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"It costs about £900 in the UK to have an EV charger installed by an electrician" £900 is $1140. In southern California, it cost me $750 for top notch work and

by mrb 3y ago

"It costs about £900 in the UK to have an EV charger installed by an electrician" £900 is $1140. In southern California, it cost me $750 for top notch work and hardware, including: $400 to have an electrician install a 240V 50A outdoor outlet (NEMA 14-50), plus $350 for a good quality level 2 40A EVSE (this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082LMVSLY https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082LMVSLY) that I installed myself as it simply plugs in the outlet and it's just a 5-minute job to secure it to the wall with two screws. It's possible to bring the cost down to around $600 when picking a cheaper EVSE (like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LMX4TJR?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LMX4TJR?th=1), so about half the UK cost as reported in the blog post. I would love to see a breakdown of that £900... that seems really high.

Symbiote 3y ago
From some searching, I think paying an electrician to install a 32A CEE socket (often called "Commando" in Britain after a particular manufacturer) and then installing the EVSE yourself would be similar. Although there do seem to be some safety requirements for the socket if it's to be used for charging EVs, which increase the cost. Also, the £900 includes 20% tax.
- dbrgn 3y ago
  I talked to the electrician about using a CEE16 connector to charge the car. He said that this should only be done if you don't load it near its max (16A) for long periods of time. He's seen multiple CEE16 connectors that deformed condsiderably after a year of use with regular charging sessions at 16A. If you load it to 10-12A, it should be fine.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    I have servers and UPSs and so on connected with these sockets, drawing a high current 24/7. Just like every datacentre in Europe, UK included. They are only very rarely unplugged though. Is it a case of using a high quality socket which costs 2-3 times as much?
    - jseutter 3y ago
      Not the person you're asking, but it might also be where it is installed. The connector I looked up online is rated to +40C, and being located in direct sunlight on a hot day could derate the connector compared to a temperature controlled environment. Add in some dirt or corrosion in the connector and it will generate more heat. Like you said about buying a high quality connector, something with more margin in terms of current will help prevent problems from developing. The electrician may have been referring to the 16 amp connector specifically being too close to the charging current.
zelos 3y ago
I'm in the UK and I've got a charger being installed next week. The basic Ohme model is costing me £900 installed. Prices were the same pretty much everywhere I looked.
prmoustache 3y ago
Also. £900 is negligible and pocket change compared to the price of an EV, even in the second hand market.
- gambiting 3y ago
  No one looks at it this way, because extremely few people buy cars with cash. Majority of buyers buy a car on finance - and compared to the monthly £500 a car might cost you, £900 is not insignificant, that's nearly two car payments, and also I have no idea how wealthy you'd have to be to call £900 "pocket change". We have an EV and a PHEV, I had a charger installed back when government grants were much more generous, we paid £250 to have one installed, but nowadays I think I'd just make do with a 3 pin charger, or get a commando socket installed + OHME 32amp commando socket charger, much cheaper than this.
  - nsteel 3y ago
    I used a granny charger for the first 3 weeks after getting my EV. I don't use the car that much but even so, the painfully slow charging made it a hassle. And also remember, if you want access to cheap electricity, you need to use a "real" EVSE. This DIY one can't provide access to that either.
    - gambiting 3y ago
      >>And also remember, if you want access to cheap electricity, you need to use a "real" EVSE. Why? I was on Octopus Go for a long time, I'd just set the in-car timer to charge between 00:30 and 04:30, worked fine even with a 3-pin charger. It won't work with Intelligent Octopus, but it's by no means the only way to get cheap electricity. Not that it matters anyway, I kept a detailed log of our usage for months and concluded that GO wasn't actually saving us any money, the cheaper electricity at night didn't offset the energy used during the day, not at the idiotic prices they charged for peak usage anyway. We just switched to Octopus Tracker, I can charge my car at any point during the day and it's actually cheaper than being on GO.
      - 3y ago
michaelt 3y ago
> I would love to see a breakdown of that £900... that seems really high. The £900 will include: supply of a 7kW EVSE; adding a new circuit to your consumer unit/fuse box; running a few tens of meters of fairly expensive cable (6mm SWA suitable for outdoor and underground use) in a careful, tidy way; adding an extra ground point, if needed; an electrical safety test with a special tester; and issuing a certificate (which is mandatory for this type of installation). It'll take the electrician about a day. People in the UK pay a fairly hefty premium as we don't have as many qualified installers as we probably ought to. Of course, standard British sockets already supply 3kW - so the cheaper option is just to get an outdoor socket installed on an existing ring main. This is substantially quicker to install in most cases.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  > the cheaper option is just to get an outdoor socket installed on an existing ring main From my searching, this doesn't meet the current regulations of the socket is intended for EV use. The costs to make it compliant bring it up to the better options anyway.
  - michaelt 3y ago
    It goes without saying that you've got to have a 'granny cable' with appropriate protection - but AFAIK every EV comes with one of those. And of course, you'd fit a socket like [1] which is waterproof even when in use, and has a built-in RCD if your consumer unit doesn't have one. It's common sense when using electricity outside. And your installer will want to make sure the circuit has enough capacity to avoid nuisance trips - put your EV on the same circuit as your kettle, washing machine, dish washer and tumble dryer and you'll have a frustrating time :) But my point is, not every Brit with an EV spends £900 on EVSE - especially if they're only commuting two days a week, or they've got a plug-in hybrid. [1] https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-ip66-13a-1-gang-weatherproof-outdoor-unswitched-active-plug-socket-with-rcbo/889rg https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-ip66-13a-1-gang-weathe...
    - nsteel 3y ago
dbrgn 3y ago
Another recent example: I'm in Switzerland. I paid 550 CHF (630$) this summer for a "go-e Gemini" charger. I screwed it to the wall and ran a roughly 15m 3-phase 16A cable to the main fuse box (maybe around 50 CHF for cable and installation tubes), where an electrician connected it properly for 108 CHF (124$) and added an appropriate RCD for 116 CHF (133$). All in all, it cost me around 800-900 CHF (900-1000$). Without doing some of the installation work myself, the electrician would have cost me several hundred CHF more.
wcoenen 3y ago
£900 seems cheap to me. I'm in Belgium and I installed a charging point at my house earlier this year. The cheapest quote I got was 1300 euros. I ended up installing one myself, but spent almost as much anyway. 800 euro for an Alfen Eve charging point with support for OCCP protocol (for reimbursement of electricity cost by employer), about 200 euros in other materials (admittedly with some scope creep), 150 euros for the mandatory technical inspection...
benhurmarcel 3y ago
The UK VAT is 20%. California's sale tax is only 7.25%.
mrb 3y ago
Thank you for the dozen of you who responded. It's fascinating for me to see the large range of price points due to different regulations in different countries and also affected by different needs (eg. need to track kWh for subsdies).

