The OLEV electrician teams wont do any work on the house electrics until all the jobs the OLEV people want you to do are done, It's going to be a problem for sure in the coming years with older housing stock.

Sorry if I’ve missed this question: we have an MCB consumer unit and currently there are two 45A loops, both terminating in the kitchen. I’m moving the kitchen and laying a new loop in the (old) dining room for the cooker.
I’m very tempted by the deals on the MG5 although a glass topped ZS would be nice. Just wondering if you can fit your own 7Kw charger on a redundant shower circuit? Currently it’s 6mm but could easily change it to 10mm.
Sounds like this OLEV grant is more hassle than it’s worth?


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I'd recommend you change it to 10mm. If you're OK with electrical work, that would do the trick. 6mm would be marginal for long term continuous charging at 7kw.

On the subject of electric vehicles. I was reading on the BBC News website a week or so ago they're beginning to wonder what they're going to do with life expired electric vehicle batteries. At the moment manually dismantling is the only option, labour intensive and hazardous.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56574779

I didn't go with the OLEV grant for the same reasons, Too expensive over & above the £350 grant & too much hassle lifting carpets/floorboards in multiple rooms to re-route wiring especially for earth bonding clamps on water/gas pipework, Newer house have utilities all in much the same place, these old house have utilities at opposite ends of the house & at ceiling height. They want 10mm earth wire within 60cm of stop taps, The DNO earthed ours to the same place on the old fuseboard the old earth wire was and passed their safety test. But it was not good enough for the OLEV people :shrug:I had enough hassle with having the garden/lawns dug up so did the work myself with the help of an electrician.

Seems if you can wire a shower (for the 7Kw) and a shed (for the external protection) it’s ok to do it yourself. By yourself I mean with a qualified sparky..

The residuals on 5’s don’t look so good with delivery mileage cars up at £5k off, but they don’t come with 0% so a new one still makes sense. The balloon payments are quite high, would have to see where I’d be in 4 years time but there would still be 3 yrs warranty left.
It’s going to be a long time before we see the value of them when the batteries are out of warranty: will they be worth anything at all?


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EVs too stressful
 

I have a friend who runs a BMW EV - not the cheapest - and while he's delighted with it as a driver he's found the claims are not met. The range is supposed to be 160 miles but that's if you keep below 55mph. If you drive normally - at motorway speeds - then you won't get more than 90. You watch the range left more than the speedo. But the biggest problem is finding a fast charger that works. He recently did a 100mile trip but spent a most stressful time trying to find a charger that was working. Yes there's an App but it doesn't say if the charger point works or if it is available: it took eight stops before he could breathe easy again. And of course you have to sit there for 20+ minutes. Hardly a viable solution methinks.

I got a courtesy call off MG Wigan this morning, It's the first time I've spoken to them since buying it as they've been on furlough for months.


She was asking how I'm going on with the MG ZS ev & the 7kw charger installation, I said the car is fabulous and a dream to drive but the 7Kw charger didn't happen because of our antiquated electricity supply & all the hassle that went with it so I told her I installed my own 7kw charger.


She said she gave a lady a courtesy call yesterday who bought the MGZS ev & the OLEV people wouldn't install a 7kw charger at her house because she didn't have a dropped kerb into her driveway :eek:

so I told her I installed my own 7kw charger.

Curiosity got the better of me. What grade cable did you go with?
6mm or 10mm?

I went with 6mm2 SWA cable.