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-   -   Setting up an Electric Vehicle charging point at home (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/electric-cars/216752-setting-up-electric-vehicle-charging-point-home-3.html)

GTO, Here is a nice instructional video if you want to get it installed yourself/with the help of an electrician.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qR8vBJocAA

And a good product overview about their Terra AC wallbox (2nd part of the video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPeXf00VKmE

In NL, this wallbox sells for about €980 (~ ₹86000) for the connector version (where you have to use your own cable) and the fixed cable version is €100 more. It has a nice app (charger sync) for registration and monitoring.

Just simplifying and putting all the advice taken from BHPians here! My EV charger work starts today :thumbs up

Faster Charging

- Single phase is okay, but 3 phase is much preferred.

- RCCB is put after the meter and a 40A MCB just before the charger.

- Cable used is 10 sq mm three-core if the distance is under 30 meters.

- 16 sq mm (armored cable) if distance is over 30 meters from meter.

- Install 4 inch PVC conduit and keep handholes at every 5m.

----------------------------

Slow Charging

- Put 15 amps socket. For a 15 amps socket, 2.5 sq mm 3 core cable if distance is within 30 meters, 4 sq mm if distance is more than that. This is the cheapest and should do for a lot of people (at least as a temporary fix) as overnight parking = best charging time. I charged the Kona & ZS EV media cars this way.

- Right now, I'm putting just the 15A socket with a waterproof lock & cover on 3 sides of the compound. For the other faster charging options, am just making a provision for the wiring and keeping. Will install faster chargers once we start testing more EVs or I buy one :D.

My 40-year-old house with single-phase wiring is undergoing renovation.

I'm planning to buy an electric car and a scooter shortly. ;)

My queries:

1. Do I need to upgrade to a 3 phase wiring?
2. Should I fix a 6/16A socket in the car porch/parking area or just leave an electrical point?
3. Any other things to be taken care of?

Electric sockets in the parking lot with 2 switches - one at the spot and another inside the house is useful for below functionalities

1. Electric pressure Washer connection
2. Electric car charging point
3. Tire inflator(a pump that operates with 230v AC operating voltage or 12V 10A DC from battery is better compared to just DC Inflator)
4. Vaccum cleaning system to clean the car
5. Electric jack
6. Any DYI such as drilling, painting etc

Now depending on your requirements, you can plan one or more sockets. And as you can see few functionalities will work with single phase. But few definitely needs 3 phase heavy-duty current for proper functioning. So suggest to have 3 phase sockets.

But it's important to have two way switches or master slave switch because it's the only way to avoid theft of current.

Will keep that in mind. But, theft is not going to be an issue since ours is a gated village house. ;)

My question:
In the case of MG ZS EV or Ather, the home charger installation is done by the company. So will there be any use for sockets other than for plugging any appliance?

You should always go for a three phase connection. Ideally, you should increase your sanctioned load as well if you are serious about jumping into the EV train. While the Nexon EV’s charging maxes out at a paltry 2.3kw, international EVs charge at 7kw on a three phase line. Such a fast charger comes bundled with every Kona or ZS. So your connection should be nothing less than 10kw if you want to future proof your place.

While you are at it, you should consider getting a solar setup with net metering if it can be installed at your place. Will keep your bills in check and provide shade on your roof as well.

Additional 6/16A points should be installed for powering your e bike, vacuum cleaner or power washer. These points, along with your main three phase line along with your future EV charger will need to be adequately covered for weather protection. Also, make sure there is ample lighting in your driveway.

Once your work is completed, would request you to put up all details with pictures wherever possible. Since a new house is underway and I am anyway getting a 3 phase connection, why not future proof it with EV charging points, plus equipping the garage with power points for vacuuming etc..

Thanks :).

The issue highlighted here is yet another example of lack of foresightedness. The approach here by most associations would be to dig the well when they feel thirsty. Just installing cables with meters wouldn't do. They should also have an emergency action plan for possible situations that might crop up eg. electrical fire.

https://youtu.be/nsBgDXHVorE
Taking a cue from the above incident, I can think of the following precautions/practices :

1. Charging an EV should always be monitored by someone and not done unattended
2. Adequate inter-car spacing while charging so that a fire in one doesn't damage the other(s)
3. Requisite fire fighting equipment (eg. CO2 extinguishers) always available for use in an emergency
4. Emergency power shut off in the event of an electrical fire. A remotely operated shut down switch should be available
5. Charging should preferably not be done in a basement parking (I know it is impractical but if there is no other way out, monitoring is key)

Hi, I need some help/advice on installation of the standard Legrand (16 amp) home charging setup provided by Tata Motors. Since we don't yet have any other EV in our gated community, we are also looking at a neat yet safe installation that can provide a proper precedent.