by mrb 3y ago

Symbiote 3y ago

From some searching, I think paying an electrician to install a 32A CEE socket (often called "Commando" in Britain after a particular manufacturer) and then installing the EVSE yourself would be similar. Although there do seem to be some safety requirements for the socket if it's to be used for charging EVs, which increase the cost. Also, the £900 includes 20% tax.

dbrgn 3y ago
I talked to the electrician about using a CEE16 connector to charge the car. He said that this should only be done if you don't load it near its max (16A) for long periods of time. He's seen multiple CEE16 connectors that deformed condsiderably after a year of use with regular charging sessions at 16A. If you load it to 10-12A, it should be fine.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  I have servers and UPSs and so on connected with these sockets, drawing a high current 24/7. Just like every datacentre in Europe, UK included. They are only very rarely unplugged though. Is it a case of using a high quality socket which costs 2-3 times as much?
  - jseutter 3y ago
    Not the person you're asking, but it might also be where it is installed. The connector I looked up online is rated to +40C, and being located in direct sunlight on a hot day could derate the connector compared to a temperature controlled environment. Add in some dirt or corrosion in the connector and it will generate more heat. Like you said about buying a high quality connector, something with more margin in terms of current will help prevent problems from developing. The electrician may have been referring to the 16 amp connector specifically being too close to the charging current.

zelos 3y ago

I'm in the UK and I've got a charger being installed next week. The basic Ohme model is costing me £900 installed. Prices were the same pretty much everywhere I looked.

prmoustache 3y ago

Also. £900 is negligible and pocket change compared to the price of an EV, even in the second hand market.

