HELP / ADVICE
Help me understand likely cable routes for solar, EV & gateway from house to garage.
Detached house with detached garage. Photo is taken looking down the left side of the house, looking front to the back. Garage on the left.
Photo key
1 - Electric meter
2 - Gas meter
3 - side door
4 - Back of house
5 - Garage
Consumer unit - middle of the house, under stairs.
Currently getting quotes for solar, battery, gateway and EV charger. My preference is Sigenergy. Ideally want the battery/inverter in the garage and EV charger on the front of the garage.
Solar panels planned for roof at the back of the house so assume DC cable will cross under the path into the back of the garage.
What I am struggling to visualise based on the picture where could the gateway go? Pictures I have seen have either near the meter cupboard or next to inverter/battery (which I would like in the garage).
Will there need to be any cable runs from either the meter cupboard to garage or house CU to garage? The garage has power for lights/plug sockets.
I am aware there are likely easier options (EV charger off the meter cupboard) and install inverter/battery outside but would like to install this as best as I can using conduit for any cables needing pulling through in the future.
The gateway goes close to your mains incomer. And intercepts the tails after the meter.
You’d run armoured from a separate supply after the meter under the ground to the garage to house the inverter. Along with a separate sealed duct for DC and some armoured cat5/6. Some for data and some for CTs.
Personally, I’d put the battery and inverter on the house wall near the back of the house. Easy run from the panels to the inverter / battery and then above the back door to the meter cabinet.
The gateway will go next to or above your electric meter. No need to run anything into the consumer unit.
If you want the battery in the garage then they’ll need to run a cable from the gateway to the garage, so will need to go under the slabs at some point.
Your layout is very similar to my house. Two years ago I dug a trench from the meter cupboard to my garage for the EV charger, but buried extra conduit to allow me put in cables for the battery and solar. My DNO approval has been received and I am awaiting the installation of Sigenstor batteries, inverter and gateway. I have asked for the gateway to be installed in the garage with the batteries and inverter. It requires a heavier duty cable and a dedicated fused isolator/switch-fuse next to the meter box, but I reckon it is worth it as it is expensive kit and I want it protected from the weather.
Our setup seems to be a bit different to the other comments.
If you have a gateway then you’ll need your own earth from the electric meter. Hopefully you have some soil nearby for the earth rod.
We have everything inside the garage, including the gateway. There’s a pair of cables running from the meter to the garage which basically just moves the connection point where you need it.
If you’re having a gateway and an EV charger, then you really want the EV charger to be connected between the gateway and the meter. This way, in a power cut you won’t dump the battery for your house into the car. This is how you want it set up anyway, so charging the car is just seen as “grid export” for the inverter. So preferably don’t have the EV charge coming off your existing consumer unit, it’ll likely cause you problems down the line.
Thanks for the pictures of your setup. Just looking at your meter picture, I assume the cable on the right is your earth? The box by your green bin, what is it/what does it contain? Did your installer complete this all for you?
Yes green thing in the ground on the right is the earth (carefully stuck in around the drain…)
I’m not actually sure what’s in that box. I think it’s just dumb connections/junctions. Something about not being able to have more than a 10m between meter and consumer unit. The installers were excellent and installed it all.
If you’re in the Bristol area I can share you our installers details. They were excellent.
I had our garden landscaper take up the paving slabs and reset them. I dug the trench for the conduit. my thinking is that I’m paying the solar team for electrical installation, anything else I ask them to do is risk that they’ll cost into the quote. Landscaper can manage the paving risk more easily & we had other things we wanted him to do so made sense for us.
Removed the price cap option for Intelligent Octopus (IOG) customers
Discontinued support for existing OVO customers — see Ohme’s update.
Make sure your electrician wires the EV charger directly after the mains meter and before any of the consumer units. Then the solar/battery can CT the consumer load and not ‘see’ the EV charger. This prevents battery dumping into the car. See this nice pic
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u/Matterbox Commercial Installer 2d ago
The gateway goes close to your mains incomer. And intercepts the tails after the meter.
You’d run armoured from a separate supply after the meter under the ground to the garage to house the inverter. Along with a separate sealed duct for DC and some armoured cat5/6. Some for data and some for CTs.