Home charge points (purchase/problems/questions) (See mod note post#1)

Busman Paddy Lasty wrote: »

Full cost of a chargepoint bought by a business can be written off against tax in one year under the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme. Just check that the unit itself is on the triple E register.

Does not apply to installation costs but might make financial sense to buy a fancy wallbox and get your usual sparky to do the install.

Can you still claim the vat back on it as well as the ACC, would like to spend as little as possible, it's the Mrs said she doesn't want to see any cables around the place....the Anderson seems very expensive...

Cyrus wrote: »

just get an untethered eo, its about as discrete as you will get.

Unthetered means you just use the cable in the boot, just checking. No issue with warming the car remotely when it's plugged in with the EO?
VW were on about going for the better VW one as it'll get updates etc, but is that any use I doubt the home charging power will be increasing or am I wrong on that...

So you'd need to VW to tell it warm up in the morning? Or else you have to go out and turn it on while charging so you can leave with 100% charge and the car warm.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

So you'd need to VW to tell it warm up in the morning? Or else you have to go out and turn it on while charging so you can leave with 100% charge and the car warm.

I would guess you set it in the car and it will warm up, drawing from the house power. That is how most EVs work.
Or control it from an app if one exists.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

What charger would you recommend for an ID3, I'm not sure what a charger needs to do, I presume it needs the option to turn it on for a few minutes before you leave in the morning, if it could track the amount of electricity it uses that you can download it would be useful, can't think of anything else.

There isnt any specific one to recommend for the ID.3. From the cheapest to the dearest, they will all charge the car just fine.

Its simply down to your personal preferences around...
- price
- app support
- other features like load limiting and load balancing
- looks
- etc

Would there be any difference in wear and tear when using the tethered Vs car cable?

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Just on to electric Ireland, I've a 12kva supply, they couldn't give me a figure on how much to upgrade, I'm guessing it could be necessary.
Also paying 16cent a KW on a 24hr rate said they couldn't do any cheaper bar going on night rate which is 18cent/8cent.

most people with ev go night rate as you are more likely to do your full charge at night.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I could probably go unthetered as it'll be going beside the garage door so can always have a spare cable in there.

You need to carefully consider the tethered vs untethered thing.

If you will generally only be charging the car once or twice a week then untethered will be fine but if you are charging the car every day or even every second day it will get annoying fast that you have to pull out that cable each time and stow it away each morning.... might be fine in summer but when its pissing down on top of you, you want as little hassle and time as possible when plugging the car in/out.

You can go untethered and just leave a cable permanently plugged into it but the tethered units will be slightly neater in that case as the cable is attached inside and you dont have a big cable connector sticking out of the unit.

So, again, a personal choice for yourself but give it more consideration.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

App support I don't really care, just want to plug it in and forget about it.

Fine. Thats how it should be really... get home, plug it in and walk away.
Hopefully the ID.3 has a decent app of its own where you can check its status and remotely activate charging and cabin heating so the app support for the charge point becomes less relevant/useful then.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Load balancing, is it something I need to know about?

If you have other high power devices in the house like heat pump, electric shower etc then you will need to have that capability or else you will have to put in a priority device which will add about €200 to the cost of your install. Some charge points have it built in.

If you dont have any of those high powered devices then you dont need to care about it.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Looks, just don't want wires around for the kids to be pulling at.

Its going to be hard to avoid that to be honest. When you get home you will plug the car in so even if you go untethered you will still have a cable hanging around unless your plan is to go out last thing at night every night to plug it in, which is just asking for an uncharged car some morning because you forgot to do it.

Also the thick charging cable will be locked into your charge point and into the car. It would take enormous force to break that free. I doubt a playing small child could do damage like that.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Some good advice there thanks. There's already 2 electric showers and one with a separate pump there's an inskerator in the mix as well.

Oh, never considered the Insinkerator - we have one of those too! But I suppose I won’t be using it in the middle of the night whilst the car is charging.

My Day/Night meter was installed on Monday. I’m with Airtricity and my day rate has increased from 15.29c/kWh to 16.31c/kWh (incl VAT) and my night rate is now 8.07c/kWh.
If I need to do laundry during the day, I will still do it. My dishwasher usually goes on last thing at night anyway, but again if it needs to go on during the day, I’ll put it on.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I'd agree it'll be charged at night, it's more her indoors, if I tell her no washing machine or dryer until 12 at night she'll freak.
She's already stated she's not going to be doing like her friend and thinking about when things have to go on...kinda agree with her about having to do washing late at night.

but the day rate on day night is only marginally higher than your 24 hour rate, you'll still work out better off switching as some stuff runs at night anyway and youll be charging the car.

I got a quote for a charger install and the electrician was recommending the zappi because I have a typical new build PV setup. Man maths says the PV generates a saving max €120/year. That's assuming I'm using electricity at home when the sun is shining, I'm at work so I'm not. What is the big benefit in solar diversion? Surely the kw being generated is so low that it will be consumed by day to day use when it's available, dishwasher etc. The zappi installed is coming in around €600 more than a more basic charger which will take years to recoup. Am I missing something? I'd probably be better off getting a battery installed for the PV.

Is Zappi the only one compatible with solar pv, and will you still need a priority switch with it?

The VW Wallbox isn't compatible until it gets a software update later in the year.

If I buy the zappi, can any REC sparks install it?
The solar system is 4.2kwp.

danoriordan1402 wrote: »

I was looking to allow for a type 2 charger for the PHEV later this year. Its about a 20m run max from the Consumer Unit.I have to run another 10mmSq SWA to the garage next week so I was hoping to throw in another cable to the trench to save me heartache down the road. Anyone have an idea of cable sizes roughly?

For that length and to future proof it you should use 10mm² for the charge point too.

If there is a chance you would have two charge points put in 2 of them.

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Can you still claim the vat back on it as well as the ACC, would like to spend as little as possible, it's the Mrs said she doesn't want to see any cables around the place....the Anderson seems very expensive...

Not sure about vat at all hopefully somebody else can advise. Indeed the Anderson ain't cheap, didn't mean that fancy!