EV charging cables useful information - customer questions

At Third Rock Energy EV, we are always trying to provide useful information about EV charging. Here are a few of our customer questions which we have answered

Q: How long does it take to charger my car?

A: There is a quick and easy calculation you can do to answer this question. Take the size of your car battery and divide it by the Kw per hour that your charger and cable provide. For example, a Tesla with a 74kW battery will take 10hrs to fully charger from a 7.4kW charger using a 7,4kW EV charging cable. The same Tesla would take 24.6hrs to charge using a 3kW plug in charger. 

Q: Do I need a Type 1 or Type 2 connection?

A: You can now check your EV charging type using our new vehicle checker on our home page  However, there is a quick and easy way to check as well. If you look at the charging socket on your electric car, it will either have 5 or 7 pins. A Type 1 socket will have 5 pins and a Type 2 socket will have 7 pins. If you still have any doubts, please feel free to get in touch! 

Q: How much will it cost to charge my EV?

A: You can calculate the cost of fully charging your EV whether you are at home or using a public EV charger. Simply check your pence per kW with your electricity supplier and times this by the size of your car battery. For example, if you are paying £0.33 per kW with your energy supplier and you have a 74kW car battery, the total cost for a full charger will be 74 x £0.33 = £24.42

Q: Is it worth signing up to an EV tariff? 

A: This one is a little more difficult to work out and will very much depend on your personal circumstances. At the time of answering this question, the guidance we offer is that if charging your EV is 10% or more of your overall electricity bills then there should be savings to be made. In simple terms, if you fully charger your EV at home at least twice per week then EV tariffs are worth exploring

Here are some other key considerations. 

• Your EV tariff will be much cheaper than most energy suppliers standard tariffs, however this will only be the case for 5 to 6hrs each day usually starting at midnight.
• The tariffs vary but will usually be around 7p per kW during the 5-6hr EV period. However, in order to receive this lower rate, your non EV period will often be higher than the standard rate. Try and work out how much of your weekly electricity consumption is dedicated to your EV
• How much electricity do you use during the day between say 6am to midnight? If you have people at home all day or even working from home you will probably be using quite a bit of electricity at the higher rate. 
• EV tariffs will probably have a slightly higher daily standing charge. 
• Most EV tariffs will require that you have a smart home charger installed so that the energy supplier can monitor your dedicated EV charging consumption.
• If you have a plug in Hybrid, the battery capacity of the car will be low at around 15kW therefore your EV electricity consumption will be low and will be unlikely to unlock savings vs a standard electricity tariff

Q: Can you recommend an EV tariff?

A: All energy suppliers will now offer EV tariffs and will offer you some useful calculation tools. Rates change all the time so making a recommendation is difficult. However from our experience, here are some of the competitive and easy to use sites.

Octopus Energy: The UK's most awarded energy supplier

Find our best EV Tariffs for your electric vehicle

EDF's EV Tariffs For Your Car And Home | EV Tariffs | EDF

Q: Do I need to install a smart EV charger at home?

A: If you have a fully electric vehicle then we would advise that you install a smart EV charger at home. If you have a plug in Hybrid then you can probably get away with using a portable EV charger or utilise the public EV charging infrastructure.

Here are a few key considerations when choosing the best EV charging set up for your circumstances.

• How often do you charger your EV? If you do over 100 miles a week and need to fully charger your EV at least once a week then a smart EV charger is a good idea. If you are only doing a small amount of miles each week then you can probably charge your EV using a portable EV charger or utilise the public EV charging infrastructure.
• Portable EV chargers are designed for shorter term use and will take a long time to fully charger a fully electric car. Only Hybrids or low mileage drivers should consider this as their sole source of charging
• Installing a smart EV charger can be expensive depending on how easy it is to install. Always make sure your installer visits your home first to be able to provide an accurate quote. If the installer needs to run a lot of cable or dig trenches in the ground, this will add costs to the installation.

Q: Can you recommend an EV installer?

A: We would always recommend using an installer that is local to your area so they can easily visit your home to provide an accurate quote. As such it is difficult to recommend a specific company, however we would recommend using the search term 'EV installers near me'

As with any large purchase, we strongly recommend checking reviews and customer testimonials before deciding who to invite to quote for your installation.

Q: What are the key safety features that I should look for when buying EV charging cables?

A: All reputable UK suppliers should openly display the following information on their website and product data sheets:

• TUV & CE certifications
• AC & DC RCD leakage protection
• Max 10A/13A rated for 13A UK portable chargers (never 16A. 16A is an EU product and is not safe to use in the UK) If you need a 16A charger to use in the UK then the charger will have a commercial blue plug
• Clear Warranty policy that is managed by the UK supplier and not managed by the manufacturer
• IP rating (weatherproof) this should be a minimum of IP65 for portable chargers
  
• Ground protection Yes
• Leakage current protection AC 30mA DC 6mA
• Over current protection Yes
• Over voltage protection Yes
• Under voltage protection Yes
• Over temperature protection Yes, for the control box, over 77 ° C 
• Over temperature protection Yes, for the input plug, over 65 ° C 
• Short circuit protection Yes
• Lightning surge protection Yes
• Self-diagnosis of faults Yes