coming up in this series we install this EV charger we make lots of dust as we remove
a chipboard floor we get the grip with lots of wires as we change out the consumer unit
we watch an electrician try his hand at a spot of plastering
highlight some problems you may not even know existed and Gary vacuums a roof
welcome to this series where we're going to take you through the steps that we did to install
this EV charger in what is possibly one of the most difficult residential installations you could
possibly have to face when installing an EV charge and we've already looked at the challenges Gary
haven't we yeah we did and we reached out to you on social media when we walked you through from
the front of this building where the mains end is all the way to the back at the end of the garden
and you come up with some of the solutions that possibly we've incorporated in this video
yeah so whether you're new to installing EV charge points or you're possibly an end user
looking to have an EV charger we're going to take you through some of the challenges that we have to
overcome which may be useful if you're going to engage an electrician to do that install for you
or you're an electrician who's new to the market for the seasoned EV
charger installers we've got some great new products which includes things to speed up your
installation make it more reliable but even some software that can help you run your EV
business and gain more leads from the customers and make that whole process easier in the shape
of EV comply now new market EV charging there's also even specialist distributors and we'd like
to thank Replenishh who helped us source a lot of the equipment that you'll see in this video
we've chosen Myenergi Zappi 2 EV charging point and that means the PEN fault protection is built
within the unit itself meaning that we didn't have to go and drive an earth electrode into the ground
which could be really challenging here yeah it's a major installation problem solved one of the
other major reasons for picking this charger is this property has solar power which you can see
on the roof behind us now wouldn't it be great if we could divert some of that energy
into the charger and charge our car for free Gary yeah if we were going to do that we're going to
have to get onto the tails at the metering end in order to clip on a CT clamp that's going to
be challenging how we're going to get the cables from there to here Gordon well we've got a few
options again presented to us by the Zappi now we could do that hardwired right and we've got
some EV ultra cable in there but we've also got another option in the shape of the Harvi which
is a wireless current transformer that gets its power from the energy flowing in the tails
and then wirelessly communicates the data to the charge point here now we haven't used that before
so that's why we've hedged our bets because it's 30 meters from here and over the top of the house
back to the meter tails to get that signal so will it work well let's find out other issues we had
when we threw out to the community was can we fix the EV charging point to a non-permanent structure
in the form of this fence yeah it's obviously yeah challenging one where we shook the fence a little
bit i'd probably describe it as a little bit wamacky and we weren't comfortable fixing to that
so we had our friends at Skipton sheet metal they made us this custom steel bracket which is
substantial that's actually fitted around the fence post and then we've anchored that down
onto the kerbstone below so that's that problem solved so i guess Gary what we're going to do now
is trace this cable route all the way back and see some of the other challenges that
we had to solve and you told me that's 30 meters so we better get on with it
so Gary let's have a look at how we solve the challenge of getting the cable from our EV
charger which is on the fence behind the shed all the way back to the house itself we could have
lifted this brand new deck in removed the pebbles here and all the paving slabs and then dug out the
soil in order to bury the cable yeah and i don't think that would have gone down well with the
client you know it's about minimal intervention not major civil works in your back garden now
some of the viewers did suggest also we could have looked at a mole option Gary now it's not the
black furry thing we're talking about a pneumatically driven mole to thread the cable
all the way from the supply intake at the front of the house underneath all of this out to where the
charge point was now that is an option and there's a company offering that service for electricians
so perhaps if you had a long garden or an incredibly long driveway that may stack up but we
weren't quite ready to for that because it would have meant digging a significantly sized hole at
both ends of the of the cable run and outside is still the subject of some ongoing defects
liability with the builder so that was a no-go for us and we weren't going to fix it to defence for
the reason stated before this is a non-permanent structure so we selected 50 by 50 galvanized
trunking which was sprayed black yes we did yes to blend in now we could have obviously we could have
just left the cable on the surface i wasn't really happy with that and the client does have a dog
which is uh rather fond of digging and chewing at things so yeah dog with armored cable in the
mouth not really the best scene that we want to come back to we wanted to future-proof it so it
allows us to put garden lighting in as well and the customers also spoke and we're really excited
about this one about having a home bar Gordon yeah so in the future this shed behind us may be
transformed into a larger a larger building that's uh that's got a home bar in there and trust us we
will be along to check out the installation and any uh any any additional works that need to go
along with that but that's where again the Zappi comes in because we mentioned current transformers
so the Zappi not only handles one but actually can handle three current transformers that means we
could remove the cable that's currently feeding the Zappi EV charger and move it into the home
bar area where a consumer unit's been fitted and then it can manage the current load between the
bar area and the EV charging point yeah so again that's another another future-proof option that's
built into the Zappi the third current transformer in case you were asking and wondering about that
could actually monitor directly the amount of power being generated by the solar panels
all it remains now is to have a look at how the cables have gone up the wall and onto the flat
roof and then we'll be inside the house we're taking our EV ultra cable out the end of our
50 by 50 mm trunking we've brought it up the left hand side up onto this flat roof and we secured it
using our d-line safety d-clips clips we've seen on the channel before yeah we have we've
reviewed them and even come in a handy pack for EV installers and includes a drill bit
so once we're onto the roof obviously remember that roots are challenged it's a fibre glass
roof so we didn't want the fix to the roof itself certainly didn't want to drill through and open up
