Fuse box making a buzzing sound when car is charging

cloneslad

I'm not sure if i should post here or in an Electrics forum, but figured you guys would have experience with it.

I got an EO mini charge point installed in February and was using it to charge a Hybrid (Renault Captur) but over the past month I've also been charging a Renault ZOE 50KW with it too and I've noticed the fuse box making a buzzing sound when the ZOE is charging.

We have also noticed that some other electrical items are making a noise during car charging too.

The charge point is connected to the fuse box in the utility room. I had wanted to go direct into the meter box but the installers were unable to do with without having the energy provider there to remove the security card/cable, which I was fine with at the time. (In hindsight I should have just used Energia to install it as the lads doing it were hungover to bits when installing it and the cable management/trunking is terrible).

Is the buzzing noise from the fuse box normal? I know it shouldn't be normal for the other electric items to make a noise.

Points to note:

We don't have an electric shower (air source pump)

The house is only 4 years old so the electrics are new.

The cable runs from the utility room, through the kitchen, then out the gable wall and up to the charge point. A run of about 10-15 metres in total.

It's the EO Mini 1. The charge point is untethered.

Video of the buzzing sound and the state they left my fuse box in.

https://imgur.com/a/jTqE57N

Or

https://streamable.com/dzhlp5

hopefully the sound works in one / both of these

slave1

I had this previously, it was a burnt out "fuse" next to EV Charge point fuse.

cloneslad

Was the burnt out one causing the electric points it was due to supply to stop working? I don't seem to have any power outage issues in any sockets/lights etc

ted1

I’ve had similar before. It was just a bit of vibration from the plastic abound the MCBs,

Fix the plastic on the top donuts on properly and ouch the lower ones back abit

while you are at it try to get some blanking plates

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/schneider-electric-kq-plastic-3-pole-blanking-plate/616hv?_requestid=108368

cloneslad

I'll have a look through it later and see if that's the case.

They actually annoyed me that they left it looking like that. I had blanking plates on it and they punched them through and left it looking like crap. You should see the job they did of the trunking too.

I was working from home when they were there and they were a mess, the more senior of the two stank of alcohol and when they were done with the job I just told them to leave and I'd clean up because they were so crap.

They actually had an agreement with our company to be the recommended supplier and fitter of chargers for our customers. Needless to say, they lost that not to long after.

meercat

Can’t hear anything from your video. However a buzzing sound from your distribution board isn’t normal and could be indicative of a loose connection. This needs to be investigated by a rec ASAP.

cloneslad

The second video seems to be playing with the sound but not the first. Not sure why that is, maybe needs to be in the app for it to work.

Anyway, yeah. I didn't think any noise should be coming anywhere, eith the exception of the actual charger itself when plugged into the car.

meercat

With the palm of your hand push 3&4 upwards (place palm under grey buttons)and this should allow the cover to slot back into place without the need to remove it

(not the issue you are having but it’ll look neater)

UID0

The sound on your second video seems to be the same frequency sound you hear outside the Zoe when it's charging.

There is an issue with some Renault Zoes where harmonics from the on board charger are fed back onto the mains. Try another car charging at 7kW on your charger, and try your car charging at someone else's home charger (who isn't having an issue like yours). If you are still getting the noise then that will tell you if it's the car that is causing it or something in your charging setup. If it is the car causing it, go back to Renault and ask them to sort it.

There's a thread on SpeakEV about it. In the UK, Renault supply a filter for the house if the car is injecting noise back through the charger.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/charging-noise-weird-one.5994/

cloneslad

Thanks, the ZOE is not mine so I won't have it for the long term. I just have a loan of it for a while.

I'd prefer to just get the charger hooked up to my meter rather than have the wire going through the house and into the fuse board, to be honest.

I've ESB Networks / KN installing a smart meter at some point over the next few weeks (they keep sending me letters). Hardly any chance of them connecting the cable into the meter when they're out, is there?

slave1

*Don't install a Smart Meter, look up online why, financially they will reef you out of it, ignore the letters as entitled to do so

cloneslad

How do they screw me financially? I haven't been a able to see how this will be the case.

cloneslad

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118397211#Comment_118397211

Do you not drive a Tesla?

