Home charger in apartment block

cfingers · 30-09-2019 10:35pm #1

Hi,

Has anyone installed a home charger in their apartment block and if so how much did it cost them?

My parking space is very far away from my electricty meter so it would have to be some system where management company could check usage and Bill me.

I'm trying to figure out ball park cost before I go to management company.

McGiver · 30-09-2019 11:05pm

Actually, mods, unkel, if you could make this a sticky forum/thread that would be great.

This is one of the core issues we will be facing whilst transitioning to EVs.

I would even say this is number one priority issue to focus on in order to accelerate uptake.

30-09-2019 11:08pm

McGiver wrote: »

......

I would even say this is number one priority issue to focus on in order to accelerate uptake.

Chargers for apartment dwellers is the number 1 priority issue to focus on in order to accelerate EV uptake?
Really?

McGiver · 30-09-2019 11:27pm

Yes really because you can never expect all people to live in houses. Most people do not live in houses in fact and with accelerating urbanisation this will continue to be the case.
While talking to the people this is the most common top three issue deterring them from an EV.

01-10-2019 3:22am

McGiver wrote: »

Yes really because you can never expect all people to live in houses. Most people do not live in houses in fact ....

In Ireland?
I find that very hard to believe, I find it difficult to think anyone could actually believe it TBH.

'The apartment rate is the fraction of all dwellings that are in apartments (blocks of three or more dwellings in the same building). Across the EU as a whole, roughly half of all dwellings are apartments. But in Ireland, just 12pc of dwellings are in apartments'

https://m.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/lack-of-apartments-hits-home-36160557.html

Now, most apartment dwellers in Dublin don't need a car is something much easier to believe. We need more apartments in urban areas and we don't need the folk living in them to be car owners.

gctest50 · 01-10-2019 3:52am

It should be no problem at all, just put a smart/3g meter in the line for the car charger at your parking space and charge it to your bill

The oficeeeel way for now might be to run a bit of cable from your apartment to your parking space but there isn't any need for that

ELM327 · 01-10-2019 7:55am

Yes
Apartment (owned) in OMC managed carpark
Assigned parking spot
Approx 1500 euro, got the grant so ended up costing me only ~900

McGiver · 01-10-2019 8:23am

Augeo wrote: »

McGiver wrote: »

Yes really because you can never expect all people to live in houses. Most people do not live in houses in fact ....

In Ireland?
I find that very hard to believe, I find it difficult to think anyone could actually believe it TBH.

'The apartment rate is the fraction of all dwellings that are in apartments (blocks of three or more dwellings in the same building). Across the EU as a whole, roughly half of all dwellings are apartments. But in Ireland, just 12pc of dwellings are in apartments'

https://m.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/lack-of-apartments-hits-home-36160557.html

Now, most apartment dwellers in Dublin don't need a car is something much easier to believe. We need more apartments in urban areas and we don't need the folk living in them to be car owners.

I'm aware it's low in EU comparison.

What's the % of people living in apartments? The % of dwellings is meaningless without putting that into context.

McGiver · 01-10-2019 8:28am

ELM327 wrote: »

Yes
Apartment (owned) in OMC managed carpark
Assigned parking spot
Approx 1500 euro, got the grant so ended up costing me only ~900

Thank you. I have met people who don't have allocated parking. What is the solution in that case?

ELM327 · 01-10-2019 8:52am

if you don't have allocated parking it's obviously a little harder.
I would try join the OMC and get communal chargers installed, or failing that, get a charger installed myself with their approval and assign the space and electricity bill to me

A lot lot easier with assigned spots.

EDIT: And you won't get the grant unless you own the spot.

01-10-2019 8:33pm

McGiver wrote: »

I'm aware it's low in EU comparison.

What's the % of people living in apartments? The % of dwellings is meaningless without putting that into context.

I was replying to this comment 'Most people do not live in houses in fact ', made by you..... Mentioning fact.
We'd all presume you were referring to Ireland.

McGiver · 02-10-2019 8:35pm

Augeo wrote: »

McGiver wrote: »

I'm aware it's low in EU comparison.

What's the % of people living in apartments? The % of dwellings is meaningless without putting that into context.

I was replying to this comment 'Most people do not live in houses in fact ', made by you..... Mentioning fact.
We'd all presume you were referring to Ireland.

Link please. To the data.

listermint · 03-10-2019 1:53pm

McGiver wrote: »

Link please. To the data.

