ID. Buzz. We've done it!

[SusiBus]

£300 but we were also having a some other work done (garden room fusebox/wiring), so was cheaper than a one off install as he was on site anyway.

We supplied the charger ourselves. Lots of choice - we went for a Tesla one as we have never had an issue with the car, hence impressed with their kit...but would guess that not much can wrong with a charger anyway.

 

[SusiBus]

Food for thought, thanks.
Sorry I'm a novice to this. Presumably you chose a Tesla one because your car's a Tesla. Anyway there won't be a VW one because they have enough trouble supplying the vehicles in the first place.
I'm capable of doing the fidderly bits. Running the cable and putting it in trunking, then fixing the charger box to the wall any advice about what to buy and where would be welcome

 

[Hedley Wright]

Please be careful. There are regulations around earthing home chargepoints that have been put in place for good reason. Unless you or your electrician are up to speed with the regulations I would get an established installer to do the work.

A good source of others‘ experience is the SpeakEV forum. https://www.speakev.com/forums/ev-charging/

 

[SusiBus]

Please be careful. There are regulations around earthing home chargepoints that have been put in place for good reason. Unless you or your electrician are up to speed with the regulations I would get an established installer to do the work.

A good source of others‘ experience is the SpeakEV forum. https://www.speakev.com/forums/ev-charging/

Thanks for the cautionary advice and the link, it is well heeded. I will get it professional installed, .dont worry.
I might just 'explore' ,the possibility of running the ductwork for the cable so it's taking the safest and neatest route considering any mods I might make to the garage in the future.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Food for thought, thanks.
Sorry I'm a novice to this. Presumably you chose a Tesla one because your car's a Tesla. Anyway there won't be a VW one because they have enough trouble supplying the vehicles in the first place.
I'm capable of doing the fidderly bits. Running the cable and putting it in trunking, then fixing the charger box to the wall any advice about what to buy and where would be welcome

Yes, we have a Tesla3, but it will work with any EV. I expect that a third party will team up with VW and you will receive a special offer when the car is close to being delivered.

You could use armoured cable then avoid the need for trunking. You would just need an electrician to test / sign off your work; Regulations will probably want to oversize the cable to the garage - ie thicker than the 1 x incoming cable that feeds your home ( depending when house was built.)

Alot of chargers now have have internal O-Pen protection so then additional Earth not required.

Get an EV charger with Octopus Energy

Get an EV charger with Octopus

octopus.energy

 

[soulstyledevon]

Please be careful. There are regulations around earthing home chargepoints that have been put in place for good reason. Unless you or your electrician are up to speed with the regulations I would get an established installer to do the work.

A good source of others‘ experience is the SpeakEV forum. https://www.speakev.com/forums/ev-charging/

I believe a lot of the early issues with home chargers, was the requirement for it’s own earth electrode.
For the more modern chargers, this is no longer required.

 

[SusiBus]

Yes, we have a Tesla3, but it will work with any EV. I expect that a third party will team up with VW and you will receive a special offer when the car is close to being delivered.

You could use armoured cable then avoid the need for trunking. You would just need an electrician to test / sign off your work; Regulations will probably want to oversize the cable to the garage - ie thicker than the 1 x incoming cable that feeds your home ( depending when house was built.)

Alot of chargers now have have internal O-Pen protection so then additional Earth not required.

Get an EV charger with Octopus Energy

Get an EV charger with Octopus

octopus.energy

I remember when l saw my first Tesla 3, White with white interior, l thought wow, l like that, even if possibly a little impractical.
Armored cable, how silly of me. That's what l used to wire up our outside workshop. Part P signed off by an electrician of course. I've got no idea what O-pen protection is.
The link to Octopus Energy is really interesting. The trouble is that just before prices went crazy, we got an amazing deal from them, £924 pa, electricity and gas till April 2023. VW Buzz due for delivery January 2023! Life's full of problems, good job l don't live in Ukraine.

 

[SusiBus]

Super well done and of course get well soon, you're an early adopter and at 77 it's super impressive.

Being an early adopter at 77 might seem impressive, but we're just sold our last 4MOTION to a new member of the forum. He and his wife are planning to take his Mother in Law, across North Africa in it.
Three adults co-habitating in a Cali. One being a mother in law, across North Africa, and the mother in law is in her 90's. Now that's impressive! We're met the Mother in Law, and she is impressive. I hope he posts his story of his travels on the forum.

 

[Yanto]

I seem to get over my type of Sepsis quickly, now having had it four times in the last 7 years. But boy, when it attacks does it come quickly.
But you do get a ride in the ambulance with a blue flashing light on, (when it finally arrives two hours later!) Then being wheeled in straight past those who have been waiting for12 hours in A&E. The signs as you enter hospital, saying be sepsis aware, 140,000 people die of sepsis every year, are little bit off- putting.
Watford General Hospital has been in special measures recently. I think they call it that?
l must say my experience was nothing short of amazing. I'm out in the front garden clapping for the NHS. It's amazing what that's £350 million, that we don't pay to the EU, has now done to upgrade our hospitals!!!

