EV charger installation companies?

unkel · 14-09-2018 2:29pm

n97 mini wrote: »

Ducting not required if the cable run is all internal.

Not required, but you kinda need it for aesthetic purposes

denismc wrote: »

It will still charge if you have a surplus of 1.3, its just that the balance will drawn from the grid.

Aye, technically you are correct, but surely you don't want to pay the full daytime rate for (partly) charging your car unless you absolutely have to. The whole point about the Zappi is to use your excess production to send it to your car (for free), so you don't even use the cheap night rate for charging it

the perfect ten · 19-03-2020 2:00pm

Just got our first EV - an EGolf. Now looking at getting a home charger installed.

Has anyone had experience of using Electric Ireland to do the installation?

Shefwedfan · 19-03-2020 3:23pm

the perfect ten wrote: »

Just got our first EV - an EGolf. Now looking at getting a home charger installed.

Has anyone had experience of using Electric Ireland to do the installation?

No but they seem ok. As far as I know, which I could be wrong it is only a 16amp charger. Will do the job only slower.

Are you planning on investing in solar PV at any stage?

the perfect ten · 19-03-2020 4:07pm

Shefwedfan wrote: »

No but they seem ok. As far as I know, which I could be wrong it is only a 16amp charger. Will do the job only slower.

Are you planning on investing in solar PV at any stage?

I’d be looking for a 7.4kW charger. So 33 Amp. Probably looking at installing solar in 2 years time.

unkel · 19-03-2020 4:51pm

If you might install solar PV, then it's wise to get a smart charger that is able to send surplus electricity to your car. Like a Zappi, I believe the most popular of all EV chargers in this country at the moment.

User1998 · 19-03-2020 11:54pm

unkel wrote: »

If you might install solar PV, then it's wise to get a smart charger that is able to send surplus electricity to your car. Like a Zappi, I believe the most popular of all EV chargers in this country at the moment.

Could I ask what the obsession is with the Zappi using solar to charge the car? It seems to get mentioned a lot

Whats the difference between having an expensive Zappi charging the car on Solar, and a cheap charger powering the car, while the solar powers other things in the house

Is it just so you have the car powered by 100% free renewable energy? Instead of the dish washer or fridge?

unkel · 20-03-2020 12:26am

No, the problem with solar PV is that on most installs, when the sun shines, only 10% of your production is used by your house. 90% of your production is not used and goes back to the grid, you don't get any money for this. Put on the dish washer and this goes down to 75%, but if a cloud passes over, your dish washer will use power from the grid

With a Zappi charger, whatever you are not using yourself will be stored into your car

But you are right, it is an expensive charger, being at least EUR200 more expensive than a normal one. You do get a EUR600 subsidy for installing a charger though

KCross · 20-03-2020 10:47am

User1998 wrote: »

Whats the difference between having an expensive Zappi charging the car on Solar, and a cheap charger powering the car, while the solar powers other things in the house

The main difference is thats it's fully automated. Turning on appliances to use the excess power is manual and as unkel said will also cause grid power to be used.

The Zappi will adjust itself continuously to only send the excess to the car. If you turn on the kettle the Zappi will reduce what it sends to the car automatically and when the kettle turns off it ramps up again.

If you're buying a charge point anyway and plan to have Solar you might as well get one that puts it all together.

But you are right, it is an expensive charger, being at least EUR200 more expensive than a normal one.

The Zappi also does load management out of the box. Most other cheap charge points dont do that and can result in you having to buy a priority switch which will cost €150-€200 to put in, so there isnt really much difference in the cost between them when you factor that in.

User1998 · 20-03-2020 11:52am

Ah I see, now I see the appeal of them. I wasn’t aware that most of the energy from the solar panels goes back to the grid without you getting paid. I got my 32a tethered unit installed for only €200 after grant which included a priority switch, whereas Zappis seem to be around €1000 even after the grant for a supply and install job?

Lumen · 20-03-2020 11:54am

Is there a minimum amount of solar that makes sense for charging an EV?

