Only one EV charger at home?!

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"Some products will have the ability to “load share”, which means they will communicate with each if two vehicles are plugged in. In this scenario, they will evenly split the power available so both cars charge at the same rate, but this will be at around 3-3.6kW – in other words half of the available 7.4kW from the supply."

WTF? A UK home supply is 24kW. You can easily run two 7kW chargers, in fact three if you're not using much power for anything else. Why are people so stupid? 7 x 2 = 14, well under 24. 7 x 3 = 21, just under 24.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey
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You may need to delve deeper into how efficient the actual chargers are to get a real answer to this. It sounds like a cludge to me. Obviously both outputs need to be completely separate and I certainly don't know how much of the charge rate processing is done in a charger, and how much in the car. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Not sure what you're getting at, but they draw off a 32A circuit. Clearly you can fit two or even three 32A circuits in a 100A supply.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

So, you are complaining about a buying a cheap charger with internal parts limited to 32A, which has nothing to do with limits from the external wiring.

Ask yourself, "Why did i buy a 500W heater when i could have 1000W?"

Reply to
Ed Lee

It's not often that a reply to Commander Kinky is a bad as his question, but I think you've met the requirements. The main issue is that you are responding on a topic you know nothing about, which you admit in your post!

A level 2 "charger" (the correct name is "charging point" or EVSE), is not a charger at all. It is just a connection to the AC power source, with some safety circuitry added. The "sharing", is simply the fact that the installation was done at a specific current rating for the two chargers combined and they sum of the two currents is not to be above that rating.

There is a protocol for the EVSE to report to the car how much current is available. It is then up to the car to not draw more than this amount. When one car is plugged in, the full available current is reported. When a second car is plugged in, the EVSE reports to the first car half the current, and the car cuts back the current drawn.

Commander Kinky seems to think it would be acceptable to provide the entire household current to charging cars. But homeowners and the people who approve home wiring, feel differently.

3.6 kW is plenty of power to charge a car. If you want a pair of 7.2 kW chargers, there nothing to stop you from doing that, assuming your home wiring is suitable. So kinky's objections are silly.
Reply to
Ricky

The most common UK domestic contract is for a 17kVA supply.

Reply to
Colin Bignell

Bollocks. 240V, 100A. Never seen anything else.

And two 7s still fit in 17.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

There are also 80A and 60A main breakers, but the limit to what you can draw is not what the circuit is rated for, but what your contract with the electricity supply company specifies you can have.

Not with a great deal to spare for other uses.

Reply to
Colin Bignell

Do you have some kind of hardware enforcing the limit?

For instance, in Spain the smart meter triggers if you draw above your contract and switches off the whole house. In older times, there was an electromagnetic current limiter switch, installed with an anti tamper lead seal, which of course, was tampered with. Which is a reason they installed smart meters in the whole country real fast.

The typical contract here for a flat is 3.6 KW. I think the max is around 15 or 18.

Reply to
Carlos E.R.

Although that may be true the master fuse is typically one of 60A, 80A or most recently 100A depending on the age of the property or whether the master fusing has been upgraded to cope with an electric car.

My domestic mains is 60A or ~14kW. Some neighbours are on 40A ~10kW. Three phase is not available in my village.

It may amuse some to know that my MP who is also now our UK PM and incredibly rich had to have the local electricity network upgraded to power his swimming pool which will cost £13k/year to heat.

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Ironic in a country where public swimming pools are shutting down because they simply cannot afford the heating costs!

Reply to
Martin Brown

I didn't work in the Commercial section, which was responsible for the meter and company fuses, so I don't know whether there was a limiter. As the standing charges were based upon the contracted supply, I assume there must have been some way to enforce it.

In theory, the meter reader was supposed to check the lead seals on every visit, but it wasn't often done in practice unless the property was flagged as needing particular attention.

Reply to
Colin Bignell

Upgrading the fuse, ROTFPMSL! It's the wires which count. The fuse is whatever you put in it.

How thick is the incoming wire?

He's a f****ng Paki.

Hasn't he heard of insulation?

Why not just run them colder?

If I owned a public swimming baths, I'd divide it up. You pay more for the warmer sections. And you get in free if you're naked.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

Change the breaker then (actually it's a Henley fuse). The only limit is the thickness of the wire coming into your house. There is nothing in any contract saying please don't use more than x amps.

Then don't use those when you need to charge two cars.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

3.6kW ROTFPMSL! In the UK a kettle takes almost that. I wasn't aware you lived in the third world.

I take it you have cold showers.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

Just how do you plan to charge an electric car?

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

There isn't. The meters only monitor how much you've used, not how fast you were using it.

They want you to use more, so they make more money!

You can buy lead seals on Ebay.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

And lots of older properties, notably in rural areas where a single pair of L+N cables supplies a pair of houses and they are divided on the front wall of the properties. I suspect these properties cannot have storage heaters or an EV.

Reply to
Andrew

There isn't. The meters only monitor how much you've used, not how fast you were using it.

They want you to use more, so they make more money!

You can buy lead seals on Ebay.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

There isn't. The meters only monitor how much you've used, not how fast you were using it.

They want you to use more, so they make more money!

You can buy lead seals on Ebay.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

You overdo it until the wire burns out, then they come replace it with something bigger.

Reply to
Commander Kinsey

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