Which wall charger?

drjat said:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I will be charging every night. Don't have cheap night tariff yet but planning to get it. House has 100amp supply. Still open to suggestions but getting more inclined towards Wallbox. Regards
Click to expand...
hi drjat
just a note are you sure you have a 100amp supply or is that what it says on your mains fuse.

as my mains fuse says 100amp but on checking with the DNO my property is on an 80amp supply.

it would seem that you cannot rely on what the mains fuse is labelled as.

my advice to all is to check with your energy supplier as most homes are on a 80amp supply and some are even on 60amp
 
I'd endorse that advice.
I was uncertain about the rating of my main fuse so contacted my DNO (Western Power Distribution) and explained that I was planning to install an EV Charge Point and wanted some clarity with respect to the capacity of the supply.
They were happy to come and check the fuse and confirmed that it was 100A so there were no issues.
Their rule of thumb was:
If 60A found - Uprate to 80A free of charge
If 80A found - Considered satisfactory but would uprate to 100A at a charge.
If 100A found - Leave as is.
 
Joe said:
I'd endorse that advice.
I was uncertain about the rating of my main fuse so contacted my DNO (Western Power Distribution) and explained that I was planning to install an EV Charge Point and wanted some clarity with respect to the capacity of the supply.
They were happy to come and check the fuse and confirmed that it was 100A so there were no issues.
Their rule of thumb was:
If 60A found - Uprate to 80A free of charge
If 80A found - Considered satisfactory but would uprate to 100A at a charge.
If 100A found - Leave as is.
Click to expand...
Our house and many of the surrounding houses, where built around 1981 and almost all of them are running on 60 Amp main fuse protection cartridge's.
This was considered MORE than ample back then.
I am still running on that same 60 Amp fuse, and have a 7.0 kw wall box installed.
I just have to apply a bit of common sense, on how and when we are using electrical items.
The demands of each house hold is going to be completely different and their charging needs also.
When the wall box was installed about 5 years ago, we had a PHEV that was only pulling around 3.5 kw's via charger in the car and total charge time ( from zero to full ) was only about 2.5 hours.
Now with the ZS EV the wall box is working harder for longer of course !.
We are on a EV tariff with EDF that is on the cheapest rate from 10.00pm to 8.00am Monday to Friday and ALL week end.
So, our charging gets done inside of these these time frames, and when other demand is very low.
My close neighbour is having a Zappi wall box installed in a few weeks to charge his Tesla model 3 at home.
He is also running on a 60 Amp main fuse and he asked the DNO for an upgrade to 100 Amp's fuse because his EV installer suggested it.
I managed to grab the guy's doing the update about 2 weeks ago and they said that upgrading from 60 to 80 was just a matter of replacing the fuse cartridge, but upgrading to a 100 Amp fuse involved a bit more work, as the fuse head required replacing in our houses, because a 100 fuse is larger in size and would NOT fit inside the original older type fuse holder.
They have to replace the WHOLE fuse head assembly, that will accommodate the larger 100 Amp fuse.
He went on to explain that upgrading to 100 Amps fuse head would also necessitate an upgrade of the meter tails at the same time, in order to carry the extra load.
I believe this was all done FOC.
Time to carry out this work, about 20 mins !.
 
If you are still running on a 60A main fuse it's probably worth selecting a charge point that incorporates a fuse protection function.
 
Joe said:
If you are still running on a 60A main fuse it's probably worth selecting a charge point that incorporates a fuse protection function.
Click to expand...
Good advise to have a unit with a load balancing facility, but I already have a dumb wall box installed already.
About six months ago I did a complete overhaul of this 5 year old unit, by installing a quality Garo RCBO and a new contactor module, together with a new type 2 tethered cable and 6.00mm supply cable, back to the main breaker in the C.U.
So, the box itself has had a fully MOT & full 12,000 service ? and is pretty much a brand new unit in way of it's internals now !.
Oh ..... It also has a Wi-Fi relay installed in the case which will permit control from my phone for delayed / timed charging.
Remember when the ZS EV was first released, it was difficult for owners to control timed charging at all !.
If I was considering a new wall box now, I would go for either a Hyper volt or a Zappi.
Just saying !.
 