I was thinking of doing a solar car port, but I read that a 10kW system is around 70sqm, so a 7x5 double car port would only be 5kW, and I imagine that's a maximum.

unkel · 20-03-2020 12:01pm

User1998 wrote: »

Ah I see, now I see the appeal of them. I wasn’t aware that most of the energy from the solar panels goes back to the grid without you getting paid. I got my 32a tethered unit installed for only €200 after grant which included a priority switch, whereas Zappis seem to be around €1000 even after the grant for a supply and install job?

Not quite that much! Around the €1000 installed before the grant would be the norm for a basic install. A bit more now there is the newer generation Zappi charger that is more expensive to buy.

Lumen wrote: »

Is there a minimum amount of solar that makes sense for charging an EV?

I was thinking of doing a solar car port, but I read that a 10kW system is around 70sqm, so a 7x5 double car port would only be 5kW, and I imagine that's a maximum.

10kW? Hold on man, the ESB doesn't allow you to have more than 6kW of power connected to the grid

(technically you could have a 6kW inverter and 100kW of panels though if you so wished)

KCross · 20-03-2020 12:15pm

User1998 wrote: »

Ah I see, now I see the appeal of them. I wasn’t aware that most of the energy from the solar panels goes back to the grid without you getting paid. I got my 32a tethered unit installed for only €200 after grant which included a priority switch, whereas Zappis seem to be around €1000 even after the grant for a supply and install job?

€1000 after grant for a Zappi is insane money. The grant more or less covers the cost of the Zappi itself and then its a case of how much your electrician charges you for the 1-2hrs work.... if thats €1000 Im in the wrong job!

Lumen wrote: »

Is there a minimum amount of solar that makes sense for charging an EV?

There isnt a right or wrong answer to that.

To get anything meaningful into the car I think you'd need 4kWp bearing in mind that it would be producing alot less than 4kW for several months of the year and you need to subtract the background house load as well.

Some EV's cutoff at 1.4kW and allowing for the background house load of a few hundred watts I guess you could argue that 2kWp is the minimum... not sure you would get anything much into the car at that rate though before the sun went down.

mrbongo · 20-03-2020 7:47pm

KCross wrote: »

€1000 after grant for a Zappi is insane money. The grant more or less covers the cost of the Zappi itself and then its a case of how much your electrician charges you for the 1-2hrs work.... if thats €1000 Im in the wrong job!

The Zappi V2 tethered is around 880 eur, grant covers 600eur. Installs now require isolation switches which add to the cost. We got Darkin Electrical to do our install, 1400 eur Zappi V2 and isolation switch included, so overall we will have paid 800 eur after we get the grant. Darkin have a supply of Zappis, they're hard to get directly I think without waiting a few months.

Shefwedfan · 20-03-2020 8:19pm

I got the zappi v 1 installed, I think after grant it cost me 400 quid

eagerv · 20-03-2020 9:29pm

I just got the Zappi V2 tethered installed last monday. Very neatly done by Nigel Daly. Easy installation, unit positioned close to fuse board so no isolation switch needed.

Price was between last two posts..

KCross · 20-03-2020 9:45pm

mrbongo wrote: »

Installs now require isolation switches which add to the cost.

Lots of us have had the installs done with no isolator and a specific thread was opened in the electrical forum only a few weeks ago and the upshot seems to be that an isolator is not required.

Some sparks are being ultra cautious or misinterpreting the regs and insisting on it but its not actually required.

You seem to have paid about €520 for your labour. Thats a tad high, imo, unless your job was particularly difficult or something.

How many hours were they onsite doing the job?

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 10:38pm

KCross wrote: »

Lots of us have had the installs done with no isolator and a specific thread was opened in the electrical forum only a few weeks ago and the upshot seems to be that an isolator is not required.

Some sparks are being ultra cautious or misinterpreting the regs and insisting on it but its not actually required.

You seem to have paid about €520 for your labour. Thats a tad high, imo, unless your job was particularly difficult or something.

How many hours were they onsite doing the job?

An isolator is required for every install according to RECI inspector I spoke to recently.

I would have been of the opinion that they were required for certain installs before but would use my own discretion.

This is no longer the case.

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 10:39pm

KCross wrote: »

€1000 after grant for a Zappi is insane money. The grant more or less covers the cost of the Zappi itself and then its a case of how much your electrician charges you for the 1-2hrs work.... if thats €1000 Im in the wrong job!

