The Parking Space Is Nowhere Near The Meter

What's happening?

Distance is the quiet cost driver in a charge point install, and it works on two axes. The first is the run from the consumer unit to the charge point: the further it goes, the thicker the cable has to be to keep voltage drop within limits at 32A, and the more the route matters. Clipped along a wall is cheap, buried across a lawn at the depth required for a duct is not, and going under a driveway means either a mole or a trench and reinstatement. The second is the run from the charge point to the car's socket, which is fixed by the lead and by where the car's inlet sits. A charge point mounted for tidiness on the house wall can be five metres from a car parked nose-in with its inlet at the rear. Installers should be measuring both before quoting, and the answer is sometimes a post or pedestal near the space rather than a unit on the house.

What usually causes it?

• A detached garage or outbuilding with no supply of its own, or only a lighting spur
• A long driveway where the practical parking spot is well away from the building
• A consumer unit at the back of the house with the parking at the front
• A concrete or block-paved driveway between the two, so any buried route means lifting and relaying
• A car whose charging inlet is on the opposite side or end from where the unit was mounted
• An existing garage sub-main that is too small to add 32A of charging to

Is it dangerous?

The risks here are all about what gets improvised. A charge point fed from an old garage sub-main that was never sized for it, an extension lead crossing a lawn, or a buried cable laid without a duct or marker tape and no record of where it runs, are the three that cause trouble later: the last one usually when somebody puts a spade through it. Cable buried in the ground has to be at a suitable depth and mechanically protected, and the installer should record its route.

Can I fix it myself?

Measure before you book. Park where you normally park, note which end of the car the charging inlet is on, and run a tape from there to the two or three places a unit could sensibly be mounted. Standard leads are commonly five or seven-plus metres, so knowing the real distance decides the mounting point and whether you need a longer lead or a tethered unit. Also work out what is under any ground the cable would cross (a soakaway, a gas service, an old drain run), and say so at the survey.

When should you call an EV charger installer?

Call an installer once you know where the car actually sits. They will decide the cable size for that distance, whether the route can be surface-clipped, and whether the outbuilding needs its own sub-main rather than an extension of the existing one. Involve them before any driveway or landscaping work, since laying a duct while the ground is open is far cheaper than digging it up afterwards.

What will the EV charger installer actually do?

• Measure the cable route and calculate the size needed to keep voltage drop within limits at full load
• Choose between a surface route, a buried duct or a new sub-main to an outbuilding
• Install buried cable at the correct depth with mechanical protection and marker tape, and record the route
• Position the unit so the supplied lead reaches the car's inlet with slack, rather than stretched
• Fit a post or pedestal where a wall position cannot reach the parking space
• Test the completed circuit and certify the work, including the earthing arrangement at the outbuilding

Who fixes this

• EV charger cable installation
• EV charger installation

What it usually costs

EV Charger Installation Cost

£1,000–£1,000

Questions people ask

Sources & References

1. IET: Code of Practice for Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation
2. IET: BS 7671 Wiring Regulations