaper to get the fence shored up than dig a trench?

 

[benanderson89]

Has the garage not got supply already? if so might be worth having a look at the fuse amperage on the circuit, maybe already up to spec?

No supply at all to any of the garages in these types of flats.

If the posts are on your side, it's probably your responsibility.
Might be cheaper to get the fence shored up than dig a trench?

Nah, the fence is definitely the neighbours'. The remnents of what is supposed to be my fence are in bits behind the fuscia! Haha )

 

[Charlas]

No supply at all to any of the garages in these types of flats.


Nah, the fence is definitely the neighbours'. The remnents of what is supposed to be my fence are in bits behind the fuscia! Haha )

Have a word with neighbours, ask if you can replace it, bet they won't mind, and will almost certainly be cheaper than digging a trench. Best of both worlds then.

 

[benanderson89]

Have a word with neighbours, ask if you can replace it, bet they won't mind, and will almost certainly be cheaper than digging a trench. Best of both worlds then.

I need to build a fence along the front of the garden anyway, so may as well grab some extra lumber and go to town.

 

[Charlas]

I need to build a fence along the front of the garden anyway, so may as well grab some extra lumber and go to town.

Ask the sparky to run the cable, and put a mini distro board in the garage, and you can then have normal power in there too, multiple benefits

 

[cah197]

Don't forget the Cat6 whilst you're at it. Then you can have a man cave in the garage.

Being serious, most EVs have wifi connections so they can get updates, so this can be useful to put a repeater there.

 

[Charlas]

Don't forget the Cat6 whilst you're at it. Then you can have a man cave in the garage.

Being serious, most EVs have wifi connections so they can get updates, so this can be useful to put a repeater there.

Yeah one of the armoured cable has Cat6e in it as well, may not need now, may do in the future, even if just for current monitor on the main board.

 

[benanderson89]

Ask the sparky to run the cable, and put a mini distro board in the garage, and you can then have normal power in there too, multiple benefits

It's amazing how many things I didn't consider when I was contemplating the charger. Could take the tumble-dryer from under the stairs to the garage to free up some storage space inside for things like the hoover and laundry baskets.

Don't forget the Cat6 whilst you're at it. Then you can have a man cave in the garage.
Being serious, most EVs have wifi connections so they can get updates, so this can be useful to put a repeater there.

I live on my own so the entire flat is a man cave
Yeah the cat 6 might be good for future proofing, but only if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for both the cat 6 and garage distro board.

 

[Charlas]

Mini Distro's are about 40 quid from RS/Screwfix etc, the armoured cable Armoured 25mm2 Eth cable isn't however cheap stuff if memory serves. So just run the Cat6e yourself along the same run, not rocket science and 25m of cat6e costs pittance nowadays. That said, EoP could be an option after all.

 

[cah197]

When I moved to our new place, I put good quality Cat7 everywhere. Whole reel was about £70, so I still have loads left over.

Nice to have a solid Gigabit connection to the garage and Bodega.

 

[Charlas]

When I moved to our new place, I put good quality Cat7 everywhere. Whole reel was about £70, so I still have loads left over.

Nice to have a solid Gigabit connection to the garage and Bodega.

Yeah agreed, I've got 2.5gb/s here at home (gig Virgin inbound, with EE 4g backup) and can't go back to a lowly WiFi 6 connection when used to a solid 2.5gb/s. Thankfully the Dell Thunderbolt box I have even supports it on the laptop!

 

[benanderson89]

Mini Distro's are about 40 quid from RS/Screwfix etc, the armoured cable Armoured 25mm2 Eth cable isn't however cheap stuff if memory serves. So just run the Cat6e yourself along the same run, not rocket science and 25m of cat5e costs pittance nowadays. That said, EoP could be an option after all.

£95 for 25m, three core SWA 6mm cable from what I can see. Four core is £120. Both from screwfix. Boggo standard 5e is almost nothing from Amazon.

When I moved to our new place, I put good quality Cat7 everywhere. Whole reel was about £70, so I still have loads left over.

Bunch of cat 5 around my flat. MacBook Pro (via a dock), Windows PC and Microserver are all cabled in to a gigabit connection, as is the PS5 and Smart TV. WiFi is reserved purely for the bedroom TV, phone and iPad. Though, in saying this, I think I'll skip the ethernet in the garage. Not really a worthy investment. Electricity will be worth it, and if I desperately need internet in there I can just slap in a WiFi bridge that costs peanuts.

I don't want to sink too much money into this flat when I don't plan to be here for the rest of my days.

 

[Charlas]

£95 for 25m, three core SWA 6mm cable from what I can see. Four core is £120. Both from screwfix. Boggo standard 5e is almost nothing from Amazon.


Bunch of cat 5 around my flat. MacBook Pro (via a dock), Windows PC and Microserver are all cabled in to a gigabit connection, as is the PS5 and Smart TV. WiFi is reserved purely for the bedroom TV, phone and iPad. Though, in saying this, I think I'll skip the ethernet in the garage. Not really a worthy investment. Electricity will be worth it, and if I desperately need internet in there I can just slap in a WiFi bridge that costs peanuts.

I don't want to sink too much money into this flat when I don't plan to be here for the rest of my days.

Agreed, sounds sensible, and EoP plugs like the TPLink's cost nothing anyhow if you do need fairly stable if not particularly fast network there. Only thing that might be worth running Cat*e for is the load monitoring, for if the Charger needs it for power scaling and the likes.

 

[benanderson89]

Agreed, sounds sensible, and EoP plugs like the TPLink's cost nothing anyhow if you do need fairly stable if not particularly fast network there. Only thing that might be worth running Cat*e for is the load monitoring, for if the Charger needs it for power scaling and the likes.

The charger the sparky has by default is the Project EV box (the slightly newer one with some of the bugs ironed out). I'm not using any "smart" features (as a software dev of ten years I bloody hate that term) and it'll be purely used as a dumb box. Even less reason to get Ethernet installed, honestly.

 

[Charlas]

'SMART' yeah, with you on that I'm a DevOps consultant, and I tend to dislike the term as well. IoT is just that, call it that.

 

[benanderson89]

'SMART' yeah, with you on that I'm a DevOps consultant, and I tend to dislike the term as well. IoT is just that, call it that.

But Charlas, how else am I supposed to set the temperature on my Kettle and switch it on if I don't connect it to my amazon alexa!? Just ignore the fact that I'd need to walk over to the Kettle anyway to pour the drink.