How do people charge their T8 XC90s at home
 

Hi all

New to the forum although I bought my PHEV T8 xc90 last December (second hand). I have unfortunately not managed to set up a way to charge my car at home. The car came with a type2 to type2 charging cable which I’ve used probably a handful of times only at charge points when out and about.

Setting up a system to charge at home seems fraught with a few issues.

Firstly, type 2 to 3 pin cables are not cheap (in the region of £200). I also got a quote from an electrician for installing an external socket and he quoted me around £300 just for the labour as it’s not an easy run from our fuse board (under the stairs) to the front of the house. Again, seems very steep!

Using an extension cord isn’t a great option either, from an electrical safety point of view or given that charging over night would been leaving the front door or a window open to allow the cord to run from the car to an internal socket, and this obviously isn’t ideal either.

The pod point charger is another option, with the government grant that would cost around £400 including the charge point, and compared to the overall cost above, this actually doesn’t seem too bad. Has anyone gone with this option?

Just wondered what setup others have, and how they went about installing everything.

Thanks

Ali

Who said running a hybrid or EV was cheap...? This is a good example of why EV’s just dont appeal to many people. I am lucky insofar as we already had an outside powerpoint next to our parking. If you go on fleabay i am sure you will find a type 2 to 3 pin cable much cheaper than £200.

I had my sparky install an outside 3 pin plug as he owed me a favour. Works fine etc and a cheaper way of doing it than a charging point but it would be less hassle again to have a permanent charge point outside. Which eventually I suppose I will need when all cars go electric.

Get a proper type 2 charger installed - and tethered is far more convenient than non-tethered. You're very unlikely to get a Type 1 car in the future, and the reduction in faff of a tethered charger is significant.

Also, don't try to save a few quid and have a 16A charger installed. Get a 32A, because even though your T8 can't make use of it, a future vehicle will. If they install a 16A charger that you later wanted to update to a 32A then you'd need new RCD, replace wiring from RCD to charger with thicker gauge, replace the charger unit and tethered lead, etc.

Best to do this now as the OLEV grants are reducing and you might not be able to get one at all in future.

I was fortunate to get a 16A podpoint installation for free from Nissan when I bought a used Leaf, but I paid £95 upgrade fee for a 32A unit for future proofing. When I sold the Leaf and bought a Tesla I bought a new type 2 tethered lead for £75 and sold the type 1 tethered lead for £50.

Don't Tesla use their 50A fast charger?

If it were me I would install the highest capacity charger I could, before the demand goes up and supply companies start introducing limits on what you can connect to their system, if future proofing is your aim. Once you have it they will have difficulty telling you to disconnect it post limits.

Paul.

In Europe, 48A single-phase isn't considered a valid configuration, despite there being no technical bar to it. The highest capacity single-phase chargers available in Europe and the UK are 32A.

The Tesla will accept 3-phase 16A, but few domestic properties have 3ph in the UK.

I absolutely agree that you should install the highest capacity possible - that is 32A.

Many thanks I-S.
While I have no plans for an electric car at present I am thinking of installing a charge point at home. Makes the property more sellable after my demise if nothing else.

Paul.

My house for some reason had a 3 phase supply, but a few years ago when the electricity company changed over the meter, to allow for smart meterage, they said they had to switch it out for a single phase supply.

It terms of future proofing, that may not have been the greatest move. I'm not sure how much choice I had in the matter or the technical detail. I didn't question it too much at the time. They had to dig up the garden to do it, so I assume it wasn't on a whim.

In order to qualify for the OLEV grant you will need to own an eligible car (doesn't matter if it's second hand).

We looked at this for my mum's house (as my brother and I both drive EVs), and even whether I could transfer my unused grant for the Tesla (I could get a second grant at my own property), but it wasn't possible.

This does indeed seem extremely shortsighted. With the way things are moving forward, the move over to ASHP heating systems instead of fossil fuel boilers, EV charging, V2G, solar and battery storage, etc then houses are going to need stronger grid connections (potentially for transfer in both directions), not weaker.

It may depend of course on how your neighbours are connected. In europe it's typical for a home to have a 3-ph supply, around 40A per phase. Circuits in the house are put on different phases to approximately balance the load between the phases (eg heating goes on phase 1, cooking on phase 2, laundry on phase 3, etc).

In the UK domestic connections are now typically 100A single-phase (there are 60A and 80A connections on some older properties), but phase balancing is achieved by putting properties on different phases (so as you go down a street, house 1 is on phase 1, house 2 is on phase 2, house 3 on phase 3, etc).

This leads to things now - for example, if you're on an under-utilised phase then the DNO may not allow you to install a large solar array that would further reduce the utilisation of that phase. If you're on an over-utilised phase then they'll be very happy for you to do so!

I don’t have an EV (yet), but when I rewired the house 6 years ago I had a 10mm2 cable run to where I would like an EV charger in the future, but it’s currently on a 32A breaker and supplying a twin outdoor socket. Pretty easy for a future electrician to swap the twin socket for an EV charger. The 10mm2 cable would allow an upgrade to 40A or 50A breaker in the future too, so scope for different chargers depending what is available in the future. Think it cost me an extra £20 for the cable and twin sockets at the time and the floorboards were already up for the rewire.