I have an 80amp fuse upgraded from 60amp. My just fitted Hypervolt charger has been set up to lower output amperage if it gets near safety fuse limit. From my understanding the charger monitors amperage used at any one time.
 
drjat said:
What would you go for between these:
Wallbox Pulsar Plus Tethered Unit 7.4kw for £499 (fully installed)
Vs
Zappi Tethered Unit 7.2kw with CT Clamp for £799 (fully installed)

PS: moving house in 1-2 years. Driving 50-100 miles per day. Do not have solar panels. Only want tethered option. Both units support Scheduled Charging. Struggling to find Wallbox reviews with MG5EV but lot of positive reviews for Zappi.
£300 is a fair bit of difference but is it worth it?
What would you suggest please?
Click to expand...
Absolutely a wallbox pulsar plus. It's a lot smaller, tethered, does scheduled charging, so much cheaper, I can't see why you would go for a zappi.

I have a wallbox btw
 
Joe said:

Zappi Problems?

Jordan seems to have fallen out of love with the Zappi. Any owners here having problems?
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com
Click to expand...
Hi @Joe .
Thanks for the link, I have Jordan’s chanel saved on my YouTube sub’s list.
Picked up his latest video only last night also.
Like him, I have become more than a little disappointed with the Zappi unit’s at the moment.
I actually think the earlier Zappi units where better built that the newer units being turned out at the moment.
If I needed a new unit, I did have the Zappi on my radar because they appeared to be a good quality and reliable unit.
However, even Jordan himself has lost more than a bit of faith in these once great units !.
The Zappi would be a bit of over kill for us because we don’t have any solar panels, but I DID like the fact they did come highly recommended at one time.
I have an older type dumb Rolec unit and we all know what that means, trouble !.
Therefore the long term reliability of a new unit would be high on my list of requirements, if I did consider replace it.
I DO like the features / looks of the Hypervolt unit, but as expected the reliability of these units is unproven as of yet, but time will tell of course.
If you are a higher user case person, who conducts almost all of their charging from their home address and therefore the unit is in constant use for long periods of time.
Charging from a low SOC to fully charged on a regular basis, then any unit is going to take a bit of a bashing IMO.
The car pulling 7 kw’s for 5 / 6 hours constantly from what is essentially a massive switch, is going to create a lot of heat and put the unit under a lot of strain with regular high usage.
I know all these units SHOULD have been extensively tested for this purpose before coming to the market, but never the less they are working hard, if used heavily.
I know electric showers ? can demand a similar or even heavier load above 7 kw’s , but most people don’t spend 5 / 6 hours in the shower.
Not in our house anyway !.
If you have an EV and therefore a wall box because you are a high user case, then it is very likely that this is going to be the heaviest consumer / demand / load your supply is pulling at any one time for a LONG time scale.
It is very clear to me that EV installers like Jordan, do NOT like making return calls to fix issues on wall boxes they have installed previously.
Time is money to these people and carrying out warranty work is NOT what they want to be doing.
Therefore falling out of love ? with a once thought reliable unit becomes a very easy task.
Time will tell with all of these units, but attending out of warranty repair work on these units, is going to become a big money spinner in the future I think ?.
The problem with this of course, is the wait time to get these units back up and running.
This is when your “Granny” unit comes to the rescue I guess !.
Quality and longevity is absolutely the number one key to the tick box list when choosing a wall box.
The problem is a lot of them have still to serve their time and earn the respect they need with EV owners in the field !.
That is where the real problem arises here.
As they say :- “Only time will tell” folks.
 
