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

KCross

Felexicon wrote: »

Out of curiosity, how much, excluding the cost of a charger would you expect to pay/feel is reasonable

Depends on how long it takes. If it takes 2hrs then it should be whatever the recommended rate is for 2hrs plus call out.

What’s the industry hourly rate inc vat?

Felexicon

KCross wrote: »

Depends on how long it takes. If it takes 2hrs then it should be whatever the recommended rate is for 2hrs plus call out.

What’s the industry hourly rate inc vat?

What about materials?

KCross

Felexicon wrote: »

What about materials?

I presumed you were leaving materials out when you said exclude the charge point. You charge for materials of course.

Not much materials involved but again depends on the job. RCBO, cable, trunking.


So, what’s the answer, because I think you are bursting to tell us what the real costs are?

What’s the hourly rate for an electrician?

Felexicon

KCross wrote: »

I presumed you were leaving materials out when you said exclude the charge point. You charge for materials of course.

Not much materials involved but again depends on the job. RCBO, cable, trunking.


So, what’s the answer, because I think you are bursting to tell us what the real costs are?

What’s the hourly rate for an electrician?

Not bursting at all.

Price or hourly rate vary greatly.

You'll obviously get it cheaper going through a one man show versus a larger company with more overheads but just interested in what people see as a fair price

wheresthebeef

I paid €500 in labour. My house was precabled from fuse board to external wall. Think I was robbed tbh.

Felexicon

wheresthebeef wrote: »

I paid €500 in labour. My house was precabled from fuse board to external wall. Think I was robbed tbh.

Wow!

kieran.

€595 for the zappi 2 and €370 for install including materials and labour. (Ex VAT) 15/20m cable run.

the_amazing_raisin

Mine was around 700 not including the charger itself. That was for bringing the cable from the middle of the house through an air duct to the outside and through steel conduit outside to the charger.

Also included a 16 amp cable for the shed as well just brought to the outside.

The job was slightly more complex than a house where the fuse box is at the front door, hence extra cost.

Unbelievably, once guy was trying to charge me 900 to (illegally) bring 1 metre wire from the meter box to the charger. No sub board or anything

Kramer

cruisey1987 wrote: »

Unbelievably, once guy was trying to charge me 900 to (illegally) bring 1 metre wire from the meter box to the charger. No sub board or anything

Cowboys Ted, cowboys .

I hope he wasn't a safe electric registered electrician?

KCross

Felexicon wrote: »

Price or hourly rate vary greatly.

That seems to be the problem!

Felexicon wrote: »

You'll obviously get it cheaper going through a one man show versus a larger company with more overheads but just interested in what people see as a fair price

I think most people are getting quotes from one man bands and the prices are still way above the odds in alot of cases.

I did get 2 quotes from two companies who "specialised" in charge points and their prices were just obscene beyond belief.... pushing €2k.


Personally, assuming a relatively straight forward job (1-2hrs work) I think a fair price is around €350 inc vat inc materials.

What do you consider a fair price assuming the job took <2hrs?

the_amazing_raisin

Kramer wrote: »

Cowboys Ted, cowboys .

I hope he wasn't a safe electric registered electrician?

He was indeed, they must be just handing those certs out these days :rolleyes:

Gael23

Any opinions on the EVBOx Elvi?

loopymum

I still haven't gotten around to getting a charger, was going to get a zappi but just wondering if there are any other options since I last researched

I have a heap pump hence I need a load sensing charger?

the_amazing_raisin

loopymum wrote: »

I still haven't gotten around to getting a charger, was going to get a zappi but just wondering if there are any other options since I last researched

I have a heap pump hence I need a load sensing charger?

I think wallbox and EO have load sensing options

Felexicon

KCross wrote: »

That seems to be the problem!



I think most people are getting quotes from one man bands and the prices are still way above the odds in alot of cases.

I did get 2 quotes from two companies who "specialised" in charge points and their prices were just obscene beyond belief.... pushing €2k.


Personally, assuming a relatively straight forward job (1-2hrs work) I think a fair price is around €350 inc vat inc materials.

What do you consider a fair price assuming the job took <2hrs?

Yeah I'd say we are in the same ball park regarding price.

Depending on how far I have to travel to get to job €350 might be on the high side of a quote I'd give.

Any recommendations for installers in cork City?

I am looking at 2 scenarios

1. Cut a channel in the concrete and install opposite side of porch, electric meter is in the porch
2 install the charger in the garage and run a cable to an external socket that I can plug into, not sure is such an install even possible. My DB is in the garage

the_amazing_raisin

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Any recommendations for installers in cork City?

