Getting electric supply to garage across public highway for EV charging

Pat38493

A bit of a specific one and not sure if this would be better on the house buying board or here, but does anyone know what type of administration and costs could be involved if you want to get an electric supply in a garage for a property that you own, but the garage is across the (adopted) street from the house?  It's a very short dead end street but is nevertheless adopted as I understand.

This would be in order to have an EV charger as there is no suitable location at the property itself.

I am guessing that you need permission from the local council and then you need a contractor to dig a trench in the road and install a cable from somewhere, or would you have to get it done by the electric board directly?

born_again

Best bet would be to ask a few companies that do electrical installations Or install EV chargers.

Costs will vary based on distance & trench work involved in getting power to garage.
But you will be looking at thousands. 
Really needs to be supplied from your house supply or you are looking at a 2nd meter & all the standing charges that would come with that.

Is there no way that you can park at the bottom of your garden & have a pole mounted charger there?

FreeBear

Pat38493 said: I am guessing that you need permission from the local council and then you need a contractor to dig a trench in the road and install a cable from somewhere, or would you have to get it done by the electric board directly?

It may be possible to use a mole to tunnel under the road. This would be a lot quicker & cheaper than digging trenches. As for permissions, not clue (sorry).

Pat38493

born_again said:

Best bet would be to ask a few companies that do electrical installations Or install EV chargers.

Costs will vary based on distance & trench work involved in getting power to garage.
But you will be looking at thousands. 
Really needs to be supplied from your house supply or you are looking at a 2nd meter & all the standing charges that would come with that.

Is there no way that you can park at the bottom of your garden & have a pole mounted charger there?

Well yes I guess that it would need a cable running from the house supply to the garage as you would not want a completely separate supply otherwise you pay 2 x SC.

Scot_39

If actually adopted - then it doesn't matter if buried or over the ground (e.g. catenary cable style) the paperwork could be horrendous.

And take several months - in somed reported cases over 6 months.

Utilities are used to doing it - individuals are not.

You cannot simply do it yourself without permission.

Even if the orad wasn't adopted / public - you would still need permission of the owners (maybe shared maybe original developers etc)

Your best bet might actually be to ask the DNO to install a new supply direct to the garage - and have a seperate EV specific cheap rate contract (that might not suit your home use - as generally ups the day rate).

Or at least get a quote for them for the work.

Lorian

I don't know but I doubt you would be granted wayleave for this. 

QrizB

Scot_39 said:

Your best bet might actually be to ask the DNO to install a new supply direct to the garage - and have a seperate EV specific cheap rate contract (that might not suit your home use - as generally ups the day rate).

I was going to suggest this.

Running a cable from your house is likely to cost far more upfront than having a separate supply installed.

Ask your DNO for a quote and see what they say.

matelodave

Check with the council as they normally only allow approved contractors to dig up their roads and footpaths.

Getting s separate supply would tend to negate much benefit in having an EV as you'll end up paying a second standing charge and would not be able to benefit from any solar or batteries that you may have in your house. The cost is likely to be quite high as they would have to get access to the underground main as well which could possibly be in the main road rather than in your cul-de-sac.

I'd be inclined to explore @FreeBear's suggestion regarding getting an SWA cable moled under the road from your property to the garage. 

We had a mains water pipe installed under our block paved drive from the water meter to the house (around 15metres) and apart from the entry and exit holes that had to be dug, the mole did it in around eight minutes. Although it was few years ago, the cost was less than a third of a trench and the block paving remained completely undisturbed - the whole job (from water meter to the internal stop-valve) took less than three hours.

Not sure what the rules are about having a catenary strung across the road on poles (height, span etc) but that may be a possible solution, but again whoever owns the road would need to give permission

Scot_39

Compared to paying commercial rates - maybe 50p higher on average according to google (e.g. AI 53-80p fast vs home sub 10p ) - not sure the standing charge the killer you might think it is.

That would be saved in just say £200/50p saving = 400 kWh - maybe 1500 miles in a larger EV (does that sound about right folks ?).  And the rest of the time you would be saving off the 10p rates. For majority of your mileage.

matelodave

Scot_39 said:

Compared to paying commercial rates - maybe 50p higher on average according to google (e.g. AI 53-80p fast vs home sub 10p ) - not sure the standing charge the killer you might think it is.

That would be saved in just say £200/50p saving = 400 kWh - maybe 1500 miles in a larger EV (does that sound about right folks ?).  And the rest of the time you would be saving off the 10p rates. For majority of your mileage.

you are making a really big assumption that beneficial EV rates are here to stay. However ,its pretty obvious from the way the government have been whittling away at the tax and benefit advantages of EV's as they become more numerous then there's a fair assumption that the energy companies will start rowing back as well when they find that they cant afford it anymore.

Just my opinion you understand but history shows that many of the incentives that get put our way to encourage a change of behaviour get taken away once the objective has been achieved or well on it sway

lohr500

I agree with @matelodave comments and it worries me that as we all get forced into driving EVs and using heat pumps for our domestic heating/hot water, we end up creating utopia for the electricity supply companies.

Perhaps I am thinking too much "Big Brother", but as a nation we do seem to be putting all our eggs in one basket.

Also, the OP's post highlights the challenges faced by many in switching to an EV.
Not all of us have the luxury of our own driveway to install a charger.

In my opinion, legislation needs to change to make it easier and more affordable to install charging points on the other side of the street or to link charging infrastructure to domestic electricity accounts so we don't all get ripped off by ridiculously high kWh costs that act as a barrier to effective EV  ownership.

Rant over!!