Glad you’re feeling better and had a good experience in hospital. I’m assuming your comment about the £350 million was irony though.

 

[mikeelawson]

If you want to have a faster charger fitted at home, you will need to have a spare slot on your household fuseboard as fast charger needs a dedicated 32amp fused supply. It’s alot quicker than charging from a 10amp 3 pin household plug. Charging at home is cheapest option.

I have an ev charger at home and they did a special tap (don’t need to shut off) on the incoming 100amp

 

[Dassy1308]

I have an ev charger at home and they did a special tap (don’t need to shut off) on the incoming 100amp

And @mikeelawson has hit on a good point. Unless you have a 100A main fuse then you’ll struggle to have a home charger installed.

We moved into a 1940s house bringing with us our (then 2yr old, always previously home charged via PodPoint) EV. I wanted the same set up again, but a combination of UK Power Network and a couple of local independent charger installers confirmed an upgrade from the existing 80A fuse would be required.

To be fair, UKPN said it would be free of charge, but the work included a considerable amount of outside digging and re-laying parts of the driveway. So we instead went for a £35 outdoor stormproof 13A socket to allow overnight charging.

2yrs later….sold the EV last week. Loved it to bits and it saved £ ‘000s in fuel over the 4yrs of ownership. But circs have now changed requiring 2nd car to be able to cover the country (although Cali does a pretty good job as household 1st car).

So all I’d say is, EV ownership needs to work for you. If it does then great. If not then don’t be one of the many (according to the WBAC guy I saw on Friday) who are bringing EVs in their droves.

 

[kave]

I have an ev charger at home and they did a special tap (don’t need to shut off) on the incoming 100amp

100 amp? We have a 180m2 house in Sweden with electric warming and an electric car. Our main fuse is 16A, our charger is set to 3x8A mostly. Upgrading our main fuse from 16A to 24 would cost us 500€ every year. I can believe what a 100a fuse would cost.
Here most home chargers are limited to 3x16A, most EVs cant take more than that on type2 connections.

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Have you looked at MyEnergi Zappi charger linked to PV panels? Excellent piece of kit.

 

[Resfeber]

100 amp? We have a 180m2 house in Sweden with electric warming and an electric car. Our main fuse is 16A, our charger is set to 3x8A mostly. Upgrading our main fuse from 16A to 24 would cost us 500€ every year. I can believe what a 100a fuse would cost.
Here most home chargers are limited to 3x16A, most EVs cant take more than that on type2 connections.

For most in the UK scratching their heads most homes in Sweden have a 3 phase 400v supply needing a 16A main fuse making ev charging straight forward.

Any additional electrician input would be useful

Do you have 400V (3-phase) electrical loads in your house in Sweden? What are these loads?

Answer: Yes, we do. So far have I only seen one flat that had a single-phase power source and that was my grandparent's flat in a building built in 1930. Almost every other user has 400/230V three-phase grid connections the most common is 16A main fuses. This includes most industries all shops (I...

www.quora.com

 

[couplands]

And @mikeelawson has hit on a good point. Unless you have a 100A main fuse then you’ll struggle to have a home charger installed.

We moved into a 1940s house bringing with us our (then 2yr old, always previously home charged via PodPoint) EV. I wanted the same set up again, but a combination of UK Power Network and a couple of local independent charger installers confirmed an upgrade from the existing 80A fuse would be required.

To be fair, UKPN said it would be free of charge, but the work included a considerable amount of outside digging and re-laying parts of the driveway. So we instead went for a £35 outdoor stormproof 13A socket to allow overnight charging.

2yrs later….sold the EV last week. Loved it to bits and it saved £ ‘000s in fuel over the 4yrs of ownership. But circs have now changed requiring 2nd car to be able to cover the country (although Cali does a pretty good job as household 1st car).

So all I’d say is, EV ownership needs to work for you. If it does then great. If not then don’t be one of the many (according to the WBAC guy I saw on Friday) who are bringing EVs in their droves.

Most chargers will have a "Current Transformer - CT" clamp that allows the charger to monitor the total house draw on the incoming supply and throttle the charger back if the amperage exceeds the limit set. The home chargers only draw 7-8kw so no more that a electric shower or electric oven etc.

I'm sure our house has an 80amp fuse and I haven't noticed the charger throttling at all.

 

[Norfolk Jim]

As of June 15th this year the new Building Regulations Approved Doc Part S came into force requiring new residential dwellings to provide EV charging points

The Building Regulations will now consider Electrical Vehicle (EV) Charging Points.

Every new dwelling with associated parking requires an EV charging point.

Dwellings formed by change of use with associated parking will require an EV point. (Percentages apply to large conversion projects)

Residential buildings like flats that undergo a “major renovation” will have to have its parking spaces assessed and may require EV points and or EV cabling in place.

New Non-residential buildings will need 20% of the spaces to have cabling for charging points and a minimum of one charging point in place if there are at least 10 car parking spaces.