I am looking at 2 scenarios

1. Cut a channel in the concrete and install opposite side of porch, electric meter is in the porch
2 install the charger in the garage and run a cable to an external socket that I can plug into, not sure is such an install even possible. My DB is in the garage

You can't plug a charger into a socket, unless you're happy to be stuck with the 2kW granny lead forever. A typical home charger will need to the permanently wired to the fuse board.

You can take it from the meter but you basically need to install another fuse board beside the meter box and run your house as a sub board of this new one. Short answer, not worth the hassle

So without any idea of what your house looks like I'm just guessing here, but could you run the cable from the fuse board inside the garage and pop a hole to the wall out the front of the garage and put the charger there?

There's a house down the road with a garage that did something similar. They've got enough room in front to reverse the car up to the front of the garage

cruisey1987

cruisey1987 wrote: »

You can't plug a charger into a socket, unless you're happy to be stuck with the 2kW granny lead forever. A typical home charger will need to the permanently wired to the fuse board.

You can take it from the meter but you basically need to install another fuse board beside the meter box and run your house as a sub board of this new one. Short answer, not worth the hassle

So without any idea of what your house looks like I'm just guessing here, but could you run the cable from the fuse board inside the garage and pop a hole to the wall out the front of the garage and put the charger there?

There's a house down the road with a garage that did something similar. They've got enough room in front to reverse the car up to the front of the garage

My house is what the auctioneers call link detached,bogus way of calling it detached when it's not. House type youd find in clifton on sarsfield Road or kiltegan in rochestown.

So my drive lines up with the garage. I was looking at coming from the fuse board and going out the wall like you suggested but rather than have a chunky charger I was thinking is there anything where I could put the charger on the other side of the drilled hole inside the garage and have a coil of cable ready to plug into my car on the outside. From talking to other ev drivers they have recommended getting the charger with the lead.

Would you have any recommendations for installers?

Gumbo

Deleted User wrote: »

My house is what the auctioneers call link detached,bogus way of calling it detached when it's not. House type youd find in clifton on sarsfield Road or kiltegan in rochestown.

So my drive lines up with the garage. I was looking at coming from the fuse board and going out the wall like you suggested but rather than have a chunky charger I was thinking is there anything where I could put the charger on the other side of the drilled hole inside the garage and have a coil of cable ready to plug into my car on the outside. From talking to other ev drivers they have recommended getting the charger with the lead.

Would you have any recommendations for installers?

You need a tethered charge point then.

the_amazing_raisin

Deleted User wrote: »

My house is what the auctioneers call link detached,bogus way of calling it detached when it's not. House type youd find in clifton on sarsfield Road or kiltegan in rochestown.

So my drive lines up with the garage. I was looking at coming from the fuse board and going out the wall like you suggested but rather than have a chunky charger I was thinking is there anything where I could put the charger on the other side of the drilled hole inside the garage and have a coil of cable ready to plug into my car on the outside. From talking to other ev drivers they have recommended getting the charger with the lead.

Would you have any recommendations for installers?

Ah okay, I see where you're going with this. Unfortunately it probably won't work the way you want it to.


EV plugs are pretty chunky, you'd need a hole the size of a dryer vent to pass it through.


Now there's the classic trick you can do with a mains wire of taking the plug off, passing the wire through a hole then putting the plug back on. EV plugs aren't designed to be removed so that option is out.


Nor can you cut the wire and splice it back together. There's a safety feature built into the cable whereby it detects the resistance along the wire and if it doesn't match a set value it won't power up the circuit. Cutting and rejoining the cable could alter this resistance and cause it not to recognise the cable.


You could possibly put a notch in you garage door and open it to plug in the car and then close it with the cable in the notch. Personally I'd say that's WAY too much hassle to be worth the effort. Imagine standing out there in the driving wind and rain trying to thread the cable through the notch. Then imagine doing it in the dark and you're in for a true nightmare.


I would say your best bet is to locate the charger on the front of the garage. You could possibly tuck it around the side so it's out of sight, depending on your house. The chargers are all weatherproof and despite what the garbage press claim there's no danger to plugging your car in while it's raining.


Chargers with a built in cable are called tethered, ones with just a socket are called untethered. The difference is a matter of personal preference, untethered tend to be neater since you'll likely be taking the cable with you when you unplug. They do however require a bit more time plugging in since you have 2 ends to plug in, not just 1


As someone who has used an untethered charger for 3 years, I'll be switching over to a tethered one with my new car. I'm not bothered winding up the cable every time I unplug, just hang it on a hook or whatever.


