I bought a hypervolt a few years back with a grant, and one thing to mention is that chargers have built in safety features that can make the install cheaper, so worth looking at.
We started with the free one we got with our Zoe 7-8 years ago. But in January this year we replaced it for a Zappi to allow us on to the Octopus Intelligent Go. Just changing to IOG we are saving 1/3 on our elec bill as our usage is now almost a 50/50 split of peak/off-peak and average cost per kWh is 17p. 2 reasons for picking the Zappi; 1) I preferred the idea of having the charger compatible with the tariff rather than the car (look what happened with the i-pace) as this doesn't restrict what car I buy and I can have multiple cars on the charger rather than just one registered (although I believe they are working on changing this). 2) I was planning on adding solar this year so having the solar divert as an option was nice to have (even thought the export rates make it cheaper to charge overnight and sell the excess solar). Personally I've always preferred the untethered option just in case anything ever changed on the connector (highly unlikely I know) but we are seeing in the USA they are adopting tesla's standard. Never bothered me unplugging it in/out in 8 years, but each to their own.
Thanks, all good advice and as you say everyones use case is different. I chose Ohme and Octopus intelligent go and the set up was quick and easy and it is the charger that is in control,not the car,so works with any EV. I have solar panels and a home battery,so you need to ensure your wiring does not drain your home battery when Octopus decides to charge your EV, not too difficult.
I have an Easee. It’s an untethered charger. The advantage is, you can use it as either, which is great if you need a charging cable when travelling. Mine is only removed and put in the car when I think I may need it on a long trip. Coming up for 2 years and no problems. Works well with intelligent Octopus.
Had my Ohme Pro installed by OVO and I’m on the OVO Charge anytime tariff which costs 7.5p per kWh, without penalty to the standard rate, however it’s a bit weird in that the tariff works by giving you a credit each month for the difference between the charging rate and the standard rate multiplied by the charging kWh units at the cheap rate. Had the system 3 months and it works pretty seamlessly. By the way Dave, looking at your installation it doesn’t seem up to the new standards with the breaker just shoved on top of the distribution board, doesn’t look like you have current balancing either to prevent tripping the main fuse.
I may be confused but is it a free charger if its salary sacrifice? would it not be a charger on credit? You still have to pay for it over a fixed term?
The UK supply voltage specification is 230 +10% -6% so 216 to 253 Volts and you will find properties connected to older substations will still be nominally 240 Volts
I have a Pod Point , charging schedule set by app , but when away for weekend schedule still active , anyone can plug in as its live CAN NOT TURN OFF. Spoke for two years to Pod Point but no upgrade to date
@@kimedwards3937 I agree with your findings , Key switch is £200 + VAT and yes I can turn off MCB ... But an App that has off function would be better ( other EV chargers have this function
The DNO would only upgrade my main fuse to an 80 Amp version saying they no longer fitted 100 Amp ones as there is a potential risk of fire.....if a,b,c,d,e,f,g and h all happened together! I think the Tesla charger can trigger the Charge port top open so that is a bonus if you have a Tesla. My charger a Myenergi Zappi, with Octopus Intelligent still offers the solar charging but sending that to the grid and being paid 15p per kWh is better when I can charge at 7.5p per kWh overnight.
Dave. Wall box does not need connecting via your house fuse box. Ours is connected direct to meter box & supplied via a connection after the meter. All though it's own dedicated wiring. All done by Octopus.
I had a free installation with my first EV. It came with two years access to online features for 'housekeeping'. Now 10 years on it is s simple dumb chargepoint, It supplies power when the car requires it. If I want further control I use the phone App matched to the car. On the front of the charger there are two lights, one indicate mains power, the other to show that it is 'speaking' to the car. The car indicates with lights that it is plugged in. When charging those lights flash! Other cars do similar . Time of charge is controlled by the car settings, with a phone app override . SImplicity rules! I actually have two other dumb chargers for the other cars. Don't pay for features that you do not need! Most days the 5 hours charge is enough, but even charging at daytime rates is better than elsewhere. My Electricity comes from Ecotricity, through a 12 month EV Fixed Tarriff. Five overnight hours at 7.9p Kwh. Daytime at 30.9p Kwh, Incl VAT. Standing Charge 50p per day. My ratio of overnight to day is 5.4 to 1. As well as care with choosing a charger remember to buy 'white goods' that can be controlled by time switch to run overnight on off peak electricity. (Dishwasher and Washing Machine)
Another reason for untethered. We have three EVs, and the Zappi charger only comes with a 6.5m cable. The only way to reach the 3rd car is with a 10m cable, so we have gone untethered, and bought a 10m cable. Otherwise we would have to move the cars round every time we wanted to charge, which is not easy in our limited space at the front of our house.
