I am looking at replacing an old PodPoint charger with an OpenEVSE kit that I recently bought. The PodPoint is mounted on the outside wall of my house, with a flat twin & earth going through the wall and into the rear of the PodPoint.
However since receiving the OpenEVSE kit, I have realised that there is no rear-entry option. The twin and earth is chased into the inside wall - so I can’t see that replacing it with round armoured cable or flex is going to be very easy or sightly.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?
I am keen to avoid some kind of junction box on the wall
It’s possible to cut a hole for rear entry using a step drill or hole saw, I’ve done it before. Use a stuffing compression gland and or silicone to waterproof it.
If you don’t want to do this a black wiska box makes quite a tidy junction and then use a short length of Ho7 rubber flex cable to go from the junction box to the EVSE.
Or just use Ho7 rubber cable directly out from the wall e.g
It’s not recommended to have twin and earth on display since standard twin and earth is not UV resistant.
Yes, my electrician used plenty of silicon sealant to waterproof the entry in the back of my Pod Point.
As a possible alternative, is it possible to get some kind of sleeve to put over the twin and earth, to protect it from UV and the elements? The outer sheath might need to be stripped back, to make it more round to go through the gland?
I think I will probably try cutting a hole in the rear (and the aluminium mounting plate).
I have the older v5 kit, which has the earth bar in the top right, away from the cable entry points, so hopefully there is plenty of room. Will also need something to block up the left-hand cable-entry in the bottom.
Yes, that will work. It’s a good idea to remove the backing plate and all the electronics out of the enclosure while cutting the whole. You want to avoid getting any metal shaving inside the contactor.
Some silicone in the glad will do it. Or remove the gland and use a M25 cap eg
I then put a 25mm rubber grommet in the aluminium, to protect the cable. The inner diameter of the grommet is about 20mm, so I then drilled a 20mm hole though the rear of the polycarbonate enclosure:
I bought an M25 plug to block off the cable entry at the bottom of the enclosure but it is slightly too small. The drawings say that the holes are 1.115 inches (28.32mm). I can’t find a M28 but hopefully M27 will be big enough.
Now I just need to get my electrician to install it. I am going to ask him to use lots of silicon sealant to seal it against the wall
My concern would be, will that remain water-tight? I’m fairly sure a gland would be, and it would undoubtedly comply with Building Regs. Silicone sealant is questionable, I’m not sure it qualifies as “nice work!”
My nice work comment was referring to the photo of the tidy hole the OP has cut. I posted a video which suggested using a gland. But if done correctly silicone will do the job fine, but agree it’s not optimal.
