Third party electrical contractor wants to install a 2 m X 2 cm copper earth rod directly underneath the new wall charger located on a wall in the car shed.  When our house was built the electicians placed the earth rod 4 metres from the outside wall of the house.  Does anyone know whether there is a PEA / MEA regulation stating the location of the earth rod & the distance it is required to be from the building alignment.

I'm not aware of any specific regulations for car chargers other than what is included in the manufacturer's instructions.

 

How far from the house is your car shed? Has a ground wire been run with the supply for the charger?

 

In reality, a local rod isn't going to do any harm and if they want to bash one in just let them.

 

I suspect they have a blanket requirement as so many homes have no or inadequate earthing as built and the EVSE won't function if it doesn't see a decent earth.

 

 

16 hours ago, Crossy said:

I'm not aware of any specific regulations for car chargers other than what is included in the manufacturer's instructions.

 

How far from the house is your car shed? Has a ground wire been run with the supply for the charger?

 

In reality, a local rod isn't going to do any harm and if they want to bash one in just let them.

 

I suspect they have a blanket requirement as so many homes have no or inadequate earthing as built and the EVSE won't function if it doesn't see a decent earth.

 

 

Thanks Crossy.  The shed is on its own feed from the mains.  The earth circuit they propose is separate to the supply, from the ELB direct to the ground spike.  Also, they contend that the aluminium cable from the mains to the shed should be replaced with copper.  I understand that copper is a better conductor but the charger is rated at 43A and the house & shed both have 60A breakers.  I don't understand why they want to replace the cable.  Seems like they are over specifying the job.

What size (mm²) is your aluminium cable?

 

If it's adequately sized there should be no reason to replace it with copper.

 

On a 60A breaker they would expect 16mm² Al or 10mm² Cu. What size are they proposing?

 

As noted earlier, they likely have a set of specific instructions to follow rather than being actual electricians who can see if what you have is a suitable equivalent.

 

Are they on fixed price from the EVSE supplier or are they expecting you to front more $$$?

 

 

 

The existing Al cable is 12mm² - they propose changing it to 15mm² Cu.  The price quoted was, in my opinion, reasonable for what they were proposing but it appeared to include some unecessary items such as replacing the existing cable.  Given your reply above maybe not so unecessary after all, but use 10mm²  

12mm² and 15mm² are rather odd cable sizes! Are they actually proposing using AWG sizes? It doesn't really matter so long as the ampacity is OK.

 

Anyway, 12mm² Al is really too small particularly with a continuous load like a car charger.

 

If you are happy with their quote let them get on with it.