Problems with Chargemaster?

[cwcltd]

I got my PHEV on Saturday, but started trying to get info from Chargemaster a week earlier. To date they keep asking me to fill in forms without dealing with any of the questions I've been asking, and their emails make it clear that they are just interested in getting the order with absolute minimal customer service at their end.

Is there an alternative source for home chargers?

Incidentally I've tried to use one Chargemaster public outlet using a friends card. Not only did it fail to charge, it locked my car to the unit and the hotel engineers had to spend an hour communicating with them before they were told to cut the mains to the charger and reboot. This did release my car but as I left the Welcome Screen was scrolling what looked like Basic Code! In the hotel's opinion, Chargemaster has been nothing but trouble and they will ask for the charger to be removed. (It cost £50,000 to install with an OLEV grant. OLEV appear uninterested in these problems)

I finally bought Rolec and they recommended a local electrician (Blythe Electrical (Warwicks) Ltd. ) to fit it. I wanted the charger about 10 meters from the consumer unit and to avoid digging up the drive I suggested they thread it though an underground conduit which used to take a Sky satellite cable. All I needed to know was the diameter of the new power cable to be sure it would fit. Despite numerous emails no-one could give me the outside diameter of the proposed cable or tell me whether what they wanted to use would fit in a 15mm internal diameter conduit. It's as if they wanted to keep options open so that they could charge extra if their choice didn't fit. In the end I chose a 16 amp unit instead of the 32 I really wanted just to allow the use of the smallest cable. Fitting was easy and trouble free, and the conduit would have taken two of the cables they chose to use! One other comment - they were really busy with all the EV's being sold in the area!

 

[Claymore]

Where are you?

JimB

 

[cwcltd]

Leamington Spa, The hotel mentioned was the Chesford Grange who were extraordinarily helpful to solve a problem of Chargemasters making.

I asked the hotel what had happened since Monday's problem. They expect to get a visit from an engineer to service the charger, but added they've been hearing this after every complaint for 6 months and no-one ever shows up.

One other minor detail. The charger also purports to take Plugged in Midlands cards. I tried mine and got "invalid card" in the display.

 

[Claymore]

I too had a brief exchange with Chargemaster but finally decided to go with a Rolec unit;

http://www.rolecserv.com/ev-charging

Rolec will supply a 32amp unit for £195 which is little more than what others charge for a 16 amp unit. In addition I understand that at least some components in the Rolec units can be replaced if they eventually fail whilst others require the whole unit to be replaced.

I used an installer local to me in Chesterfield and carried out the entire order process via them rather than through Rolec themselves so I have no experience of their customer service status. The installation itself was very neat and pretty quick.

The nature of these government subsidised installations is such that it is impossible to escape having to answer loads of questions but I did find the process through the local installer relatively painless if more time consuming than I would have liked. I did get them to install a free separate charge plug 'holster' in exchange for all the pictures I had to email him so might be worth looking for your local installer and dealing through them.

If you have any questions it's worth asking them here.

Jim B

 

[cwcltd]

Thanks for this. Very helpful. Do I take it that the OLEV grant covered all the costs of installation by the local electrician?

 

[jthspace]

Approved installers only, and up to 80% so expect to pay +/- £200 for the installation.

Jeff

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...homecharge-scheme-guidance-for-customers-2015

 

[Claymore]

Thanks for this. Very helpful. Do I take it that the OLEV grant covered all the costs of installation by the local electrician?

The cost of the 32 amp Rolec unit should be £195 after the government grant, assuming the installation id fairly straightforward.

There are some issues which might incur additional charges - if your consumer unit is very old or for some reason unusable, if cable runs are very long, if a separate circuit breaker has to be installed in, for example, a detached garage or location and so on. But this should be made clear to you prior to you agreeing for the installation to proceed.

The unit communicates with Rolec re the useage of electricity through the unit (a government requirement due to the subsidy they are providing) and it also has to be in a place which can get a decent mobile signal

My installer asked all of the usual questions and asked me to email pictures of various angles of the installation location and the consumer unit fitted in our house.

