Driving to Ireland from France with our EV

Just bear in mind that Irish domestic sockets can only supply 13 amps. (Up to about 2900W) Schuko / French sockets can supply 16amps (up to about 3600W).

If you are using any kind of adaptor, ensure that it is robust with a 13amp fuse in it.

Cheap tourist adaptors are totally unsuitable for this and may not comply with standards, or be a fire risk under sustained load.

Many sold online etc don't comply with any known EU or Irish/UK plug standard and while they might fit the socket and be ok with a laptop or a hairdryer for a few minutes, they may melt on a sustained high load and often also don't connect the earth terminals etc etc.

Wiring systems here rely on fuses in every plug for local protection and the house wiring is rated to serve multiple sockets as a bus or ring, so connecting a high load with a non-fused (illegal) adapter can overload the socket and cause melting or even a fire. The circuit breaker in the house may be rated at 20amps or even 32 amps.

If the device draws more than 13 amps the fuse in the plug will blow.

You'd need to confirm exactly what your charger draws. Maximum here is 2990W at 230V, but 2800W would be probably the upper limit based on 220V.

If your charger rating is like >2800W, you just cannot use it with an Irish domestic socket.

Very, very few devices sold on the market in Europe draw more than 2800W, but car chargers may be an exception to that.

You could buy one of these and get it sent to your mother-in-law's house.

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/masterplug-10a-2-3kw-mode-2-type-1-socket-electric-vehicle-charging-cable-5m/872gv

If that charger draws <13amps let's say 2800W for sake of a safety margin, it will work no problem with a good quality adaptor.

Buying a second charger, which may be identical other than the Irish plug, would be total overkill.

Just select a quality FUSED adaptor like above and verify the label on the charger which will list the maximum wattage it draws. Every appliance sold in the EU has this information embossed into on the casing or on a label.

The bigger issue might be gaps in charger network between Cork and Limerick.

Here's a solution that might be safer :

https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/adaptors/products/ev-adaptors-for-visitors-to-the-uk-from-european-scandinavia

Irish/UK to EU 'Schuko' socket adaptor, that is rated specifically for this purpose.



NB: You should be able to select 10A, 12A etc on your 'granny charger' or EV

If you select 16A it will blow the fuse.

That applies everywhere with granny cables. I think we are over doing the warnings here and making Irish electrical systems seem very strange, when they really aren’t.

There’s nothing particularly different about Irish vs French wiring, other than the fused 13amp plus vs non fused 16 amp plugs. Limit your charger draw to less than 13 amps (eg 10 or 12 amps) et c'est tout!

If anything, Irish household wiring is more likely to contain higher capacity 20amp radial and 32amp rings. So should have plenty of power availablity.

Irish properties (including apartments) also nearly always have pretty heafty 63 or 80 Amp single phase supplies (occasionally even 100Amps). I know charging on older installations and some apartment supplies on the continent can be challenging, if they're very low capacity.

I had an apartment in Spain, for example, with 20amps for the the entire installation!! You won't encounter that in Ireland.

Continental wiring also often limits radials to 16amps, older wiring even 10amps, at the fuse board, although 20amp is more common now in France in modern installations. Also, things like non-eathed older 10amp sockets are still encountered a quite lot in in France in older buildings, but do not exist here at all.

In general the residential wiring here is very standard, safe and uniform. Just plug in and it'll provide a 13 amp, polarised, earthed, child-proof & usually RCD protected connection.

Kitchens in Ireland may be supplied on multiple 20amp dedicated radials too, to cope with higher predicted loads from appliances, so they often have plenty of ability to provide power.

The worst you’ll do is trip a breaker (pop a fuse in older wiring) in the unlikely event that you do overload a circuit - exactly the same issues as you’ll encounter in France or anywhere else - normal sensible precautions apply: avoid plugging it into the same circuit as the tumble dryer, dishwasher etc, and don’t use extension cords or double-adapters (multiprises) etc etc

Use the fused (very important), heavy duty plug adaptor I posted previously, and you'll have no problems.

Probably the most important thing is don't forget Irish sockets often have an integrated switch. It's very easy to forget to turn them on & wake up to empty batteries!

1) Buy correct adapter.
2) Check you're < 13 Amps.
3) Bonne vacances!

I think we are completely over complicating a very simple thing.

Black_Knight wrote: »

All the above can be accessed via the ESB ecars app, or easygo app. I'm not sure if both can be used by residents from outside of Ireland.

I live in the UK and signed up to ESB on Saturday and had the RFID card delivered here today so no problem at all for non-residents to sign up.