Charger and consumer units

olbas_oil

I'm choosing my first EV. I don't drive a lot, mostly local journeys. My current car spent most of its life on the drive.

I'm tempted to go for a V2H with a bidirectional charger, so I can store power in the car, and use it in the day. I don't have a heat pump or solar panels.

The meter is right next to where I would place the charger. But I have an old consumer unit (fuse wires). Would that need changing before installing a bidirectional charger?

Netexporter

The consumer unit needs changing, whatever you decide to do. No electrician will fit a charger to something that ancient. They might fit another small consumer unit but for your own safety you'd be well advised to get the old CU changed.

Do you have a smart meter? You'll need one to get decent rates for the car at a sensible rate to make it worth doing.

Woodstok2000

I would recommend doing some analysis of the benefit you think you will get from V2H. The hardware is generally extremely expensive compared to regular chargers, and you are limiting yourself to a small selection of vehicles.

Instead of buying an expensive V2H charger, why not look at getting a home battery?

QrizB

I'm tempted to go for a V2H with a bidirectional charger

Note that (except for a single, long-discontinued model of wallbox that only works with old ChaDeMo cars) V2H isn't generally here yet.

It might become available for some CCS cars next year, but we've been saying that since 2022 or so.

Netexporter

I'd be wary of even using a granny charger with a wired fuse board.

Peter999_2

I have a V2G/V2H charger that I got free from Nissan/Ovo in March 2020. It was great and made me quite a lot of money (back in the day of free rapid charging and they used to pay me 50p per kWh to export it). It did work really well and successfully powered the house (it used a CT clamp to work out how much electric the house was using and provided that from the car battery). The charger actually cost about £5,000 and as others have said they are still quite expensive.

However, if you live by yourself I can see them working very well as your car would always be there when you are. It didn't work during power cuts though - it didn't have a gateway like some batteries do so wasn't useful for that.

Ectophile

The alternative to replacing the consumer unit is adding a second one. That allows the electrician to fit something new with surge protection and RCDs/RCBOs, without touching the existing installation.

Martyn1981

I think the basic idea of V2H/G with a suitable BEV is a good starting point.

But the you may find the economics struggling now, as home battery storage costs have tumbled. I've got (for a friend) a quote of £7k for a 32kWh battery and inverter, includes install, certification, DNO issues etc. So if a V2G charger costs several thousands, as a minimum, then a home battery may work out better, even if the duplication appears, at first, wasteful.

If you don't drive much, as you described, then a granny charger plugged into a new external 13A socket may well be more than enough for your needs. Though I'd suggest getting one that allows you to choose the ampage, dialing it down to say 8A if you plan to leave it charging all night long. Some BEV's allow you to dial the amps down too.

As others have said, V2G compatability may limit your BEV choice. And dropping that idea, and going for a smaller battery, shorter range BEV, may save you the rest of the cost of the home battery.