Charging station for home or work
People are increasingly choosing to drive electric. The batteries of these cars need to be charged, the alternative to filling up with diesel or petrol. Charging stations are needed to charge these batteries. You see these not only more and more often at home, but also at many companies and organisations. It is good to know that the charging stations used at home or at work are not fast chargers, such as the Fastned charging stations. A charging station for home is made to charge your car over a longer period of time. This is therefore less fast. But what is a suitable charging station for your home or at your company? There are a number of important things to take into account in this regard. In this article we will tell you more about this.
What is the maximum power your meter box can supply for charging your car?
The power that is supplied to your car via the charging station for charging comes from your meter cupboard. It is important to know what your meter cupboard can supply maximum power for this purpose. Especially when you want to go for maximum charging speed. As for hybrid cars with a charging option, this will never be a problem. These can always be charged at maximum charging speed. For fully electric cars, this is slightly different. Although this is possible in most cases, you cannot blindly assume this. How is this possible?
To explain this, we will take you back in time. Every building in the Netherlands has an electricity connection. However, depending on the year in which the building was built, what is behind the door of the meter cupboard differs. The size/weight/capacity of the connections has changed over time. For example, in the past, 1-phase 40A connections were used. Later, several different connections were added for private households, namely:
- 1x25A
- 1x35A
- 1x40A
- 3x25A
- 3x35A
- 3x40A
- 3x63A
- 3x80A
All of these connections above belong to the connections for small consumers. But what do these numbers actually mean? The numbers can be divided into two parts, namely the 1 or the 3 and the number series from 25A to 80A.
1 or 3 phase
The difference between 1 and 3 is the difference between a 1-phase or a 3-phase connection to the grid of your grid operator. I can imagine that this sounds very technical to you and therefore may not be of interest to you. However, be aware that this largely determines the possibilities for charging your car quickly or faster. Many houses are connected to the national electricity grid via a 1-phase grid connection. With a 1-phase connection, a cable enters your house with one phase wire and a neutral wire. The difference between these two wires is the voltage you need to charge. In the Netherlands, the difference between these two wires is approximately 230v.
With a 3-phase connection, three phase wires enter your home. So you have three wires and a neutral wire. In short, this means that the three phase wires can supply you with more current than the single wire with a 1-phase connection. Together, they supply more power than the single wire. Nowadays, a 3x25A connection is the standard connection.
Do you want to know what your grid connection is? Then consult the website of your grid operator. Often entering your postcode and house number is enough to find out what your connection is.
25A, 40A or 80A
The second part of your connection consists of a number with an A. This A means Ampere. Simply put, this means how much current can flow over that one wire. For example: a 25A connection has 25x230(A), which is 5750watt. A 40A connection has 40x230= 9200 watts. A 3x25A connection therefore has 3x25x230= 17250 watts divided over three wires/phases. A 1x40A connection only has 9200 watts. These calculations clearly show that the connection determines how quickly you can charge your car.
What is the maximum charging speed of your electric car?
A determining factor for your investment is the maximum charging speed of your car. This speed is determined by your car. This differs per brand, model and sometimes even per version of the car. The batteries in electric cars have a considerable capacity. To charge the batteries, you prefer a higher capacity. To achieve this maximum capacity, different car brands choose different strategies. Some cars prefer to 'eat' 1-phase, while others are full faster with a 3-phase connection. Most hybrid cars charge with 1x16A (3680 watts). In general, smaller electric cars charge with a maximum of 1x32A (7360 watts). In most cases, larger electric cars charge with 3x16A (11040 watts) or 3x32A (22080 watts). On our website you can find the maximum charging speed per car and which combination of phase and ampere the car prefers. Do you have any questions about this? Please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to tell you more about this.
It is therefore possible that you cannot achieve the maximum charging speed of your car due to the connection in your meter cupboard. If you have a car that charges with 1x16A, then you are in good hands. You can then charge at maximum speed anywhere, without major interventions. However, if you have a 1x32A car and a 3x25A connection, then this is already a difficult story. With that one phase, you exceed the capacity of the phase of your meter cupboard. You must then take measures to solve this. This also applies the other way around. For example, do you have a 3x16A car with a 1x40A connection? Then you do not have the option to charge your car at maximum speed. This is because you simply cannot obtain the required capacity from your mains connection. If it turns out that you do not, or possibly do not have the correct connection, always contact us or call your electrician to coordinate what the best next steps are.
Do you want to charge with more power than your current connection can handle? Then you can have your grid connection reinforced. This will cost you a one-off amount, but your grid operator will sometimes also increase your annual costs. So weigh up carefully whether you really need a reinforcement. The costs of a reinforcement of your grid connection can be found on this website .
Under no circumstances should you attempt to change your connection yourself or carry out other work in your meter cupboard if you do not have the correct knowledge to do so!
What if you already have enough power, but you also consume a lot?
If you have a suitable grid connection for your car, but you think you will not be able to cope with the total capacity, then a reinforcement is sometimes a solution. But you can also use smarter solutions. For example, there are fixed charging stations with load balancing, or balancing the load. In short, this means that the charging station measures the load on your connection, then takes this load into account and includes this in how quickly the car is charged. Does it not fit on your connection for a while? Then the charging station temporarily 'squeezes' the charging current to your car. Do you have full yield from your solar panels or are the tumble dryer and heat pump turned off for a while? Then the charging speed increases immediately. This solution offers the advantage that you do not have to pay permanent higher costs for a grid reinforcement.
