Help please! £3000 to Install home charging point for electric car

EVdriver

Hello,

I wondered if anyone else had been quoted this to have a home charging point installed or has any tips on how to make it cheaper please?  I am getting an electric company car but live rurally so have to have a home charger.  Unfortunately we need to increase our power supply and Network Power have quoted at least £1500 to do this and the company installing the charging point have quoted the same for the installation (that includes the government grant).  It is just so expensive and I can't afford to have the work done, does anyone have any advice please?  It seems crazy as we are all being encouraged to have electric cars but the cost to do it is very off putting.

Thank you in advance....

user1977

Isn't charging it at lower power rating (so you don't need a supply upgrade) an option?

Grumpy_chap

Unusual that you need to increase the power capacity.
Most home chargers are around 7.5 kW as that is the limit for single phase power supply.
Are you installing a faster charger that requires 3-phase power?

EVdriver

Grumpy_chap said:

Unusual that you need to increase the power capacity.
Most home chargers are around 7.5 kW as that is the limit for single phase power supply.
Are you installing a faster charger that requires 3-phase power?

Hello, we have been told that we need 3-phase, I really don't know anything about electrics which makes it difficult!  Thank you for your comment, I will question why we need to change if you say that 7.5kw is doable on single phase.

EVdriver

user1977 said:

Isn't charging it at lower power rating (so you don't need a supply upgrade) an option?

I have been told that it is more expensive doing it that way and it will take a lot longer but it might be the way to go, thank you.

Jenni_D

A 7KW charger charging the car for 8+ hours overnight will probably fully-charge it. A rapid 3-phase charger would be used if you wanted to do the same in, say, an hour or so. If overnight charging suits you then I fail to see why you'd need to up-rate your home supply ... unless the existing supply is barely meeting normal specifications to begin with.

Belenus

EVdriver said:

Hello,

I wondered if anyone else had been quoted this to have a home charging point installed or has any tips on how to make it cheaper please?  I am getting an electric company car but live rurally so have to have a home charger.  Unfortunately we need to increase our power supply and Network Power have quoted at least £1500 to do this and the company installing the charging point have quoted the same for the installation (that includes the government grant).  It is just so expensive and I can't afford to have the work done, does anyone have any advice please?  It seems crazy as we are all being encouraged to have electric cars but the cost to do it is very off putting.

Thank you in advance....

Will your employer help with the cost?

Can you ask for a petrol or diesel car instead?

EVdriver

Jenni_D said:

A 7KW charger charging the car for 8+ hours overnight will probably fully-charge it. A rapid 3-phase charger would be used if you wanted to do the same in, say, an hour or so. If overnight charging suits you then I fail to see why you'd need to up-rate your home supply ... unless the existing supply is barely meeting normal specifications to begin with.

Thank you very much Jenni, I will speak to Network power again.

ComicGeek

Change the company doing the charger installation - they either don't have a clue what they are doing, or deliberately doing something you don't need to increase their price.

7kw single phase charger will be absolutely sufficient.

peter3hg

Most current cars won't even accept 22kw from a home charger so there is a good chance you wouldn't get any benefit from the three-phase version.

The company doing the install may be over-specifying what you need so speak to them first before Network Power and make sure they are installing a 7.4kw charger.

Grumpy_chap

EVdriver said:

user1977 said:

Isn't charging it at lower power rating (so you don't need a supply upgrade) an option?

I have been told that it is more expensive doing it that way and it will take a lot longer but it might be the way to go, thank you.

That does not make sense.

If you pay, say, 15 pence per kWh and the car takes 40 kWh to charge, that is 40 x 15 pence = £6 per charge.

All the different charges do is affect the rate (time) that the 40 kWh takes to charge, so 3-phase is faster than single phase 7.5 kW (30A) which is faster than single phase 3 kW (13A) wall plug. 
You still take the same amount of electricity so the same cost.
Unless the car has a massive battery and you can't charge sufficiently between arrival home one evening and leaving for work the next day, then the single-phase supply will be adequate.  

The load from a 7kW = 7.5kW single phase charger is about the same as an electric oven.