Tesla ruins Easter

[Mito Man]

At 5am I thought that Jesus was visiting me as my printer randomly started making noises and then the house alarm went off. The power was cutting off and back on every few seconds.

UKPowah called and as soon as he parks up and sees the Tesla plugged in he mutters “another EV killing the joints”.
Upon further explaining he says that the repetitive high loads degrade the solder joints in the service cable and it’s becoming a pretty common problem.

Unfortunately it’s not a simple fix and it seems like the worn joint is underground somewhere which requires excavating.


So yeah, fuck you Tesla.

[Gavin]

That does not bode well for the infrastructure for the future. Is it specifically Teslas or is it all EVs?

[Mito Man]

It’s anything with high load combined with the 18 year old electrics.
Anyway things have now escalated

3 vans, 1 digger and a picker. They have a machine which says the damaged joint is a few metres after the post so it’s on the grass and luckily the block paving and pond should survive.

[Pete_]

Worst 'my parents house has a fvcking massive driveway' post ever

[DeskJockey]

Hardly Tesla's fault. Upside: you get a free refresh of the inbound feed.

[Mito Man]

They’ve just restored the power. The mains cable was buried 2 metres deep but luckily the ducting wasn’t collapsed so they dug a hole, opened the duct, pulled a cable to the pole one way then another to the fuse box from the other way.

There was a bit of a confusion for a few hours as the joint kept blowing the fuse at the substation or something so much running back and forth.

Also I don’t understand electricity at all, this cable is pretty thin and must run for hundreds of metres, it’s mainly all armour jacket but when pulling a cable to an outbuilding a much shorter distance away the voltage drop is such that I need something thicker than the incoming ones when using an online calculator

[V8Granite]

Remember, the U.K. grid can definitely handle the capacity needed for electric cars

Dave!

[Beany]

Remember, the U.K. grid can definitely handle the capacity needed for electric cars

Dave!

It probably could if Daddy hadn't cheaped out of the install

[Swervin_Mervin]

I particularly like the way you say "18yr old electrics" like that's old

[Jobbo]

The electricity to our house comes from an overhead power line which must be 50 years old. Easy to replace though being above ground.

I bet it’s nothing to do with charging your Tesla. What’s the current draw compared to sticking your kettle and washing machine on at the same time as the oven?

[RobYob]

Also I don’t understand electricity at all, this cable is pretty thin and must run for hundreds of metres, it’s mainly all armour jacket but when pulling a cable to an outbuilding a much shorter distance away the voltage drop is such that I need something thicker than the incoming ones when using an online calculator

Virgin copper nanotubes?

No NFI either about electrickery.

Very interesting that 240v solder joints need respecing for EVs.

[V8Granite]

The electricity to our house comes from an overhead power line which must be 50 years old. Easy to replace though being above ground.

I bet it’s nothing to do with charging your Tesla. What’s the current draw compared to sticking your kettle and washing machine on at the same time as the oven?

Regular high load conditions will damage an old or poor connection. They do what’s called a Megohm test and we had ones called pressure tests which I think are essentially the same thing.

32a is not to be sniffed at and it will find the weakest part of a system. Basically everyone runs their electric at 70mph day in day out and soon they will all be running at 120mph once a day.

Dave!

[Jobbo]

The maximum two phase load for an EV charger is 32A. That isn’t ridiculous when you consider the load on Christmas Day running hob and oven, for instance.

[V8Granite]

The maximum two phase load for an EV charger is 32A. That isn’t ridiculous when you consider the load on Christmas Day running hob and oven, for instance.

Christmas Day is only once a year though, I’d say most folk with an electric car will plug it in at least a couple of times a week. Plus still put their oven on, TV, power shower etc etc.

Dave!

[mik]

Ah the “EV killing the joints” routine. They have just installed a tracking substation for Bill Gates, which cunningly includes a 5G ground-mast.

The oldest trick in the book.

[mr_jon]

Yes, typical M.O. ain't it.

[V8Granite]

I wonder how much deferred maintenance the national grid have in its local networks ?

I’d expect the 11kv side to be all up to par but what about all the 1950s streets etc when there was a huge amount of building done ?

When you do industrial stuff you test it every year.

Dave!

[Jobbo]

The maximum two phase load for an EV charger is 32A. That isn’t ridiculous when you consider the load on Christmas Day running hob and oven, for instance.

Christmas Day is only once a year though, I’d say most folk with an electric car will plug it in at least a couple of times a week. Plus still put their oven on, TV, power shower etc etc.

Dave!

A low-end 8.5kW power shower on its own draws more current than the largest domestic EV charger. And chances are your EV charger will be on overnight when there’s not much else drawing significant power. I don’t remember power showers being accused of damaging the network. If there’s a break in the joint in Mito’s cable then it’s an inherent flaw which would have made itself apparent anyway.

[Mito Man]

EV’s just bring the existing problem into light much earlier. No doubt your oven and nightly showers would eventually cause the same issue but they’re probably not drawing 730 kwh per month.

[V8Granite]

The maximum two phase load for an EV charger is 32A. That isn’t ridiculous when you consider the load on Christmas Day running hob and oven, for instance.

Christmas Day is only once a year though, I’d say most folk with an electric car will plug it in at least a couple of times a week. Plus still put their oven on, TV, power shower etc etc.

Dave!

A low-end 8.5kW power shower on its own draws more current than the largest domestic EV charger. And chances are your EV charger will be on overnight when there’s not much else drawing significant power. I don’t remember power showers being accused of damaging the network. If there’s a break in the joint in Mito’s cable then it’s an inherent flaw which would have made itself apparent anyway.

Power showers aren’t on for 4,5,6 hours a day.

Things heat up and fail, it will become much more common as more and more load is put on households.

Dave!