In this series of videos we're going to look at installing an EV charger now you may
recognize the house behind us because it's a house we've been using as that part of our smart home
takeover but in this it's not so much a takeover we're going to be putting some new kit in in the
shape of an ev charger now a lot of people ask us how easy is that process well the process can be
incredibly easy if you're right next to the supply coming into the house and you've got a parking
area at the front but in this if you look around us here that's not quite so easy unless you want
to demolish the wall lower the curb and re-tarmac the front garden. So where can we park? where's Gary ?
luckily the property has a designated parking space here at the back of the property and this
is where the ev charge is going to be installed however we couldn't be any further away from the
consumer unit if we tried we're going to go back to the origin of the supply and we want your input
in the comments please give us all the ideas tips and techniques you believe that are going
to need to be done by the electrician in order to get the supply to here for an ev charging point
so we're here at the origin of the supply few important things we need to find out here before
we get started is there enough power coming into the property in the first place now we're still
going to need to notify the DNO when we do the EV install but looks like we're in luck here because
there's 100 amp fuse labeled up there next thing what about that earthing system because that's
going to affect how we connect to our av charger again you can see that's a TN-C-S earthing system
so again some choices there to make and handy the DNO fitted a double pole isolator for us so we can
obviously, disconnect the supply safely should we need to add any additional equipment at this end
so inside of the consumer unit it is plastic but when i drop it down there are no spare ways we've
also got solar pv in there which may come in handy as we go through the installation but the
rcds themselves we've got two rccb's and they are ac rcds so there's a bit of a dilemma here do we
install a separate consumer unit metallic in the hallways obviously not going to look the greatest
or do we need to change this board to allow for a further extension of the wiring system in other
words our new circuit and other new circuits in the future so we've got the consumer unit mounted
in the hallway downstairs now okay not the best place not the best you know do you really want
to look at your consumer when you walk up and down the stairs but that's not the end of the problems
next one it's actually mounted underneath these stairs here so how do we get the cable
underneath those stairs down to the consume unit let's have a look at the flooring so if
we just peel back the carpet here you can see as you expect chipboard flooring and obviously the
boards they're running that way which means the joists are running this way so there's another
dilemma again we're gonna have to drill a lot of joists to get the cable from the front to the back
so let's have a look oh and it doesn't end there so we've got a bathroom and the floor has been
tiled it's got electric underfloor heating so we don't want to disturb that so there we have oh
watch it gary savage animal in there we've got to cross that bedroom floor to get to the back wall
of the property this property already benefits from solar pv i've got the inverter behind me
but is that another consideration for the type of ev charger that we could select for this property
will it mean that we'll have to install some ct clamps somewhere in the system as well and if
we do so does that mean then that that energy can be rediverted to the car and we can drive around
on sunshine so just when we thought we'd manage to escape the building this dilemma comes along we've
got a section here flat fibreglass roof underneath that's supported in the living room by an
RSJ so how we're going to get the cable past this obstacle down to gary and then i've got to come
down the wall behind the actual downpipe there's already a steel armoured cable and a couple of SY flexes
i've got to come underneath the decking i've got gravel i've got paving can i secure the new cable
to this the fence in order that i can get to the back of the property wherever ev charging
points going to be installed so i've had the old estate agents measurements out and actually i make
this about oh i don't know 200 meters from the consumer no seriously measured it at 30 meters
or there are there about so add a little bit of tolerance in there but that's quite a distance
you know what we're going to put in seven kilowatt charger that's the maximum you can have on the uk
domestic installation so we think volt drop is going to be the big issue will we get away with
a six millimeter cable will we have to go up to 10 millimeters which adds obviously bigger holes
a bigger cable to conceal well that's some route to get us to here all it means now is we pass over
the cable length to joe in order that he can do the calculation for us my final dilemma is can
i secure the ev charging point here on this fence by the side of the parking space we're interested
in your comments especially on this video we want them below and we will try and get back to
as many as we can check out the next video to see if your comment got implemented in the next video