About the parking area
Our parking area has the ceiling at a height of 12 feet. There are no walls around my parking slot, we do have pillars, but do not want to fix the boxes on the pillars as they are not close enough to the ideal position.
Cabling is currently done within the parking area using suspended cable racks from the 12 feet high roof. Our meter room is just 20 feet away from where we park.

Proposed setup
Considering the cable is suspended from the cable racks running above and that we cannot mount the charger on a wall or any of the pillars, we are considering installing a floor mounted setup - and for this we plan to have a custom made iron stand screwed to the floor as described below -
1) A 2' x 0.5' metal plate screwed to the ground
2) 2 rods of 2' height and 1" diameter fixed to the base mentioned in (1)
3) An oval shaped metal frame (that is 1 feet wide, 3 feet high), welded to the rods mentioned in (2)
4) Another rod of height 2' welded in the top center of the oval rod mentioned in (3), taking the overall height to around 7' from ground
5) The Legrand box is fixed to the oval shape structure
6) The adapter holder is fixed at the joining of the oval shape and the two rods below.
7) The wire from the wire rack is dropped down along the 2' rod and the oval frame to the connect to the Legrand box.

I suppose we also will need a good insulation paint that is not conductive.
So, in general, is there anything wrong with this plan? Or should we go ahead and get it installed this way? Any suggestions/ideas/examples are welcome. Please share your thoughts. Thank you!

We are also in the process of setting up guidelines for EV chargers in our apartment complex. So I will be following your progress keenly.

A picture of the parking space and drawings of the proposed setup would help. I am envisioning a structure like a pedal-type hand sanitizer dispenser to hold the charger and the power connection would come from the ceiling. Is that what you are thinking of designing?

Where will this be located? Behind every vehicle or on the side?
If you are planning a similar setup at every parking spot, will it not cause issues while parking and taking out the cars?
Won't this be a tripping hazard?

Hi Dev_GT, did you finally go ahead with the EV? Were you able to sort out the charging issue? we have similar issues in our society and the society is planning to install common chargers around building periphery.

No yashg, I decided to postpone by EV plan for 2-3 years since I'll be mostly out of country for a project. However, I have infiltrated into my housing society managing committee :cool: to influence their decision towards allowing EV Chargers. No one has bought an EV in our building yet.

Common chargers has two problems which will require repeated intervention from housing society.
1. Electricity billing management
2. Multiple people may want to use charger overnight

The numbers of EVs are still not sufficient for any third party to find it attractive to operate public charging station at our building.

I've put in motion to avoid common chargers and allow chargers in respective owner's parking lot. One good thing is that we have allocated parking slot for all flats. For open area parking, car owner needs to ensure that the charging equipment is weatherproof. Also, wherever there will be road crossings (within our parking lot), society will coordinate for installing a larger pipe with manholes so that road does not need repeated digging for newer EV owners.

My basement parking slot is right next to a bank of LPG cylinders which supply gas to houses in my complex. This is a small complex with 8 houses only - so about 15 standard cylinders in the bank.

How safe would it be to install a charger in such a location ? I'm looking at a simple 15A socket for now and will upgrade to a 7.2kw home charger if required.

Dear Qaqa,

This is literally a million dollar question and is regularly addresses in industrial setup. There is a standard on how to address this (IEC-60079), but the standard is complicated to interpret and not applicable for domestic premises. The major hazard is sparks caused when plugging/unplugging, when toggling the switch, and due to any fault in the equipment itself. Exact distance of hazardous area is difficult to calculate since it depends of multiple factors, e.g. general ventilation of the area, prevailing wind direction, typical size of leakage, estimated frequency of a leakage happening, possible amount of damage in case of an explosion (property damage or personnel injury/casualty). We should also take into account the availability of safeguards such as automatic fire hydrant systems or gas alarms.

The safest way always is avoid installing any electrical equipment close to LPG bank. Try to exchange your parking with someone who is having an ICE.

If there is no way of exchanging your parking, there are some safeguards that you can employ.
1. Install the charger itself at a distance in a safe area and run another cable from the charging box to a explosion proof industrial socket near the car (refer below image).

You'll need to change the plug of the car's charging cable to be compatible with explosion proof socket, which will make it incompatible with normal 15A sockets.
2. Install a loud audible LPG gas alarm. Please note that the gas alarm needs to be tested in regular interval (maybe every 3 months) using test gas to ensure that it is functional.
3. Have a trip signal from the gas alarm to the charger so that in case of a gas leakage, the power to charger is automatically turned off from a safe area.

Finally, I would recommend to explain the situation to your car dealer and they can assign some specialist to help you with the situation.