Home charge points (purchase/problems/questions) (See mod note post#1)

meercat

randomstuff wrote: »

Wanted to share my experience.

I'd consider myself a fairly techy person but getting into the the EV space is quite a steep learning curve, especially if you are on a budget.

It's quite obvious the home charge point market is designed for people buying a brand new 30/35k+ car, where they don't mind spending 1.5k (after 600 grant) on a charger. In my situation, I was looking at a budget of 7-8k for a 24kwh Leaf and spending that sort of money (20% of total budget) on just a charge point was out of the question.

After a couple days researching all the possible charger options I settled on a basic EVonestop QUBEV from Amazon for 280 Euro. It gets good reviews and seems fairly reliable. I wont be installing any solar panels and don't need any smart scheduling since car itself handles it.

Then came looking for a electrician for the install - price I was being quoted ranged from about 500 to 1k.

At this stage I almost abandoned the idea of an ev because according to older electric regs the charger needs to be running from the internal house fuse box, which in my case would of meant drilling through the hallway wall and running the cable through the living room and drilling the living room wall. But the regs changed and the electrician was able to run a fuse box from the external electrical mains, and run the charger from there.

Found a local RECI certified electrician, and he did it for 550 including a couple of three pin external plugs also for the pressure washer and what not.

Regarding the grant - make sure to submit copies of everything and not the originals, as my electrician pointed out. They don't return the paperwork to you.

I submitted application 30th of March (including the black and white printed out pics of car and charger ) and the refund hit my bank account on 5th of May.

Net cost of my install was 230 which I thought was fair enough.

Just a note on the install cost of the charge point - at first i thought it was a 3-4 hour job, but it ended up taking the electrician and his assistant a whole day for the install. 550 for full days work for 2 people doesn't seem like much - after you take into account account taxes/fuel/insurance/tools etc - but maybe my guy just likes to take his time The install did end up looking quite tidy - see pic attached.

Any chance of a photo of the inside of the meter cabinet. The twin socket shouldn’t be fed from a board inside the meter cabinet (if that’s what he done)(although looking at the photo he may have ran cable down side of meter box in trunking and through it. Still not permitted though)
Did he attach a warning label to your distribution board inside. Cheers

dloob

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

nkay1985

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Just got my charge point installed today.

Really quick process.

I applied for the SEAI Grant last Friday , got the approval on Monday.

I decided to go for the EO Mini Pro from Electric Ireland , Rang them on Tuesday , installed this morning.

Very neat install - I was expecting an internal box to be installed next to the Consumer unit based on earlier posts here , but the KN installer said that they were no longer needed with the newer unit , so I just have the Charge point and the Isolator outside.

I'll post some pics when it stops absolutely bucketing down!!!

We're very close on timings. I also submitted my application on Friday and was approved on Monday. Didn't get around to making the call to Electric Ireland to order the EO Mini Pro until 17:00 this evening but managed to get an installation slot on Tuesday afternoon. Found the experience very straightforward thus far, here's hoping the install goes off without a hitch.

Liam2021

nkay1985 wrote: »

We're very close on timings. I also submitted my application on Friday and was approved on Monday. Didn't get around to making the call to Electric Ireland to order the EO Mini Pro until 17:00 this evening but managed to get an installation slot on Tuesday afternoon. Found the experience very straightforward thus far, here's hoping the install goes off without a hitch.

Do you need an electric ireland account to get their offer

Gumbo

dloob wrote: »

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

Deffo. Why was it a 25a in the first place?
One word of caution though is that my 6Sq cable and 32a charger has a 40a RCBO and 40a isolator switch.

zg3409

dloob wrote: »

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

Why did installer put in 25 amp one? I suspect there was a good reason. Even if cable to charger is heavy enough, tails between ESB Meter and fuse board may not be heavy enough, the fuse board itself may have other loads sharing the same connection, wiring or isolators such as electric cookers and so the installer knew that 25amp was the limit or you risk overloading or overheating some part of the system.

