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

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882734#Comment_121882734

Your house does though, that only applies to UK installations where sometimes an extra rod is required for the charge point.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882295#Comment_121882295

Not sure if they cover Louth or not but someone posted an image of a deal from Forkearn Engineering that I can't find for the life of me! But their prices looked like they would be close to €200 cheaper than the standard price I was quoted from EV ready, which was €1549 before grant (I had to pay an additional €100 for "Additional cabling", but I assume that was actually for the additional mini consumer unit they needed to install, cause the cable run seemed fairly short to me!)

I was generally happy with the EV ready install, they made a small bit of a dogs dinner of install of the isolation switch on a pebble dash wall (I heard the presumably more senior of the two people shouting at some stage "There wont be any wall left if you keep going!"), but its fine.

The admin side of things was basically all ran through whatsapp which I thought was convenient. Probably should have gotten a few more quotes but EV ready seemed well recommended and it was definitely convenient.

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863202#Comment_121863202

Money landed in my account this morning, I got the confirmation that everything was submitted to SEAI on the 6th of Feb

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121822363#Comment_121822363

+1 for Forkearn, great service, on time, very tidy and the 2 people that came to do it were really nice.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121883445#Comment_121883445

6m is usual run. If it's over that then it's extra cabling

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121884064#Comment_121884064

It's probably in and around 6m without measuring it. And they certainly didn't measure it before quoting the extra charge.

The consumer unit is the opposite corner of a single car garage, through an attic, hard to imagine they have many shorter/simpler runs than that! But I was expecting an extra charge for the mini consumer unit

Buffman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880535#Comment_121880535

It all comes down to the agreed definition of a 'full rewire' between both parties I guess. In fairness to the builder/sparks, they probably tested/inspected your tails and as they were already 16mm there would be little/no reason to have changed them in 2013. It would be unusual for the tails to be replaced unless someone needs to upgrade from 10mm to 16/25mm or there is some other issue/damage with them. I presume the ESBN grid side incomer cable is all original and no isolation is installed after the meter or did ESBN upgrade it at some stage?

Ye, it could probably have been discussed alright, however I'm sure if he'd asked you back in 2013 before Solar/EVs/heat pumps were common, did you want to spend potentially an extra €1k just to change the colour of some 16mm cable, you'd have to think about it. If he had have priced it in the full quote and done it some might say he was charging you for doing unnecessary work.

useless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121884106#Comment_121884106

All of that a fair point. We weren’t long in the house, surveyor had recommended a rewire when we bought the house, so we just asked the electrician to quote for rewiring & the installation of a new distribution board (to replace ceramic fuses) and a ton of new sockets in all the rooms.

then we went to work and let the electrician get on with it, and a week or so later we’d sockets where we wanted them & a nice neat row of what I’d call MCBs to replace the old fuse board. I don’t ever remember being asked anything about meter tails, and electric charging was science fiction at the time.

On the ESB side, I got a note in the door a few years ago to say they were sending someone around to install a smart meter. I forgot about it & then a month or so later when I got a text from Energia to remind me to read the meter, I went out to the meter board and discovered a shiny new smart meter had been installed. So I assume someone took a look at the time and agreed the mains cable coming to the meter was ok, because my drive wasn’t dug up…

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121884248#Comment_121884248

The "main tails" is in reference to the cable from the meter to your consumer unit

It's not the cable under your drive.

useless

Yep, I know that. But afaik the story with the smart meter installations was that ESBN or their subs would check and ensure the mains cable to the meter board was ok- which I think is under the drive. Given they didn’t dig it up when the smart meter was installed and send me a big bill for the privilege, I’m assuming the mains cable is ok 😀

I get that the cable between the meter and the distribution board is my responsibility. It’s been explained to me that it wouldn’t necessarily have been included in a “rewire” 10 years ago, so I’ve to go get it checked by an electrician before I install a charger, since I’m getting conflicting info on whether they’ve got sufficient CSA or not.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886347#Comment_121886347

Check the mains cable? Nah.

Pull fuse, swap meter, tidy up meter box, maybe replace wires from dno head to meter. They ain't touching the the Live cable to the DNO head.

Buffman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886347#Comment_121886347

Personally I'd be inclined to go with the opinion of the installer who actually visited site and inspected the system/tails rather than others who are only viewing photos of it, if they said it's 16mm and OK to install then I'm not sure what the issue is? I'd be very happy finding out I already have 16mm there and will be saving a good few quid on tail upgrades.

Apothic_Red

First company I emailed sent me back a questionnaire & looked for photos of inside of the meter cabinet & fuse box.

Instead of repeating the process 10 times I just cut & pasted it in advance to every other company I emailed for quotes & lead times.

