Electric car charging pods

[Earthstore]

Surly a unit like that could just have a 3 pin plug on it, at the end of the day it is just a battery charger but in a big flashy case...

 

[HandySparks]

Surly a unit like that could just have a 3 pin plug on it, at the end of the day it is just a battery charger but in a big flashy case...

Yes, but it would need to be a very big 3 pin plug.

If you do some basic calcs:
The sign says empty to full in less than 30 minutes. A Nissan Leaf (for example) has a battery capacity of 24kWh.

So, you're filling the battery at a rate of 24kWh in half an hour, ie 48kWh per hour, =48kW.

At 230V, 48kW =209A. That's a big plug!

Or, more likely, on a 3 phase supply at about 70A.

The numbers will vary from car to car, but this isn't going to be too far out.

 

[Worcester]

24kWh @ say 15p/kwh = 0 to full for £3.60 mmmm and Range ~ 100m (New European Driving Cycle - Wikipedia) = 0.36p/mile

 

[drew35]

What's the big deal? Its an outside socket! With the free ones at the moment you get two, and they're the same as caravan hook ups. One pod accepts a standard 3 pin plug and has its own 16amp rcbo. And the other pod accepts a 3 pin 32amp plug and is protected by a 32amp rcbo.

Its not a charging station its just an outside socket! Manufacturers instructions state TT the sockets.

 

[LightGEN]

Some EV charging points are indeed just a standard Cee Form socket fed from a dedicated 32A RCBO and such an arrangement is fine for overnight charging at home, however, where faster charging is required, this arrangement isn't suitable. Fairly recently the European automotive industry has agreed on a standard plug, which supports single phase AC, three phase AC or high current DC charging, through a single connector. If I remember correctly they agreed to use a Mennekes/VDE automotive connector, though I haven't double checked this. There is also talk of using the charging cable as a data/control interface, though which all sorts of things could be supported, from simple 'charging completed' alerts to satnav updates, etc.

 

[jason121]

The top socket is 13amp the others are multi pin connection

 

[HandySparks]

24kWh @ say 15p/kwh = 0 to full for £3.60 mmmm and Range ~ 100m (New European Driving Cycle - Wikipedia) = 0.36p/mile

Actually 3.6p/mile
or perhaps half this if done overnight on E7?

 

[Worcester]

OK I new I my mafs werent g8 :juggle:

 

[Earthstore]

Yes, but it would need to be a very big 3 pin plug.

If you do some basic calcs:
The sign says empty to full in less than 30 minutes. A Nissan Leaf (for example) has a battery capacity of 24kWh.

So, you're filling the battery at a rate of 24kWh in half an hour, ie 48kWh per hour, =48kW.

At 230V, 48kW =209A. That's a big plug!

Or, more likely, on a 3 phase supply at about 70A.

The numbers will vary from car to car, but this isn't going to be too far out.

This is the spec for the Nissan Leaf,
The port on the left is for level-3 (480-V, 125 A) charging; the port on the right is for level-1 (120 V, 12 A) & level-2 (240 V, 30 A) charging. The plug for the right port is an SAE-J1772 standard plug. The plug for the left level-3 port is aCHAdeMO standard plug (up to 62.5 kW).

Bow to some of your expertise on this, but the max for fast charging is 125A for the fast charge, so 3 phase as you stated, or trickle charge is/can be single phase 30A.

If you put 209A into the batteries it would just boil them, not that I would recommend to fast charge them often at 125A either as it would reduce the battery service life tremendously.

The slower you charge a DC battery the longer it will last.

I hope this helps.

 

[HandySparks]

This is the spec for the Nissan Leaf,
The port on the left is for level-3 (480-V, 125 A) charging; the port on the right is for level-1 (120 V, 12 A) & level-2 (240 V, 30 A) charging. The plug for the right port is an SAE-J1772 standard plug. The plug for the left level-3 port is aCHAdeMO standard plug (up to 62.5 kW).

Bow to some of your expertise on this, but the max for fast charging is 125A for the fast charge, so 3 phase as you stated, or trickle charge is/can be single phase 30A.

If you put 209A into the batteries it would just boil them, not that I would recommend to fast charge them often at 125A either as it would reduce the battery service life tremendously.

The slower you charge a DC battery the longer it will last.

I hope this helps.

All well and good, but I just picked out the Nissan Leaf as a "typical" electric car which, therefore, probably has a "typical" battery capacity (of 24kWh), which is why I used the words "for example". It was just a route to calculating the likely power requirements of the charger shown.

I'm not suggesting that it would be a good idea (or even possible) to charge this particular car at a rate of 48kW, merely that the charger shown would not be capable of performing to its full capacity if its supply came via a domestic 230V 13A socket.

This was in reply to your assertion that "a unit like that could just have a 3 pin plug on it". Maybe I misunderstood your original meaning here.

 

[Earthstore]

Just trying to understand how these things work really, curiosity more than anything I suppose.
After reading some of the green deal thread and Barkers comments today I am glad I have left the industry for the time being.

 

[grantr37]

the Bollard I seen had a touchscreen and a line of multicoloured LED's on it......the supplied lead was so short that it would be a problem as every car has its charging point in a different place, some on the front right wing, some on the front left wing, others on the back left, back right or even on the rear bumper....

- - - Updated - - -

the Bollard I seen had a touchscreen and a line of multicoloured LED's on it......the supplied lead was so short that it would be a problem as every car has its charging point in a different place, some on the front right wing, some on the front left wing, others on the back left, back right or even on the rear bumper....

 

[moggy1968]

unless your going to TT every outside socket and every set of outside lights why do you need to TT this? It's just an outside socket and it only takes the equipotential zone outside the house in the same was as an outside socket ot outside lights, and less so than a detached garage, which, I was told by my assessor and ELECSA does not need to be TT as long as it's not too far from the house (they declined to define 'not too far!'

 

[moggy1968]

Actually 3.6p/mile
or perhaps half this if done overnight on E7?

what this doesn't take into account (and neither does the advertising for the cars, unsuprisingly) is the enormous cost of replacing the batteries in a few years time. That and the high initial cost of these vehicles means they are about the same running costs as a normal mid range car over the average lifetime.

what they also don't tell you is battery performance will deteriorate over time, so although it may get you to work now, it may not in 5 years time.

Also, if you look at whole life emissions rather than just tailpipe emissions, they are considerably more poluting than most other cars out there.

The whole electric car thing is a case of the kings new clothes.

rapid charging is a boost charge to top the battery up, you need to trickle charge it when you get home to fully charge the battery and mainatin it's life expectancy

 

[LightGEN]

As with solar PV, it's all about getting the market moving and production volumes up. I suspect that, five years down the line, replacement batteries will be much cheaper than they are currently. Time will tell.