vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Feb 26, 2019 20:22:38 GMT
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Right, I have recently bought a Renault Zoe for the daily commute and general dadding duties so I am now in need of a home charging point. I qualify for the £500 grant so through a company I decided to get a 7kw charging point. I sent them all the pictures and documents they required and everything was fine. They have now told me today that they won't do it until I have a dual pole isolation switch fitted as they will need to install the charge point directly from my meter and not the fuse board as the Zoe has higher than average earth leakage and can cause the main board to trip frequently. So I thought fair enough that makes sense. They won't do it because obviously you would need to pull the 100amp fuse and that's illegal unless you are trained. So I need to contact my supplier to pull the fuse  and fit an isolator switch and a couple of tail blocks to run to its own fuse board and then onto the charger.  I sent them this as a proposal and they said, no its not within the regs. It has to be in the box with the meter. I said are you sure that's what the regs say? I mean it is the same cable just on the other side of the wall and it will isolate the power coming in to the main fuse board. They said the engineer said it's not within the regs but they didn't know specifically what reg is was falling foul of. Long winded I know but does anybody KNOW the actual regulations regarding isolation switches? The other option is to get my supplier to pull the fuse just fit the whole lot and then have them put it back and seal it. If you know what I mean. |
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Feb 26, 2019 21:41:00 GMT
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That is not a good way of doing it, you fit a spliter box after the meter and run a dedicated consumer unit for the charger.
You don't need the isolator switch as the CU has one built in.
Alot of electricians are qualified to remove and reseal the 100amp fuse, so just get them to do the full job.
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1988 Mercedes w124 superturbo diesel 508hp
1996 Mercedes s124 e300 diesel wagon
1990 BMW E30 V8 M60 powered!
1999 BMW E46 323ci project car
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Feb 26, 2019 21:51:28 GMT
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That is not a good way of doing it, you fit a spliter box after the meter and run a dedicated consumer unit for the charger. You don't need the isolator switch as the CU has one built in. Alot of electricians are qualified to remove and reseal the 100amp fuse, so just get them to do the full job. That's the point though, they want an isolation switch because they won't pull the fuse. The splitter box is after the meter in the picture as is the isolation switch. This was so they could fit me a charge point for £250. If I were to have it done myself it will cost a lot more but obviously as you said I wouldn't need an isolation switch. Why is the isolation switch no good there out of interest? |
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Feb 26, 2019 22:59:03 GMT
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That is not a good way of doing it, you fit a spliter box after the meter and run a dedicated consumer unit for the charger. You don't need the isolator switch as the CU has one built in. Alot of electricians are qualified to remove and reseal the 100amp fuse, so just get them to do the full job. That's the point though, they want an isolation switch because they won't pull the fuse. The splitter box is after the meter in the picture as is the isolation switch. This was so they could fit me a charge point for £250. If I were to have it done myself it will cost a lot more but obviously as you said I wouldn't need an isolation switch. Why is the isolation switch no good there out of interest? You don't fit an isolation switch directly after the meter as it will then turn off every circuit in the house, which is bad practice. You use a second consumer unit so that when isolated it will only affect your charger. Also bear in mind a isolation switch has no fault protection, so hooking the charger directly up to one of those would result in the protection being the 100amp fuse. Again not a good idea. My reading of your picture has the meter at the bottom, under where you have marked for a switch. |
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1988 Mercedes w124 superturbo diesel 508hp
