Anyone installed a public charging point

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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:42 pm

What sort of socket have you installed, Evan? Don't you have a fast-charging Berlingo ? :)

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Postby EVan » Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:58 pm

aminorjourney wrote:What sort of socket have you installed, Evan? Don't you have a fast-charging Berlingo ? :)

Nikki.


Hi Nikki,
At work I had them install a IEC 60309 16A socket on an enclosure with a meter, an RCD and 16A MCB in it.
At home I have the same, plus 32A and 63A plugs of the same standard. The 63A one is huge, and yes, it can charge the Berlingo in 1 hour.

I also have 3-phase available but none of my EVs use it :(

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Postby aminorjourney » Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:00 pm

Hehe. You could charge a Modec Van then ;)

I've just installed two 16 A sockets at my new house. Now I just need a fast-charger (and a magic money-tree to help me pay for it!)
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Postby EVan » Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:37 pm

aminorjourney wrote:Hehe. You could charge a Modec Van then ;)

I've just installed two 16 A sockets at my new house. Now I just need a fast-charger (and a magic money-tree to help me pay for it!)


Sell your Prius ;)

By the way, beware of installing outdoor sockets to run non-double-insulated appliances (like an EV) on PME supplies. There's an unlikely but nasty failure mode which results in the protective earth becoming live, so your car would too.
If it's in your garage then fair enough, but if it's on the side of the road where anyone could touch it then it might be worth looking at doing a separately earthed installation.

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Postby aminorjourney » Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:59 pm

Thanks for that, Evan.

I got an independent Part P registered electricitian to do it, so I'm hoping he isolated it in the correct manner. I know there's separate MCBs for each socket to protect against over current, but the RCB is shared with the house.

The car is mainly plastic though as the body shell and all external components are made of a plastic-foam mix.
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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:35 am

EVan wrote:By the way, beware of installing outdoor sockets to run non-double-insulated appliances (like an EV) on PME supplies. There's an unlikely but nasty failure mode which results in the protective earth becoming live, so your car would too.
If it's in your garage then fair enough, but if it's on the side of the road where anyone could touch it then it might be worth looking at doing a separately earthed installation.


In theory you shouldnt actually have a supply companies earth on a socket used for outside use and the socket should be supplied with just phase and neutral, with its own earthing via a stake next to it and then have a RCD for supplementary protection, this is due to the fact you have now taken a supply outside the faraday cage of you house, this then removes the issue of the fault you discribe EVan, although if the fault did occur its highly likely that its going blow the living daylights out of 90% of equipment connected to the supply at the time ( depending exactly where the fault occurs ...................but of course people never do this type of earthing arrangement :roll:
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Postby EVan » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:52 am

That's what I meant by "separately earthed installation". Getting an electrician to do the work was the right idea anyway.
Last edited by EVan on Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby ChrisB » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:58 am

I was sort of elaborating on your "seperately earthed installation" :wink: to be fair you'll be hard pressed to find a sparkey that will do or even know about that side of things sadly :(

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Postby Tim » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:16 pm

ChrisB wrote:In theory you shouldnt actually have a supply companies earth on a socket used for outside use and the socket should be supplied with just phase and neutral, with its own earthing via a stake next to it and then have a RCD for supplementary protection, this is due to the fact you have now taken a supply outside the faraday cage of you house, this then removes the issue of the fault you discribe EVan, although if the fault did occur its highly likely that its going blow the living daylights out of 90% of equipment connected to the supply at the time ( depending exactly where the fault occurs ...................but of course people never do this type of earthing arrangement :roll:


Perhaps I'm unobservant, but I don't ever recall seeing a separate earth on street lighting, road signs, and other mains-powered road furniture.

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Postby EVan » Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:14 am

Tim wrote:
Perhaps I'm unobservant, but I don't ever recall seeing a separate earth on street lighting, road signs, and other mains-powered road furniture.


Individual street light poles and road signs may be provided with a PME supply, and the buried metalwork forms a supplemental earth. Larger installations do require additional earth electrodes.

All other "road furniture" also mandates a TT supply with seperate earth electrode in the first place.

In any case, the risks are different from an EV.


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