Just before Covid struck we put in a home office log cabin, the electrician took the feed off the cabinet & fitted 2 external breakers, one for the house & one for the cabin. Sometime last year the ESB installed a smart meter but seems to have issues working around the existing wiring. I knew nothing about this until I sent out the photos of the cabinet.

3 of the companies came back straight away saying the wiring was completely non-code & I had to rectify it before they'd even quote me. One of them reported the issue to Safe Electric Ireland & we received a warning in the post. My masterplan was to grab the EV Charger installation electrician on the day of the job & pay him a nixer to fix it up.

Electrician arrived this morning, checked the cabinet & said it was perfect, not tidy tidy but safe & up to code. I scratched my head & let him on, real efficient work, was done in just over an hour.

Anyway, there I was basking in everything coming up roses when the postman arrives with an invoice from the ESB for remedial work to the cabinet dated 2 days previous. No wonder the electrician looked at me like I had 2 heads.

So I have an invoice from the ESB for €216 to repair their shoddy work that was only picked up by a 3rd party. This will be a cold dead hands job & I kinda look forward to a wrestle with our utility providers.

A couple of things though, I was surprised by the profession, OK to warn me & put it in writing to cover their asses but escalating it to an official complaint is a like being reported to the headmaster. I do realise they probably saved me from dying in the electric shower but somehow I still have the hump.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340712/a-word-of-caution-when-looking-for-home-ev-charger-quotes

“A couple of things though, I was surprised by the profession, OK to warn me & put it in writing to cover their asses but escalating it to an official complaint is a like being reported to the headmaster. I do realise they probably saved me from dying in the electric shower but somehow I still have the hump.”

They are legally required to report it to Safe Electric. It’s the same for RGI. They are legally required to report it in writing.

JohnC.

I'm actually in the middle of a similar thing myself. I'm no electrician so wouldn't have known the codes or if work was up to code. I just had to trust a professional would do it right. But I recently discovered my charger installation isn't up to code. Turns out the tails from the meter to the consumer unit is 10 square when it should have been upgraded to 16 square. And my installation company is no longer operating. The hardest part about getting it fixed so far is finding an electrician who will return calls...

meercat

It’s unlikely that esbn are charging to repair their work in fairness (post a picture of meter cabinet)

as pointed out,the company that reports this has a legal responsibility to do so

the log cabin is not permitted to be connected to your outside meter box

id be concerned that the electrician that arrived this morning was not up to speed on the regulations

was he an rec

post a picture of the meter box

if esbn call out then they can disconnect any unauthorised cables from their system. There’s a thread about it

ted1

Did you not hit back to the original company ? Did they certify the work ?

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890993#Comment_121890993

^^^This.

So Safe Electric just sent a warning without following up to see who actually did the dodgy work in the first place?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891244#Comment_121891244

It's the cowboy who connected your shed to your meter cabinet who you should have the hump with. Send them the bill for the remedial works.

RainInSummer

Do these things now need an emergency off button next to the charger?

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891562#Comment_121891562

An isolator within 2 meters.

RainInSummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891604#Comment_121891604

Thank you!

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891244#Comment_121891244

What was actually wrong? What did the latest electrician do? Did the problems stem from when the log cabin was wired in or from when the smart meter was installed?

corkandproud

Any know the standby rate for chargers? I think mine is eating electricity.

I had an Easee One installed yesterday and it has it's own board. I saw that it used 2kW in an hour this evening for 2 hours (strangely it used 2Kw in from 12.30 to 19.30 before that)

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121894684#Comment_121894684

It's neglible with mine (Zappi). How do you know it used 2kw?

corkandproud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121894902#Comment_121894902

The new fuse board has it's own power meter. It matched the usage while charging. Just got solar installed (seperately) and that's one of the reasons why I was tracking it.

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895028#Comment_121895028

I'd be thinking something isn't correct there. You shouldn't have more than a few watts over 24hrs unless charging.

Does your inverter show the house load?

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121894684#Comment_121894684

That has to be a problem with your meter, there's nothing inside it to consume electricity. Try turning it off at the CU

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895028#Comment_121895028

Photos?

corkandproud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895358#Comment_121895358

New external boardput in by installers

Buffman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891244#Comment_121891244

Leaving all the issues to one side, I think this shows why you should not be giving your full address to companies just for quotations, the general area will be more than sufficient for them to work out any additional travel costs etc. Even for you own data protection, there's no need to be firing your full details off to loads of companies until you actually pick one to go with. Hopefully you get sorted anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890935#Comment_121890935

When you do get someone ask for a price for 16 and 25mm, 25mm tails should be minimal extra cost but will 'futureproof' it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896365#Comment_121896365

So just to be clear, without the car charging that meter went from 117.xx to 119.22? If so, that's an issue. Try isolating it and see does that stop it.

Also, looks like they raided their parts bin for that CU, ideally a newly installed CU would have all the same make of components as much as possible.