Charging over night

Sterlingtimes

Here is a "helpful hint" from my Covea home insurance policy: Do not leave phones or other personal electrical devices charging overnight, and ensure that charging cables are purchased via manufacturer-approved stockists."

Presumably, having professionally fitted electric vehicle charging stations is even more risky.

Does Covea really hope that no charging takes place overnight?

Should I make a disclosure to Covea when I have the charging point installed?

flaneurs_lobster

Not bad advice about poundshop/Temu chargers & cables, especially so when dealing with the larger batteries in bikes, chairs etc.

For the grown-up stuff, I'd be disclosing everything to my insurance company that I thought might have a material effect on any claim payout - you don't want to be giving them excuses.

Don't remember a specific question on the subject when I renewed the Household cover last month.

Sterlingtimes

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094085#Comment_82094085

Thank you. Your posting makes sense, and it has pushed me towards making a suitable disclosure in due course.

It would be taking things a step too far to urge my family to unplug all chargers and charger-type power supplies overnight.

While electricity companies incentivise consumers to switch to overnight electricity use, insurers consider this a heightened risk.

dunstonh

Presumably, having professionally fitted electric vehicle charging stations is even more risky.

Why would that be the case?

If something has been professionally fitted, then it should be up to a professional standard.

Whereas consumers buying cheap Chinese tat is a far greater risk. When you look at the cause of fires in many electrical devices, it's usually down to third-party batteries, cabling, or power chargers that are not up to standard.

Sterlingtimes

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094251#Comment_82094251

Thank you for posting. My presumption is not a fact. I suppose my thinking is that a 30A charger could be more dangerous than one operating at mA. But you are probably right.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6678939/charging-over-night

There is a very low threashold at which a defective poor quality charger failing would have the capability of causing a fire. There is however also the reality that the market is awash with no name 5W chargers but you see very few of them at 200W let alone a car charger.

The CIDRA rules on consumer insurance disclosures only requires you to answer the questions your insurers ask and they cannot rely on generic questions like "is there anything else you think you should tell us about?". So if they asked you to disclose if you had an EV charging point (and it would almost certainly be in the schedule if they did) then you would need to tell them if your answer to that Q changed whereas if they didnt ask then there is no need to tell them. My bet is its the later

flaneurs_lobster

There is a very low threashold at which a defective poor quality charger failing would have the capability of causing a fire. There is however also the reality that the market is awash with no name 5W chargers but you see very few of them at 200W let alone a car charger.

Agreed, although when looking online for a replacement laptop charger a few week ago did see a fair few <£10 noname chargers claiming 100-150W.

The 'official' charger for my laptop sells for £60.

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094085#Comment_82094085

What excuse would they have if they had never asked you about it? There’s no principle that you’re expected to spontaneously chat to your insurer about things which aren’t on their proposal form or conditioned in the policy.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095546#Comment_82095546

Rather depends what the policy says about changes to the property during the term.

Building an extension?

Changing the roof from slate to tile?

Installing a car charger?