Typically a 40amp breaker would be best, but not in a case where all parts were checked by competent electrician. Swapping out 25a for 32a without full knowledge may mean something overheats and burns house down.

So yes get the electrician to check it out, and try get a 40amp breaker if you are drawing 32 amp regularly. Often the original installer will have kept photos and nay be able to tell you why he limited the power.

dloob

zg3409 wrote: »

Why did installer put in 25 amp one? I suspect there was a good reason. Even if cable to charger is heavy enough, tails between ESB Meter and fuse board may not be heavy enough, the fuse board itself may have other loads sharing the same connection, wiring or isolators such as electric cookers and so the installer knew that 25amp was the limit or you risk overloading or overheating some part of the system.

Typically a 40amp breaker would be best, but not in a case where all parts were checked by competent electrician. Swapping out 25a for 32a without full knowledge may mean something overheats and burns house down.

So yes get the electrician to check it out, and try get a 40amp breaker if you are drawing 32 amp regularly. Often the original installer will have kept photos and nay be able to tell you why he limited the power.

The main reason I believe was that there was an electric shower, there isn't a priority switch and the zappi CT wasn't installed as it was too far for the cable it came with.
So the zappi has no monitoring of the grid limit.
I'm not sure I knew back then that the CT runs could be extended with the cat 5 that I had plenty of, I guess the installer didn't have any or didn't fancy running it.

Anyway the solar installer guys have said they will run a cat 5 for the CT which will be needed for the zappi to work with solar surplus anyway.
They'll be doing plenty of work on the consumer unit so I'll go with what they think about it. If there is no technical limitation I think it's probably worth getting them to swap it while the other work is being done in there.

Probably slightly off topic but I had read that 40A would usually be used with a 32A load, but why?
Even the 32A with type B characteristics probably isn't going to trip until its passing over 96A so it will be even more with 40A.
What's the advantage of the oversize?
Larger conductors and bus bars in the RCBO so it runs cooler in normal operation?

xebec

But if a random question, is the SEAI grant approval sent via email or post? Reason for asking is that I have received what appears to be a valid email confirming grant eligibility but the PDF link they sent shows as a .exe file on my iPad instead of .pdf…. Looking more closely is appears to have an extra extension by mistake but I’m wary, it has filename.pdf.exe

fits

xebec wrote: »

But if a random question, is the SEAI grant approval sent via email or post? Reason for asking is that I have received what appears to be a valid email confirming grant eligibility but the PDF link they sent shows as a .exe file on my iPad instead of .pdf…. Looking more closely is appears to have an extra extension by mistake but I’m wary, it has filename.pdf.exe

I couldn’t open it on my iPhone only on pc. I can’t see extension. It’s click to download.

Quin_Dub

Liam2021 wrote: »

Do you need an electric ireland account to get their offer

No, not at all.

Completely independent of their supply business.

Quin_Dub

xebec wrote: »

But if a random question, is the SEAI grant approval sent via email or post? Reason for asking is that I have received what appears to be a valid email confirming grant eligibility but the PDF link they sent shows as a .exe file on my iPad instead of .pdf…. Looking more closely is appears to have an extra extension by mistake but I’m wary, it has filename.pdf.exe

Can't speak to the filename , but I got my confirmation via email with a PDF attachment..

xebec

fits wrote: »

I couldn’t open it on my iPhone only on pc. I can’t see extension. It’s click to download.

Ah ok, sorted now opening on PC. Thanks!

Gumbo

xebec wrote: »

But if a random question, is the SEAI grant approval sent via email or post? Reason for asking is that I have received what appears to be a valid email confirming grant eligibility but the PDF link they sent shows as a .exe file on my iPad instead of .pdf…. Looking more closely is appears to have an extra extension by mistake but I’m wary, it has filename.pdf.exe

Both.

fits

Where did you all get your zappis? I phoned my energi last week and they want to direct me to a wholesaler.

