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Proving continuous 230v supply.


Slim

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I know this is not boat related but electrickery is a popular subject here . 

Wondering if anyone can suggest a way of proving that my home 230v supply to the charger for my new Kia Niro PHEV (Plug in Hybrid EV) is continuous and uninterrupted. 

Briefly, when scheduled charging is set on the cars system eg midnight to 7 am and using a granny charger plugged into a 13a socket sometimes it charges and sometimes it doesn't. There is no pattern. It's not the charger as a couple have been tried. 

Presently the car is with the dealer for the third or fourth time but according to a conversation I had this afternoon the techie is baffled. One suggestion that's been made is that it's caused by an interrupted 230v supply. I doubt this but would like to prove it one way or the other.

Can anyone suggest some kind of data logger/gizmo that I can use to establish what's happening.?

Many thanks.

 

  

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Plug a simple electromechanical time switch (the sort driven by a little synchronous motor) and if it is slow in the morning then you know how long the power was off.  A simple digital clock will flash if the power was intermittent.  If no problem then all done, if there is a problem, then maybe more sophisticated monitoring is required.

Edited by Chewbacka
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5 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

A simple digital clock will flash if the power was intermittent

Depends on how long it was off for, if less than a second then it might not flash but it may be enough to trip the circuit in the car.

 

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13 minutes ago, sueanddaren said:

Bluetooth Temperature Humidity Recorder Data Logger Thermometer Hygrometer CF UK 705495126753 | eBay

 

Put a bulb or a heater in the same mains supply and monitor the temp.

Thanks but if the interruption was only for a couple of seconds the temp would not drop.

10 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

Plug a simple electromechanical time switch (the sort driven by a little synchronous motor) and if it is slow in the morning then you know how long the power was off.  A simple digital clock will flash if the power was intermittent.  If no problem then all done, if there is a problem, then maybe more sophisticated monitoring is required.

TRied the timeswitch idea already but I'm looking for potentially a very brief interruption. Thought of the clock idea but no one seems to have one these days. Smart speakers rule supreme. Thanks for the suggestions though.   

9 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Depends on how long it was off for, if less than a second then it might not flash but it may be enough to trip the circuit in the car.

 

That's really the nub of the question.

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If you have access to a PC UPS (uninteruptable power supply) doesn't need to be a big all singing one, most of them (defiantly APC ones) do very good logging. You wouldn't need any load on it but it will still log supply voltage and show when/if there is any drop...

 

Edit: a highend DMM with USB data logging connected to a laptop... not suggesting you should buy one, perhaps borrow one?

 

TBH most chargers I've come across have big smoothing capacitors so wouldn't be bothered by a quick blip in supply...

Edited by Quattrodave
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Would it make any difference if you started charging at 15 minutes after midnight to clear the economy 7 start time. I no this is a silly point as changing from standard tariff to economy 7 should not result in a transient power loss. But sillier things have happened.

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13 hours ago, Slim said:

One suggestion that's been made is that it's caused by an interrupted 230v supply. I doubt this but would like to prove it one way or the other.

Can anyone suggest some kind of data logger/gizmo that I can use to establish what's happening.?

Many thanks.

 

It seems highly suspicious that a system can't adjust to what is the same as a switch being thrown off and on.

 

 

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I would check the economy 7 set up.  I have economy 7 and there is a wire out of the meter that (used) to go to contactor that would switch on a load of storage heaters when the economy 7 tarriff was operating.  Economy 7  can switch on/off several times overnight depending on Grid load(the whole point of it) . All that rubbish has long since gone from my house, but could it be the supply to your charger is  via some sort of economy 7 controlled circuit ? 

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4 hours ago, jonathanA said:

I would check the economy 7 set up.  I have economy 7 and there is a wire out of the meter that (used) to go to contactor that would switch on a load of storage heaters when the economy 7 tarriff was operating.  Economy 7  can switch on/off several times overnight depending on Grid load(the whole point of it) . All that rubbish has long since gone from my house, but could it be the supply to your charger is  via some sort of economy 7 controlled circuit ? 

E7 was in the house when we bought it 39 years ago.. When the house was re-wired we retained the original white meter (apathy cos electricity was cheap) Everything else was replaced. When the meter was changed to a digital one it still had/has a day and a night readout.

Picked the car up today and was told that they had updated the software controlling the charging. Hopefully this will solve the problem 😅 

Many thanks for all the suggestions and ideas. 

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On 23/03/2023 at 21:18, Slim said:

I know this is not boat related but electrickery is a popular subject here . 

Wondering if anyone can suggest a way of proving that my home 230v supply to the charger for my new Kia Niro PHEV (Plug in Hybrid EV) is continuous and uninterrupted. 

Briefly, when scheduled charging is set on the cars system eg midnight to 7 am and using a granny charger plugged into a 13a socket sometimes it charges and sometimes it doesn't. There is no pattern. It's not the charger as a couple have been tried. 

Presently the car is with the dealer for the third or fourth time but according to a conversation I had this afternoon the techie is baffled. One suggestion that's been made is that it's caused by an interrupted 230v supply. I doubt this but would like to prove it one way or the other.

Can anyone suggest some kind of data logger/gizmo that I can use to establish what's happening.?

Many thanks.

 

  

When I have even the slightest power outage at home we have to reset the cooker clock, microwave clock and bedroom alarm clock, also the phones that sit on their chargers let out a loud bleep when it comes back on.

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23 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

When I have even the slightest power outage at home we have to reset the cooker clock, microwave clock and bedroom alarm clock, also the phones that sit on their chargers let out a loud bleep when it comes back on.

 

Same here. And our Ring alarm sends us a notification that it has gone on back up battery supply.

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