If you want a discreet charger, the EO Mini seems a good choice. I've had one for years and never had problems. They come in both tethered and untethered options


Can't help you on installers I'm afraid but in theory any RECI electrician can do it and that's all you need for the grant

Felexicon

Cable can be removed from charger side. Pass through hole in the wall and reconnect. Only issue is leaving a hole that size open would allow rodent access

the_amazing_raisin

Felexicon wrote: »

Cable can be removed from charger side. Pass through hole in the wall and reconnect. Only issue is leaving a hole that size open would allow rodent access

On an untethered charger yes, not sure if many tethered chargers allow this.


Yeah you're talking a hole you can fit your hand through to get a Type 2 plug through. I wouldn't be too happy with leaving that open, you'd need some sort of weatherproof box outside with a door on it and cable gland for the wire.


At that point you might as well just put the charger outside

cannco253

Problem sorted. Zappi installer never came back to me which was disappointing, so had to get a local electrician to take a look as I couldn't leave it as it was. It's seems to be a bit of a grey area who is responsible for this if you're unsure what the cause of the problem is - the charger or the fuse board, or if the charger itself has caused the problem with the board even if the charger is working correctly. Board is only 8 years old when the house was rewired. Zappi install was tested and fully certified and SEAI grant received.

Electrician checked the entire board for any loose connections as it was hard to isolate the buzzing to a specific section of the board, replaced the car charger fuse first, didn't change anything, so then also replaced the main fuse and the buzzing stopped. Wasn't able to explain what happened, but reckoned the Zappi was the culprit.

He hadn't seen a Zappi before but had done charger installs - when I showed him the main view on the Zappi with the car charging, he was surprised at how much power the house was pulling from the grid, but after explaining it to him he calmed down !

Felexicon

cruisey1987 wrote: »

On an untethered charger yes, not sure if many tethered chargers allow this.


Yeah you're talking a hole you can fit your hand through to get a Type 2 plug through. I wouldn't be too happy with leaving that open, you'd need some sort of weatherproof box outside with a door on it and cable gland for the wire.


At that point you might as well just put the charger outside

Tethered chargers can have the cable removed. It allows swap outs for longer or damaged cables.

Youd get away with a 16mm hole to pass it back through.

the_amazing_raisin

Felexicon wrote: »

Tethered chargers can have the cable removed. It allows swap outs for longer or damaged cables.

Youd get away with a 16mm hole to pass it back through.

Fair enough, I'd double check personally to see how difficult removing the cable is.


I still think it'd too much hassle for limited reward, but each to his own

the_amazing_raisin

cannco253 wrote: »

Problem sorted. Zappi installer never came back to me which was disappointing, so had to get a local electrician to take a look as I couldn't leave it as it was. It's seems to be a bit of a grey area who is responsible for this if you're unsure what the cause of the problem is - the charger or the fuse board, or if the charger itself has caused the problem with the board even if the charger is working correctly. Board is only 8 years old when the house was rewired. Zappi install was tested and fully certified and SEAI grant received.

Electrician checked the entire board for any loose connections as it was hard to isolate the buzzing to a specific section of the board, replaced the car charger fuse first, didn't change anything, so then also replaced the main fuse and the buzzing stopped. Wasn't able to explain what happened, but reckoned the Zappi was the culprit.

He hadn't seen a Zappi before but had done charger installs - when I showed him the main view on the Zappi with the car charging, he was surprised at how much power the house was pulling from the grid, but after explaining it to him he calmed down !

Glad it got sorted, hopefully it's fixed for good.

Felexicon

cruisey1987 wrote: »

Fair enough, I'd double check personally to see how difficult removing the cable is.


I still think it'd too much hassle for limited reward, but each to his own

30 mins max but most are a 10 minute job.

It wouldn't be the set up I'd go for either

Thanks for all the replies, i think what i will end up doing is installing the charger on the outside of the garage wall. I was trying to make it look tidier but i could end up making it more of a eye soar

Cona

Trying to make up my mind to install either a EO mini or an Andersen EV. Anyone care to provide some insight?

Only thing I can see is that the Andersen looks much nicer. Also, it has load sensing capabilities which is good as I have an electric shower. The cable managment on the Andersen is also tidier as it wraps around inside the box. Would I have the patience to be cable wrapping everyday though? Prob not.

Cyrus

Cona wrote: »

Trying to make up my mind to install either a EO mini or an Andersen EV. Anyone care to provide some insight?

Only thing I can see is that the Andersen looks much nicer. Also, it has load sensing capabilities which is good as I have an electric shower. The cable managment on the Andersen is also tidier as it wraps around inside the box. Would I have the patience to be cable wrapping everyday though? Prob not.

massive price difference surely?