Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.

--
*Organized Crime Is Alive And Well; It's Called Auto Insurance.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 17/03/2020 11:14, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.

saw one out front of terraced housed the other day fed with a cable from
an upstairs window over the pavement to a pole then down into the car
.... is that legal ?...

On 17/03/2020 11:14, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


I came across a G-whizz? being charged like this on the road next to
a mansion block in Hammersmith. A series of extension cords came down
from a first floor flat front window, to a pole at the bottom of the
steps going up to the ground floor, then across the pavement at about
6 foot high, then duck taped to a lighting pole and down to the car.

Wish I had taken a photo.

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On 17/03/2020 11:14, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added
by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


I came across a G-whizz? being charged like this on the road next to
a mansion block in Hammersmith. A series of extension cords came down
from a first floor flat front window, to a pole at the bottom of the
steps going up to the ground floor, then across the pavement at about
6 foot high, then duck taped to a lighting pole and down to the car.

Wish I had taken a photo.


This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own drive
but must park at the side of street and then get power from the house.
No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever there happens to
be a free charging point, and then walk home from there and then walk back
when their car is fully charged.

Part of the problem is that the dedicated charging cable is usually fairly
short, so there will always need to be a trailing 3-pin socket that this
lead is plugged into, even if the long extension lead has no further
junctions until it is inside the house. I suppose one way is to put the
extension socket inside the car, with its lead and the car's charging lead
going through a crack in the window, but that's not very rainproof and
certainly not secure against theft.

The alternative is to get a very long lead with the car's charging socket
(*) on one end and the other end long enough to plug into a wall socket
inside the house, then there are no junctions out in the rain. You still
need to arrange the lead so it isn't a trip hazard if it crosses a pavement.
Even if the lead is on your own drive, you need to make sure the postman etc
doesn't trip over it.

I presume the plug on the car has a way of securing the socket on the
charging lead so it can't be maliciously unplugged. That will be a
significant problem: drunks late at night think it's "funny" to unplug cars
so they are not fully charged for their owners to use them in the morning.


(*) I use "plug" and socket" to refer to the male end (with protruding pins)
and the female end (with receptacles to accommodate those pins). The end
that is connected to the mains always needs to be a socket, to avoid
accidental contact with live pins. I once borrowed my grandpa's electric
mower which had pair of flat three-in-a-row plug-and-socket, to attach the
long cable to the short one on the mower. I unplugged it to untangle the
cable and found it was wired the wrong way round, with the live pins
exposed, so I rewired it with the socket on the mains end and the plug on
the mower end - and kept quiet about it to spare his blushes.

NY wrote:
This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own drive
but must park at the side of street and then get power from the house.
No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever there happens to
be a free charging point, and then walk home from there and then walk back
when their car is fully charged.

This is all very silly when all they can get out of their string of
extension cables is 13A, and possibly only 720W if they were obeying what it
says as the capacity of wound extension reels (which they probably aren't).

We already have a solution for this - it's what happens with dropped kerbs.
If you want a dropped kerb outside your house you ask the council for
permission, pay the fee, their contractor comes and makes it for you.

You could imagine the same principle for charge points - apply to the
council, council electrician comes and installs approved charge point in the
road, wired in to your electricity supply, council makes good the pavement.
You get a proper 32A (or whatever) fast charging point outside your house.

Such charge points could for example be billed separately to your home
electricity supply, and maybe you could agree to other people using them for
some cut of the proceeds. You could then enrol them in a public charging
network. And then maybe it wouldn't matter if your space was full, because
you could park a few doors down and use their point on the same network.

This would seem more efficient than trying to run off the 'lamp post' supply
that only has a few amps capacity. Maybe they can load balance, so when you
run the oven, tumble drier, electric shower and GSHP all together the car
scales back its charge rate to avoid overloading the supply incomer.

Theo

In article , Theo
wrote:
NY wrote:
This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own
drive but must park at the side of street and then get power from the
house. No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever
there happens to be a free charging point, and then walk home from
there and then walk back when their car is fully charged.

