Today we’re explaining looped electricity systems and their impact on EV chargers…

But before we get into the detail. Did you know you don’t own your main electricity fuse (sometimes called the fuse cut out) and the cables coming into your home?

This is owned by your regional electricity network operator such as Electricity North West for Lancashire or Northern PowerGrid for Yorkshire.

What’s this got to do with electric vehicles and home charging points?

Quite a lot, as it’s important to understand you can’t have EV chargers fitted if your property is on a looped electricity system.

But what does this mean?

Well, some time ago (on occasions) the electricity network operator shared one electricity service cable with two properties, looping from one property to the other.

Basically, if you have a looped service, you share a length of cable with your neighbour.

Although a looped service is perfectly safe, it can lead to difficulties if you need more power. For example, for a power shower, sauna, or hot tub.

Which brings us onto home electric car chargers, as they require a 32amp fuse and a lot of power to operate at their optimum level.

Due to this, if you have a looped electricity connection, your network operator will not allow an EV charge point to be used until they remove you from the looped system.

This is easy to arrange, but it takes time and will lead to either you or your neighbour getting their drive or garden dug up, although the network operator will make everything good at no cost to you.

One thing to note, the network operators are slowly upgrading all looped systems anyway, so if you’re on a loop and want an EV charger installed, you might as well contact them to do yours now.

…and as EV charger installers ourselves, we’ll advise and help you through the process.