Fuse tripping whilst charging

[MarkR]

Over the last month or so, on occasion, my charger fuse has tripped whilst charging overnight. This has happened 3 times, and has happened whilst the car is approx 55% charged. It happened again last night. The charger is 7kWh and it typically runs at about 6.8kWh. It seems to only have been happening since I have had Octopus Intelligent Go when it is charging using Octopus to control it and I am wondering if this is just a coincidence or could it be linked. The other common factor is that it is when it is really cold. Last night being the coldest night for 15 years...

Does anyone have any thought on this?

Thanks in advance.

Sponsored

 

[W1NGE]

Over the last month or so, on occasion, my charger fuse has tripped whilst charging overnight. This has happened 3 times, and has happened whilst the car is approx 55% charged. It happened again last night. The charger is 7kWh and it typically runs at about 6.8kWh. It seems to only have been happening since I have had Octopus Intelligent Go when it is charging using Octopus to control it and I am wondering if this is just a coincidence or could it be linked. The other common factor is that it is when it is really cold. Last night being the coldest night for 15 years...

Does anyone have any thought on this?

Thanks in advance.

I would say this is not normal and suggests an overload.

Do you have a dedicated 32A fused supply for your EVSE?

Is it properly earthed (there may be a test in the EVSE).

Get an electrician to check it out from fuse box to EVSE.

 

[Scandinavian]

Over the last month or so, on occasion, my charger fuse has tripped whilst charging overnight. This has happened 3 times, and has happened whilst the car is approx 55% charged. It happened again last night. The charger is 7kWh and it typically runs at about 6.8kWh. It seems to only have been happening since I have had Octopus Intelligent Go when it is charging using Octopus to control it and I am wondering if this is just a coincidence or could it be linked. The other common factor is that it is when it is really cold. Last night being the coldest night for 15 years...

Does anyone have any thought on this?

Thanks in advance.

I do not know if this is the case for you or relevant, but I had that happen at one stage when the voltage level dropped below norm. There was a cold spell and I guess a lot of extra load on the network. It was my electrician that highlighted the possibility.

You might have experienced the same if a lot of extra electric heaters etc were switched on??

 

[MarkR]

Hi Adrian, it has a dedicated supply and fuse box with a built in test button. All seems to check out ok. It was installed and fully tested by a qualified installer, and so I am hoping that it is not the evse end. Bear in mind that most of the time it charges ok.

 

[MarkR]

I do not know if this is the case for you or relevant, but I had that happen at one stage when the voltage level dropped below norm. There was a cold spell and I guess a lot of extra load on the network. It was my electrician that highlighted the possibility.

You might have experienced the same if a lot of extra electric heaters etc were switched on??

Thanks Peter, it tripped at 3am this morning, so I suspect it is not related to high load on the grid, but you may be onto something here. I wonder if there might be some surges in the electrical grid...

 

[MarkR]

Just as an update, I switched the fuse back on and it is charging happily now, although not ideal as I am not getting my cheap rate, but will only put a few kW, just to test it.

@winge I do agree it could very well be an overload causing this, but wondered if it might be the car causing this. Strangely, never happened in the year I have had the car up to when I moved to Octopus Intelligent. I wonder if it could be that the battery is just too cold to charge and has not warmed up when controlled by Octopus, vs the car controlling this? No idea if the car warms up the battery at all for home charging when it is in control?

 

[Novemberwhisky]

I had similar problem. I did some investigation of the cable from Porsche charger to the c/b. Found the cable had over heated and scorched the insulation. Replaced with a higher gauge cable and all is now fine.

 

[Trev G]

I have similar problems with my charger due to intermittent low voltage It needs a minimum of 208v or it trips..

 

[W1NGE]

Just as an update, I switched the fuse back on and it is charging happily now, although not ideal as I am not getting my cheap rate, but will only put a few kW, just to test it.

@winge I do agree it could very well be an overload causing this, but wondered if it might be the car causing this. Strangely, never happened in the year I have had the car up to when I moved to Octopus Intelligent. I wonder if it could be that the battery is just too cold to charge and has not warmed up when controlled by Octopus, vs the car controlling this? No idea if the car warms up the battery at all for home charging when it is in control?

The car controls the charging as the charger is in the car. Your EVSE is simply providing the power.

I suspect it's not the car.

 

[2P168S]

When you say you have a “fuse trip”, what do you mean? Are you blowing fuses and having to replace them each time? Are you tripping a breaker in your electrical panel? Are you getting a fault on your EVSE that prevents continuation of charging until you unplug and plug back in?

 

[figure1a]

How many amps is the breaker in your house that keeps tripping?

The once in a while trip indicates a fault that should not be shrugged off. Are there other breakers in that service panel? Does the bus bar show any signs of arcing? Basically, a thousand questions can be asked but really the electrician needs to come back out and diagnose. Could even be a bad breaker.

 

[W1NGE]

How many amps is the breaker in your house that keeps tripping?

The once in a while trip indicates a fault that should not be shrugged off. Are there other breakers in that service panel? Does the bus bar show any signs of arcing? Basically, a thousand questions can be asked but really the electrician needs to come back out and diagnose. Could even be a bad breaker.

It's a dedicated supply of 32A (fuse / breaker). It may be on its own board if main board had no spare capacity. Standard in UK for single phase supply.

Installed by a qualified electrician.

 

[W1NGE]

When you say you have a “fuse trip”, what do you mean? Are you blowing fuses and having to replace them each time? Are you tripping a breaker in your electrical panel? Are you getting a fault on your EVSE that prevents continuation of charging until you unplug and plug back in?

Trip = break and not a blown fuse

 

[MarkR]

Thanks all for your feedback. Indeed it is a trip rather than a blown fuse, so it is a switch that can be re-engaged. The set up is exaclty as @W1NGE has suggested, and so it can restart once the switch is put back up.

I will investigate having an electrician come out.

Thanks again.

Sponsored