This is all very silly when all they can get out of their string of
extension cables is 13A, and possibly only 720W if they were obeying what
it says as the capacity of wound extension reels (which they probably
aren't).

We already have a solution for this - it's what happens with dropped
kerbs. If you want a dropped kerb outside your house you ask the council
for permission, pay the fee, their contractor comes and makes it for you.

You could imagine the same principle for charge points - apply to the
council, council electrician comes and installs approved charge point in
the road, wired in to your electricity supply, council makes good the
pavement. You get a proper 32A (or whatever) fast charging point outside
your house.

But you don't have a reserved parking space outside your house.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

charles wrote:
In article , Theo
wrote:
We already have a solution for this - it's what happens with dropped
kerbs. If you want a dropped kerb outside your house you ask the council
for permission, pay the fee, their contractor comes and makes it for you.

You could imagine the same principle for charge points - apply to the
council, council electrician comes and installs approved charge point in
the road, wired in to your electricity supply, council makes good the
pavement. You get a proper 32A (or whatever) fast charging point outside
your house.

But you don't have a reserved parking space outside your house.

But you do get a reserved space outside your house if you get a dropped kerb
installed. OK you aren't supposed to park on it, but it is effectively
reserved for your use (to come and go to your drive) - people aren't allowed
to park in it and so it reserves a little bit of your street.

The issue of 'reserving' a bit of public infrastructure for your sole use
would go away if the charging points were on a public charging network as it
wouldn't be your reserved space any more.

Theo

On 17/03/2020 14:21, Theo wrote:
NY wrote:
This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own drive
but must park at the side of street and then get power from the house.
No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever there happens to
be a free charging point, and then walk home from there and then walk back
when their car is fully charged.

This is all very silly when all they can get out of their string of
extension cables is 13A, and possibly only 720W if they were obeying what it
says as the capacity of wound extension reels (which they probably aren't).

Most of the bundled charge leads deliberately limit the current to
around 10A or so. Not sure what they do if they see loads of voltage
drop on the supply though.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In message , at 14:21:43 on Tue,
17 Mar 2020, Theo remarked:
NY wrote:
This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own drive
but must park at the side of street and then get power from the house.
No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever there happens to
be a free charging point, and then walk home from there and then walk back
when their car is fully charged.

This is all very silly when all they can get out of their string of
extension cables is 13A, and possibly only 720W if they were obeying what it
says as the capacity of wound extension reels (which they probably aren't).

We already have a solution for this - it's what happens with dropped kerbs.
If you want a dropped kerb outside your house you ask the council for
permission, pay the fee, their contractor comes and makes it for you.

You could imagine the same principle for charge points - apply to the
council, council electrician comes and installs approved charge point in the
road, wired in to your electricity supply, council makes good the pavement.
You get a proper 32A (or whatever) fast charging point outside your house.

Not so clever when you have a 60A main fuse.

Maybe they can load balance, so when you run the oven, tumble drier,
electric shower and GSHP all together the car scales back its charge
rate to avoid overloading the supply incomer.

A big maybe.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:21:43 on Tue,
17 Mar 2020, Theo remarked:
NY wrote:
This is the problem with electric cars when you don't have your own drive
but must park at the side of street and then get power from the house.
No-one wants to park a long way from their house, wherever there happens to
be a free charging point, and then walk home from there and then walk back
when their car is fully charged.

This is all very silly when all they can get out of their string of
extension cables is 13A, and possibly only 720W if they were obeying what it
says as the capacity of wound extension reels (which they probably aren't).

We already have a solution for this - it's what happens with dropped kerbs.
If you want a dropped kerb outside your house you ask the council for
permission, pay the fee, their contractor comes and makes it for you.

You could imagine the same principle for charge points - apply to the
council, council electrician comes and installs approved charge point in the
road, wired in to your electricity supply, council makes good the pavement.
You get a proper 32A (or whatever) fast charging point outside your house.

Not so clever when you have a 60A main fuse.


