Honda E Forum

Wow. I'm happy to pay for convenience, and for quality work, moreso than most - I did order an e after all! But if the cable run is on your own property, and you don't have soil made of solid titanium, and there are no public utilities that have to be dealt with, £4k is ridiculous. I seems to me that is a bit like when an insurance company quotes you more than the value of the car because they can't be bothered to have you as a customer.

I had my charger/EVSE installed more than 4 years ago as part of the purchase of my Zoe. The cable runs from the meter box, via a separate RCD box, along the side of the house for about 10m, under the rear patio for a couple of metres, and then under the lawn for about another 4-5 metres to my back fence. I'm about the opposite of Mr. Universe, but didn't have a problem lifting a few patio slabs, scraping out a channel underneath, digging a trench about 50cm deep, and painting and screwing some board to the fence. The trench and groove were filled with soft sand and the soil taken out, and I also bought some grass seed - £100 max in total. Wasn't charged a penny on top of the price of the car.

I absolutely agree that the quote(from 2 British Gas contractors) is ridicules, even more so when you see the required specification for burying the cable which I attach. They require a depth of 450mm.
The technical guy said these quotes have been putting many people off installation at the place they really need it.
If I was in slightly better physical health I would do it myself.

You can buy 6mm 4 core armoured cable thru eBay for a few £/m. So buy 25m. Lay 2 cables (as u r doing the digging) and leave the ends out for a competent engineer to do their thing.
Cover the cable in sand ideally and lay a yellow plastic strip a few cm above the cable before u fill in the trench to protect /warn future diggers.
I just read the PDF. So it’s what I said. But diy saves £3500