1996 Mercedes s124 e300 diesel wagon
1990 BMW E30 V8 M60 powered!
1999 BMW E46 323ci project car
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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You don't fit an isolation switch directly after the meter as it will then turn off every circuit in the house, which is bad practice. You use a second consumer unit so that when isolated it will only affect your charger. Also bear in mind a isolation switch has no fault protection, so hooking the charger directly up to one of those would result in the protection being the 100amp fuse. Again not a good idea. My reading of your picture has the meter at the bottom, under where you have marked for a switch. Thanks for reply, the company have requested it that way, they want it after the meter but in the meter box and I have suggested it be moved inside the garage as it would be easier for me, otherwise I would need to change the tails in the box so the switch could be located to the side of it. The only reason that it is required is that they won't pull the fuse to break into the feed but will use an isolation switch where fitted. The charger will have it's own CU taken off from after the isolation switch so if the charger does trip it won't effect the rest of the house. The long and short of it is, they won't pull the fuse because it's illegal for them to do so but they are fine flicking/turning a switch if one is present. They won't fit a switch because again that would involve them pulling the fuse so it's up to me to find an electrician to do it if I want the charger fitted by them. This seems to be a common requested for the Zoe when I looked into it, my only question is, is there a reg that states the iso switch needs to be in the meter box? Thanks |
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Feb 27, 2019 16:14:18 GMT
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You don't fit an isolation switch directly after the meter as it will then turn off every circuit in the house, which is bad practice. You use a second consumer unit so that when isolated it will only affect your charger. Also bear in mind a isolation switch has no fault protection, so hooking the charger directly up to one of those would result in the protection being the 100amp fuse. Again not a good idea. My reading of your picture has the meter at the bottom, under where you have marked for a switch. Thanks for reply, the company have requested it that way, they want it after the meter but in the meter box and I have suggested it be moved inside the garage as it would be easier for me, otherwise I would need to change the tails in the box so the switch could be located to the side of it. The only reason that it is required is that they won't pull the fuse to break into the feed but will use an isolation switch where fitted. The charger will have it's own CU taken off from after the isolation switch so if the charger does trip it won't effect the rest of the house. The long and short of it is, they won't pull the fuse because it's illegal for them to do so but they are fine flicking/turning a switch if one is present. They won't fit a switch because again that would involve them pulling the fuse so it's up to me to find an electrician to do it if I want the charger fitted by them. This seems to be a common requested for the Zoe when I looked into it, my only question is, is there a reg that states the iso switch needs to be in the meter box? Thanks There is no regulation that I can think of that requires anything to be fitted in the meter box. And I can't imagine any sparky would want to do that. I would ring back and ask if they are happy with the iso in a dedicated consumer unit (which is the iso anyway), as that is the way your sparky will want to do it. Remember they are not qualified electricians so cannot dictate to you what should be where, the decision will be made by your sparky as he is responsible for it. |
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1988 Mercedes w124 superturbo diesel 508hp
1996 Mercedes s124 e300 diesel wagon
1990 BMW E30 V8 M60 powered!
1999 BMW E46 323ci project car
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Feb 27, 2019 16:21:22 GMT
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carat 3.6 I think you've hit the nail on the head there, they are not electricians and pretty useless it turns out, so I've decided to pay a bit more and get some proper electrical contractors to do the whole install start to finish. Job starts Friday all being well, thanks for the advice. 
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Feb 27, 2019 20:15:10 GMT
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No problem, let us know how you get on.
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1988 Mercedes w124 superturbo diesel 508hp
1996 Mercedes s124 e300 diesel wagon
1990 BMW E30 V8 M60 powered!
1999 BMW E46 323ci project car
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Feb 27, 2019 20:40:52 GMT
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Send me your email and I’ll send you an email copy of the new 18th edition regs. Section 722 deals with car charging.
To install the charging points there is a course that you must do these days.
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Last Edit: Feb 27, 2019 20:41:48 GMT by pauly22
1994 BMW 525i touring
2004 BMW Z4 sorn and broken
1977 Ford Escort
1982 Ford Capri getting restored
1999 Mazda B2500 daily driver.
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Send me your email and I’ll send you an email copy of the new 18th edition regs. Section 722 deals with car charging. To install the charging points there is a course that you must do these days. Thanks for the offer, really appreciate it. it's all sorted now. |
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Its a shame the qualified electricians couldn't get the correct circuit breaker for your main board, Eaton stuff isn't that hard to find
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and fit an isolator switch and a couple of tail blocks to run to its own fuse board and then onto the charger.