Lovemyev said:
Our house and many of the surrounding houses, where built around 1981 and almost all of them are running on 60 Amp main fuse protection cartridge's.
This was considered MORE than ample back then.
I am still running on that same 60 Amp fuse, and have a 7.0 kw wall box installed.
I just have to apply a bit of common sense, on how and when we are using electrical items.
The demands of each house hold is going to be completely different and their charging needs also.
When the wall box was installed about 5 years ago, we had a PHEV that was only pulling around 3.5 kw's via charger in the car and total charge time ( from zero to full ) was only about 2.5 hours.
Now with the ZS EV the wall box is working harder for longer of course !.
We are on a EV tariff with EDF that is on the cheapest rate from 10.00pm to 8.00am Monday to Friday and ALL week end.
So, our charging gets done inside of these these time frames, and when other demand is very low.
My close neighbour is having a Zappi wall box installed in a few weeks to charge his Tesla model 3 at home.
He is also running on a 60 Amp main fuse and he asked the DNO for an upgrade to 100 Amp's fuse because his EV installer suggested it.
I managed to grab the guy's doing the update about 2 weeks ago and they said that upgrading from 60 to 80 was just a matter of replacing the fuse cartridge, but upgrading to a 100 Amp fuse involved a bit more work, as the fuse head required replacing in our houses, because a 100 fuse is larger in size and would NOT fit inside the original older type fuse holder.
They have to replace the WHOLE fuse head assembly, that will accommodate the larger 100 Amp fuse.
He went on to explain that upgrading to 100 Amps fuse head would also necessitate an upgrade of the meter tails at the same time, in order to carry the extra load.
I believe this was all done FOC.
Time to carry out this work, about 20 mins !.
Click to expand...
Our house is circa 1890, also with 60 amp fuse - but we had an unused second phase also at 60amp. I too had a PHEV drawing 3.6kw from a Dumb Rolec In our garage. In order to install our 2nd EV charger in the front drive (EO pro) for the MG, DNO upgraded the original fuse to 80amp and combined the two tails giving us 140Amp in total single phase!! The EV charger installer added a load management fuse box FOC for the EO Pro and with max load set at 80amp for the original tail, although I doubt we would ever trip it with 140Amp to pull!! That’s how we got away with two 32A 7kw chargers at our house - both can be charged at the same time!
 
Happy with my HyperVolt so far, but I've only use it twice. The app is straightforward and informative, and scheduled charging works a treat. Luckily we're a recent build, and all electric (boiler, everything), so had a 100A fuse.
 
hi all
zappi been fitted tomorrow as I have solar and battery storage.

will be putting it through its paces over the next few weeks
 
Hi Everyone,

Firstly have to say what a great resource this is.

Got my MG ZS EV last Thursday and so far I'm very impressed. Can't see me driving an ICE ever again. Been using the Granny Charger so far and everything is working well. Having Octopus Energy Smart Meters installed next week, so have been looking into 7kw home chargers. After reading this thread I decided on getting the Hypervolt and was pleased to see that they are a local firm, so gave them a call and they recommended a local installer. After a site visit I have got the quote for the Hypervolt install. I am a bit worried as the quote came in around £835 (after the grant), which is quite a bit more expensive than the prices for installs others on here have posted.

The quote for the work is

"To supply and install a 7.5M tethered Hypervolt car charge point directly below the existing distribution board and replace the existing type AC RCD for a type A unit".

Does that sound reasonable to you ?

Any replies/advice will be gratefully received.

Cheers

Mark
 
Welcome Mark,

Glad you are enjoying the ZS EV. My Hypervolt installation cost £580. That was for full installation with no additional electrical work. It was also for a charger with a 5m cable but somehow I ended up with a 7.5m one at no additional cost.

There is also an excellent Facebook group which can answer any questions that you may have. Plus if you work for the NHS or in education then further discounts are available. Even though I retired from education 3 years ago Hypervolt gave me a retrospective discount in the form of £50 Amazon vouchers. How many other companies would do that?
 
I would recommend shopping around for a better quote….I managed to get my install down from £1000 to £600 by shopping around - in the end Octopus/NatWest were the cheapest for me… £300 in the end for an EO Pro untethered plus load management fuse box, that’s after OLEV grants and Scottish EST grant… and £50 off being an octopus energy customer
 
bollard1969 said:
The quote for the work is

"To supply and install a 7.5M tethered Hypervolt car charge point directly below the existing distribution board and replace the existing type AC RCD for a type A unit".

Does that sound reasonable to you ?
Click to expand...
I would shop around a little first before diving straight in !.
Any additional electrical work required by your EV installer will increase the cost quickly.
Cable length / bonding upgrades / stand alone C.U. units etc etc.
But from the brief description above, it APPEARS like a straight forward install ?.
If you get a second quote, that will give you a better indication I think.
 
Why not get a Wallbox ? I got mine for £499, its small, black, and tethered. I don't like those hypervolts as they look quite big and extremely white which stands out.
 
My Hypervolt installation is a bit more complex because I'm having my Consumer Unit upgraded to an 18th Edition at the same time. The Hypervolt element of the total invoice comes in at £568 inc VAT after the OZEV grant.
 

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