Wait,

you think most people in Ireland live in apartments ?

is this a serious thought ?

KCross · 03-10-2019 2:17pm

I havent seen a definitive answer for Ireland but the figure given for the UK is 66% of the dwellings have a garage or off-street parking.

I cant imagine Ireland is too far off that mark. We might even have a higher percentage as we are likely to be "more rural" than the UK.

NotToScale · 03-10-2019 2:22pm

The last statistics I read would show that we've the lowest % of apartments as a mix in Europe, by quite a bit.

However, it doesn't mean we shouldn't future-proof new build.
All you need is to provide cable trays across the ceilings of carparks and come up with a specification for how to connect a residents space to a meter. Different spaces may want different technologies and things will inevitable move on, but you should still be able to have some kind of mounting space and access for wiring without much fuss.

The building and wiring regs should be moving to this kind of thing in all types of dwelling.

The more challenging one is probably terrace houses without any kind of driveway and only on-street parking. Planning should allow for some kind of standardised charge pole. If we came up with an attractive design that everyone could stick to, it would look pretty ok.

03-10-2019 2:35pm

listermint wrote: »

Wait,

you think most people in Ireland live in apartments ?

is this a serious thought ?

It seems so, he needs a link before he'll entertain he's 100% incorrect.

cnocbui · 03-10-2019 2:39pm

McGiver wrote: »

Link please. To the data.

277,716 apartments/units vs 1,725,929 houses. 4,213,546 people live in houses, only 452,830 people live in apartments. 10.74 percent of the population live in apartments. It's probably even slightly less as the figures would include hotel rooms and student accommodation.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp1hii/cp1hii/hs/

Apartment dwellers are very much a minority. Happy now?

pwurple · 03-10-2019 2:45pm

listermint wrote: »

Wait,

you think most people in Ireland live in apartments ?

is this a serious thought ?

God, does it even matter?

SOME people do at least.

OP, from the apartment management side, we typically receive a request from a tenant or unit owner. This goes to the board for approval, to get feedback from other owners. Typically for the ones I'm involved in, it is approved and we schedule the works.

The way it has worked so far, the requester covers the unit and gets any grant associated, we have covered the electrical and civil works from the building side. If it's a pedestal in a shared carpark, we update the tenants on how it is to be used and mark the space.

Nickindublin · 03-10-2019 4:16pm

We have 2 communal chargers installed in our underground car park. You can get individual one with approval from management company and using their approved installer. Only 2 people have electric vehicles.

cfingers · 03-10-2019 4:43pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

ELM327 wrote: »

Yes
Apartment (owned) in OMC managed carpark
Assigned parking spot
Approx 1500 euro, got the grant so ended up costing me only ~900

Nickindublin wrote: »

We have 2 communal chargers installed in our underground car park. You can get individual one with approval from management company and using their approved installer. Only 2 people have electric vehicles.

Thanks. That's good to hear that people are able to get them installed.

Do you know who the installer was?

Nickindublin · 04-10-2019 9:42am

cfingers wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Thanks. That's good to hear that people are able to get them installed.

Do you know who the installer was?

I dont know but it is an EVO box charger i think. Got a letter about 2 months ago that the OMC were in the process of surveying the underground car park to install 2 communal chargers and also surveying the rest for individual chargers. They would then give the installation to one company. So if i wanted to install a charger i could only use this company. Which i think is the way to go any apartment block.

pedroeibar1 · 05-10-2019 9:06am

I asked SEAI about this in Feb 2019. They said 'No'

Thank you for contacting SEAI,
In relation to your query, your home must have an off-street car park on the property. The charger must be fitted within the property and be able to connect to the car and all the way back to the fuse board within the home, to be eligible for the grant.
A stand alone connection would not be connected back to your home which would not make it eligible for the scheme.
If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01 808 2100 or evgrantscheme@seai.ie.
Kind Regards

(my bold)

ELM327 · 07-10-2019 8:04am

That's interesting as I got mine installed , got the grant (with photos sent etc), and it is not connected to the home fuse box, only the meter.

listermint · 07-10-2019 8:29am

pwurple wrote: »

God, does it even matter?

SOME people do at least.

OP, from the apartment management side, we typically receive a request from a tenant or unit owner. This goes to the board for approval, to get feedback from other owners. Typically for the ones I'm involved in, it is approved and we schedule the works.