Provided your €˜tails ( the cables from the incomer (main cable) to the
meter and meter to consumer unit) are 25mm, the power company will upgrade
you to 100A free.

There is a page on the website, you pop in some basic details, book a date,
someone turns up, does the swap, job done. Unbelievably efficient.

The two chaps who did mine were great, they commented on my earth bonding,
which led to an interesting chat re how much of they work was involved in
changing earths to PME and a few other things. Even did an Earth check. All
for a cup of coffee and chocolate biscuits.

Roland Perry wrote:

Theo wrote:

Maybe they can load balance, so when you run the oven, tumble drier,
electric shower and GSHP all together the car scales back its charge
rate to avoid overloading the supply incomer.

A big maybe.

There are car-chargers that can have remote current transformer
monitoring, so can work out from the rated supply, minus usage, plus any
contribution from solar and throttle the car to what's available, e.g.
the Zappi

https://youtu.be/gwmiGf6tChE

On 17/03/2020 12:59, NY wrote:

I presume the plug on the car has a way of securing the socket on the
charging lead so it can't be maliciously unplugged. That will be a
significant problem: drunks late at night think it's "funny" to unplug
cars so they are not fully charged for their owners to use them in the
morning.



That will make a change from setting fire to wheelie bins.

--
Adam

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket. In fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.

In article ,
Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket. In fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, I‘d use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.

trip hazard - Fire hazard

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On 17/03/2020 14:39, Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket. In fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.





many amps do they take on 230 v ? ...

Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 17/03/2020 14:39, Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket. In fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.





many amps do they take on 230 v ? ...


Good question but I cant recall the details.

The slow one uses a 13A fuse, so probably under that. I have 10A in mind
but Im not sure.

Im pretty sure the MCB on the dedicated charger is 16A .

On 17/03/2020 15:22, Brian Reay wrote:
Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 17/03/2020 14:39, Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket. In fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.





many amps do they take on 230 v ? ...


Good question but I cant recall the details.

The slow one uses a 13A fuse, so probably under that. I have 10A in mind
but Im not sure.

Im pretty sure the MCB on the dedicated charger is 16A .



must be a lot of amps to give so many kilowatts ..

On 17/03/2020 15:02, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 17/03/2020 14:39, Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently
added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket.Â* In
fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I
have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else and
use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.





many amps do they take on 230 v ? ...

My old Leaf takes about 10A using the slow charger (on a long extension
lead).

On 17/03/2020 15:51, Grumps wrote:
On 17/03/2020 15:02, Jim GM4DHJ ... wrote:
On 17/03/2020 14:39, Brian Reay wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently
added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Not all chargers require a dedicate charger point.

Ours came with a charger which plugs into a normal 13A socket.Â* In
fact, it
is the one I nearly always use. We also got a free, dedicated, charger (
including installation) - fund by some Gov scheme.

The included charge takes longer but the car has a timer and I set it to
charge in the Economy 7 slot. I use could use a normal socket but I
have a
radial with just one socket which was installed for something else
and use
that.

If I need a quicker charge, Id use the other one.

AFAIK, most cars you can charge come with at least a slow charger.


Of course, plugging them into long extensions etc is more than unwise.





many amps do they take on 230 v ? ...

My old Leaf takes about 10A using the slow charger (on a long extension
lead).
that is a lot wouldn't like to cobble together a few plug in extensions
feeding that ...

I'd have thought apart from anything else charging like that would be slow
costly and as you say, dangerous.
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.

--
*Organized Crime Is Alive And Well; It's Called Auto Insurance.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 17/03/2020 11:14, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Came across a car being charged in the street yesterday. H&S well taken
care of - large rubber mats covering the cable and small traffic cones
either end. Impressed. Until I looked at how it was fed. Long 13 amp
extension from the house with a big coil at the end, and a 4 way 13 amp
socket strip, with the car lead plugged into it. At least it wasn't
raining then.

House had a basement, and a light to the exterior stairs recently added by
the shiny conduit. But no dedicated charger point.


Camera photo and picture to the wiki?


Some of us like to see this ****e.

--
Adam