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Well today was the day I was due to have my charge point installed.
Guy from BG turned up promptly today and pretty promptly told me that he couldn’t do an install as our wiring wasn’t suitable. Our garage is detached from our property with its own mini distribution box rated at max 40amps and the wire that comes from the house which was installed from new (new build late 80’s) was only 4mm and it had to be 6mm. The main meter box has a 100amp fuse.
He said he was not allowed to make any alterations to our wiring and the max wire from the house he could install was 10m. He seemed very knowledgeable about the Zoe and how they can be prone to tripping out the whole house and for that reason it has to have its own breaker so if ZOE does trip it won’t trip out the whole house.
There were two options, both having to be done by an approved electrician which were a tension wired from the house to the garage (no way) or surface mount down the side of the house, along the front door step then follow the fence down to the garage. Either way it’s going to costs ££hundreds.
To say I’m hacked off is an understatement. The only questions that are asked by BG are do you have off-street parking, is your building listed and a few other very general questions.
I have managed to get an appointment with and electrician who is coming round later today, so I am hoping that he can do it. The guy from BG left his number so the electrician can phone him if he needs to check any details of the install which seems quite specific.
Its seems I’m not the only one as all the appointments he has had this week he has not been able to install due to inadequate wiring.
I had a very similar experience.
I was due to get my Zoe in October 2013 and wanted everything ready by September so tried to book BG in for July when I was on holiday. No luck so they did a saturday in September.
They came in to my garage (next to my house, no issues that I thought etc etc) had a look round and said it was near perfect for the box etc (they did the mobile phone test too which I was not aware of!). Then they looked at my electric box and said they could not install.
I can’t recall exactly what the issue was but they could run the wires out of my box as it was full. An electrician was going to be needed to sort the issue out first.
I rebooked BG for the following saturday knowing that my electrician was amazing and could do the job. Within that week he came round twice and sorted the problem for less than the normal cost, unsure why BG could not have done the relatively simple job themselves.
So it all got sorted in the end.
But do you think BG arrive that saturday…? or the saturday after…? Nope.
When you spoke to BG to arrange the install did they not ask if you had a suitable fuse box etc and the break in box (or whatever its called)?
Regardless I still had a bit of hassle in that I wasn’t asked if I had spare room in my fuse box for the breakers (so I didn’t volunteer that info).
When the engineer arrived it seemed no issue for him to install a breaker, only problem he didn’t have one with him, so drove to the next town to buy one (and got himself a McD’s while he was at it lol). It took a good 3 hours to complete the job (so much insulation under my 1 year old extension), and as he was 3 hours late it basically meant a whole day off work when it should have been max a couple of hours in the morning (or so I’d been told).
That’s a pity. EDF came out and did a thorough inspection first on us which makes sense and we did this before we decided to purchase an EV. Big problem if people are buying a Zoe assuming a charger will be fitted on such a simple check.
There were two options, both having to be done by an approved electrician which were a tension wired from the house to the garage (no way) or surface mount down the side of the house, along the front door step then follow the fence down to the garage. Either way it’s going to costs ££hundreds.
Exactly the same issue I have. I am buying my own variable rate unit though, which will happily run on my current garage electrics.
Long term I’m going to fit a catenary wire, 6mm cable and build my own charge point.
I had already worked out that I wasn’t eligible for the BG install as detached garages are specifically excluded in their T&Cs. Maybe the Renault sales people need to be making people aware?
@sandy The only questions BG asked was did we have off street parking and is our property listed.
@aj Although our garage is detached its not in a block separate from the house, its just detached from the house and forms part of out property boundary.
It seems I am incorrect about the detached garages thing, although i must have read it somewhere!
It’s not in the T&Cs though, so you should be fine provided your cabling is suitable: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy-saving-products/electric-vehicles/terms-and-conditions
I was due to have my charge point installed today, only two days after sending in my application, because they had a cancellation but on sending photos of the house electrical installation its stalled. Although I have a feed to the garage which is separate from the house consumer unit, and has its own RCD and isolating switch with a 40A MCB the RCD is not compatible with the Zoe and has to be changed. It was at this point process stalled because there is no isolating switch between the meter and the RCD. So now I await a call from Western Power Distribution to arrange to have an isolating switch fitted.
Fortunately for us there are Ecotricity and Source West public charge points within a few miles of home.
(My wife said “I assume the dealer will charge the car up before we collect it.” and I said “Of course they will.” and then I wondered will they? Like many Renault dealers they only have a slow charger. One dealer I visited on holiday was charging from a 13A socket via a granny cable.)
Fred
I sympathise with you.
We have an electrician coming round on Monday to put a completely separate circuit in for us which includes 27 metres of armoured cable, Henley block, double pole isolator etc. We have double checked all of the things the electrician is doing with the BG guy and he has said all sounds good. He will hopefully come around next week to fit the charger.
Good luck with getting your wiring sorted
Just been given June 1st date for the isolator switch install by Western Power Distribution.
British Gas will have to change the RCD type after this.
Scheduled delivery date for car … June 1st.
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