What home charger for BMW330e?

itsmine

New to this and hoping to pick your brains!
Have bought a secondhand BMW330e PHEV and am looking to install an outdoor power source for it at the front of my house. The car came with a 3-pin plug charger and a blue cable for public charging stations. So far I’ve been charging it out the kitchen window using the 3 pin plug.
Can I just get an outdoor 3-pin socket, or do I need a special charging point? Thanks :-)

unkel

Yes you can just get an outdoor 3-pin socket. But the good news is, you can get a special charging point and you will get €600 subsidy for it, making it (almost) free

Matt Simis

unkel wrote: »

Yes you can just get an outdoor 3-pin socket. But the good news is, you can get a special charging point and you will get €600 subsidy for it, making it (almost) free

Can the 330e realistically charge much faster than the 3pin plug though?

unkel

3 pin is about 2.2kW max and the type 2 about 3.3kW I think, so 50% faster

Not that it makes much difference. That said, it will add to the value of his house, it will future proof it. All for free. Why not? Not often that the tax payer does something back for you. Might as well grab it with two hands!

itsmine

unkel wrote: »

3 pin is about 2.2kW max and the type 2 about 3.3kW I think, so 50% faster

Not that it makes much difference. That said, it will add to the value of his house, it will future proof it. All for free. Why not? Not often that the tax payer does something back for you. Might as well grab it with two hands!

Oh! The grant would cover the charging station cost? The fellow in the garage told me that the BMW charging point costs €800 plus installation. What charging equipment would fall closer to the grant cost do you know please? And the only benefit if it over an outdoor socket is charging speed? It’s taking 3 hours to charge to 100% using the 3-pin now, so on the proper setup, I’d be looking more like 1.5? Thanks for all the advice.
I’ve applied for the grant and for night rate electricity. Loving the car - so comfortable, plenty of power and all my weekday day-to-day driving on electric, but have the range of the petrol engine for occasional weekend trips further afield. Suits me much better than my former diesel car.

goz83

itsmine wrote: »

Oh! The grant would cover the charging station cost? The fellow in the garage told me that the BMW charging point costs €800 plus installation. What charging equipment would fall closer to the grant cost do you know please? And the only benefit if it over an outdoor socket is charging speed? It’s taking 3 hours to charge to 100% using the 3-pin now, so on the proper setup, I’d be looking more like 1.5? Thanks for all the advice.
I’ve applied for the grant and for night rate electricity. Loving the car - so comfortable, plenty of power and all my weekday day-to-day driving on electric, but have the range of the petrol engine for occasional weekend trips further afield. Suits me much better than my former diesel car.

€100 for the charging station. €700 tacked on by BMW. Have a look on ebay and you will spot something. Just get the right type....I am assuming the 330e is type 2. You'll get something new for about €300 and the install for that figure should well cover you.

The benefit of an outdoor socket would be charging speed....but if you get a type 2 tethered charging point, the benefit is you don't have to take cables out of the boot.

unkel

As goz83 said, you can get it done for around the subsidy value. But if you own the house and plan to stay long term in it, you could also make some other considerations. For example, will you at any stage install solar PV? If so, you might want a smarter solution (that will cost a bit more than the grand covers)

Plenty of threads in this forum about chargers, go have a look! Do make sure that the charger you install is 32A. Your car can't handle that, but most current and future EVs can, and that charges at over 3 times the speed of the granny cable. You will need that to charge at the cheap night rate once you have a full EV car with a medium or large size battery (and for convenience). A 32A charger costs only a fraction (maybe €30) than a 16A charger to buy and typically only maybe €20 more in materials

billy few mates

goz83 wrote: »

itsmine wrote: »

Oh! The grant would cover the charging station cost? The fellow in the garage told me that the BMW charging point costs €800 plus installation. What charging equipment would fall closer to the grant cost do you know please? And the only benefit if it over an outdoor socket is charging speed? It’s taking 3 hours to charge to 100% using the 3-pin now, so on the proper setup, I’d be looking more like 1.5? Thanks for all the advice.
I’ve applied for the grant and for night rate electricity. Loving the car - so comfortable, plenty of power and all my weekday day-to-day driving on electric, but have the range of the petrol engine for occasional weekend trips further afield. Suits me much better than my former diesel car.