gambiting 3y ago
No one looks at it this way, because extremely few people buy cars with cash. Majority of buyers buy a car on finance - and compared to the monthly £500 a car might cost you, £900 is not insignificant, that's nearly two car payments, and also I have no idea how wealthy you'd have to be to call £900 "pocket change". We have an EV and a PHEV, I had a charger installed back when government grants were much more generous, we paid £250 to have one installed, but nowadays I think I'd just make do with a 3 pin charger, or get a commando socket installed + OHME 32amp commando socket charger, much cheaper than this.
- nsteel 3y ago
  I used a granny charger for the first 3 weeks after getting my EV. I don't use the car that much but even so, the painfully slow charging made it a hassle. And also remember, if you want access to cheap electricity, you need to use a "real" EVSE. This DIY one can't provide access to that either.
  - gambiting 3y ago
    >>And also remember, if you want access to cheap electricity, you need to use a "real" EVSE. Why? I was on Octopus Go for a long time, I'd just set the in-car timer to charge between 00:30 and 04:30, worked fine even with a 3-pin charger. It won't work with Intelligent Octopus, but it's by no means the only way to get cheap electricity. Not that it matters anyway, I kept a detailed log of our usage for months and concluded that GO wasn't actually saving us any money, the cheaper electricity at night didn't offset the energy used during the day, not at the idiotic prices they charged for peak usage anyway. We just switched to Octopus Tracker, I can charge my car at any point during the day and it's actually cheaper than being on GO.
    - 3y ago

michaelt 3y ago

> I would love to see a breakdown of that £900... that seems really high. The £900 will include: supply of a 7kW EVSE; adding a new circuit to your consumer unit/fuse box; running a few tens of meters of fairly expensive cable (6mm SWA suitable for outdoor and underground use) in a careful, tidy way; adding an extra ground point, if needed; an electrical safety test with a special tester; and issuing a certificate (which is mandatory for this type of installation). It'll take the electrician about a day. People in the UK pay a fairly hefty premium as we don't have as many qualified installers as we probably ought to. Of course, standard British sockets already supply 3kW - so the cheaper option is just to get an outdoor socket installed on an existing ring main. This is substantially quicker to install in most cases.

Symbiote 3y ago
> the cheaper option is just to get an outdoor socket installed on an existing ring main From my searching, this doesn't meet the current regulations of the socket is intended for EV use. The costs to make it compliant bring it up to the better options anyway.
- michaelt 3y ago
  It goes without saying that you've got to have a 'granny cable' with appropriate protection - but AFAIK every EV comes with one of those. And of course, you'd fit a socket like [1] which is waterproof even when in use, and has a built-in RCD if your consumer unit doesn't have one. It's common sense when using electricity outside. And your installer will want to make sure the circuit has enough capacity to avoid nuisance trips - put your EV on the same circuit as your kettle, washing machine, dish washer and tumble dryer and you'll have a frustrating time :) But my point is, not every Brit with an EV spends £900 on EVSE - especially if they're only commuting two days a week, or they've got a plug-in hybrid. [1] https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-ip66-13a-1-gang-weatherproof-outdoor-unswitched-active-plug-socket-with-rcbo/889rg https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-ip66-13a-1-gang-weathe...
  - nsteel 3y ago

dbrgn 3y ago

Another recent example: I'm in Switzerland. I paid 550 CHF (630$) this summer for a "go-e Gemini" charger. I screwed it to the wall and ran a roughly 15m 3-phase 16A cable to the main fuse box (maybe around 50 CHF for cable and installation tubes), where an electrician connected it properly for 108 CHF (124$) and added an appropriate RCD for 116 CHF (133$). All in all, it cost me around 800-900 CHF (900-1000$). Without doing some of the installation work myself, the electrician would have cost me several hundred CHF more.

wcoenen 3y ago

£900 seems cheap to me. I'm in Belgium and I installed a charging point at my house earlier this year. The cheapest quote I got was 1300 euros. I ended up installing one myself, but spent almost as much anyway. 800 euro for an Alfen Eve charging point with support for OCCP protocol (for reimbursement of electricity cost by employer), about 200 euros in other materials (admittedly with some scope creep), 150 euros for the mandatory technical inspection...

benhurmarcel 3y ago

The UK VAT is 20%. California's sale tax is only 7.25%.

mrb 3y ago

Thank you for the dozen of you who responded. It's fascinating for me to see the large range of price points due to different regulations in different countries and also affected by different needs (eg. need to track kWh for subsdies).