- Coming up on this week's news, online retail giant
Amazon is now selling EV charge points
and it's even offering to install them.
Experts predict that the soaring cost
of materials will be a massive challenge
for electrical contractors in 2023
and a family of four is told by a major energy company
that they owe nearly a million pounds
for their electricity bill.
Welcome to Electrical News Weekly
in association with Myenergi.
Whether you're listening in the van, on site
or down at the wholesale counter,
I'm Richard Osman's doppelganger Joe Robinson
and I've been through the best
of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble.
And as always, if you think you've spotted the two words
that I've been challenged to slip
into this week's show, comment with them below
for the chance to win a prize.
Amazon has started selling EV charge points
and it's even offering to install them.
The online retail giant is stocking chargers made
by Spanish firm Wallbox.
They're priced at £543
and customers can then add installation
to their basket for a fixed price of £650.
Amazon then sends what it calls a certified technician
to conduct a one hour pre-installation visit.
Their job is to assess the electrical setup at their home.
The final installation lasts
between two and four hours, says Amazon.
The job includes up to 10 meters of cabling,
installing a three-way consumer unit,
providing circuit protection and drilling through a wall.
Customers pay the total upfront
with no additional charges afterwards.
It's believed that Amazon has teamed
up with a tradesperson agency to manage the work.
It's not the first time the company
has offered installation.
In recent years, it's added an installation service
for some of its LED lights.
One EV charger that's unlikely to be installed by Amazon
or anyone else is the so-called iconic one commissioned
by the then Conservative Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
It all started really well.
The charge point was supposed to be a great British symbol
for the 21st century.
It would be the red phone box, the London bus
and the black cab rolled into one.
The rest of the world would be green with envy.
After much anticipation, the charger was unveiled
to an expectant world at the Climate Change Conference
in Glasgow to great fanfare
and before the world's slavering press,
Mr. Shapps himself pulled away the cover to reveal,
well, a bit of a boring black bollard, really.
And the world was no longer green with envy
and the slavering press and everyone else went home
and pretty much forgot about it.
Now the Department for Transport has admitted
that the charger may never actually be installed
on Britain's roads.
It says that the concept was never intended
for manufacture or deployment.
They also say the £200,000 project was, however,
money well spent because it helped generate interest
and excitement for the UK's electric vehicle program.
One organization that's definitely getting excited
about EV chargers is electrical manufacturer Eaton
but it thinks we've all missed a trick.
The company says charge points should be bidirectional
as standard, so that electric vehicles
can charge the national grid when necessary.
Under the plan, homeowners would be paid
for energy supplied back to the grid to meet peak demand.
It says its independent research shows
that using bidirectional EV chargers,
together with renewables such as solar panels,
could save the typical homeowner
around a thousand pounds per year.
That's around 90% of the average annual cost
of charging a mid-sized family car.
One barrier is that not many vehicles are capable
of bidirectional charging at present.
Eaton is now calling on the government
to speed up the integration of vehicle to grid charging
into the electricity network.
It can do this by rewriting the grid codes
that govern the technical requirements
for connecting to the electricity grid.
And if you haven't already watched it,
Gordon has created a whole video
about the push for vehicle to grid.
It really is fascinating
and I've left a link to it in the show notes,
so check that out after finishing the news of course.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland,
there is potentially bad news for EV drivers.
The government there is threatening to ban electric cars
for all but essential trips
if the country suffers an energy crisis this winter.
It's also considering restricting shops
to just two hours trading a day, banning games consoles
and bizarrely, ordering the heating systems
to be turned off in nightclubs.
The Swiss rely on hydropower for much of their energy
but poor rainfall in the summer has left this depleted.
While the energy crisis may be concentrating the minds
of governments, it's the soaring cost of materials
that electricians need to worry about, say experts.
ElectricalDirect reckons it will be
the number one challenge facing the trade in 2023.
Half of contractors surveyed have already put it
as their top worry going into the new year.
