What kind of tails are these?

bendy1911

Is this 10 or 16?

drury..

Possibly 10s and 6sq main earth

How old is the installation ?

Don't tell me you're trying to max out the main fusing and exceed the MIC like all the knuckleheads on the renewable energy forum

bendy1911

Just a consumer trusting the installation that’s been done for us by professionals, I’m absolutely ignorant to it so definitely not going to meddle.

We have a Zappi car charger on the house that’s set to feed the car 32kw. If these are 10s it wouldn’t be able to handle that load I presume? 🤷‍♂️🤦

any advice/help appreciated as always.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488270#Comment_122488270

Not referring to you but i just have a beef with what's happening now with car charging and solar PV . It's crazy.

Lads are googling stuff and maxxing out supplies and think they know what they're doing.

Any way this situation will likely blow up. Insurance are probably aware and CER/ESBN will probably step in too.

bendy1911

I can imagine.

There must be a serious lack of oversight/regulation if this is a common occurrence?

if we have 10s and run a zappi car charger is it dangerous potentially?

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488343#Comment_122488343

10s is older tails and main fuse would have been 50A when installed

I would call that a 10kva supply

If the zappi is a 32A load ? it should in theory be fine overnite on that supply depending on what else is running concurrently ?

Problems can arise regardless at main board (fuses , connections not tightened etc.) , issues with ESBN fused units and meters on sustained loads

The more you max out the supply as people are doing over on the renewable forum exceeding MICs etc. the greater the risk

The situation with allowing car charging at the cabinet has already been stopped afaik . That situation was crazy.

drury..

If thats all new work at the cabinet you're likely ok there . Problems likely won't arise.

Main board would be where problems might arise

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488270#Comment_122488270

It's definitely not 32kw to the zappi.. 7kw or 11 if 3 phase..

bendy1911

sorry I meant the Zappi is set to 32, I’ve been advised to bring that down to max 16.2 until someone comes to check it all.

my main concern here is, with the fit out we have, if a fire were ever to occur and it wasn’t done to “standard” (if such a thing exists), would our insurance cover it?😬🤷‍♂️

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488441#Comment_122488441

7 sounds about right

Nothing running concurrently that should be ok in theory

Meter cabinet is new work so should be ok , the variable is probably the main board connections etc , fukk knows with that usually on an older board

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488472#Comment_122488472

You are talking 32 amps or around 7kW.

You are saying you are unsure if your installation is unsafe?. Did other people quote the work and say tails needed upgrading?

You can reduce the zappi to 16 amp and it will be safer. There are other things in the fuse board that may be ok or not, and zappi have certain rules themselves such as myenergi trained installers to keep warranty.

bendy1911

MyEnergi installed it using Circet as the contractor. The solar company came back to do another job and commented on the tails, so we’re having Circet come back to check.

does that sound right? I imagine Circet would know what they’re doing and having the Zappi set to 32 amps is safe?

zg3409

Both the solar company and circet have qualified electricians so they should know what they are doing but they may have taken short cuts.

The tails upgrade is a messy process requiring new wires between indoor fuse board and outside meter and needs both esb networks and an electrician to do different parts so needs multiple visits. Quick in and out is what makes money and if they stop to explain all this the job may be cancelled.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122488838#Comment_122488838

If the customer can override the 32amp setting then it's not a 32 amp load ?

The 10s are good for 32amp night load depending on what else is in use and assuming main board is in good order .

It would not however be an acceptable practice to setup an appliance for half-load if the customer can override this later and overload an installation . A practice like that would need to be clamped down on.

zg3409

There are specific regs for EV chargers and with night rates and short time windows of extra low prices often people set car, washing machine, dishwasher and dryer on at the same time to maximise cheap price time window. The chargers have maximum house load sensors which should be set to 50 amps in typical use as the car can be told to limit draw to 10/20/32 amps etc to restrict total house load. With a full 32 amps for many hours plus all heavy load appliances timed to exact same time the main ESB fuse could be easily blown. The tails if undersized may overheat.

drury..

Load management is probably acceptable practice

There's a risk as above , the 4-hour window and they try to squeeze everything in

Imo you can't have a situation where the zappi load is easily changed by customer and the installation is overloaded

Instantaneous showers for example , a customer would have to rewire the controller to override the interlock

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122491044#Comment_122491044

The Zappi usually has a CT located on the incoming supply. This can be configured for the maximum current allowable in the full installation. Zappi can then ramp up and down vehicle changing to stay within this.

The setting is in an installer menu, with password protection, so there is some degree of protection against accidental change.