Charging electric cars on Club sites.

cariadon replied on 19/12/2017 12:02

Posted on 19/12/2017 12:02

With the government wanting all cars to be electric in years to come and some MHers have them as runarounds how do you think the club should address the issue, This is NOT a thread against electric cars.

Do you think the club should change the bollard to accommodate the second connection, have a designated charging area and should the charging bollard be metered so you pay as you use, or the cost added to pitch fee, or any other suggestion.

Metheven replied on 31/12/2017 12:27

Posted on 31/12/2017 11:45 by cariadon

How safe is it to charge the vehicle through the caravan? When you charge a mobile or IPad the plug gets quite hot, and that's for a short time, if you use a pressure washer with an ordinary extension lead, the lead gets hot, again for  short time.

After witnessing a caravan fire, I would like to know how safe it is, as it would be done overnight when we are all asleep. Has anyone actually done it.

Posted on 31/12/2017 12:27

Your plug may well get warm simply because the charger is inbuilt with the 3 pin plug, heat dissipation has to go somewhere.

In the case of EV portable chargers it is a 13a 3 pin plug only, the charger limited to 2kW or 3kW is on a length of this lead and out of the charger are heavier leads that then has a socket to plug into the car.

On saying that, I would not even be happy to leave the phone or tablet type charger on overnight in the caravan, especially if it came from the 'Poundshop'

Cornersteady replied on 31/12/2017 12:37

Posted on 31/12/2017 12:20 by

When I charge my phone or tablet the plug certainly does not get quite hot.

Posted on 31/12/2017 12:37

yes same here

cariadon replied on 31/12/2017 12:48

Posted on 31/12/2017 12:48

My chargers gets hot and it's not a cheap pound land one, PLUS I would never leave any charger on unattended.

KjellNN replied on 31/12/2017 13:05

Posted on 31/12/2017 13:05

On my laptop, the plug does not get hot but the transformer thing on the cable does.  Makes a good hand warmer!

When we use a 2kw fan heater the plug on it can get warm, that would be about the same power as charging an EV would use.

KjellNN replied on 31/12/2017 13:15

Posted on 31/12/2017 13:15

We have an 3 socket 13amp extension cable that we used in  lounge, we keep the small fan  heater there for occasional use if it is cold in the day and we do not want to turn on the CH.

After leaving it plugged in for a long time, but only using occasionally, I found the plug had become "welded" into the socket!   These were not cheap Chinese appliances.

To get it free I had to destroy the one socket, the other 2 were fine.  It was rather worrying.  We now unplug the heater when not in use.

replied on 31/12/2017 13:27

Posted on 31/12/2017 13:27

I had similar in a caravan. The fault was due to a new but faulty extension - not a cheap one either. I had to replace the caravan 13amp socket

replied on 31/12/2017 14:10

Posted on 31/12/2017 14:10

I'm sure a new EV would have all kinds of safety measures built into it. These things are inspected and tested rigorously.

replied on 31/12/2017 14:17

Posted on 31/12/2017 14:17

As long as ALL your caravan wiring and sockets are good I would hope that the piece you are plugging into the caravan will be OK. I needing to use an extension I would make my own using cable rated to 16amp.

JVB66 replied on 31/12/2017 15:32

Posted on 31/12/2017 14:10 by

I'm sure a new EV would have all kinds of safety measures built into it. These things are inspected and tested rigorously.

Posted on 31/12/2017 15:32

Most things these days are "tested under test conditions" then they are released into the real world,  The "problems" appear when joe public gets their hands on themsurprised 

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