Non-residential buildings undergoing major renovation may require the same provisions as new non-residential buildings.

The accompanying notes also show they are steering away from allowing 13 A plug sockets!!!!

The building regulations do not consider charging points of non-associated parking. So parking spaces that aren’t associated with dwellings, like on street parking, are not part of our requirements but other law, such as planning that may stipulate higher requirements than the Building Regulations. It’s also expected that charge points will be a minimum of 7kW power to prevent the use of 13A plug sockets.

For this requirement to be waived based on cost, two formal quotes to be provided to Building Control at the plans stage showing they exceed the cost cap given in Part S. This is normally where the average connecting cost per charging point exceeds £3600. This is most likely in remote locations where dwellings and non-residential buildings require electrical infrastructure that would be high cost to upgrade.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Houses with 80A cut-out should be fine.
The problem lies with houses only fed by a 60A supply.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

As of June 15th this year the new Building Regulations Approved Doc Part S came into force requiring new residential dwellings to provide EV charging points

The Building Regulations will now consider Electrical Vehicle (EV) Charging Points.

Every new dwelling with associated parking requires an EV charging point.

Dwellings formed by change of use with associated parking will require an EV point. (Percentages apply to large conversion projects)

Residential buildings like flats that undergo a “major renovation” will have to have its parking spaces assessed and may require EV points and or EV cabling in place.

New Non-residential buildings will need 20% of the spaces to have cabling for charging points and a minimum of one charging point in place if there are at least 10 car parking spaces.

Non-residential buildings undergoing major renovation may require the same provisions as new non-residential buildings.

The accompanying notes also show they are steering away from allowing 13 A plug sockets!!!!

The building regulations do not consider charging points of non-associated parking. So parking spaces that aren’t associated with dwellings, like on street parking, are not part of our requirements but other law, such as planning that may stipulate higher requirements than the Building Regulations. It’s also expected that charge points will be a minimum of 7kW power to prevent the use of 13A plug sockets.

For this requirement to be waived based on cost, two formal quotes to be provided to Building Control at the plans stage showing they exceed the cost cap given in Part S. This is normally where the average connecting cost per charging point exceeds £3600. This is most likely in remote locations where dwellings and non-residential buildings require electrical infrastructure that would be high cost to upgrade.

But they didn't force new housing with South facing roofs to install solar panels / heat pumps etc.

In-Laws have just moved into a newbuild with EV Charge point, gas boiler & no solar panels.

One day the 'experts' that make the rules / regs will streamline things!

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Yep I agree it's bazarre they don't fit PV as compulsory - my local BCO I partner with for applications says exactly the same. My PV generated over £1k last year and that's also with constant feed via diverter to my 3kW immersion heater in store. In 2019 my electricity bill was -£200 and we don't have gas or oil!

 

[Prycey13]

Anyone had a quote from VW for ID Buzz PCP? Quoted 7.3% APR which seems high (around £675 a month) Polestar offering 6.9% APR and Tesla 5.9% APR. Do VW move on rate? Had an i3 for 4 years but it’s a bit small for the kids in the back so looking at various options. Opinions welcome - thanks

 

[Prycey13]

Yep I agree it's bazarre they don't fit PV as compulsory - my local BCO I partner with for applications says exactly the same. My PV generated over £1k last year and that's also with constant feed via diverter to my 3kW immersion heater in store. In 2019 my electricity bill was -£200 and we don't have gas or oil!

Hi Jim, interest to know what the output of your PV system is? Do you also have an ASHP?

 

[soulstyledevon]

Anyone had a quote from VW for ID Buzz PCP? Quoted 7.3% APR which seems high (around £675 a month) Polestar offering 6.9% APR and Tesla 5.9% APR. Do VW move on rate? Had an i3 for 4 years but it’s a bit small for the kids in the back so looking at various options. Opinions welcome - thanks

I had the same figure from Volkswagen. I asked if there was room for negotiation, but it was a flat out, no.
I’ve opted for a personal loan at I think 4.8
It’s cost more a month, but no balloon at the end and over the term of buying the vehicle I would save £7k of interest. More if a person then had to finance the balloon.
I’ve never understood PCP and still don’t, it’s an expensive way to own a vehicle.

 

[SusiBus]

Has anyone been offered a financial incentive to take out PCP with a Buzz? We got £1000 deposit contribution once on a Cali purchase. I don't think there are any offers on Cali purchases at.the moment.

 

[sewb]

Yep I agree it's bazarre they don't fit PV as compulsory - my local BCO I partner with for applications says exactly the same. My PV generated over £1k last year and that's also with constant feed via diverter to my 3kW immersion heater in store. In 2019 my electricity bill was -£200 and we don't have gas or oil!

Hi - am interested in more information on the diverter to immersion heater - what sort do you have and how much was it to install? Thanks

 

[SusiBus]

It arrived yesterday, Friday 13th. Short test drive yesterday, so smooth. Didn't take it out today, pouring rain and dirty roads.