that uh open up that wormhole of problems so we've neatly clipped it around the parapets where we get
to a junction box where we're going to convert back to a six millimeter twin and earth cable
yeah we are and in there obviously the armored cable meets that twin unearth cables we've also
got a cat6 cable to continue the connectivity that we've allowed for at the EV charging point
yeah now client when you turn up with a thick armored cable they're wondering yeah i don't
want my house to look like a factory so we think the solution we've chosen here to get the cable
out to the EV charge point and neatly hiding it behind the parapet is yeah a pretty pretty neat
option we've now got to be faced with chipboard floor should we go inside let's have a look
so we've installed our EV ultra cable around the flat roof area we've brought it into a storm gland
and into a box and then inside the installation itself we've got a six mm twin and cpc cable and a
cat 6 cable but why have we changed wiring system within the house well we were just thinking it's
going to be a bit of a challenge to to run an armored version of that cable through the house
and then down to the distribution board and then have to have a gland bearing in mind we're trying
to keep things very neat and tidy when we get to the consumer unit if you haven't seen the EV
ultra cable before we've made a video about it but just have a little sneak peek at what's in there
it is the conventional cores you'd find in an armored cable plus the data cable you mentioned
now we're not using it necessarily for data at the EV charge point we've installed in fact we
might not be using it as all as we've said we're hoping the the Harvi will come to the rescue on
this but once again think about future proofing in two areas so the first one being the shed itself
meeting it will bar we might want him to improve the uh network access when we're working from home
the second thing if you know think about EV cars a lot of them have a significant degree of
intelligence in there which means they do over the year software updates and that's particularly with
the Tesla cars they need a wi-fi connection to do that software update so there's another reason why
having a data cable out down to the bottom of the garden could be a useful thing yeah
and as we rolled back the carpets and lifted the chipboard floors we also introduced some
extra points within the installation where there wasn't connection for the internet so we dropped
cat 6 cables off as well upselling as we went we also used the Runposticks in order to pull
our cable systems through the floors and work our way down towards the consumer unit yeah now
again upselling data okay great opportunity check out our networking series if you're not selling
data into your installs but again for this charge point if it was an ozev installation the charge
part has to be smart enabled and have internet connectivity minded you do that through a hub
now what we don't necessarily do is clutter up the area in the kitchen where the telephone
supply comes in and the broadband with another hub we've already added some other hubs for other
smart features in this house so by adding some data cables that allow us some flexibility to
possibly tuck that hub in this room or possibly one of the other rooms where we've dropped that
data cable into yeah and as we're working our way down towards the consumer unit that's
another thing that we're going to have to tackle we're going to have to change that consumer unit
and let's have a look at that next so before we head down to the consumer unit Gary see what we've
done there let's stop off at my favourite cupboard now we've spent a lot of time in here when we put
in an Netatmo smart thermostat system and had to make some changes to the s-plan wiring system now
we again we're thinking ahead there because we've now installed the Myenergi Eddi energy diverter
which we have featured before but we're going to use its true potential in this installation
linked to the solar panels on the roof but also it works as part of the ecosystem Myenergi have with
the charger we've installed as well so imagine you're out during the day you can't obviously
put the PV energy into your car instead the Myenergi Eddi will divert that energy
into the immersion heater to heat the hot water up and the Eddi and the Zappi work
as part of a system again coupled with that Harvi unit to tell when we're potentially going to be
exporting energy now we've made a separate video about the Eddi and specifically showing how we can
uh couple that to the existing gas-fired heating system so we've got all options covered so watch
out for that so behind us for those who have been following us on this smart home tour and
see that we've replaced the consumer unit we've done a separate video where we go into all the
reasons why we actually had to change it for this installation yeah but to get the cable
here this was the last bit of this epic journey from the charger out at the bottom of the garden
obviously had to lift the floor directly above it a bit tricky getting that last bit so we
have to uh yeah do a little bit of damage to the ceiling there and obviously a solid chase down
the wall and Ross has from RS Electrics has done a fantastic job patching that up we just need a
few of Gary's decorating tips to uh to put the wall back to where it should be so i guess now
the last bit we need to see is what we've done with that current transformer and that's outside
so here we are back at the origin of the supply where that journey started in our previous video
we've managed to get that cable all the way here Gary haven't we i was unbelievably sceptical when
you said to me we're going to put an EV charging point in this installation i thought there's no
way we're going to be able to do it and you proved me wrong as usual well i'll try my best so here's
the the Harvi we've mentioned through this video so will that radio signal link up to the charger
at the bottom of the garden and the Eddi device will put upstairs stay tuned for that video
while we're here let's have a look at this supply here because a lot of questions we get asked
regarding looped supplies which is a little bit of a challenge when it comes to installing EV
charge points that the electrician can't correct themselves gonna need some input from the DNO so
we've made a separate video about that check out that because that could be a challenging
install for another EV charger as always efixx we're interested in your comments
have you watched this and thought to yourself i've had a more challenging EV install and you'll leave
those comments below have you watched this and thought yourself maybe EV is not the thing i want
to get into it looks too challenging uh yeah i think that's me Gary i think i'll stick to
home garden bars that looks much more interesting and yeah i'll watch you do the EV install
is there any products we've used in the video that you've also used and you've got some top
tips but maybe we haven't covered in the video that you'd like to leave for the community as well
is there anyone in the comments struggling you know the answer if there is can you
answer those for us as well and we'll try and get back to as many comments as we can