7kW wall box charging

[Ian_McE]

Hi - I'm new here, and only a week into my Enyaq ownership journey...

I also have a "new" wall-box installed by Octopus - it is an Ohme Home Pro. It was installed 3 days prior to the car being delivered, and the installer told me that it passed every test

But - when I plug my car in, it only charges at 15.5 Amps - not at the 32A I was expecting, so 3,6kW - not 7kW. I have set the Ohme pro to charge at the Octopus Go overning by telling it (via the app) to limit charge cost to 5p per unit. When I do this it says that it will only add 31% of charge in 24 hours. But in the morning, it has only added about 16%. So I have overridden the 5p limit and tried it at "max" settings on the wall box, and it only charges at the 15.5A that I mention earlier - this would equate to approx 16% in 4 hours...

Has anyone else seen this issue with a 7kW charger? I have seen it mentioned on other forums (e.g. VW forum) which I scanned on my phone, but have found no reference to the problem here. Since I am new to the whole thing, I am hoping I am missing a setting somewhere.

My problem is I don't know whether it is an issue with the car or the wall-box, and I bet that both companies will point at the other !

Any advice gratefully received!

Ian

[Deleted User 932]

Hello and welcome.

I'm not a customer of Octopus or Ohme Home Pro either, but could there be a chance that the wall box charger has been derated to 3.6kW by the electrician?

This is something that happened to me. I purchased a wall box charger that is capable of delivering up to 7.2kW. However, during the survey process before installation work started, we discovered my house main cut out fuse is rated at 60 Amps and the electricity cable that goes from my house to my garage has a cross sectional area between 2.5mm2 and 4mm2, it meant that the wall box charger had to be restricted to 3.7kW for safety and compliance reasons.

Last few words just to cover myself, always use a suitably qualified electrician.

[RichR]

I’m sure this has been discussed on here, and I think there was an update for the Ohme hardware.

The person who had the issue confirmed it wasn’t an issue with the car by charging at a public 7kW AC charger (eg PodPoint). Maybe give that a try to confirm?

[RDG]

I had a Pod Point 7kw charger installed, my main fuse was also 60amps, I had read online that you can get your energy supplier to upgrade the fuse to 100 amps but my installer said it wasn't necessary as with the 32 amp cable he installed from fuse board to charger he fitted alongside it a data cable which could assess how much other power was being withdrawn around the house and prevent the charger from blowing the main fuse. If your cable from your fuse board to your garage isn't capable of handling 32amp supply surely he should have run a new cable. I thought that is usually a part of the installation cost for a charger.

[Fossilnot]

Like you my supplier is Octopus but my wall box is by EO. (I have rattled on about using the charger elsewhere on this forum.) My garage is detached and-luckily-is served by 6mm twin and earth. I say luckily but it actually took me kicking up a bit of a stink with the builders of the house who had stupidly and unbelievably taken 2.5 mm t and e from the consumer unit to the external wall of the house where they had spliced it to 6mm t and e swa to run to the garage. Apparently this dangerous bodge is common practice with new builds… Anyway it was replaced with continuous 6mm from the meter box to the garage. The whole property has a 100 amp main fuse. It is not a looped (shared) supply with any other property. Prior to installation I ensured there was a good internet signal to the immediate vicinity of the wall box and fitted an additional earth spike grounding nearby.

In use it supplies 30kw in the four hour window which equates to circa 100 indicated miles of range-this makes the maths suitable for one approaching second childhood when I require a fractional charge! Also the soon to be a distant memory 5p per kw off peak charge memorably comes out at one and a half pence per indicated mile.

We have minimal other ‘stuff’ using juice when charging-I have heard of folk using all manner of domestic machines to take advantage of the cheap rate then wondering why their smart charger cuts back. (I’m sure that is not you though!)

Trial and error indicated to me that it was best to leave the car settings completely alone and instead to rely on the app for the wall box. If car settings conflict with those for the wall box the car will always take precedence.

I have found the staff at Octopus and EO to be very on the ball in resolving teething problems and recommend you to talk the issues through with Octopus and Ohme. Good luck.

Fossilnot

[marccdavison]

Simillar issues discussed here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=298&p=9070#p9070

I've been discussing with PodPoint who think they have identified an issue with the Enyaq software which they have produced an update for my PodPoint for me to test to confirm if it resolves the issue. so it's possible as RichR mentioned that there is an update available for your charger to resolve the issue (worth opening a support ticket with Ohme with all the details). When I logged it with PodPoint I had performed a number of tests where I could show an immediate charge worked at 7kw and that a scheduled charge would only ever charge at 3.5kw. If I stopped the charge and removed the schedule and started again then it would happily charge at the full 7kw immediately after.

I've also seen another post from someone on either this forum or an Enyaq FB group who had the same issue and it was resolved via an update to the Enyaq...

[EdH]

I had this issue after installation on the Ohme pro charger too. I phoned Ohme customer service (they used a third party installer) and they told me to change the settings.
Hold in all 3 buttons on the charger to get into installer mode then you can change the settings to allow full 7Kw charge.
As Quayne says, always consult an electrician though. The customer assistance from Enyak checked with my installer on my behalf.

[anotherjohn]

Is it better to keep topping up to 80%, or wait till it drops to 20% & then charge to 80%?

[orrery]

Is it better to keep topping up to 80%, or wait till it drops to 20% & then charge to 80%?

"Better" - yes, but manufacturers have a safety margin at the top and bottom end of the battery that we can't access, to prevent premature damage. I'm on my 5th EV and I've never had any problem with a battery and mine gets topped up to 100% every 2 or 3 nights.

Charge it to what you need and stop worrying about it.