Playbook, electrical contractor
New load on an old installation, answered without giving a verdict
This question arrives dressed as a question about a product, and it is not. Whether a charge point, an electric shower or a hot tub can go in has almost nothing to do with the appliance and everything to do with what is already coming into the building. That is good news for the reply, because the things that decide it are a short and nameable list.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for compatibility questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The question is asked about an appliance and answered from the supply, so a reply that talks about the appliance has missed it entirely.
- What decides it is four things: the incoming supply and main fuse, the earthing arrangement, whether the board has a spare way, and what is already drawing load. Naming all four is a complete answer that still stops short of the verdict.
- A supply upgrade is not the electrician's work at all, it is applied for from the network operator, and that is the fact that most often decides the timeline rather than the price.
- Customers frequently arrive having already bought the thing, which changes the tone of the conversation and makes an early honest answer far more valuable than a hopeful one.
How it arrives
- will my fuse box take an ev charger
- do i need a supply upgrade for a 7kw charger
- can i have an electric shower on my existing board
- i have bought a hot tub, can you connect it
- is my consumer unit too old for this
- do i need a new board before solar
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The four things your survey checks, named | Supply and main fuse, earthing arrangement, spare ways on the board, existing load. Published as a list so the assistant can recite it, because reciting it is the answer. |
|---|---|
| What you install and what each product needs electrically | Charge point models, shower ratings, hot tub supplies. Described as requirements rather than as recommendations, so the assistant inherits the distinction instead of having to invent it. |
| How a supply upgrade actually works | That it is applied for from the network operator, who does the work, roughly how the process runs where you operate, and what your part in it is. Nobody publishes this and everybody asks. |
| Grant or scheme conditions where you work | Eligibility rules for charge point support, stated as the rules of the scheme rather than as a promise. These are conditions about the property and the applicant, not about electricity. |
The reply
Nobody can answer that without looking, but the things that decide it are a short list: the size of your incoming supply and main fuse, your earthing arrangement, whether the board has a spare way, and what is already on the supply. The survey checks all four and takes about half an hour. If the supply itself turns out to need upgrading, that is applied for from the network operator rather than done by us, and we can walk you through how that goes.
Refusing the verdict while naming every input makes the refusal read as expertise instead of evasion. The network operator sentence is the part customers never know, and it is usually what actually sets the timeline, so giving it away for free buys a great deal of credit.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for a yes or no on a particular installation, and any question about what a specific board or supply will take.
That needs somebody looking at your board and your supply. Leave your name, a number and the address and we will get a survey booked in.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- That a particular consumer unit or supply will take a new load.
- That a supply upgrade will or will not be needed.
- That an existing installation is unsafe or out of date without an inspection.
- Any instruction to open a consumer unit or to look at a main fuse.
Questions
- Customers have usually already bought the charger. Does that change the reply?
- It changes what is at stake but not the answer. What it should change is the speed: get the survey booked rather than exchanging messages, because the person is now committed and every day they spend guessing is a day they might spend ringing somebody else.
- Can it explain the difference between charger types?
- It can describe what you install and what each one needs. What it must not do is say which one suits their car and their supply, because that is a recommendation made without an inspection, and it is the sentence a customer will quote back.
- Why put the network operator point in a standard reply?
- Because it reframes a delay the customer would otherwise blame on you. If an upgrade is needed, the wait belongs to a third party, and the customer who heard that at the enquiry stage takes it very differently from the one who hears it after a survey.
Keep reading
- Everything for a electrical contractorCall out charges, EV charger enquiries and landlord certificates are answerable. A described electrical fault is an escalation, not a question.
- Handling compatibility questions in generalAnswerable only if you publish a list. Inferring compatibility is the failure, and the price of a wrong yes is a return and a refund.
- Why an electrical fault cannot be worked out from a descriptionFault finding means isolating circuits and testing them. A guess from a description is worse than nothing, because somebody acts on it.
- The two questions hiding inside are you insuredThis question is really two. One is about your liability cover, the other about the paperwork a solicitor will ask for years later.
- The reply that has to get shorter as the danger gets worseOne electrical message makes a careful, balanced answer the wrong answer. It needs four instructions and a phone number.
Try it on your own material
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