When I first dipped my toes into the world of Electric Vehicles, the tantalizing prospect of bidding farewell to petrol stations had me all giddy. I mean, who wouldn't want that or Something like this would be great. But I knew that charging through a measly wall socket would be about as convenient and effective as a chocolate teapot, and a 7kW charger might not cut the mustard.
So, like any reasonable overgrown boy looking for a new toy, I embarked on a quest to install a 22kW wall charger. But since my expertise in electrical work is as limited as a sloth's sprinting abilities, I had to find and hire a company that knew their stuff.
I stumbled upon a company with a knack for simplifying the process, which was fortunate because installing a 22kW charger meant tangoing with a three-phase supply. Most houses don't have one, so we were treading into uncharted territory here. The government recently mandated (end of December 2021) that all new homes should be equipped with a wall charger. However, they left the details as vague as a weather forecast, so it's unclear whether this includes 22kW chargers and their necessary three-phase supply. If so, I bet builders will opt for 7kW chargers in the future to pinch pennies.
My friendly neighborhood electrician broke the process down into these electrifying steps:
Contact your Distribution Network Operator (DNO) – the unsung heroes of electricity.
Upgrade your supply to a three-phase supply – because two just won't do.
Coordinate the upgrade with your electricity supplier – assuming they're awake.
Install the wall charger – voilà!
Piece of cake, right?
I rang up my DNO, Western Power, and started arranging my three-phase supply upgrade. They were fantastic – we hashed it all out over the phone, and they sent a quote based on blueprints of my house and street. So far, so smooth. Then, the DNO dispatched a surveyor to make sure all was well.
But, plot twist! The cables weren't where the plans said they'd be, which meant we had to dig up the road like treasure hunters. Undeterred by this small hiccup and the extra cost, I forged ahead with my mission to bring a three-phase supply to my humble abode.
The installation was a three-day extravaganza. Day one saw the road excavated so another team could access the elusive cables. On day two, that team swooped in, laid the cables, and connected them to my house. My electricity supplier was supposed to finish the job by connecting the supply to my home. Alas, things went awry. Western Power was punctual, but my electricity supplier was MIA. Ten agonizing hours without electricity later, and after a barrage of phone calls, they dispatched an engineer from a galaxy far, far away (okay, 100 miles) who wouldn't arrive for another three hours. Thankfully, Western Power saved the day by securing the authority to reconnect my supply.
At last, electricity was restored to my house, and my dreams of a three-phase supply felt like ancient history.
After a few days nursing my wounds from the fiasco my electricity supplier unleashed, I mustered the courage to plan the next steps – which, spoiler alert, didn't go swimmingly either...
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