- Here at eFIXX we get asked to look at a lot
of EV charging points.
We've got one on the table today.
What makes this one special, Gordon?
- Okay. Well, this one's come from all the way
from Norway, Gary. And it's not just an EV charger.
It's described as an EV charging robot
manufactured by Easee in Norway.
- Okay. And what problem does it solve, then?
What makes this one special?
- Okay. So we have to think about EVs,
where we are today,
possibly in an office block or hotels.
People might have installed one or two charge points.
And what's that thing we hear whenever we go and visit
one of these installation? What do people say?
- Future-proof.
So in other words, we're thinking of the main's in,
the supply cable to that, and the ducting, etc.,
coming out to it in order that we can perhaps,
in the future, add more EV charging points.
- Okay. Well, believe it or not,
the charger I've got in front of me,
you can fit 101 of them on a single circuit.
- So you're telling me I can take a single supply
from the distribution board to 101 EV charging points
on one fuse?
- That's it.
- That's gonna solve a lot of problems.
But you're gonna need
to explain a little bit more to me, Gordon.
- Okay. Well, I think we'd best get this out of the box,
so we can see some of those features.
- [Gary] Pretty interesting to see this Easee charging unit.
- Okay. Well, let's get
this nice recycled packaging opened up.
So there's our Easee charger.
Now I would say, for a three-phase, 22 kW charger,
that is one compact unit.
- It is. And looking, oh, I love that design.
Imagine you've got 30 or 40 of those attached
to the outside of your building.
That's a very nice-looking unit.
- Yeah, some of them look a bit agricultural.
But let's have a look under the cover,
see what's hiding under there.
I get in with this special key.
Lift the rubber flap at the bottom, insert that-
- And we separate the two. - ... and we separate the two.
Immediately, Gary, I see something
you get really excited about, and that's grommets
and ceiling plugs and screws. - Thank you.
- You can have that for the second part of this video,
where Gary's actually gonna see
how easy this is to install.
- And you're gonna commission it.
- Yeah, so you'll need your instructions,
which you won't read. - Thank you very much.
- And I'll be back with the commissioning.
So this unit is different to a lot of other chargers
we see on the market,
in which it has a two-part housing to it.
One is the charger, and the second part is a base plate.
- You're gonna separate the two, yeah?
- [Gordon] Separate the two.
(housing snaps)
- [Gary] All right.
- [Gordon] That clicks out of there.
- Okay. Yeah, that's really good.
Things I'm not seeing that I'm used to seeing...
I'm not seeing the switch.
I'm not seeing a liquid crystal display.
And I'm certainly not seeing anything
like a CT clamp or connections for one, Gordon.
- [Gordon] Yeah. Well, that's the clever part of this.
So everything- - Yeah.
- Trust me, it has everything in there
that it needs to have, the right contactors,
inbuilt RCD function,
but the communication is the clever bit.
So it communicates wirelessly, so it can connect
to the Wi-Fi network or via the mobile phone network.
- Right.
- When you install the unit, you tell the master unit
what circuit rating it's connected to,
and then it wirelessly communicates with others
on the same circuit to dynamically share the load
to make sure you don't exceed that circuit breaker.
- So I'm just gonna pull a cable
from the distribution board
to each charging point in turn.
I don't need to put in a Cat5 or a Cat6 cable,
and because it knows the size of the fuse,
let's say 32 amps, it won't ever draw more than that
across, say, 30, 40, or however many
EV charging points you put in?
- Yeah. And that's the really clever bit about this system.
Now people are immediately gonna be thinking,
"Oh yeah, but everyone wants to charge at full power
for full part of the time."
So there's no limit in charging at 22 kW from each charger,
but let's not forget the problem in EV charging is
how much power does the building
actually have available. - Yeah.
And that's where technology like this really works.
- So we probably think of it in a different way now.
Let's say that there's 40 EV charging points,
and people turn up for work between 8:00 and 9:00.
They plug themselves in.
They're not necessarily gonna fully charge their vehicle up.
They're gonna take some of the charge that is available.
Maybe they've made a 10-mile journey to work.
Strictly speaking, you only need 10 miles of energy
to get back. And it's a different thinking, isn't it?
