Car and Bike Chat

[Pigmy Pony]

Some towns/cities are tackling this issue really rather well. Brighton is way ahead of the game I believe, and have a lot of on street chargers, with more to go in. Clearly a lot less fun if one has to drive to a charging point. Even for people who have houses and the possibilty of having a charger installed, the constraints on the wiring distance from the electricity supply into a property are another barrier. Having a drive or nearby kerb parking spaces is no good if the distance is more than 5-7 metres from the electicity supply. I don't know if this is an issue that the electricity companies are addressing - perhaps it's not too high priority for them.

Can you not have a portable charging point then? I have a 30 metre extension lead in the van. I'd make sure the reel is fully unwound so it doesn't catch fire

[struth]

Can you not have a portable charging point then? I have a 30 metre extension lead in the van. I'd make sure the reel is fully unwound so it doesn't catch fire

extentions are supposedly a no, no, although i know of folk who use them and have not had issues. some councils allow cables to cross pavements now too, although there has to be a protector over cable and a warning sign i think.

ive a protector for my cable as it crosses my slabbed path at side of house when in use. this allows anyone to walk up side(like bucket men) without a trip hazard.. it has a yellow top and is fairly heavy.



neat enough if not in use and out of the strip but its a lot of work for me being disabled to remove it from strip etc.

[dave2010]

Can you not have a portable charging point then? I have a 30 metre extension lead in the van. I'd make sure the reel is fully unwound so it doesn't catch fire

I've got extension cables too, but it seems they are definitely not recommended by the car manufacturers. I expect that some people will just use those if they feel they have to.

The chargers which will work off 13 amp UK sockets are really slow - but can work overnight and provide quite a substantial charge. However they are unlikely to work completely within off-peak tariffs for a decent charge so would be more at the 17-25p per kWh end of rates than the 5-7p per kWh possible with a fast home charger. I can charge up one car with a slow connection via a weather proofed outside socket which has been connected to the house wiring - but to comply with the constraints the charger and car do have to be close to the wall socket.

There may be ways of taking a fixed extension cable out from a house to a point near a drive or nearby road, but so far I've not heard of any way of doing that which is approved by the electricity companies. It is presumably technically possible, but maybe to date not a significantly large part of the engineering business for the companies to offer that as a service. I guess it would require sheathed cable - probably in a metal or other conduit, and a protected connector close to where the vehicles would be charged.

One other option is to use one of the industrial cables which some building contractors use. There are adapters for that kind of connection. I think they are called IP44 Industrial connectors.

Of course those could provide electricity via a diesel or petrol generator ....

[walpurgis]

It might be worth checking if using non-recommended charging equipment breaches home or vehicle insurance terms. Could be an expensive mistake if there's a cockup!

[struth]

you can buy longer cables of course. not sure how long they go tho. they are expensive.

[dave2010]

you can buy longer cables of course. not sure how long they go tho. they are expensive.

I think to be safe and perhaps approved they'd have to be the industrial type cables.

Re your drive with the cable covers - you don't use those for the car charging do you? It looks as though your wall charger has a tethered cable - with maybe a 5 metre cable - so the cable with the covers - is/was that for kit like hedge trimmers etc.?
Or maybe for your outdoor rave music parties!

[struth]

I think to be safe and perhaps approved they'd have to be the industrial type cables.

Re your drive with the cable covers - you don't use those for the car charging do you? It looks as though your wall charger has a tethered cable - with maybe a 5 metre cable - so the cable with the covers - is/was that for kit like hedge trimmers etc.?
Or maybe for your outdoor rave music parties!

edit...no, its the charge cable. it protects it from being stepped on and more importantly stops anyone tripping on it. the buckets have to go over it etc and the men come into my property to collect them etc. its not for driving over, but fine for walking on etc. obviously its the tether that passes through the cable protector. the mains comes from through the wall as the supply is fortunately the other side of the charger.

[Lawrence001]

This my problem with EVs as things stand - a huge chunk of the population live in apartments or terraced houses with no off road parking. Green credentials, mad acceleration and the ability to get where you need to go for tuppence every four years mean nowt if you can't charge at home.

Maybe in a few years...

We've got a 30s semi with a front garden. Ironically because of my green credentials, I'm not willing to rip up the front lawn and pave it over so I can charge an EV.

[Lawrence001]

edit...no, its the charge cable. it protects it from being stepped on and more importantly stops anyone tripping on it. the buckets have to go over it etc and the men come into my property to collect them etc. its not for driving over, but fine for walking on etc. obviously its the tether that passes through the cable protector. the mains comes from through the wall as the supply is fortunately the other side of the charger.

I bet home insurance legal cover excludes liability for cables outside the property boundary. So it would be at your risk of being sued if someone trips over it.

[struth]

I bet home insurance legal cover excludes liability for cables outside the property boundary. So it would be at your risk of being sued if someone trips over it.

possibly yes, but i wanted to make it safe for the lads to collect my bins(as Im disabled) and as easy as i could for myself. mine is still running at 3.6kwh as a cable still need replacing, but its fast enough for me as i dont do a lot of miles. total charging for july so far has been £9.60.