It is now required that all car chargers fitted in the UK support the OCPP charging protocol however before selecting one you may want to check that your energy supply company supports the specific charger as this is not a given, Octopus for instance only supports 4 manufacturers chargers. Not a problem if your car supports the protocol but at some point, you may change or have more than one EV and it’s a lot easier to handle this if the charging is controlled by the charger.
Hey, I drive EVs, not so hot on the dishes but do my share. The bulk is done by ... the dishwasher overnight off-peak. It faces the wrong way and can't see out of the window.
If you had an EV, some solar panels and something like a powerwall , what is to stop you going on an EV tariff and topping up your powerwall overnight and then drawing down on it during the day - thus reducing your energy bill ?
Many people have been doing that for years, including many who do not have solar panels, just a battery bank. Fill up at 7.5p per kWh and use it all day.
The socket was already here when I moved in and has been checked by the electrician as safe to use. The wall charger is Tesla and on their website currently at £475. I cannot remember how much I paid for the electrician but it was not a lot as the max cable length is 3 metres and I drilled and mounted the charger myself prior to connection.
Waiting to get my first EV (Eberlingo) on Motability. They are paying for a charger Epod. But I am not sure about tarriffs. As you said it depends on daytime usage(retired and disabled). With EDF but as I only do around 4.5K miles a year, and use about 14KWA per day without the car, I am not sure going to an EV tarriff will actually save money. What do you think?
With that mileage and typical economy your daily usage will increase by about 6kwh a day on average. On something like octopus go your peak usage may be 20% more but overnight it will be less than half the cost. You can work out the figures but it should be clear it will be cheaper even with that low mileage.
Your comment about requiring a modern consumer unit is incorrect probably because you have a Tesla charger which doesn’t have any built in protection. A lot of alternative chargers such as the podpoint have built in protection and the installer will simply tap off the tails coming from the meter using a couple of henly blocks and run the power through a circuit breaker which can be in an external box and onto the podpoint or similar. Regarding tethered or untethered you missed the main difference which is with untethered you have a greater choice of the cable length. You also missed a big difference between chargers is how they control access to stop others using your charger. Podpoint can have a key lock and ohm I believe can be set to authorise the charge in the app.
Hi Dave, good video but factually inaccurate when talking about safety features. For example integrated RCD or PEN fault features are far from just fluff and those specs are most for installers as the “standard” user does not even understand what they mean. In fact all charging point have to comply (currently) with BS 7671 amendment 3. So, if the charge does not include some of those features integrated, these need to be added in the distribution board that feeds the charger making the installation more expensive (e.g. type B RCD or PEN fault protection device). Other than that a charge point does very little aside from scheduling charging. If you have a copy of the current BS7671 regulation please refer to section 722. Ivan
I guess your next video might broach the subject of the apparent collapse of Tesla's Supercharger team! Hard to know why now but I think outside USA the world is somewhat protected by more competition but if they remove the cheaper tarrifs from the competition, it may not do the world any favours!
You absolutely should NOT charge your car with a 3 pin cable (granny) regularly. Only in absolute emergencies. Bad and dangerous advice to state otherwise. Also EDFs taffif is no longer available. We were on it and have subsequently switched to eon today which also doesn't require a smart charger unlike octopus.
A quick Google says : "A 3-pin domestic socket is not designed for continuous high-power usage, so most manufacturers recommend three-pin EV charging only in emergencies - and it’s because of safety reasons. A 3-pin plug electric car charger is a high-drain device, meaning that you will need to run your 3-pin socket at 2.3kW or even 2.5kW for long periods of time. Running a domestic socket this close to its maximum 3kW capacity puts a strain on your circuit, the cables, and the socket, with the potential to cause serious problems, such as overheating and, in worst-case scenarios, fires." ... I also remember reading that it's bad for the ev battery health.
Not if you get one of the cheap off peak tariffs. Unless your daytime usage is really high. Example £3.75 to charge car 50kWh @ 0.075p Octopus Intelligent
I bought a hypervolt a few years back with a grant, and one thing to mention is that chargers have built in safety features that can make the install cheaper, so worth looking at.
If you use an untethered charger are both ends of the cable (vehicle & charger end) locked during charging.
We started with the free one we got with our Zoe 7-8 years ago. But in January this year we replaced it for a Zappi to allow us on to the Octopus Intelligent Go. Just changing to IOG we are saving 1/3 on our elec bill as our usage is now almost a 50/50 split of peak/off-peak and average cost per kWh is 17p.
2 reasons for picking the Zappi;
1) I preferred the idea of having the charger compatible with the tariff rather than the car (look what happened with the i-pace) as this doesn't restrict what car I buy and I can have multiple cars on the charger rather than just one registered (although I believe they are working on changing this).
