Home charging point installation

When I bought mine the offer was £199 and included installation - I understand it's free at the moment and includes installation

Thanks very much for this info, MW: as soon as we've made our decision, I'll order one of these.

Make sure you measure out where the charger will be in relation to the vehicle. I wanted a tethered charger but it turned out where we park the car is about 50cm too far away for the 4.7m cable on the ChargeMaster unit. So we had to get an untethered unit and spend another £168 on a 10m cable (really only need like a 6m cable but the choices are 5m or 10m!). Now have to get the cable out and put it away again and worry about it being stolen, which is annoying (have ordered a padlock for it though). On the plus side we can take the cable with us to charge from untethered charging stations on longer journeys.

I have an outside set of 13 amp sockets with in internal RCD which we use for garden tools etc. Wired with 2.5mm an I use this an there is no hint of warmth anywhere, including the PHEV 3pin plug. I might just sick with it.

Chargemaster want north of £300 to install their 'charger' (which by my reckoning is about 10months charging!). I'm trying to get a breakdown of their cost as the 350 figure to me is after the 40% grant contribution and makes their 'cost' somewhere over £800 which is IMHO rather OTT.

Anyone have a feeling for what technically their unit does above from providing 16/32amp of 240v AC (especially when the PHEV wont take more than 16)?

Well, a charger will charge @ 16 A max., and the provided box @ 10, making a two-hour difference in charging time.

jaapv said:

Well, a charger will charge @ 16 A max., and the provided box @ 10, making a two-hour difference in charging time.

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Thanks , I know the differences in time due to the supplied current rating.

What I was interested in establishing is what is supposedly 'in' the Chargemaster box that they think justifies the (in my opinion) high price

Many years ago I did part of an electrical and plumbing apprenticeship after years helping my dad during school holidays

Although I changed careers I've rewired a few properties over the years before rules requiring certificates and membership of bodies so I have a good understanding of these things

The charges I'm seeing after the government funding are outrageous and driven by shareholders profits but bear no resemblance to cost imho

Not that stupid, the box is for use with domestic outlets, rated differently in different countries. 10A is quite enough for the UK with a 13A max and possibly some other appliances drawing current.

drdel said:

I have an outside set of 13 amp sockets with in internal RCD which we use for garden tools etc. Wired with 2.5mm an I use this an there is no hint of warmth anywhere, including the PHEV 3pin plug. I might just sick with it.

Chargemaster want north of £300 to install their 'charger' (which by my reckoning is about 10months charging!). I'm trying to get a breakdown of their cost as the 350 figure to me is after the 40% grant contribution and makes their 'cost' somewhere over £800 which is IMHO rather OTT.

Anyone have a feeling for what technically their unit does above from providing 16/32amp of 240v AC (especially when the PHEV wont take more than 16)?

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If you have the 7KW charger you can charge in about 3.5 hours, although it depends on your own circumstances if this would ever make a difference to you.
If you get a tethered charger there's a bit less hassle plugging the cable in and less worry about securing it.

We can't park right by the house, so would have to have a charging point installed very near to the road. My inclination is to stick with the 16A set-up, as long as that is feasible, given that the car will be about sixty feet from the nearest point of the house, so some lengthy cabling will be needed to set it up.

I've seen that the Government grants don't apply if you can't park off-road, and they suggest that you apply through your local authority. I'm not very hopeful of ours, as they've cut down on almost everything, but will give them a call.....

In reply to the question from fecn about crimped security tags, a representative from my electricity supplier saw that mine had been removed (in fact the day before, even though they'd been there for the last 15 years - not fitted by the same electricity supplier that I currently have though) and wasn't the least bit concerned. They had to be removed to fit the garage 'mini' consumer unit. I read on an electrical forum somewhere that one experienced electrician couldn't remember the last time he'd seen any intact. Maybe ask a local electrician if it bothers them to remove them? I think if everyone denies all knowledge of where they've gone, then how does anybody prove who's responsible? Bit of a stupid idea fitting them in the first place really - maybe they only care if they have evidence that something dodgy has been going on?

OK, we've moved on since my last posts, as the Yaris Verso is now defunct - it will cost too much to get it through its MOT, as there are bodywork problems. So we have put a deposit on an ex-demo Orient Red Gx4h that's only six months old, with 400 miles on the clock.
As I mentioned before, we don't qualify for the government grant, so are going to go down the three-pin 13A route.

Could someone very kindly measure their 13A charging cable and let me know how long it is? Many thanks!

Mine's 4.36 metres, from box to car plug. 30 cms lead from box to 3-pin plug.

NightPHEVer said:

In reply to the question from fecn about crimped security tags, a representative from my electricity supplier saw that mine had been removed (in fact the day before, even though they'd been there for the last 15 years - not fitted by the same electricity supplier that I currently have though) and wasn't the least bit concerned.

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My security tags were cut off when I had solar panels installed. I queried whether they needed to be re-fitted and was told, " Never have, never had any come-backs". And there have been plenty of meter readers who would have noticed, as the cut off crimps were left all over the bottom of the meter enclosure. If you need a consumer unit changed, there's no alternative, and I'm pretty sure a qualified electrician isn't going to spend valuable time fiddling about with security crimps!

Regulo said:

Mine's 4.36 metres, from box to car plug. 30 cms lead from box to 3-pin plug.

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Thanks, Ray.