- Yeah. A lot of words we hear
at the moment is called "EV grazing".
You plug in and take power that's available to you,
but yeah, different people need different amounts of power.
You might have a sales rep who needs a lot
of power put into the car because you've got
a long journey coming up.
But the people who, say, are based in the office
might have only used that power
to have to commute backwards and forwards to work.
So as long as you can replenish that during the day,
you're not going to run into a problem
and that range anxiety we hear about a lot.
- [Gary] So as you've set me the task in Video #2
to install one of these Easee EV charging points,
can you go through some of the key features
from the installation point of view?
- Okay. Well, let's start with the base plate
because this is where some different thinking has gone in,
especially when it comes to IP rating.
So this is rated at IP34. - Right.
- Yeah. You've got the shocked look.
People normally are thinking of IP65, 66, 67,
but think of the Norwegian climate where this was designed,
and where loads of them are installed.
Very wet, it's going to be very cold, lots of sea air.
IP34 is fine as long as water can get in and get out
and not cause any damage.
- Yeah. That makes logical sense, yeah.
So it comes in but also can get out. Okay.
- Yeah. So we've got these various holes at the bottom,
and there's lots of cable entries,
so we're gonna be looping and looping out.
So I would suggest on our install,
we're gonna to go in these top entries here,
but you could also come from behind
or underneath the unit as well.
- Plenty of options there.
- Plenty of options.
- I notice also we've got some cord grips in here,
so we can actually secure the cables.
What type of cable are you gonna get me to wire these in?
- So we're gonna be using a Hi-Tuff cable,
which is essentially armored cable without the armor,
and again, that's becoming quite frequently used
on EV installations at the moment.
When you bring the actual charge unit together,
you've got these plug-in connections here.
It's just a case of you drop that in place,
slide it together, a good click,
and now the unit is rated at IP54.
- Ah. Right, okay. That's good. That makes logical sense.
So we're gonna be using this Hi-Tuff cable.
We've got the IP rating when the two units have been
put together.
I also see out of the corner of me eye
some lovely new versions of the cover-
- Oh, there is. - ... colors now.
I like the black one.
- I suggest this could be Star-Wars-inspired, Gary.
I know you like your Star Wars.
- [Gary] I'm thinking the Emperor's Guard, Stormtrooper,
and Darth Vader for colors.
I know there's other colors in this scheme,
but thank you for choosing these ones, yeah.
Very Star-Wars-themed.
- Yeah, and a nice eFIXX red.
And they also do this cover here.
- Right.
- Which doesn't actually have a cover plug in it.
- [Gary] Right, so what's that in aid of then?
(cover snaps)
- [Gordon] So again, remove my charging unit.
That's a blank cover. - Right.
- So imagine our installation
where we're gonna have 100 charge points installed,
you might choose to first fix the base,
and then you put this cover on,
and then come back at a later date
to actually install the charge module.
- So you could install, say, 20 or 40,
actually wire all 40 in, but actually on 20 of them,
just put this blank plate on,
not fit in this at all,
and then you've also got your future growth
in there all ready to go.
- Exactly.
- That's really good.
- [Gordon] So one last thing, possibly,
before we move on to the installation phase,
(unit clicks)
is we're normally used to seeing units
with either tethered or untethered...
Easee only make an untethered unit, which you plug
in your own lead. - Right. Okay.
- Or one that they manufacture.
- Yeah.
- The thinking behind that is, obviously,
if you've got a commercial installation,
do you really want to be responsible for lots
of different leads that can be left trailing on the ground
subject to damage?
No, you probably don't.
- [Gary] So I plug my EV charging lead in,
and I've moved away from my vehicle.
What's stopping somebody actually unplugging it?
- Okay. Another great feature that's built in
is this solenoid that will lock your cable in.
So that's great if you were, yes, away from your car.
Or say you were the apartment block,
and that's your dedicated charger.
You could leave your lead permanently connected
and drive off.
- [Gary] So we've seen there are some great features
of the Easee EV charging point.
In our next video,
I'm gonna go about installing one of these
and showing you how to connect them up
and perhaps how simple it is to do that.
And you're gonna show us, Gordon,
how to commission it.
So look out for the next video.