Jim B

 

[greendwarf]

£50k for basically an external socket No wonder there are so few charging points. As this was on "private" property the risk of "giving away" a lot of electricity (certainly not £50k's worth) is minimal, so they didn't need all the control system that comes with a "street" installation. They've been cheated by Chargemaster, in my opinion.

 

[gwatpe]

Many ECO friendly hotels offer FREE charging and parking of guests with an EV. The ALTO hotel in Melbourne do.

 

[gwatpe]

Many ECO friendly hotels offer FREE charging and parking for guests with an EV. The ALTO hotel in Melbourne does.

 

[maby]

£50k for basically an external socket No wonder there are so few charging points. As this was on "private" property the risk of "giving away" a lot of electricity (certainly not £50k's worth) is minimal, so they didn't need all the control system that comes with a "street" installation. They've been cheated by Chargemaster, in my opinion.

That is £50k for a Rapid Charger - which is a lot more than "an external socket". I'm sure that the hardware is quite a lot less than £50k, but you, as a lawyer, will be well aware of all the pain one has to go through in terms of things like risk assessments, surveys and the like when installing a potentially very dangerous piece of plant in a publically accessible area. Don't forget that we are talking about a device that can source 300v at 70 amps or more - that is enough to seriously ruin your day!

 

[greendwarf]

£50k for basically an external socket No wonder there are so few charging points. As this was on "private" property the risk of "giving away" a lot of electricity (certainly not £50k's worth) is minimal, so they didn't need all the control system that comes with a "street" installation. They've been cheated by Chargemaster, in my opinion.

That is £50k for a Rapid Charger - which is a lot more than "an external socket". I'm sure that the hardware is quite a lot less than £50k, but you, as a lawyer, will be well aware of all the pain one has to go through in terms of things like risk assessments, surveys and the like when installing a potentially very dangerous piece of plant in a publically accessible area. Don't forget that we are talking about a device that can source 300v at 70 amps or more - that is enough to seriously ruin your day!

Possibly but why would a hotel need a rapid charger (if indeed that is what is was) for overnight accommodation - still sounds like a rip-off to me. For that kind of money they could of provided an external socket for every guest.

 

[cwcltd]

A quick update on Chargemaster. I had a call about a week ago apologising for my problems and the girl said she'd call back in 2 hours with a date for a site visit to get me a proper quote. 4 days later she called back. In the meantime I've gone with Rolec as you suggested. Site visit this Sunday.

The Chesford Grange Chargemaster is still out of action.

 

[maby]

£50k for basically an external socket No wonder there are so few charging points. As this was on "private" property the risk of "giving away" a lot of electricity (certainly not £50k's worth) is minimal, so they didn't need all the control system that comes with a "street" installation. They've been cheated by Chargemaster, in my opinion.

That is £50k for a Rapid Charger - which is a lot more than "an external socket". I'm sure that the hardware is quite a lot less than £50k, but you, as a lawyer, will be well aware of all the pain one has to go through in terms of things like risk assessments, surveys and the like when installing a potentially very dangerous piece of plant in a publically accessible area. Don't forget that we are talking about a device that can source 300v at 70 amps or more - that is enough to seriously ruin your day!

Possibly but why would a hotel need a rapid charger (if indeed that is what is was) for overnight accommodation - still sounds like a rip-off to me. For that kind of money they could of provided an external socket for every guest.

Whether or not they need a rapid charger is a different matter - I was simply pointing out that the £50k bill implies that they were talking about installing a rapid charger. There is a risk on underestimating the cost of installing any publically accessible charging infrastructure. Parking in hotels tends to be some distance from the buildings, so it is not often simply a case of drilling through a wall and hooking a weatherproof 13A socket into the existing ring main. Once you start having to dig up roads, lay in armoured cables running back to a (probably new) distribution board. and install sockets on pillars distributed around the car park, the cost is going to start ramping up.

 

[trevort]

just bought 2016 model PHEV and had fitted charging unit by Nucharge found them on the web, fitted 32 amp Rolec unit in about 1-1/2 hours total cost £196 inclusive, unit was 11mts from house and include the 2 fuse boxes all very neat with free card for a year with Charge your car

 

[edsun]

I had an installation today by EVChargingSolutions, based in the Midlands. Excellent service, and Chris, the engineer who did the job, seemed very well informed. £185, rest government grant. 16amp.