Electrical Vehicle Charging Point

Tingtangmakadingdong

Tingtangmakadingdong

Tingtangmakadingdong

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Location
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I was wondering if some of you guys have installed an electrical car charging point to your houses and what the process entailed. I am asking because we're thinking of a Nissan Leaf as second car, there's a decent offer available and it suits our budget/need very well. I know it's a bloody ugly car but the overall running costs will be considerably cheaper for us than another car.

Nissan offer the charging points free but I wanted know how the installation takes place, where do they draw the electrical wiring from and is it a big job? Will they rip half the flooring out to run cables etc..? We have a drive and there's space for the point to placed outside.

Thanks in advance guys
 
rodenal said:
You might struggle to find many people who have had this done - silly question but have you asked Nissan themselves how it works?
Click to expand...

I did ask and he sort of replied.... "Don't worry about it mate, it's free and British Gas take care of it". Wasn't much help, even worse when I spoke with British Gas and I won't bother writing the tedious conversation I had with them as they had no clue too.
 
Not ideal!

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/conten...EV_Charging_with_Confidence_A5_Leaflet_HR.PDF


google images for Type 2 tethered charging point or chargemaster (which seems to be what they install) brings up some results too

It looks as though it just sits neatly on an external wall - I can only assume they will feed it straught from the consumer unit so I'd imagine so long as this sits on (the inside/outside of) an outside wall there should be little to no internal rummaging required. If your consumer unit is on the opposite end of the house from where the point would go then I'd probably not want it - or at very least supervise them very carefully or you'll end up with a cable running the length of your house, externally
 
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I used to have one of these fitted in my garage. It was just fed from the consumer unit (which was also in the garage) on its own breaker with 2.5 t+e.

Ended up removing it as I had no need for it.
 
I had one installed, took the lad about 20/30mins tbh.

Theres a small meter installed near the Consumer unit, this gets cabled in.
Cable then runs from the new meter to the charging point outside.
The meter apparantly has a sim card in it and reports "something" lol, I'm guessing its just usage.

I did pull up the carpet and lifted a few boards so the cable could all be under the flooring tho.

I was gutted when it was installed because all the ones I'd seen had a standard 3pin socket on them too, mines got that section blanked off :( lol

http://www.elmev.co.uk/

Is the chaps I used
 
I had one installed under the Cabled scheme in 2010 as I had a preproduction Smart ED for a while.

Was installed by EON and took around an hour. Basically they run a cable from your consumer unit, install a box in your garage or drive which includes an isolator switch, and a meter and then the waterproof socket.

Luckily mine was a very early one which includes a 13amp socket as well so I can use it for my pressure washer and lawn mower, LOL. That said I have just sold my current house and the estate agent showed zero interest in it and said it would increase the value of my house by a grand total of £0 :(

Ultimately the installation simplicity depends mostly on where your consumer unit is located compared to your drive/garage.
 
Had one installed for free last year - was a very quick and simple job, however my electrics were in the perfect position. As others have said - depend on the age and condition of your wiring, it could be easy, it could require a bit more time and drilling.
 
Thanks guys. We live in a mid-terrace house and the consumer unit sits below the staircase, so ultimately if we do decide to go ahead it's going to need bit of work. There's cabling which runs to a light unit in the front porch, I guess they can't use this wiring but have to come straight from consumer unit?
 
I sell Renaults and sold a few Zoe's. The requirement for British Gas (who fit the charging point free of charge when you get one) is to have off-street parking, and a mobile phone signal.

My customers have all been impressed with how quickly it's taken to install, they survey and install the same day and typically takes 2 - 4 hours.
 
I had this done in September when I took delivery of my Ampera.
It was a bit of a struggle for me though :(

Vauxhall recommended that British Gas do the install, as they are part of the Governments incentive plan to subsidise EV charging points. They were, however, totally useless as when I called they explained that 'they were very busy in my area, and cant even book you in, sir. It may take months'.

I eventually used Chargemaster who installed very quickly, but not before the first lazy installer took one look at my somewhat difficult fuse box location and said 'nah mate, we're not allowed to drill through ceilings' and left. After getting a handyman to do the drilling, another installer came and did a brilliant job in a couple of hours. He explained to me that of course they'll allowed to drill through ceilings and that particular installer was well known for only doing easy jobs! (I did get a refund from Chargemaster for the handyman fees, fortunately).

The scheme isn't free now though, but it's only £195 which is dependent on how tricky your install is, and how much cable is required.

I presume you've got off-street parking?
*edit*
Sorry, I've just read that you do have a driveway :)

They won't go through floors, and usually it would be straight through the wall to the consumer unit - if possible. Ours was in the middle of the house (bungalow) so they had to run a conduit up the wall, through the ceiling, along the rafters in the loft and down the wall at the front. They did a very neat job though.
They will require a modern fuse-box with a spare slot, and recommend having a separate surge-protector for the charge point (they provided one for me, at a cost).
 
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Ahleckz said:
I sell Renaults and sold a few Zoe's. The requirement for British Gas (who fit the charging point free of charge when you get one) is to have off-street parking, and a mobile phone signal.

My customers have all been impressed with how quickly it's taken to install, they survey and install the same day and typically takes 2 - 4 hours.
Click to expand...

My immediate neighbour has a Zoe. They are very happy with it and the install of the charging point was effortless. I was Jealous in the winter when they turned the heaters on for the car from inside the house!
 
Felix said:
My immediate neighbour has a Zoe. They are very happy with it and the install of the charging point was effortless. I was Jealous in the winter when they turned the heaters on for the car from inside the house!
Click to expand...

You can do this in most EVs I imagine, not just the Zoe. The i3 I test drove for a couple of days had a "departure time" you could schedule so climate control activated. Assuming you didn't have the BMW iPhone app stuff I guess.
 
I am sure it's going to be pain getting from consumer unit under staircase to the outside... as one of the guy above mentioned I may have to get an electrician in to sort out initial routes etc before the installation.

The chap at Nissan did mention the installation is all free, I think they pay the extra £195 odd.
 
If you have one fitted outside, what's to stop some ***** plugging in over night?

Does it lock when not in use?
 
lmfy2k said:
If you have one fitted outside, what's to stop some ***** plugging in over night?

Does it lock when not in use?
Click to expand...

You have to have off road parking, so it would be in your driveway/side of the house. You'd usually be charging your own car overnight, but if not it does come with a key which stops any charge from the unit.
 
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