An hour or 2!!
You.must be like Usain Bolt up and down the ladder

User1998 · 20-03-2020 10:47pm

Mine took like 4/5 hours

The sparks was saying the boss wasn’t going to make anything off me because we had already agreed a price and he ended up having to do 2 hours over time to finish the job

unkel · 20-03-2020 10:50pm

Felexicon wrote: »

An hour or 2!!
You.must be like Usain Bolt up and down the ladder

The install of my EV charge point (by an experienced dedicated EV charge point installer), a pretty standard installation with only a very short run of cable, took about 1.5h

Anything longer than that can only be explained by a combination of either the installer not knowing what they are doing or not very experienced / being very slow / the install being more complex

KCross · 20-03-2020 11:00pm

Felexicon wrote: »

An isolator is required for every install according to RECI inspector I spoke to recently.

I would have been of the opinion that they were required for certain installs before but would use my own discretion.

This is no longer the case.

I can only go by what is being done on the ground. No isolator installed on mine and the new regs just out don’t appear to have changed anything.

You’re on this thread so you know there is differing opinions on the topic from sparks who know the regs very well.
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058057675/

eagerv · 20-03-2020 11:01pm

eagerv wrote: »

I just got the Zappi V2 tethered installed last monday. Very neatly done by Nigel Daly. Easy installation, unit positioned close to fuse board so no isolation switch needed.

Price was between last two posts..

Just to add that mine took about 2 hours plus 2 hours total travel time.

KCross · 20-03-2020 11:04pm

Felexicon wrote: »

An hour or 2!!
You.must be like Usain Bolt up and down the ladder

Depends on the job, of course.

2hrs isn’t out of the ordinary particularly in the likes of a typical 3 bed semi where the consumer unit is inside the gable wall and the charge point mounted just outside it.

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 11:14pm

KCross wrote: »

I can only go by what is being done on the ground. No isolator installed on mine and the new regs just out don’t appear to have changed anything.

You’re on this thread so you know there is differing opinions on the topic from sparks who know the regs very well.
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058057675/

Yeah it's since that thread that I've been speaking to RECI about it. New regs have not changed the wording around this but they are adamant that all installs going forward need an isolator regardless of lenght of run, tethered or untethered.

I think it's overkill in a lot of instances.

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 11:17pm

KCross wrote: »

Depends on the job, of course.

2hrs isn’t out of the ordinary particularly in the likes of a typical 3 bed semi where the consumer unit is inside the gable wall and the charge point mounted just outside it.

Ah yeah if its out the back of the board and down the wall youre laughing.

Longest I've taken is around 6 hours but that was a 30m run and nearly a full box of clips

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 11:21pm

unkel wrote: »

The install of my EV charge point (by an experienced dedicated EV charge point installer), a pretty standard installation with only a very short run of cable, took about 1.5h

Anything longer than that can only be explained by a combination of either the installer not knowing what they are doing or not very experienced / being very slow / the install being more complex

1.5 hours is quick but definitely not unheard of.

I'd say you should be adding installer taking pride in their work and understanding that this is a unit going in a visible location on someone's house as a reason for adding a bit of time. We can all lash them in and move on to the next one but you'll find work dries up fairly quickly with that approach

Felexicon · 20-03-2020 11:21pm

unkel wrote: »

The install of my EV charge point (by an experienced dedicated EV charge point installer), a pretty standard installation with only a very short run of cable, took about 1.5h

Anything longer than that can only be explained by a combination of either the installer not knowing what they are doing or not very experienced / being very slow / the install being more complex

1.5 hours is quick but definitely not unheard of.

I'd say you should be adding installer taking pride in their work and understanding that this is a unit going in a visible location on someone's house as a reason for adding a bit of time. We can all lash them in and move on to the next one but you'll find work dries up fairly quickly with that approach

unkel · 21-03-2020 12:30am

Felexicon wrote: »

1.5 hours is quick but definitely not unheard of.

