Gidday there, C-H, I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. wave

My comments in Italics


Originally Posted by C-H
It's a charging system for electric vechicles which can be employed both at home and at public charging stations. The "at home" part is easy, but the public charging points pose some difficulties.


First off, sort of current levels are we talking about here?


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Where I live, grey steel cabinets stick out of the ground everywhere, filled with various utility wires. You find them by the side of buildings, next to the road or even in the middle of the woods. This means that us locals are completely blind to them. But I realise that this may not be the case in other countries.


I think boxes like the type you describe, are pretty much generic in most countries, we have this sort of thing here, but the boxes are different coloured.

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So, my first question is: What would you say if you were asked install cabinets similar to this next to a car park? It's about 1 x 1 x .3 m above ground.


I don't have a problem with that idea at all, I would give this advice though, you'd want some sort of steel bollards next to the boxes for protection.
You wouldn't (or maybe you would) beleive how many power pillar boxes get struck by cars, especially in car parks. mad

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Next, I want you to pull half a dozen screened 4 x 50mm2 (4-wire, 1/0 AWG) aluminium cables cables in a 30m (100 feet) long trench across the parking lot from the cabinet to the chargers. Quick and easy or a lot of work? (No worries, you don't need to dig the trench!)


Why Aluminium cables?, they require better terminating skills than copper by a long shot, ie; they need proper grease-filled lugs and good wire preparation.
Copper cables are also easier to bend.
Also remember, if you are thinking of using conduits as opposed to direct burial of the cables, there must be some sort of de-rating of them cables

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How do you prefer to terminate the wires? In terminals, with crimped lugs or something else?


Given the size of the cables you've mentioned above, and having a choice, I'd go with Hex crimped lugs fitted onto threaded studs, with a flat washer, a star washer and 2 lock nuts

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And lastly, would you prefer fuses or breakers in the cabinet? (100A for each outgoing cable) Both electricians and engineers here answer fuses.


Wether you use fuses or circuit-breakers, really depends on if these are going to be accessible to the people using the car charger.
If a car trips a CB, it can be reset easily.
If a fuse blows, people may be inclined to "upgrade" the circuit protection to get the car charged up, I mean, who carries spare fuses in thier car?
I'd personally go with circuit breakers, if it were my installation.

By the way, C-H, any chance of a bigger picture?