One in five said they were concerned
about getting hold of materials in the first place,
and one in four are anxious
about finding people to fill vacancies.
However, a quarter of UK electricians are staying positive.
They expect their companies to be more successful next year
than they were in 2022.
Now, how's your hearing?
I said, how's your hearing?
The reason I ask is that noise has been identified
as a major occupational hazard for electricians.
Power drills, for instance, can easily exceed 100 decibels.
The experts at Hellberg Safety say
that long-term overexposure could even lead
to permanent hearing loss.
They recommend keeping noise levels to a maximum of 75 db.
If you're unsure of what that noise level is,
a useful rule of thumb is that if you need
to raise your voice to be heard
when you're about three feet from someone,
the noise level around you is too much.
If you can't avoid the noise,
it recommends a pair of hearing protectors.
And finally, a family of four were told by EDF
that their electricity bill for one year
would be nearly £1 million
and had £80,000 removed from their account by direct debit,
even though they told the energy company
that this was incorrect, and they hadn't used anything like
that amount of electricity.
The Barron family of Deal in Kent contacted their fraud team
at Lloyd's Bank who refunded the money
before it could do any serious damage
to any of their other payments that were due.
And despite all this dad, Richard Barron, noticed
that EDF were lining up to do the same thing again,
preparing to take a further £80,000
from their account on Christmas Day.
This prompted the beleaguered father of two
to cancel his direct debit,
which was technically a violation of his contract,
and led to the family being put on a more expensive tariff,
costing £100 more per month.
Although initially no apology to the family was issued,
after being contacted by the press,
the giant energy firm stated
that a review would be undertaken
to make sure it wouldn't happen again.
And they told the Guardian that,
"We've been in touch with Mr. Barron to apologize and agreed
for EDF to apply a gesture of goodwill to his account
and have reinstated the direct debit
at his requested level".
I'm sure we'd all like to congratulate the Grinch,
sorry EDF, for this incredible gesture
of boundless generosity.
Speaking of generosity, if you'd like to make a gesture
of goodwill that actually means something,
a reminder that the eFIXX Awards are now open
and entries are absolutely free
until Friday the 14th of January, 2023.
We're on the hunt for inspiring installers, epic educators
and wholesome wholesalers.
So what are you waiting for?
All you need to know is on the website
and I've popped the link in the show notes.
That's it for this episode,
but coming up on our YouTube channel this week,
we've got a full install
of a BG SyncEV charger with our tame electrician Ross
and you'll find a companion video
over on our Green channel, eFIXX Energy,
where we ask if you should have a tethered
or an untethered charge point.
Make sure you're subscribed over there
as we ramp up content production on all things energy.
We also have a Q&A on how RCDs were affected
by the launch of the Second Amendment to the 18th edition.
And on our last live stream of the year, it's the big one.
We're making sure all the screw heads
in our sockets are vertical, all our labeling is present
and that our CPCs aren't twisted together
as we welcome Technical Regulations Manager
for the IET, Mark Coles and Graham Kenyon,
who amongst other things is the chair of JPEL/64.
He wrote this book
and together they helped to write this book.
This is a big deal that they're coming on the show
and you won't want to miss it,
so make sure you're subscribed
and you have your notifications turned on
to get your reminder.
If you think you know the words I've smuggled
into this week's show, pop your guess into the comments
and we'll dig out a goodie bag prize
to the first to get the right answers.
Last week's words were boogiewoogie and canoodle,
and the first person to kick the right answer
in was Matt Beddow.
He wasn't entirely convinced he'd spelt them right
but to be fair, I wasn't sure either
and we decided not to hold it against him.
So well done to you, Matt.
Click the link in the description below to claim your prize.
Thanks for listening to this episode
of Electrical News Weekly in association with Myenergi.
Make sure you subscribe to receive the next update,
and until next time, have a great week.
Stay safe out there.
And remember, there's no such thing
as a torque calibrated arm.