I'd say you should be adding installer taking pride in their work and understanding that this is a unit going in a visible location on someone's house as a reason for adding a bit of time. We can all lash them in and move on to the next one but you'll find work dries up fairly quickly with that approach

If you're insinuating it was a hatch job, then you couldn't be more wrong. The job was done to perfection. As I said, by a very experienced EV charge point installer. Working for the company that has done more EV charge point installs than all other EV charge point installers in the country combined

Felexicon · 21-03-2020 8:36am

unkel wrote: »

If you're insinuating it was a hatch job, then you couldn't be more wrong. The job was done to perfection. As I said, by a very experienced EV charge point installer. Working for the company that has done more EV charge point installs than all other EV charge point installers in the country combined

Not at all. Just pointing out that there are more reasons than inexperience/laziness for a job taking a bit longer.

unkel · 21-03-2020 11:23am

Just for the people inquiring - my installer was Nigel Daly. My install was done under the old subsidy scheme that ended in 2017 and gave you a completely free ABL charge point installed at your home. Nigel Daly had the ESB contract for this.

AndyBoBandy · 21-03-2020 11:00pm

I was emailing and talking to Nigel Daly Electrical for about a month, with promises of a call back to arrange the install of my own supplied Tesla Wall Connector, and I still haven’t had the call!!

Called up and spoke to Nigel himself asking what the craic was, and he apologised and had the office call me within 10 minutes saying I’d be booked in for my install later that day or the next day worst case!!

That was 3 weeks ago and I’m still waiting for them to call! Meanwhile I had the charger installed by Powerwise Electrical about 2 weeks ago!!

Lumen · 21-03-2020 11:24pm

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

I was emailing and talking to Nigel Daly Electrical for about a month, with promises of a call back to arrange the install of my own supplied Tesla Wall Connector, and I still haven’t had the call!!

Called up and spoke to Nigel himself asking what the craic was, and he apologised and had the office call me within 10 minutes saying I’d be booked in for my install later that day or the next day worst case!!

That is my experience also.

mrbongo · 22-03-2020 3:37pm

Here's the bill from my Zappi V2 install, including isolator, from Darkin Electrical:

As you can see labour is 250 eur incl VAT. Install took around 6 hours, slower than normal but very good attention to detail and a lot of pride in the work.

society4 · 26-12-2022 1:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/112909716#Comment_112909716

Hi would you recommend Powerwise electrical ….thinking of using them to install an ev charger and som either minor electrical work ?

AndyBoBandy · 26-12-2022 3:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034660#Comment_120034660

Yeah, I didn’t have any issue at all with the work they did…. Almost 3 years later and there’s not been an issue at all with the charger..

mickey15ie · 26-12-2022 4:10pm

Can anyone recommend an installer for Galway area?

society4 · 28-12-2022 12:27am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035026#Comment_120035026

Thanks

Curiousness99 · 30-12-2022 3:02pm

i was charged 2400 for an install of a zappi tethered charger, needed an earth and upgraded tips (cables coming into the house from the esb) some other stuff, two guys did a long day and came back the next day for about an hour.

Sounds very high compared to others but there did seem to be a fair bit of work required, cables bypassing pipes and charger was a good bit away from esb meter

I think I might need to pay the esb another 200 🤔 when they come as they need to do something before the charger is fully functional

KCross · 30-12-2022 4:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046684#Comment_120046684

Sounds very high compared to others

It’s the luck of the draw really. You had to get extra work done due to your existing wiring not being up to the job.

Newer houses are less likely to have the issue. It is a potential hidden cost to switching to EV that people don’t realise until the electrician gives them the bad news!

society4 · 30-12-2022 5:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046684#Comment_120046684

Can you use it at a lower power until the esb come out…I heard it can take 8 weeks for them to call..

dunnerc · 30-12-2022 5:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120047037#Comment_120047037

Yes you can use it at a lower power

Curiousness99 · 30-12-2022 7:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120047037#Comment_120047037

was told I can use at a slower rate alright, no sign of the car yet in any case but I expect definitely in Q1, was July 22 delivery originally 😀

micks_address · 03-01-2023 3:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046684#Comment_120046684

The esb call out is usually to swap over the heavier/new tails into their meter. Typically the installer will wire the new tails into the existing tails so you still have power in the house etc.. the charger should work fine running off the older tails.. could be something else but unlikely.. has it gone up to 200 euro for the esb swapover? was 169 i think last may when they swapped over mine

Curiousness99 · 04-01-2023 9:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120060082#Comment_120060082

I am not sure of the exact price but was told around €200

EV charger installation companies?

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