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118398997#Comment_118398997

On the road at the minute, have a read through this thread, basically you lose facility of day/night rate and they will hike your 5pm-7pm rate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058196668/smart-tariff-unit-rates#latest

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401648#Comment_118401648

No. You can still have night and day rates. The peak rate of 5-7 is only an option. There are many options which don’t include this. Such as free weekend electricity.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403537#Comment_118403537

Generally, you'd still be better off with a standard day/night meter, than a smart meter with a day and night rates.

Don't be fooled with the "free day" at the weekend limited at i think 100kwh? , Oh They have changed it now, to an "unreasonable amount".. and that day rate is 24c, no night rate. Hell even energia's ev rate is about that now but with a 6c night rate. 100kwh wouldn't even fill my car twice.

Or even the 2 hours of "night boost".

*Yes the standing charge is lower.. but also cashback is also something to consider, but that is heavily usage dependant and you use profile.

Would love to be shown a Smart plan, has day/night rates that is actually better than the standard day night plans

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403828#Comment_118403828

Or even anything close to comparable. Seems like smart rates for me would mean paying 3-5c more per kWh at best.

Andrea B.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058224837/fuse-box-making-a-buzzing-sound-when-car-is-charging

Leaving aside the alcohol and assuming cable sizings correct, the state the board cover was left in would lead me to doubt if they were actual electricians.

Smell of alcohol, always raises doubts around integrity of any task.

With that, integrity of connections and other would be up for question.

I would advise that you have an electrician check integrity of board and while at it, the integrity at charger side also.

To add, they should check full board, as it could have been a pre-existing issue which is only raising head with new higher loads.

Buzzing is something physically moving/changing state at high speed, and outside of your bell transformer (even at that, you would need a stethoscope to hear it), your board does not have any components that should be buzzing.

Integrity of connections is a critical factor in electrical safety against fire risk.

You mentioned other electrical items buzzing also. Can you elaborate?

Edit. Just read UID0's link. Seems likely root cause and would be interesting to hear result when you follow the trial proposed.

Aside, the state of board cover still p***es me off.

cloneslad

They were definitely qualified, I have no issues with that. One was an apprentice, the other fully qualified.

They came out twice, first to check the job and see what was needed. The second time was a Monday and the qualified one was out the day before. It was not very professional on his part and the job done wasn't to the standards I would expect.

The job they did on my house meant that when their agreement with our company was coming to renewal they didn't get any positive endorsement from me for it to be renewed.

I'll check plugging in the ZOE tonight and see if it buzzes then check again with the Captur. If it still buzzes then I'll grab a Nissan Leaf and check that to see if it makes the noise. If it does then we'll know the problem is more than the sound coming back in.

Edit: the noise from the other items was a 3 in one apple charger. One of those ones that charges a phone, watch, and airpods at the same time. My girlfriend bought it from Amazon a few months ago and I heard loud buzz coming from it last week, which got me into checking what the hell was going on.

cloneslad

On the meter. I'm not on a day/night rate. Both of us work from home so would use mist if our electricity during the day anyway.

I am with Energia and actually changed my plan in November but I just checked my bill before commenting on this and see they never gave me the improved pricing in my bill a couple of weeks ago so I'll be on the phone to them about that on Tuesday.

marc1

Good smart meter plans are staring to come through. It’s been taking time, but board gais has just launched an EV tariff where you get three hours in the middle of the night at a very cheap rate. Around the 5cents / kWh. There is still a day, peak and night rate that are higher, but with a normal usage and average KMs per year that’s well worth it.

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118412871#Comment_118412871

Have you a link to it?

What are the inc vat prices for day, night and peak?

Is it this one.... Day 18.17, Peak 25.35, Night 13.75, EV 4.63 ??

If yes, thats not a good deal at all. You are being screwed on your night rate and the peak is very high which is at a time of day that you have little control over in terms of energy usage.

A standard day/night meter will give you a set day/night rate of 17/8c respectively so you need to really think hard about switching to a smart tariff as those 3hrs @5c wont come anywhere close to making up for the rest of the week where you are being fleeced.

i.e. they are giving you a somewhat good price for the 3hr EV charge but all the rest is bad... very bad.

marc1

I fully agree that a day/night meter is a better option, but after trying three providers, nobody was willing to change a smart meter to a day/night meter.

I should have specified that it’s decent once you’re on a smart meter.