2) I was planning on adding solar this year so having the solar divert as an option was nice to have (even thought the export rates make it cheaper to charge overnight and sell the excess solar).
Personally I've always preferred the untethered option just in case anything ever changed on the connector (highly unlikely I know) but we are seeing in the USA they are adopting tesla's standard. Never bothered me unplugging it in/out in 8 years, but each to their own.
I went for the Andersen A2 charger mainly because it looks neat and the cable is hidden when not in use. Another Intelligent Octopus Go user here.
Thanks, all good advice and as you say everyones use case is different.
I chose Ohme and Octopus intelligent go and the set up was quick and easy and it is the charger that is in control,not the car,so works with any EV.
I have solar panels and a home battery,so you need to ensure your wiring does not drain your home battery when Octopus decides to charge your EV, not too difficult.
Quite like the zappi. Just set to eco plus and vehicle charges from solar or overnight charge without changing any settings.
I have an Easee. It’s an untethered charger. The advantage is, you can use it as either, which is great if you need a charging cable when travelling. Mine is only removed and put in the car when I think I may need it on a long trip. Coming up for 2 years and no problems. Works well with intelligent Octopus.
Had my Ohme Pro installed by OVO and I’m on the OVO Charge anytime tariff which costs 7.5p per kWh, without penalty to the standard rate, however it’s a bit weird in that the tariff works by giving you a credit each month for the difference between the charging rate and the standard rate multiplied by the charging kWh units at the cheap rate. Had the system 3 months and it works pretty seamlessly. By the way Dave, looking at your installation it doesn’t seem up to the new standards with the breaker just shoved on top of the distribution board, doesn’t look like you have current balancing either to prevent tripping the main fuse.
I may be confused but is it a free charger if its salary sacrifice? would it not be a charger on credit? You still have to pay for it over a fixed term?
The UK supply voltage specification is 230 +10% -6% so 216 to 253 Volts and you will find properties connected to older substations will still be nominally 240 Volts
I have a Pod Point , charging schedule set by app , but when away for weekend schedule still active , anyone can plug in as its live CAN NOT TURN OFF. Spoke for two years to Pod Point but no upgrade to date
You can set the schedule to charge for 5 minutes when away. Switch of MCB in the fuse box. Have the Podpoint key switch fitted.
@@kimedwards3937 I agree with your findings , Key switch is £200 + VAT and yes I can turn off MCB ... But an App that has off function would be better ( other EV chargers have this function
The DNO would only upgrade my main fuse to an 80 Amp version saying they no longer fitted 100 Amp ones as there is a potential risk of fire.....if a,b,c,d,e,f,g and h all happened together!
I think the Tesla charger can trigger the Charge port top open so that is a bonus if you have a Tesla. My charger a Myenergi Zappi, with Octopus Intelligent still offers the solar charging but sending that to the grid and being paid 15p per kWh is better when I can charge at 7.5p per kWh overnight.
Dave. Wall box does not need connecting via your house fuse box. Ours is connected direct to meter box & supplied via a connection after the meter. All though it's own dedicated wiring. All done by Octopus.
I had a free installation with my first EV. It came with two years access to online features for 'housekeeping'. Now 10 years on it is s simple dumb chargepoint, It supplies power when the car requires it. If I want further control I use the phone App matched to the car. On the front of the charger there are two lights, one indicate mains power, the other to show that it is 'speaking' to the car. The car indicates with lights that it is plugged in. When charging those lights flash! Other cars do similar .
Time of charge is controlled by the car settings, with a phone app override . SImplicity rules! I actually have two other dumb chargers for the other cars. Don't pay for features that you do not need!
Most days the 5 hours charge is enough, but even charging at daytime rates is better than elsewhere.
My Electricity comes from Ecotricity, through a 12 month EV Fixed Tarriff. Five overnight hours at 7.9p Kwh. Daytime at 30.9p Kwh, Incl VAT. Standing Charge 50p per day. My ratio of overnight to day is 5.4 to 1.
As well as care with choosing a charger remember to buy 'white goods' that can be controlled by time switch to run overnight on off peak electricity. (Dishwasher and Washing Machine)
Another reason for untethered. We have three EVs, and the Zappi charger only comes with a 6.5m cable. The only way to reach the 3rd car is with a 10m cable, so we have gone untethered, and bought a 10m cable. Otherwise we would have to move the cars round every time we wanted to charge, which is not easy in our limited space at the front of our house.