The way it has worked so far, the requester covers the unit and gets any grant associated, we have covered the electrical and civil works from the building side. If it's a pedestal in a shared carpark, we update the tenants on how it is to be used and mark the space.

Hold your horses.

At no point did anyone say we shouldn't make provisions for apartments or estates with no up front parking.

Yes it matters that we challenge facts like there are more apartment dwellers than households. As it impacts policies.

So as I said no one said what you think they said.

ELM327 · 07-10-2019 8:30am

Can we drop the boring stats element?
It's more important to discuss and debunk the myth that owners of apartments can't get chargers installed.

pedroeibar1 · 07-10-2019 8:30am

ELM327 wrote: »

That's interesting as I got mine installed , got the grant (with photos sent etc), and it is not connected to the home fuse box, only the meter.

Their refusal was quite adamant when I queried it. Due to boundaries I would have to install (easily done) a separate meter & box for an EV charge point. It's not a runner for me. It was going to be for our second car, low annual mileage/town driving.

listermint · 07-10-2019 8:33am

ELM327 wrote: »

Can we drop the boring stats element?
It's more important to discuss and debunk the myth that owners of apartments can't get chargers installed.

No because as I said it dictates policy especially at government level.

The census has alot to do with spend allocation. So it's a valid topic now matter how boring you find it to be.

KCross · 07-10-2019 9:28am

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

I asked SEAI about this in Feb 2019. They said 'No'

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Their refusal was quite adamant when I queried it. Due to boundaries I would have to install (easily done) a separate meter & box for an EV charge point. It's not a runner for me. It was going to be for our second car, low annual mileage/town driving.

I dont think there is any confusion here. They are saying that if you cant connect the charge point to your existing domestic meter (and hence your fuse board) you cannot get the grant. A standalone connection with its own bill/meter is not allowed on the scheme. That doesnt preclude apartments though. You just have to find a way to get the supply from your meter to the charge point. If thats not possible/practical then you are stuck in relation to the grant.

ELM327 wrote: »

That's interesting as I got mine installed , got the grant (with photos sent etc), and it is not connected to the home fuse box, only the meter.

The meter is connected to the fuseboard so its the same thing really.
They are just saying it needs to be connected to your domestic bill. Not a standlone connection which is what pedroeibar1 has detailed.

zilog_jones · 08-10-2019 3:11pm

KCross wrote: »

The meter is connected to the fuseboard so its the same thing really.

The SEAI wording quoted above is very misleading though. The fuseboard for my apartment is inside my apartment, whereas my meter is a significant distance away in a room in the basement which can only be accessed by building management and ESBN - in fact, the meter is closer to my parking space than my apartment.

ELM327 · 08-10-2019 3:13pm

zilog_jones wrote: »

The SEAI wording quoted above is very misleading though. The fuseboard for my apartment is inside my apartment, whereas my meter is a significant distance away in a room in the basement which can only be accessed by building management and ESBN - in fact, the meter is closer to my parking space than my apartment.

This is the same for me

08-10-2019 3:41pm

zilog_jones wrote: »

The SEAI wording quoted above is very misleading though. .......

It's a poorly worded reply from an individual....... the key point IMO is "A stand alone connection would not be connected back to your home which would not make it eligible for the scheme"

pedroeibar1 · 08-10-2019 11:27pm

Augeo wrote: »

It's a poorly worded reply from an individual.......

The response was clear to me. In most apartment buildings there is a service room/bay with a stack of meters and a feed to each apartment. A connection can be inserted between each meter and its fuseboard with a separate ECB for a charge socket. That would be compliant. However that configuration is not possible for our multi-dwelling residence. It has above-ground parking spaces, a meter room and fuseboards in each apartment. It would involve digging up communal areas, running cables underground everywhere to get back to the meter room. .What I wanted to do was to have a stand-alone metered supply with an attached socket as a charge point. There is an ESB pole just next to my space. I'd have an additional standing charge but it might have been worth it.

09-10-2019 1:05pm

Augeo wrote: »

It's a poorly worded reply from an individual....... the key point IMO is "A stand alone connection would not be connected back to your home which would not make it eligible for the scheme"

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

The response was clear to me..................What I wanted to do was to have a stand-alone metered supply with an attached socket as a charge point. There is an ESB pole just next to my space. I'd have an additional standing charge but it might have been worth it.

I agree. It's clear to me also but some folk seem to have found it a small bit unclear.]

Home charger in apartment block

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