What are your requirements regarding charging speed?
The answer to this question is of course limited by the technical possibilities as described above. There is a hype going on on the internet and in car media. Cars have to charge faster and faster and it seems that a kind of race is developing. When it comes to fast charging, I think this is a good thing. After all, it is nice to be able to quickly charge extra kilometers on the road when you really need them. For the home situation, things are a bit more nuanced in my opinion. My message? Do not opt for solutions that devour euros, if you already know that you cannot achieve the maximum charging speed with your current connection or due to construction restrictions. Certainly if the car can be charged every night, it can often be a step less than the maximum possible. I cannot explain this better than using my own situation, which I am happy to do.
I myself drive a Hyundai Ioniq 38kWh. This car can charge with a maximum of 1x31A (7200 watts). In many homes this is a problem, because 3x25A is the standard. Some homes have a 1x40A connection. You can then charge with 32A, but that only leaves 8A for the rest of the house. That amounts to only 1840 watts and is actually too little to have left. For both the 3x25A and the 1x40A the question arises: "Am I going to change something on my connection to achieve the maximum charging speed of the car?" My personal opinion? No, absolutely not. I will make my point clear using a calculation.
In the Netherlands, a lease driver drives an average of 30,000 kilometers per year. If we divide this over 47 weeks, of which we work outside the home for an average of 4 days, that is only 159.6 kilometers per day. The Ioniq uses an average of 15.8 kWh per 100 km. I drive a lot of highway kilometers and the highway is an uncomfortable habitat for an EV. The air resistance increases considerably on highways and so does consumption. In addition, you regenerate less, because you do not have to stop for traffic lights and the like. To charge those 159.6 kilometers daily, I have to charge about 25 kW, which amounts to 25,000 watts. With the maximum charging speed of 7200 watts, that would take about 3 hours and 40 minutes. If I park the car at 6 p.m. and charge it immediately, the car will be fully charged again at 9:30 p.m. By having insight into this end time, the space is created to make a choice. Namely, is it necessary for the car to be fully charged again at 9:30 PM or can it take a few hours longer?
Many electric cars come with a home charger with only 10A. For the Ioniq this means a charging time of 11 hours (10A is 2300 watts, 25,000 watts / 2300 watts = almost 11 hours). 11 hours of charging time is unacceptable in my opinion. It happens that I am not home at 6:00 PM, but at 11:00 PM. Add the 11 hours of charging time to this time and my car is not fully charged again until 10:00 AM. What is the solution for my Ioniq? A home charger with only 16A / 3.7kw / 3700 watts. Based on the 159.6 kilometers per day, this means that my car is fully charged in about 7 hours. And that is exactly the amount of sleep I hope to get every night :)
Another point in this example is that we assume that we cannot charge at the work location. I can charge an electric car at my customers in 90% of the cases. This means that the 7 hours at night only decrease further, because I continuously charge the battery a little. Does it never go wrong? Actually not, not even if I have to drive 300 km per day. And do I still come up short? Then it is usually only about 30 to 40 kilometers. This is easy and quick to charge along the highway.
My point is that a calculation makes the investment a bit more manageable. Often an increase in the fixed fee is not necessary at all. Of course this calculation is different for everyone. Personal wishes, kilometers driven, charging options at customers/addresses to be visited, technical possibilities of the car and the connection in the house all play a role in this. A Tesla Model X has a different energy requirement than a Honda E or Peugeot e-208. Making the right calculation in advance prevents making an unnecessarily high investment.
Need help calculating what the best option is for your personal situation? Please feel free to contact us!
Do you want a fixed charger or a mobile charger?
Flexibility and lower purchase price: mobile charger
A mobile charger is useful if you have an existing socket with your electric car and you have calculated that a maximum of 16A is sufficient to charge the car. This charger can also easily be taken with you between the holiday items, so that you can also charge at the holiday address. Our mobile chargers can be set to 8A-10A-13A and 16A. This way you can always charge at the maximum speed, without the group becoming overloaded. The mobile chargers can also be equipped with a consumption meter . The consumed power can then be read on an app on your smartphone.
Higher charging speed: fixed charger
Would you rather not have a separate charger or would you like to charge more than 1x16A/3680 watts? Then a fixed charging station on the wall is a suitable solution for you. A fixed charging station is more suitable for charging up to 3x16 or 3x32A. This is because a socket often cannot go further than 10A or 16A. This charger is also available with a consumption meter.
A fixed charger/charging station with a fixed charging cable or an 'outlet'
By outlet we do not mean a good Dutch sale with high discounts, but a universal connection where you plug in a charging cable yourself. A charging station with a fixed cable has a fixed cable with only one type of output, namely type 1 ortype 2 .
With an outlet charger, you connect your own cable between the car and the charger, possibly the cable that came with your car. This is the same cable that you use to charge your car somewhere in the city. The advantage of an outlet charger is that if you have multiple electric cars, you can easily switch chargers.
You see that there is quite a lot to choose from. Making the right choice is often difficult. Especially when you lack any technical knowledge. This is of course not a problem at all. Let us know if you can't figure it out. We are happy to help you. Send an email to info@accu-machine.nl or call
06-53 50 63 16. Or take a look at our range .
