EV charger

ver01@

ver01@

ver01@

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Considering options for the location of the EV charger. My preference would be to have the charger somewhere where it's not exposed/visible. The garage has this board. Could the charger be installed there?

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I am not a electrician but when we had our charger installed (OHME Home Pro) the installers asked if we had a 100A main fuse and if we didn't then they would fit one. We were upgraded to one when we had our smart meters fitted so we were ok but it looks like it's a requirement although I could be wrong. That cable doesn't even look like it's close to being up to the job either. Is your reason for wanting it out of sight purely a neatness thing or are you worried about someone stealing energy overnight. That can't happen wwith our charger as I can disable the soft touch screen within the app plus I can set it to ask me to approve every plug in. Additionally once the lead is plugged into the car it's locked in and can't be removed without unlocking it on the remote. The lead is tethered as well so the only way they could nick that would be to cut it off which kind of defeats the object of nicking it in the first place.
 
The main fuse in the property is 100A. I am sure the cable meets standards if I were to use it with the granny charger for the other car but would prefer to have the main one out of sight and somewhere where is it protected from rain/sun/snow/frost.
 
Looks like the fast charger will be outdoors then and the granny lead will use a new plug in the garage.
 
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Tinders said:
You need 6mm cable from the original consumer unit. And you will need a 32a RCBO.
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I've had a look at the main consumer unit and for the garage it has a 16A breaker and 2.5mm2 live and 1.5mm2 CPC?. The cable that I can see entering the garage has 600-1000v marking (trying to get a better picture of the other marking).
 
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ver01@ said:
I've had a look at the main consumer unit and for the garage it has a 16A breaker and 2.5mm2 live and 1.5mm2 CPC?. The cable that I can see entering the garage has 600-1000v marking (trying to get a better picture of the other marking).
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I've ran 4mm to a garden room and still wouldn't dream of putting a charger on it.
 
ver01@ said:
You need 6mm minimum for a proper charger but for the granny one it would be more than enough.
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For a granny, yes. I wired up a separate circuit on 2.5mm T&E for my granny charger. Use it most nights.
 
As others have said, granny charger only off that supply. You’ll need to run a new cable from the meter cabinet or consumer unit.

It would seem most manufacturers want to to also have a 40A breaker these days. While a 4mm and 32A breaker is fine per the regs, if a manufacturer says install a 40A breaker, the regs also state you have to follow the manufacturer direction. So 6mm cable and 40A breaker will likely be required.

You don’t *need* a 100A fuse, 80A is also common and also fine. If you have an 80A fuse, it will not be upgraded as it’s the new standard for a lot of DNOs.

A 60A can be made to work but you’d need to fit a charger with grid monitoring. DNOs tend to come and upgrade the supply as needed after being notified of the charger installation.

Any competent electrician should do a demand test before fitting anyway and advise accordingly.
 
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The consumer unit in the garage does not have space for another circuit. One breaker is for the lighting and the other for a mains plug. Might be easier to just remove the lighting circuit and upgrade braker and cabling.
 
ver01@ said:
The consumer unit in the garage does not have space for another circuit. One breaker is for the lighting and the other for a mains plug. Might be easier to just remove the lighting circuit and upgrade braker and cabling.
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A new garage cu with an extra circuit is 35 quid from Screwfix
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
It would seem most manufacturers want to to also have a 40A breaker these days. While a 4mm and 32A breaker is fine per the regs, if a manufacturer says install a 40A breaker, the regs also state you have to follow the manufacturer direction. So 6mm cable and 40A breaker will likely be required.
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Similar to showers isn't it. It was always 6mm cable for a 7-8 kW shower, 10mm cable for a more powerful 9-10 kW shower. Charger is 7.4 kW so makes sense.
 
No, they are smaller and have less space for circuits.

If you want to replace that unit rather than just add a dedicated 6mm cable for the charger, you’ll need to run at least a 10mm cable to where you want the consumer unit and then a 6mm cable out to the charger.

This will all add a lot of cost compared to running a separate 6mm cable for just the charger from wherever your meter cupboard or main consumer unit is.

My advice would be to leave the garage supply alone and to run a new 6mm cable for just the charger.
 
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