I’m due to visit my parents in the UK in my EV. They seem to be in an area virtually devoid of public charging stations, per Zapmap/Chargemap apps.
I am wondering whether it is safe (for a one-off overnight charge):-
a) to use their domestic plug/power supply; and b) whether it increases the risk if I have to use an ordinary France to UK adaptor (my cable has a French 2 pin plug)?
Obviously I don’t particularly want to burn my parents house down if I can possibly help it! I’m assuming their supply has a trip switch.
Must be up north or far west? Granny lead is 3kW so safe on a 13amp plug supply. My advice would be to top up before arriving so minimal overnight topping up. Abetterrouteplanner is a good app as it figures your route based on your vehicle.
I presume you mean the CEE 7/7 style which is rated at 16A and is earthed.
Anyway, you would do well to avoid adapters when charging your EV - the current is generally limited to 10A when using a standard mains circuit but that’s still more than the safe practical limit for most adapters (which I would not generally use above a 1kW load, even if they claim more).
I would trust an adapter made out of 2.5mm2 cable with a French cable mounted socket of good quality on one end and a good quality BS1363 plug on the other, up to the 13A specification for the latter, but I don’t think I’d trust a mass produced adapter beyond 4-6A, whatever the rating says.
Had to throw out a couple of cheap adapters MIL bought when I smelt plastic burning. Pulled one apart and cross section of the conductor inside was so small it had got very hot at some point. Nasty dangerous thing.
Buy yourself a cable for whatever you have in your car to a UK three pin socket. Ok they are quite expensive, but not worth the risk of using an adaptor! Order it now, and have it delivered to your parent’s house to be ready and waiting for you.
(Or maybe ask your garage whether they would lend you one?)
Related to the subject but maybe not applicable in your case, but my insurer points out a clause in my gite insurance - ‘…il est formellement interdit a brancher un EV sur une prise du gite…’ risk of fire etc. and I have to make this clear to visitors, concluding that a special re-inforced socket is needed.
I wonder if this small print is hidden in all domestic contracts…?
Typical insurer, they love to run peoples lives and charge them for the privilege. The sophisticated charger in the car will only draw what is safe and no more dangerous than a water heater or kettle. It would be better if they said you need the circuits tested in the gite as that would show up bad electrics rather than blaming the new and complex monitoring of EV electrics. After all they want chimneys swept each year so anual checking of properties would also be wise. Fitting arc detection devices another good idea.
Thank you very much @Adam1@Corona@JaneJones@billybutcher for the really helpful, practical advice you have provided. It has brought out valuable points that I definitely would have otherwise missed. I entirely take the point about not relying on adapters, on topping up as much as possible before arrival etc. Subject to my brief follow up question below, I will buy a cable with a UK 3 pin plug for delivery at my parents house (which by the way is in rural East Hertfordshire. Per Chargemap/Zapmap unfortunately only 1 fast charging site is within practical reach).
My brief follow up question - before I buy the above cable - is whether it is safe/practical to simply replace the existing CEE 7/7 standard plug (thank you Billy for rightly questioning me on this!) on the charging cable with a standard UK 3 pin fused plug?
Yes a plug swap from eu to uk should be ok, leave you to judge the quality of the eu lead and socket. As Billy said 2.5mm2 lead probably advertised as 16 amp rather than the lighter versions.
I see what you mean charging wise, plenty around but a bit of a hole in the map where I think you are heading.
@Corona thank you for that confirmation re plug swapping.
Rural East Herts (near Bishop’s Stortford) is a lovely, understated area (I grew up there) so I really can’t complain, just because of the (current) scarcity of fast EV charging points!
I have real world experience of charging two different EVs when in the UK, using French plugged granny chargers & a good quality 13A plug to trailing French Schuko socket adaptor (made by myself). There is no problem with this arrangement - the cable part of the adaptor is 2,5mm².
Both said chargers are rated at 10A i.e. 2300W.
I carry a selection of adaptors to cover all the bases:
CEE17 16A plug - French Schuko socket.
UK 13A plug - French Schuko socket.
UK 13A plug - CEE17 16A sockets.
French Schuko plug - CEE17 socket.
A 10m CEE17 16A 2,5mm² extension cable.
A 15m CEE17 16A 2,5mm² extension cable.
The above allows me to charge up to 25m away from either a 13A socket, French Schuko socket or a CEE17 outlet.
