Hacker News Reader

Comment by PeterBarrett | Hacker News Reader

In the UK you have the advantage of easy access to 3 phase electricity, most houses can simply pull 2 more wires from the mains and have it. Whereas in the likes of Ireland you need a special setup and massive extra cost to get 3 phase.

Having a 22kw charger at home is amazing especially for only £1300!

View on HN

Emm. No we don't. We only have a single phase supply to the home. At least traditionally, new homes may be built to different standards.

Ours comes into the house via a very scary looking lead sheathed TN-S cable.

Hmm, fair enough, maybe it's only in large towns and cities. The pricing you got seems a bit suspect in that case because you would need 3 phase to run a 22kw charger and if you don't have easy access to 3 phase then the cost would be quite a bit higher as new wires would need to be added.

The charger alone would cost around 1000 (if not slightly more) so I can't imagine them doing the amount of required work for 300 pounds.

It's actually usually the other way around. In a rural location you are much more likely to have access to a 3-phase supply. Farms for example almost always have a 3 phase supply for running pumps, motors and heaters etc.

Yes we do. Well, theoretically anyway - you know those electricity poles with 4 cables above each other? That's 3 phase. Usually each house just gets one phase but I guess theoretically having 3 phase would just be a matter of connecting up the other wires too.

I'd be surprised if you could actually convince suppliers to do that for a house though, and definitely not for £1300.

Ha, my cables are all underground, making life harder.

Some DNOs are only installing 3-phase now - they'll just connect a single phase up, but the wiring will be ready for three.

Not mine, of course. Bitter about that.

This is the same the world over. Power is generated and distributed as 3 phase because it is better for the generators and it makes better use of the power cable since you don't require a neutral for a balanced 3 phase load.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com