Charging station installation

Since you will be working with relatively high capacities when installing charging stations and solar products and adjustments will have to be made to the electrical installation of your home, it is highly recommended to have the necessary electrical knowledge or to get help from someone who has that knowledge. Installing a charging station can be dangerous if you do not have the right knowledge and experience. You will also have to have the adjusted part of your electrical installation inspected, for this we can recommend OCB.

Some explanation about connection values

We will keep the explanation quite concise. As mentioned before, we assume that our customers already have a basic knowledge of electricity or have someone available with that knowledge and in addition, you can easily find more specific information about power grids and such online if you deem it necessary. Of course, we are open to questions about our products or the installation.

When choosing your charging station, you should first check what your home can supply in terms of power (or rather, the maximum current and number of phases) and what your car can receive.
The connection to your home will be 1-phase (230V or sometimes 3x230V) or 3-phase 400V+N.
A 1-phase distribution box can usually be recognized when two wires come out of the distribution box, the phase and the neutral. If four wires come out of the meter box, then you know that you have a 3-phase meter box. This is usually also on the meter or you can ask your network operator.

  • 1 phase 16A: 3.7kW maximum charging power

  • 1 phase 32A: 7.4kW maximum charging power

  • 3 phases, 16A: 11kW maximum charging power

  • 3 phases, 32A: 22kW maximum charging power

 


The AC alternating current of your home still needs to be converted to DC direct current for the battery in the car. This is done with an inverter and that also has a max. connection value.

An example: A car that can charge on a single phase, 32A, has a charging capacity of 7.4kW (230 Volt * 32 Ampere = 7360 W, or +/- 7.4 kW). A charging station that is connected to three phases and delivers 16A, can deliver 11kW (230 Volt * 16 Ampere * 3 phases = 11040 W). Since 11 is more than 7.4, you would think that this charging station can charge your car at full speed. However, that is not correct: your car will not be able to do anything with the 3 phases and will only use one of them, at 16A. At that moment, you are only charging your car at 3.7kW (230 V * 16A = 3680 W).

The connection value of your car as well as the type of plug can be found in the specifications of the manufacturer or via this site:

https://ev-database.org/en/

Don't get too hung up on the highest possible connection value. Usually you can easily connect an EV to your charging station for 10 hours or more per day and the number of kilometers driven per day by the average motorist is less than 100 kilometers. It is therefore not necessary to fully charge the car every day, this is also taxing on the battery. With higher charging capacities you may also have to pay attention to other large consumers in your home, although the smarter (but therefore also more expensive) charging station systems can handle this (load balancing).


In the brochure below from grid operator Fluvius you will find interesting information about connection values ​​for charging stations (Belgium):


https://www.fluvius.be/sites/fluvius/files/2020-10/brochure-heb-je-nood-aan-400v-om-je-elektreeks-auto-op-te-laden.pd


All our charging stations have a 6mA DC leakage current protection as standard.

Wiring

Don't choose the lightest cabling. Consider using a thicker cable even if you are installing a lighter device. With a 5 x 6mm² you will get very far. The distances are usually not too long so the extra cost is limited and then you still have space if you are going to increase the load or switch to 3-phase. Always place a conduit with sufficient diameter for underground cables. Do not forget to place at least 1 UTP/FTP for example for load balancing.

FYI: Charging times of electric vehicles

Type of car

Small

Average

Big

Delivery van

Average battery size > charging station capacity

25 kWh

50 kWh

75 kWh

100 kWh

2.3 kW

10:30am

24h30m

32u45m

43u30m

7.4 kW

3h45m

7h45m

10:00m

13h30m

11 kW

2h00m

5h15m

6h45m

9:00am

22 kW

1h00m

3h00m

4h30m

6h00m

50 kW

36 min

53 min

1h20m

1h48m

120 kW

11 min

22 min

33 min

44 min

150 kW

10 min

18 min

27 min

36 min

240 kW

6 min

12 min

17 min

22 min