charging electric vehicles

[Reiver]

I'm trying to consider ways of approaching an issue which I think will inevitably arise sometime soon, if not earlier. Maybe others have had to deal with it already. It is simply the question of how to respond to guests who drive electric vehicles. What are the options?

Understandably, if you have on-site parking available and electricity, then they will want to charge their car overnight, for example. This, of course, gives rise to a whole host of questions. Is that acceptable? If not, how can you prevent it; particularly if you're not there yourself? Should it be chargeable (no pun!) and how does that work? Are there any legal issues? Is this all agreed in advance and what are the terms?

I dare say there are several other questions that need to be resolved. Our house in Spain - like many built at that time - has a 5.5 kW supply. Is that even enough to charge, say, a family car without causing other problems?

Oh dear, my brain's starting to ache...

[Drax]

We have had an electric car charger installed at our holiday let for the intended use of guests.
To activate it a RFIC card (credit card size) has to be swiped over the charger and charging can then begin.
The card can be issued to guests during their stay and you can charge your guests a fee for the use of the card. It would be up to you to set a fee for the card for the guests to use.
Because our holiday let insurers will not cover for any damage to the car or the property or injury to persons using the charger we do not allow our guests to use the charger or to charge their cars from the domestic electricity supply.
These conditions are put into our T & Cs.

[Reiver]

Thanks. I don't know much about these things, but is there anything to physically stop guests from just hooking into your domestic supply?

[Drax]

Guests could use our domestic electric supply to charge their cars and I have no physical way of stopping them.
However we do meet and greet all of our guests, those with electric cars I verbally inform them that they must not use our domestic electricity supply to charge their vehicles.
Also this instruction is included in our T&C's, a copy of which is located in the holiday cottage.
If they still go ahead despite my instructions and damage is caused to their car, the house or they are injured then I will not be liable.
My insurance company has also advised me to do the above.

[SPJ]

We have had an electric car charger installed at our holiday let for the intended use of guests.
To activate it a RFIC card (credit card size) has to be swiped over the charger and charging can then begin.

I realise that it won't be exactly the same as I'm in France, but I'd be interested to know please how much it cost you to install?

We're struggling with this one at the moment. We have friends who say why do anything? You don't have a petrol pump available for your guests to use! Just send them into town to Lidls! I suspect it's not that simple!

[Drax]

I have sent you a P.M.

[CSE]

Being in Spain the legality is you cannot install a home charger and resell the electricity.
Maybe read this. It depends on what installations you have in the house as to whether guests will be able to charge their vehicles. It will take a long time to fully recharge.
https://www.endesa.com/es/blog/blog-de- ... co-en-casa
https://blog.energygo.es/que-potencia-n ... o-en-casa/

[Kilm]

Certainly for the UK, I've had this exact issue. I got quite a shock one month with the bill!

I'm waiting on an Ohme install, £899 from Octopus without the cable (every car will have their own). I take the £100 deposit for Good Housekeeping and deduct from that anything used from the charger. I have power clamps on all circuits in the house which will cut out at specific levels of energy consumption - i.e a car charging. This is to protect my consumer board and fuses.

The vast majority of drivers will take the charger route, as it's significantly quicker than off a 13 pin socket.

Those that don't, aren't welcome back.

I don't pay for guests diesel or petrol, I've no idea with some EV owners think it's okay to steal my elecrticity!

[newtimber]

I have power clamps on all circuits in the house which will cut out at specific levels of energy consumption - i.e a car charging. This is to protect my consumer board and fuses.

The car charger connected to a 13A plug is only going to take 3kWh. Unless you know the maximum power all the devices on a particular circuit are going to be using, how can you detect whether they have plugged in a car charger or lots of other devices are being used?