Charging electric cars on Club sites.

Fozzie, your caravan itself doesn’t require PAT testing, neither does your George Foreman grill or multiple other devices you might run from an extension lead. It would be a different matter if you were hiring out the caravan, car, or extension charging point.

"The law simply requires an employer to ensure that their electrical equipment is maintained in order to prevent danger. It does not say how this should be done or how often. Employers should take a risk-based approach, considering the type of equipment and what it is being used for. If it is used regularly and moved a lot e.g. a floor cleaner or a kettle, testing (along with visual checks) can be an important part of an effective maintenance regime giving employers confidence that they are doing what is necessary to help them meet their legal duties. HSE provides guidance on how to maintain equipment including the use of PAT."

http://www.hse.gov.uk/electricity/faq-portable-appliance-testing.htm

Fozzie, if charging on a site you would use a special cable connector between your EV and a socket in the van, you won't be using the bollard. Your van is attached to the bollard not the car. However if you use this method and you need a long charge it will take a few hours of charging and obviously you'll have to balance out the draw with other equipment in use. Just like you would do if using a lot of electrical equipment in the van.

At home, we can plug into a domestic socket and then into the car, a slow charge. We did this at first but now have a dedicated power socket (installed by my OH) which provides a fast charge, for us probably two to three hours although we sometimes run the battery down to give it a super charge which gives us more mileage. Our domestic wiring can cope with the draw, we don't have to switch anything off etc.

There are about four types of chargers on the market ranging from slow to super rapid. Different cables and sockets are provided to enable this, we carry two types. The charge unit switches itself off when complete, we can also select a timer on the car computer system to switch on a preheat in cold weather etc....if we anticipate cold weather we can defrost the car before using it. However that's a bonus so the simple method on a site would be a slow charge via a suitable cable. Hope this helps?

Normally there is:

Portable: a lead with a 13a plug one end and a car specific socket the other, within that cable there is a supplied portable charger, usually limited to 10a, much like a CTEK 10 amp charger.

Standard and Fast: Then there are the 16a and 32a charger leads , these have there own special plugs and push into dedicated sockets via standalone house circuits fed with 6mm or 10mm cable sizing. These do not require a separate charger as it is inbuilt with the car.

Rapid: These are dedicated where there is a 3 phase supply and again utilise the charger within the car.

There are obviously variations with different vehicles and super rapid chargers are relatively new, but other than differing plug/sockets they all work in a similar fashion.

My daughters Taxi company which run Nissan Leafs use a mixture of the above.

Got timed out.

Anything away from home can use the Fast or Rapid on special bollards as these will accept the special plugs on the leads supplied, no extra charger is needed, just plug in both ends and alls good.

As for on site without special bollards, then you must bring your Portable charger and lead to plug into a 13a socket, remembering the caravan cable circuit will normally be protected and limited to 10a by the onboard MCB.

Yes thanks to all replies on my thread. Metheven,your reply under the portable charger section above is the info I was after.At least I can understand the charging requirements now of an EV.,especially on a Site or when away from home.

This is the sort of charging we've signed up for out on the road, but there are others.

see here

People will have leads strung out across their pitches charging their car up. Its not the same as a lead within the awning.

Sooner or later there will be a "garotting" incident, fire, electocution or something adverse with the leads and then the Club's Elf & Safety & liability averseness will kick in and charging your car with a flying lead from the van will be banned....

As has been said already, the Club's current stance that all is hunky dorey, fill your boots (or batteries) with any Heath Robinson arrangement that you can lash up is fine will quickly change.

It's only fine at the moment because very few are doing it and nothing has happened yet.

Sadly, that won't last.

well there are already EHU leads across pitches and often three leads in to one bollard and very few accidents? All we are talking about is one lead from your outfit to the car which is often parked to the left of the caravan so most of the lead will be close or underneath the van?

While they may be a tripping hazard as these leads will be on the ground I can't imagine these leads will be at head height?

It could be an advantage having the lead at head height might assist stopping "pitch invasion" that some seem to have a problem with

My EV is charged totally from a green/natural source. It takes approximately 6 weeks a charge. It’s cheap but slow😢