I just wanted to know if we need to purchase a hub. Charger will be installed about five metres max from fuse box and router. Meter is there too.

the_amazing_raisin

fits wrote: »

Where did you all get your zappis? I phoned my energi last week and they want to direct me to a wholesaler.

I just wanted to know if we need to purchase a hub. Charger will be installed about five metres max from fuse box and router. Meter is there too.

The hub is just to give your Zappi an internet connection. Allows remote monitoring and control and you can also update firmware

It's not essential for the charger to work

the_amazing_raisin

Can anyone recommend an adaptor to connect a Type 2 tethered Zappi to a Type 1 Nissan Leaf?

I was thinking of getting this one but I'm not sure if it'll work

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07T23X7X7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_MP522EA47VBFCNZPVGZV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Long story short, the missus pulled our EO Mini off the wall this morning. It still functions, but there's a nice crack in the back where the mounting screws pulled out

I've got a spare Zappi which was to replace the EO Mini when I sold the Leaf, but it's type 2 tethered so will only work with the Leaf via an adaptor

Cyrus

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

Can anyone recommend an adaptor to connect a Type 2 tethered Zappi to a Type 1 Nissan Leaf?

I was thinking of getting this one but I'm not sure if it'll work

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07T23X7X7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_MP522EA47VBFCNZPVGZV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Long story short, the missus pulled our EO Mini off the wall this morning. It still functions, but there's a nice crack in the back where the mounting screws pulled out

I've got a spare Zappi which was to replace the EO Mini when I sold the Leaf, but it's type 2 tethered so will only work with the Leaf via an adaptor

what did she do, drive off when plugged in?

the_amazing_raisin

Cyrus wrote: »

what did she do, drive off when plugged in?

Close, drove the Leaf off while the ID.4 was plugged in, caught the cable under the front bumper and pulled the charger off the wall :mad:

Thankfully the ID.4 is fine, otherwise I'd be properly annoyed

Cyrus

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

Close, drove the Leaf off while the ID.4 was plugged in, caught the cable under the front bumper and pulled the charger off the wall :mad:

Thankfully the ID.4 is fine, otherwise I'd be properly annoyed

fits

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

The hub is just to give your Zappi an internet connection. Allows remote monitoring and control and you can also update firmware

It's not essential for the charger to work

Do I need the hub to schedule charging?

Quin_Dub

Cyrus wrote: »

what did she do, drive off when plugged in?

Is that actually possible?

Would the car allow you to start the engine and move off while connected to a charger?

KCross

fits wrote: »

Do I need the hub to schedule charging?

No, can be done via the Zappi screen.
Just alot more convenient to do via the myEnergi app and you need the hub for the app to work.

Cyrus

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Is that actually possible?

Would the car allow you to start the engine and move off while connected to a charger?

i would hope not thats why i asked.

Liam2021

What would be a good price for fitting an EO MINI non tethered?

KCross

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Is that actually possible?

Would the car allow you to start the engine and move off while connected to a charger?

Cyrus wrote: »

i would hope not thats why i asked.

Not possible. You cant put an EV in drive if its plugged in.

Cyrus

Liam2021 wrote: »

What would be a good price for fitting an EO MINI non tethered?

Electric ireland do it for 1099 so less than that would be good i guess.

Quin_Dub

Liam2021 wrote: »

What would be a good price for fitting an EO MINI non tethered?

Just got mine supplied and fitted by Electric Ireland for €1099 , with €600 to come back from the SEAI grant , so €499 net.

the_amazing_raisin

Liam2021 wrote: »

What would be a good price for fitting an EO MINI non tethered?

I'll give you one for €100, it got removed from the wall very recently :rolleyes:

Liam2021

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

I'll give you one for €100, it got removed from the wall very recently
🀣

graememk

the_amazing_raisin wrote: »

I'll give you one for €100, it got removed from the wall very recently :rolleyes:

the EO mini, uses a off the shelf enclosure, Shouldnt be too hard to fix.

you could prob stick it in a generic plastic enclosure, if you didnt care about looks.