Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Please note that it is not permitted to have referral links posted in your signature. Keep these links contained in the appropriate forum. Thank you.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2055940817/signature-rules
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Second car charger

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,751 ✭✭✭Buffman


    That would work fine but it's an expensive way just to get another 3 amps over the granny charger. Do you charge the BEV every night? Personally I'd see how you get on with using your current charger and the granny charger as backup if needed before putting money into another charger.

    FYI, if you move to a 'smart' meter electricity plan, you CAN'T move back to a non-smart plan.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 18,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭slave1


    We are a two EV household for over two years. One Charge Point and an external socket is fine, I think we’ve used the socket twice in two years, another charge point is not worth it IMHO as a socket gives 2.2kW and it’s likely your PHEV will only take 3.3kWh via a Charge Point



  • Registered Users Posts: 444 ✭✭alan kelly


    Thanks guys, We have 2 Phevs on order and have just ordered a Zappi. I suppose I wanted to charge both cars together on the night rate.

    The idea of charging the car for 8 hours every night on a domestic outside socket sounded a bit wild,



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 18,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭slave1


    I charged my Leaf for 4 months via external socket, I know other early EV adoptors who did not get the grant charged off the Granny for years without issue



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,228 ✭✭✭loopymum


    I've been charging my leaf off the granny for well over 2 years. It's a good quality socket with its own rcd protection.

    There's a few other posts about similar & a few people have said the most wear is from plugging in & out the granny from the wall socket. I leave mine plugged in



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 12,086 ✭✭✭✭Gael23


    Are electric Ireland selling home chargers any more? Doesn’t seem to be on their website



  • Registered Users Posts: 10,803 ✭✭✭✭the_amazing_raisin


    If you want to have a second charger off the same circuit then it's doable, you'll just need a charger with load balancing like the Zappi, Wallbox or EO Mini


    Here's my setup



    The idolator switch is wired back to a 40A breaker in the house. After the isolator switch the circuit is split between the Zappi and EO Mini chargers

    There's a CT clamp on the input to both chargers which is monitored by the Zappi. I've set a current limit on that clamp to 32A on the Zappi to ensure the combined charging current never goes above 32A

    So when the Leaf is plugged into the EO Mini and pulling 16A then the Zappi will restrict the ID.4 to 16A as well. Once the Leaf finishes charging then the Zappi will give the ID.4 full power from the charger

    We've charged both cars overnight on several occasions without any problems using this setup

    "The internet never fails to misremember" - Sebastian Ruiz, aka Frost



  • Registered Users Posts: 444 ✭✭alan kelly




  • Registered Users Posts: 592 ✭✭✭handpref


    Good post man - I’ve a similar set up but with a dumb charger and triple priority switch. The i3 charges from 11-2.50am and Zoe charges from 3-7am every night. I will eventually upgrade to something with load balancing and have a couple of questions if that’s ok 👍🏻

    So you have one feed in.

    1 ct clamp on the common feed ?

    You have a standard dumb EO 32amp and a zappi? But the EO can only pull 16amps Because the leaf has a 3.3 charger, it’s only pulling 16amps and allows you to also put 16amps in to the id4 ?

    When the leaf is charged it will give the full power to the zappi/id4 ?

    The only problem you could run into is if you changed the leaf for say an id3 that doesn’t have a working timed charger. You’d end up with one car charging potentially for 10hrs whilst the other gets nothing - or you could dial down the charging rate in the new car to 16a which could be a work around ?

    Im going to end up in this position myself but with no load balancing - id3 on order but because I’m using priority switches it’s either on or off, you have utilised the zappi to make the dumb EO smart (with the help of the car selecting say a 3kw charge rate).

    At present il have to plug in the i3 before the night rate because that has to have 100% for my commute- it may not work out as bad as I think as the 77kwh battery in the id3 won’t need to be charged every night, still a rookie error not having timed charging.

    I could potentially look at your approach for the future, it was a great idea and thanks for sharing it.


    Picked this lad up on eBay in 2016 for €220, replaced an rcbo for €20 and individualised the charger feeds. Good solid unit with every part replaceable.

    Dual 7kw- two separate single phase 32a supplies going in the top from the priority unit.




  • Registered Users Posts: 71 ✭✭Coddle4dinner


    I've 2 zappies.

    one at the house and one at the garage.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 10,803 ✭✭✭✭the_amazing_raisin


    Thanks, well spotted that the clamp is on the common feed

    You're correct that I've got a dumb 32A EO Mini, it's the older model that can't be load balanced

    It works well now because the Leaf only charges at 3.3kW, so there's always some leftover for the ID.4

    But the EO in effect has priority so if it pulled the full 7kW (say with an ID.3) then the Zappi will have nothing

    What I'll probably do is swap the EO out for another Zappi when the missus gets around to replacing her car. The Zappi has more advanced load sharing with other Zappis, you can set one to have prioirty or they can split the available power evenly

    I think the newer EO Mini Pro can do the same load sharing as well, so the Zappi isn't the only option

    I could also increase the power available to both chargers, since the circuit is on a 40A limit I could raise the total limit on the chargers so they'd have a little more power available

    There's also a degree of planning involved. At the moment my wife needs to charge every time she goes into the office, wherase I charge the ID.4 about twice a week (I'm WFH). If she switch over to something like an ID.3 Pro, then she'd only be charging every second day max, so we could just take turns on the charger to ensure we get all the available power

    Or one of us just starts the charging early and sucks it up with the more expensive electricity

    It is nice having the option of charging both cars at once in case we need to

    The one thing I'll say against a double outlet charger is that if it breaks, you're down to granny leads which might not work for everyone. At least if one of my chargers packs up I've got a backup 😄

    "The internet never fails to misremember" - Sebastian Ruiz, aka Frost



  • Registered Users Posts: 592 ✭✭✭handpref


    It’s gas, to some this thread must be like some sort of code, I remember how they laughed in work when we got the Leaf in 2014 and again when I retrofitted insulation to the house and went with solar….the very same lad with the smart comments is now car sharing with his wife because he claims he can’t afford the diesel bill…”it’ll never catch on he said “ 🤣

    Thanks for the info 👍🏻



Advertisement