€100 for the charging station. €700 tacked on by BMW. Have a look on ebay and you will spot something. Just get the right type....I am assuming the 330e is type 2. You'll get something new for about €300 and the install for that figure should well cover you.

The benefit of an outdoor socket would be charging speed....but if you get a type 2 tethered charging point, the benefit is you don't have to take cables out of the boot.

Yes but the disadvantage of a tethered charger is they're not as best as an untethered unit in my opinion and also they're not as flexible or future proof. If you have an untethered unit visitors with different type connectors can also use your charger, plus if you decide to change cars to another model with a different connector you might have to replace the charger.

billy few mates

goz83 wrote: »

itsmine wrote: »

Oh! The grant would cover the charging station cost? The fellow in the garage told me that the BMW charging point costs €800 plus installation. What charging equipment would fall closer to the grant cost do you know please? And the only benefit if it over an outdoor socket is charging speed? It’s taking 3 hours to charge to 100% using the 3-pin now, so on the proper setup, I’d be looking more like 1.5? Thanks for all the advice.
I’ve applied for the grant and for night rate electricity. Loving the car - so comfortable, plenty of power and all my weekday day-to-day driving on electric, but have the range of the petrol engine for occasional weekend trips further afield. Suits me much better than my former diesel car.

€100 for the charging station. €700 tacked on by BMW. Have a look on ebay and you will spot something. Just get the right type....I am assuming the 330e is type 2. You'll get something new for about €300 and the install for that figure should well cover you.

The benefit of an outdoor socket would be charging speed....but if you get a type 2 tethered charging point, the benefit is you don't have to take cables out of the boot.

Yes but the disadvantage of a tethered charger is they're not as neat as an untethered unit in my opinion and also they're not as flexible or future proof. If you have an untethered unit visitors with different type connectors can also use your charger, plus if you decide to change cars to another model with a different connector you might have to replace the charger.

unkel

Future proof? All cars have and will in future have type 2 home charging (except very early first gen EVs that are no longer sold)

Neat? I'll take ease of use saving a lot time every time you need charging over neat. Thank you very much

Liam Mc Keogh

Has anyone bought this new box. Is it worth buying. Thanks.

billy few mates

unkel wrote: »

Future proof? All cars have and will in future have type 2 home charging (except very early first gen EVs that are no longer sold)

Neat? I'll take ease of use saving a lot time every time you need charging over neat. Thank you very much

Fair enough I just think they look a bit tidier than tethered chargers with a coil of cable wrapped around them.

magentis

Liam Mc Keogh wrote: »

Has anyone bought this new box. Is it worth buying. Thanks.

I don't think that would charge a 330e.

unkel

billy few mates wrote: »

Fair enough I just think they look a bit tidier than tethered chargers with a coil of cable wrapped around them.

Doesn't have to be coiled!

In my case it was either paying €240 for a 15m cable from the charger at the house wall to the car (permanently in place in the bushes between my and my neighbours drive way. Or €1100 extra for having the charge point installed on a pedestal near the car by the installer. Funny enough I chose the first option

goz83

billy few mates wrote: »

Yes but the disadvantage of a tethered charger is they're not as neat as an untethered unit in my opinion and also they're not as flexible or future proof. If you have an untethered unit visitors with different type connectors can also use your charger, plus if you decide to change cars to another model with a different connector you might have to replace the charger.

If you're the type who cuts your grass with a ruler in one hand and a nail clipper in the other, then yes, un-tethered, built into the wall would be the way to go.

However, the tethered cable is so much handier. It can be made neat and you can even buy units which spool the reel back into the casing.

As has been pointed out, type 2 is the standard now. You can have out outdoor socket if a Leaf 1/1.5 needs a charge.

creedp

unkel wrote: »

Future proof? All cars have and will in future have type 2 home charging (except very early first gen EVs that are no longer sold)

Neat? I'll take ease of use saving a lot time every time you need charging over neat. Thank you very much

Agree tethered is more convenient but is a tethered type 1 cable directly interchangeable with a tethered type 2 cable or will the Unit also require software updates to accommodate the swop over? I'm thinking particularly about the zappi which can only be got tethered. Thanks