THE INSTALLATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING POINTS!
There is already a demand for the installation of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points in both domestic and commercial premises. The Government have declared that the sale of petrol and diesel fueled road vehicles will be banned after 2030 and a further ban on the sale of hybrid vehicles in 2035. The Government have indicated that it will be a requirement for the building of new homes to have an EV charging point installed at the time of construction. It is clearly evident that the demand for the installation of EV charging points will increase from the current level.
The installation of EV charging points, just like any other LV installation, requires compliance with BS 7671 2018 The Wiring Regulations. In addition, an EV charging installation is one of the Special Installations or Locations listed in Part 7 of BS 7671. An updated Section 722 for Electric Vehicle Charging Installations was issued as Amendment 1 to BS 7671 in 2020.
If a contractor is asked by a client to install an EV charging point the first step for him is to verify what the exact requirements of the client are, and to carry out a site survey. The client’s requirements will pivot around the location of the EV charging point, the vehicle type and battery capacity and how fast they want the vehicle to charge. For most single-phase domestic installations this will be a 3 kW to 7.2 kW EV charger. For commercial installations an additional requirement will be how many vehicles they want to charge simultaneously and how quickly. In both settings Load Curtailment can be utilised to prevent the overloading of the available supply.
