It would appear that third party less than qualified and experienced individuals are being engaged as clipboard warriors to audit new EV charger installs.
Is there a publically available list of OLEV appointed EV charger installation auditors somewhere online?
Something smells very strongly of fish, and it isn't the charger units.
Cannot comment upon individual cases, but for a flavour -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpdja4NTvNQ
Comments welcome.
Manufacturers should install Voltage surge preventative devices in their equipment if that can be damaged in service. It would not cost much.
I suspect it gets trickier once you start digging into the detail. There are different types of SPDs for different situations - worst case (say a building with lightning protection) you'd need type 1s to deal with the initial strikes, type 2s to deal with the surge that got past the type 1s and type 3s for the electronics. Type 1+2+3 SPDs aren't often found close to the word 'cheap'. Then if you had to repeat the same for the dozens of items with electronics in them in a typically installation, installation-level SPDs start to look attractive.
There's also a complication with devices that have more than one connection - e.g. charge points with a wired Ethernet port (or modem type devices), TVs/set-top-boxes with aerial connections - if you have an SPD in the device then surges are shorted to earth at that point - so drawing the large surge currents through other devices in between (e.g. Ethernet network gear, aerial amplifiers and so on) - so they can get fried whereas before they quite likely survived. (I had a bad (expensive) experience with a phone system years back - twice one particular internal line got fried during thunder storms - the one that had a surge-protected PC & modem on it - relocating the surge protection on the phone line to before the PBX solved it). What would happen to an RCBO that had no upstream SPD protection where an appliance shorted a surge to Earth internally? A co-ordinated approach over the whole installation can save a lot of bother.
- Andy.
BT sockets already have an arrestor inbuilt.
Only between the A & B lines - not (usually) to Earth. So fine for protecting ordinary (earth-free) telephone handsets, but not a lot of good for anything with an Earth reference (PE or N) - e.g. mains powered modems, answering machines, ADSL....
- Andy.
So, how effective are the devices fitted within domestic consumer units? How well calibrated is that blob of solder? Will it melt in time? How many MOVs will be monitored by the end user for deterioration over time? How many people will actually bother to replace them when the installation otherwise functions perfectly well?
Your challenge for the week.
Post a link to a decent website giving home owners, landlords and tenants of domestic properties straightforward and unbiased information on the current requirements and best practice for the installation of replacement consumer units, including information on Surge Protection Devices.
Here is a link to the Electrical Safety First website giving advice, hopefully you will be be able to find something better than this, as the standard is really low.
Here is the IET guidance, featuring a consumer unit which was obsolete after a couple of years and tells you to read other articles for the Guidance on AFDD and SPD, but does not provide a links to any articles in the text.
It does not provide readily accessible information for the people I work for.
So, as in the old days with t.v. aerial concerns, during a thunder storm just unplug all non essential mains equipment or power it by batteries.
I thought that one line was at earth potential with a phone pair.
Add, Edit,
vintage-radio.net/.../showthread.php
Z.
The consumer unit shown in the IET article about AFDD does not have any in it.
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