It is now required that all car chargers fitted in the UK support the OCPP charging protocol however before selecting one you may want to check that your energy supply company supports the specific charger as this is not a given, Octopus for instance only supports 4 manufacturers chargers. Not a problem if your car supports the protocol but at some point, you may change or have more than one EV and it’s a lot easier to handle this if the charging is controlled by the charger.
is not OCPP a commercialization agreements? why all the car charger need it in UK?
"I can see the wall box from the kitchen sink but don't spend much there" 😲 love it or was it a Freudian slip.
Hey, I drive EVs, not so hot on the dishes but do my share. The bulk is done by ... the dishwasher overnight off-peak. It faces the wrong way and can't see out of the window.
@@davetakesiton same as us dishwasher & washing machine plus car as have Octopus Go rates. 👍
If you had an EV, some solar panels and something like a powerwall , what is to stop you going on an EV tariff and topping up your powerwall overnight and then drawing down on it during the day - thus reducing your energy bill ?
Many people have been doing that for years, including many who do not have solar panels, just a battery bank. Fill up at 7.5p per kWh and use it all day.
Helpful video, Now get those gutters cleaned ( dont want it over flowing onto the charger even if it is waterproof)
Great video
Cheers Dave
How much was your set-up Dave, I notice that you didn't mention it in the video.
The socket was already here when I moved in and has been checked by the electrician as safe to use. The wall charger is Tesla and on their website currently at £475. I cannot remember how much I paid for the electrician but it was not a lot as the max cable length is 3 metres and I drilled and mounted the charger myself prior to connection.
Waiting to get my first EV (Eberlingo) on Motability. They are paying for a charger Epod. But I am not sure about tarriffs. As you said it depends on daytime usage(retired and disabled). With EDF but as I only do around 4.5K miles a year, and use about 14KWA per day without the car, I am not sure going to an EV tarriff will actually save money. What do you think?
With that mileage and typical economy your daily usage will increase by about 6kwh a day on average. On something like octopus go your peak usage may be 20% more but overnight it will be less than half the cost. You can work out the figures but it should be clear it will be cheaper even with that low mileage.
Some on eBay don't have pen fault detection as an electrician I would avoid them.
Your comment about requiring a modern consumer unit is incorrect probably because you have a Tesla charger which doesn’t have any built in protection. A lot of alternative chargers such as the podpoint have built in protection and the installer will simply tap off the tails coming from the meter using a couple of henly blocks and run the power through a circuit breaker which can be in an external box and onto the podpoint or similar.
Regarding tethered or untethered you missed the main difference which is with untethered you have a greater choice of the cable length.
You also missed a big difference between chargers is how they control access to stop others using your charger. Podpoint can have a key lock and ohm I believe can be set to authorise the charge in the app.
Hope that’s not an ICE car next to the Model S…….
Hi Dave, good video but factually inaccurate when talking about safety features. For example integrated RCD or PEN fault features are far from just fluff and those specs are most for installers as the “standard” user does not even understand what they mean. In fact all charging point have to comply (currently) with BS 7671 amendment 3. So, if the charge does not include some of those features integrated, these need to be added in the distribution board that feeds the charger making the installation more expensive (e.g. type B RCD or PEN fault protection device). Other than that a charge point does very little aside from scheduling charging.
If you have a copy of the current BS7671 regulation please refer to section 722.
Ivan
Hello mate
I guess your next video might broach the subject of the apparent collapse of Tesla's Supercharger team! Hard to know why now but I think outside USA the world is somewhat protected by more competition but if they remove the cheaper tarrifs from the competition, it may not do the world any favours!
You absolutely should NOT charge your car with a 3 pin cable (granny) regularly. Only in absolute emergencies. Bad and dangerous advice to state otherwise.
Also EDFs taffif is no longer available. We were on it and have subsequently switched to eon today which also doesn't require a smart charger unlike octopus.
Totally agree, 3 pin circuits are not designed to carry the load for such a long time.
A quick Google says :
"A 3-pin domestic socket is not designed for continuous high-power usage, so most manufacturers recommend three-pin EV charging only in emergencies - and it’s because of safety reasons. A 3-pin plug electric car charger is a high-drain device, meaning that you will need to run your 3-pin socket at 2.3kW or even 2.5kW for long periods of time. Running a domestic socket this close to its maximum 3kW capacity puts a strain on your circuit, the cables, and the socket, with the potential to cause serious problems, such as overheating and, in worst-case scenarios, fires."
... I also remember reading that it's bad for the ev battery health.
My car uses 50kwh a week in winter, 40 in summer, an EV tariff would actually increase my bill.
Not if you get one of the cheap off peak tariffs. Unless your daytime usage is really high. Example £3.75 to charge car 50kWh @ 0.075p Octopus Intelligent
First 😢
Vauxhall free charging for a year is a great deal
Clean your porch gutter Dave.