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2 electricity supplies to one building

Former Community Member over 4 years ago

Hello, I am a not an engineer but need some advice on uk wiring regulations please.

A national utility company is fitting a 32A charger in my garage for an electric vehicle.

The garage is detached from my house but there is an existing circuit from the house consumer unit to the garage for lighting and a power socket. The cable runs along a garden wall.

The new charger will have its own cable run from the same consumer unit in the house down to the garage.

My problem is that the engineer who came to do the installation refused to do it as he said the garage is a building in its own right and regulations do not allow 2 supplies to one building.

My question is: Do 2 wiring circuits from the same consumer unit constitute 2 supplies If the consumer unit is located in an adjacent building?

I would have thought that this was still a single supply and to have 2 supplies you need 2 separate meters with 2 consumer units which is not the case here but then, as I said, I’m no engineer.

Edit.....The engineer stated that the regulation related to avoiding the risk of a voltage between 2 different earths. To me this again only makes sense if you were talking about 2 totally different supplies from different meters and therefore possibly different sub stations etc.

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0 David Stone over 4 years ago

Simon, I know that you are very pro electric vehicles. It would be most interesting if you would explain to the rest of us how you intend 40 million of them in a few (by infrastructure times) years to be charged? We are not anti-electric vehicles per see, we just don't know how to provide the necessary infrastructure. Many streets have cables feeding 150 houses with a single 400A fuse in each phase. If 6 houses take 100A continuously this fuse will blow in an hour or so, to great inconvenience to the rest who are taking no current at all! A short period, even at 100A is not the charging time for most vehicles, remember too that battery capacity is increasing by the week it seems. A vehicle with a 100kWh battery will take probably 6 hours at 100A to charge, in electrical time that is not a short period. You are assuming each vehicle is not driven far every day, that does not match the commuting statistics outside London, for example. Simply where is the electricity coming from (totally reliably), and how will it be distributed? Easy questions I am sure. And very relevant to the Wiring regulations moderator!
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0 David Stone over 4 years ago

Simon, I know that you are very pro electric vehicles. It would be most interesting if you would explain to the rest of us how you intend 40 million of them in a few (by infrastructure times) years to be charged? We are not anti-electric vehicles per see, we just don't know how to provide the necessary infrastructure. Many streets have cables feeding 150 houses with a single 400A fuse in each phase. If 6 houses take 100A continuously this fuse will blow in an hour or so, to great inconvenience to the rest who are taking no current at all! A short period, even at 100A is not the charging time for most vehicles, remember too that battery capacity is increasing by the week it seems. A vehicle with a 100kWh battery will take probably 6 hours at 100A to charge, in electrical time that is not a short period. You are assuming each vehicle is not driven far every day, that does not match the commuting statistics outside London, for example. Simply where is the electricity coming from (totally reliably), and how will it be distributed? Easy questions I am sure. And very relevant to the Wiring regulations moderator!
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2 electricity supplies to one building

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