Home Charger

[Proud RX Owner]

My detached garage has a 6mm feed cable for double socket, door and one light.
Can I fit a Lexus charger on the garage or will it require the feed cable to be upgraded to 7.5mm?

[Scotlex]

Interesting to see replies for this. I am currently just using the "normal socket slow charge" as it is not easy to get access to my distribution board.

I think your 6mm cable should be OK for up to 7kw. Not sure what Lexus charger is.

 

[Ken R]

My distribution board was also difficult to access and would have involved lifting floors etc however the meter was positioned in the garage so got a secondary distribution board linked through the meter installed adjacent.

Don't think 6mm cable will be sufficient for a charger unit.

I also had to have the main fuse upgraded by Scottish Power Networks (foc).

[AWC]

2 hours ago, Proud RX Owner said:

My detached garage has a 6mm feed cable for double socket, door and one light.
Can I fit a Lexus charger on the garage or will it require the feed cable to be upgraded to 7.5mm?

It should be OK for a 32A charger and if you choose one with load balancing it will ensure you don't overload the cable by reducing the charge current proportionately whenever you are drawing current from the 13A sockets or lights. Also worth getting one with PEN fault detection so it doesn't need a separate dedicated earth.

[Cypry 1]

If you are not sure what you are doing get a Electrician in !!!

[ColinBarber]

4 hours ago, Proud RX Owner said:

My detached garage has a 6mm feed cable for double socket, door and one light.
Can I fit a Lexus charger on the garage or will it require the feed cable to be upgraded to 7.5mm?

It would depend on the length of the cable run and how it is fixed/contained. If the existing cable is 6mm SWA then you will probably be ok, if it's 6mm T&E then possibly not.

Whoever is doing the charging install would need to assess and redesign as appropriate as they are going to have to sign off the work as compliant with current regulations.

[AWC]

40 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

It would depend on the length of the cable run and how it is fixed/contained. If the existing cable is 6mm SWA then you will probably be ok, if it's 6mm T&E then possibly not.

Whoever is doing the charging install would need to assess and redesign as appropriate as they are going to have to sign off the work as compliant with current regulations.

I assumed because it is a detached garage then it was 6mm SWA, if not then there is possibly more than just a cable size problem.

[stepppy]

25 minutes ago, AWC said:

I assumed because it is a detached garage then it was 6mm SWA, if not then there is possibly more than just a cable size problem.

When I had a charging point installed in my detached garage in my previous house back in 2015 when I had a Zoe, the charge point surveyor basically condemned the garage wiring. He said they only add sufficient wiring for a light and one double socket, not a 7KW charger. The original wiring from 1995 was also poorly installed.

In the end I had to get an electrician to add a new supply sorted before the charge point could be fitted. They ran a new mini consumer unit to the garage via a heavy duty dedicated armoured supply cable from the main supply box. I also had to have the main house fuse upgraded from 60A to 100A which was done FOC by our electricity supplier. 

Bottom line, personally I wouldn’t trust coming off your existing garage supply. 

[Serguei]

Judging by description on Lexus website the charger is installed by British Gas. Which means it is done via official channels and will need a permission from whoever own electrical infrastructure (U.K. Power Network).

When I was installing my (non-Lexus) charger UK Power Network were called to inspect my supply and they upgraded my fuse to 100A (all for free) and the installer did the work as per whatever rules they had.