EVSE -Electric Vehicle Service Equipment- Lessons Identified

I have booked to have an EVSE (Wall Box for charging!) installed in Feb 2014 by British Gas and thought I would list my experience so far…..

British Gas have been very prompt and helpful so far.

I wanted the 30 amp version so whereas the 16 amp one is free there is an additional charge of £99 for the upgrade. Evidently, they are different units so you have to specify want you want when ordering. I had thought it may just be some settings in the box but evidently not!

I initially requested the untethered unit as I assumed (yes I know “assume" makes a ass out of you u and me!) that untethered just meant that the cable could be unplugged from the EVSE. However, although that is true it also does NOT come with a cable!.

They intend to do the ‘survey’ and the install during a single visit - so I hope all is OK when they arrive.

My home electrics are relatively new (less than 5 years old) and I have a recent electrical safety certificate as I have had work done recently - they have not asked or specified any of this. Furthermore, although i don’t have any spare ways in my home distribution box I know it is easy to move some existing circuits and fit a new 32 amp RCD.

I want to fix the EVSE near to, but not in my garage so that the car does not have to be in the garage to be charged. However, this is more than 10 metres from my house distribution box so I am expecting an extra charge for it!

I will update this thread when I have more information to add.

I had a BG unit installed at my parents house on Monday. Everything was straightforward, all done in a morning, very neatly done and we were charged £3/m for the extra cable and half an hours labour which I thought was very reasonable.

Plug - Thank you for the info. £3 per metre sounds very reasonable.

I called BG in November and the earliest installation was January 29th!
I was not on site to supervise but the electrician did a fab job, very neat, tidy and clean. I went for the 32amp and if I had known there was an untethered option I would have gone for that. One issue which I did not anticipate was that the plug does protrude about 6 inches form the box which is about 4inches deep, my drive is not the widest so I need to be vigilant when driving in.

BoMW - Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like BG installers are doing a good job. I was going to get the untethered option as I thought I could then use the cable with public chargers but then discovered that the untethered EVSE comes without a cable but is the same price, so not much point to it.

Did you have a spare way in your distribution panel?

Well the BG installer turned up as promised and everything was looking good…… until he said that for the 32 amp EVSE they required to take the feed directly after the meter and before the house distribution panel. As my supply cannot be isolated before the distribution panel I will have to get an isolating switch fitted by my supplier before BG can complete the install. I have called the supplier and now wait for their response - and I am not holding my breath despite their promise of a call back no later than today!!

The BG installer said they had to take the feed directly after the meter as they have had problems with other installations using the distribution box output. Not sure why as my main switch in my distribution box is rated at the full 100 amps of the house’s supply and a suitable trip could be fitted in the distribution box.

Just for information, besides the requirement for an O2 mobile signal, the BG installer also needed to confirm that the gas and water inlet pipes were earthed so make sure you know here they are!

It is possible you might have problems even with a 100A supply if you have other large loads, say a couple of showers, a cooker etc. Normally diversity is assumed with such short term loads and allows some potential overload, but the car charger is a long term load. You might experience tripping of the main switch, so I see BG's point.

Brian - Yes I understand re diversity etc, however, I have no other large loads (cookers, showers ) in the house so I would have thought it was OK.

However, my main point to to allow others to know of these pre-requirements before they try to get the EVSE installed. I have little faith that I will get my supplier to do the isolating switch in the immediate future and I hate to think how much they will want for such a relatively simple job.

Having spent many years working on live, constant current 800amp DC, circuits in electrically powered ships it always frustrates me that people will no longer work on any live circuits even when you can remove the load.

In which case they're being (to put it generously) over-zealous!

Now have th e100 amp isolator fitted and have rebooked the EVSE install for 1 Apr!

BG returned today and completed the job. All went well and the new charger is now on the wall waiting to be used. I found the BG installer to be excellent. I have now asked the local dealer if I can borrow their i3 to test the charger……. Unless there is a forum member near Rottingdean that wants to try it out?

My dealer brought one of their i3s round a couple of weeks ago and all worked perfectly.

MikeS said:

Well the BG installer turned up as promised and everything was looking good…… until he said that for the 32 amp EVSE they required to take the feed directly after the meter and before the house distribution panel. As my supply cannot be isolated before the distribution panel I will have to get an isolating switch fitted by my supplier before BG can complete the install. I have called the supplier and now wait for their response - and I am not holding my breath despite their promise of a call back no later than today!!

The BG installer said they had to take the feed directly after the meter as they have had problems with other installations using the distribution box output. Not sure why as my main switch in my distribution box is rated at the full 100 amps of the house’s supply and a suitable trip could be fitted in the distribution box.

Just for information, besides the requirement for an O2 mobile signal, the BG installer also needed to confirm that the gas and water inlet pipes were earthed so make sure you know here they are!

Click to expand...

Yikes. Just read this and think that my post meter lead goes directly into my consumer unit. Damn. As for earth leads I'd better start the search under the kitchen units somewhere.

In those immortal words -‘Don’t Panic’!

When the BG installer came on the first visit he was very helpful and found my earth points and rebooking the visit was no problem.