Type 2 cable length

[gazza487]

Is a long type 2 cable bad? Just ordered a bit of a monster 25m cable for my untethered charger for some flexibility.

“Normal” cable reaches from back of house to communal access road where I park to charge. Bought the longer to hang along an existing catenary wire so it goes to garden as necessary.

 

[Michiel]

It is not bad but you will have some loss during charging.

 

[Lovemyev]

Wow …… That is a long type2 cable !.
Will there not be any build up of any heat in a cable THAT long .
Normally running a cable that long to a high demand item like a wall box, would require an upgrade on the carrying capacity of the cable.

 

[gazza487]

Wow …… That is a long cable !.
There will not be any build up of any heat in a cable THAT long anyway .

Going to hang washing on it if it’s glowing warm…. Save some pennies

 

[Jomarkh]

It will interesting to see what your EVSE says you used and what actually went into the car.

 

[gazza487]

It will interesting to see what your EVSE says you used and what actually went into the car.

I have never investigated fully with the graphs on mine (let’s face it what goes in goes in). Graph isn’t good enough resolution to see but I’ll interrogate the mg app and it one day.

At work the mg app peaks at 6.5kW so I think there is a few hundred watts in rectification etc. interestingly with that cable I mentioned in another thread that was warming up - sure I only saw it peak at 6.4 but may be wrong and not trying it again!

 

[Tight Git]

Apparently some cars will not communicate properly with very long type 2 leads and refuse to charge.

 

[Staffex]

Is a long type 2 cable bad? Just ordered a bit of a monster 25m cable for my untethered charger for some flexibility.

“Normal” cable reaches from back of house to communal access road where I park to charge. Bought the longer to hang along an existing catenary wire so it goes to garden as necessary.

See post #18 Home charging hot plug
When on holiday in Cornwall I run a 50m 1.5mm2 extension lead from the guest house's bedroom window down to my granny charger placed on a brick beneath the car to keep it dry. I haven't encountered any problems.

 

[gazza487]

See post #18 Home charging hot plug
When on holiday in Cornwall I run a 50m 1.5mm2 extension lead from the guest house's bedroom window down to my granny charger placed on a brick beneath the car to keep it dry. I haven't encountered any problems.

Oooh errr. Might be an excuse to get one of those infrared thermometers to play with.

 

[Jomarkh]

See post #18 Home charging hot plug
When on holiday in Cornwall I run a 50m 1.5mm2 extension lead from the guest house's bedroom window down to my granny charger placed on a brick beneath the car to keep it dry. I haven't encountered any problems.

The OP wanted a 32A type2 cable not an extension lead.

 

[Staffex]

Oooh errr. Might be an excuse to get one of those infrared thermometers to play with.

I never leave any unused cable coiled on the drum for fear of a meltdown.

The OP wanted a 32A type2 cable not an extension lead.

Yes, but I was merely illustrating the sort of cable loss that Gazza might encounter.

 

[gazza487]

The cable arrived from ezoomed. It is a wottz made cable - arrived in two days! It is huuuuge and quite heavy as a 25m but cable is quite thing relatively (single phase though).

Everything is stamped with wottz, the plugs and the cable. All seems good quality (I like the rubber caps on the plugs - moulded into the plugs rather than being massively dangley things like normal). Will report back when used.

 

[Michiel]

Can you post a picture?

 

[gazza487]

Forgive the photography skills, or lack of.

 

[Lovemyev]

That must be one heavy cable all right!

 

[gazza487]

It sure is heavy picking the thing up but per units the cable is pretty light if that makes sense.

It has 6mm² conductors in with. 0.75mm² pilot. Before stringing it where it needs to live a quick test charge with it coiled up ooops for seconds. The car reported 6.3kW when it’s normally 6.4 however it wasn’t a sustained test and Sunday lunch when voltages will sag-we shall see

 

[Lovemyev]

This is aimed as a genuine concern and not as a criticism Gazza.
But this question did cross my mind.
Your new extra long cable has the same 6mm cross section conductors, as used in a standard length type 2 cable.

That load carrying capacity is fine for a normal length sized type 2 cable.
But your new extra long cable is now about 82 foot in length.

In a normal domestic situation, if you were considering running a similar 6mm² cable over this increased distance, would you be expecting it to carry a constant 32 amps / 7 kW for hours and hours on end?

Or would it be likely to consider increasing the cross sectional size of the cable, given the much longer distance covered?

E.G. - If you were wiring a 7kW electric shower with a total cable length run of about 15 - 20 feet, then a 6mm² cable would be fine. But then increasing the cable run out to 80 feet in length, would likely see a cross sectional size increase to say 10mm². Plus the run time on the shower would be much less!

We need the help of a spark to work out the maths on this one .

 

[tsedge]

This is aimed as a genuine concern and not as a criticism Gazza.
But this question did cross my mind.
Your new extra long cable has the same 6mm cross section conductors, as used in a standard length type 2 cable.

That load carrying capacity is fine for a normal length sized type 2 cable.
But your new extra long cable is now about 82 foot in length.

In a normal domestic situation, if you were considering running a similar 6mm cable over this increased distance, would you be expecting it to carry a constant 32 amps / 7 kw for hours and hours on end?

Or would it be likely to consider increasing the cross sectional size of the cable, given the much longer distance covered?

E.G. - If you were wiring a 7kw electric shower with a total cable length run of about 15 - 20 feet, then a 6mm cable would be fine. But then increasing the cable run out to 80 feet in length, would likely see a cross sectional size increase to say 10mm. Plus the run time on the shower would be much less!

We need the help of a spark to work out the maths on this one .

At 32A, the online cable calculators say that 6mm2 is typically good for 40m length. I am not a sparky.

 

[gazza487]

I had the very same concerns. I believe the installation method has a big impact on rated current carrying capacity. I am by no means a sparkie (a background in physics though).

The shower would likely be because they are usually a bit bigger than 7kW and the cables are burried in walls along with other cables and the like. I don’t know the specifics of voltage drops though. UK company, UK made - if it ends up looking like the element in a toaster they shall hear from me (if I survive ).

 

[siteguru]

Look on the bright side ... you have an SE SR which has a max. of 6.6kW charge rate, so heat generation will be lower.