Users of electric or plug-in hybrid cars have several solutions to recharge their vehicle’s battery and be autonomous to travel for miles.
From charging systems available in the public domain or at service stations, for example, to individual charging stations, via simple household electrical outlets or reinforced sockets. The latter are often used by owners of electric cars who wish to charge their vehicle at home, in particular because the reinforced sockets, with a higher power than the sockets at home, make it possible to recharge their vehicle more quickly, and with better security.
Reinforced socket to charge your electric car: what are we talking about?
The vast majority of users of electric or plug-in hybrid cars choose to charge their vehicle at home, a solution that provides maximum comfort in this area.
Most of them are equipped with a charging station, called a wallbox, very simple equipment to install in a house, on an exterior wall, in a garage, or even on a private parking space in a condominium. Using a charging station is also very easy.
The only downside: the costs of purchasing and installing a charging station are quite high. In addition, not all owners of an electric car need this type of high-performance equipment (the charging time is limited), which may not necessarily be necessary depending on their vehicle model, and more precisely from their battery.
These are the reasons why a certain number of users of electric cars or plug-in hybrids prefer to use a simple electrical outlet in their home to recharge their vehicle.
This is indeed one of the possible solutions. All you have to do is plug the charging cable of your electric car into an outlet in your home. However, recharging your vehicle in this way implies accepting a long charging time. On the other hand, this charging solution is the least secure if it has not been suitably adapted to its domestic electrical network. The risks of overheating are indeed not rare, with the potential risks of fires which result from it.
To recharge your electric vehicle, there is an intermediate solution between the high-performance charging station and the connection to an electrical socket in your home: the reinforced socket.
This type of electrical socket, also known as a Green’Up socket because it is the reinforced socket created by the Legrand company that is currently the most widely used, looks quite like a simple household socket. But its particularity lies in the fact that it is specially designed for charging electric vehicles: it is more robust than a simple socket and above all it allows you to benefit from greater power, therefore in particular a longer charging time. shorter than with a domestic socket.
The reinforced socket for recharging your electric car is also much more secure, in particular because it is equipped with a differential circuit breaker which avoids the risk of overvoltage from the electrical network.
On the other hand, a reinforced socket does not require specific work for its installation. Simply connect it to the electrical panel using a specific cable and a dedicated line, at a minimum height of 80 cm from the ground.
And, unlike a charging station with a power of at least 3.7 kW, it is not mandatory to call on a qualified and certified installer to equip yourself with a reinforced socket to charge your electric car. .
Finally, there are so-called “intelligent” reinforced sockets that can be controlled remotely.
Which reinforced grip power to choose?
The owners of an electric car who use a simple electrical outlet for their recharging have a power of 2.3 kW, that is to say a fairly low power which results in a long charging time to make its energy self-sufficient vehicle (usually 10 to 12 hours).
Using a reinforced Green’Up type socket allows you to benefit from a higher power than a simple electrical socket, 3.2 kW in single-phase alternating current at 14 Amps. This power level makes it possible, for example, and depending on the type of electric vehicle, to recharge your car to cover a distance of 20 to 40 km in about an hour. That is a charging time of one night to be autonomous for 200 km, and more generally a duration about 35% less than with a simple domestic socket.
The power of a reinforced socket is also generally scalable. It can indeed support a load that can go up to 3.7 kW, or 16 Amps.
Due to its particular characteristics in terms of power, a reinforced socket for recharging an electric car, even if it is more efficient than a household socket, does not make it possible to obtain the same results in terms of charging time as a Wallbox type charging station.
This is why a reinforced socket is particularly aimed at motorists who do not need a lot of power for their vehicle, who are not heavy daily drivers, who therefore do not need to recharge their car quickly. and often.
Given the power it delivers, well below that of a charging station, this type of charging system is very well suited, for example, for electric vehicles that are not used every day, or for a second vehicle.