Question of the Week: How can I use my home charger if my house is 'looped' with my neighbour?

David Ross, Editor
Fri, 18 Oct 2024

Dear Honest John,

"My son has an electric car but has been told by the National Grid that he cannot use his home charger because he is in a ‘loop’ with his semi-detached neighbour and there is the possibility of an overload.

I haven’t heard of this before, has anyone else? Surely this should be more widely known as we are supposed to be changing to electric cars and there must be many people in the same position as my son?"

- PH

Dear PH,

A looped supply is when two houses share a feed to the mains electricity supply via a service cable, and is a relatively common arrangement in semi-detached, terraced or older houses. The issue with charging points is that the specification of the service cable limits the supply of electricity to both houses.

Some EV owners have been able to get around this by using a charging point that allows you to limit the charging power to avoid exceeding the specification of the arrangement, but this may vary depending on your electricity supplier.

It is possible to have your house 'unlooped', but again this is dependent on your electricity supplier, sometimes referred to as a Distribution Network Operator (DNO). You can find your local DNO here: https://www.energynetworks.org/operating-the-networks/whos-my-network-operator and they will be able to advise on having a suitable charging point installed or unlooping your system.

When a charging point is fitted the installer should make contact with the DNO for approval, and the DNO should advise if an upgrade to your supply is required. Whether this will mean you will need to pay a charge for the work to be carried out will depend on the current arrangement of the supply, the amount of work required and your DNO, but a significant number of owners have had this work carried out free of charge.

Ask HJ

Is repeated rapid charging bad for an EV?

I would like to get a Fiat 500e but don't have the facility to charge at home. The nearest charger is a nearby supermarket which only allows 2 hours charging. Would it harm the car if I used a rapid charger every time I charged the car?

Regular rapid charging could increase the speed of battery degradation so it's inadvisable if you're planning to keep the car for a long time. Perhaps more importantly, it will soon turn into a bit of a faff - relying on rapid chargers isn't fun, especially when you're in a rush and they're congested with other cars being plugged in. Electric cars make the most sense when you can charge them at home overnight.

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