I'll let the Essex snub slid 😁 as if it wasn't for watching your videos about this subject I'd still be spending £160-£180 a month on petrol not the £20 to £25 I am now. Since looking into and getting a EV for the first time, I've had a smart charger fitted, switch to octopus go and even gone as far as having a battery storage unit installed this week. Thank you
I listened to you some years ago and followed your advice, I also did some research of my own. By taking note of your advice I've actually saved a few thousand pounds in fuel cost which actually paid for my smart charger within seven months, I am on octopus go tariff, I very rarely charge my Nissan Leaf away from home and I get around 200 miles per charge which for me works out OK. I fully appreciate the work you put into your videos and for sharing what you find with us. 👍
I had the same ZS EV as your brother ( Gen1 ) with a Rolec dumb wall box installed way back in 2015 ( it was used to charge my then, VW PHEV Golf. When we bought the ZS EV it was a problem, because the car had NO means of setting the charging times via either an App or internal to the car systems. I therefore installed a Wi-Fi relay into the wall box and then used the free App supplied by the relay company, to set a schedule charging requirement to align with my off - peak tariff from my energy company. This worked absolutely fine for over two years !. I now own a ZS EV Gen 2 ZS EV and now have control of the off peak charging times from within the car or the MG ISmart App, so I have disconnected the Wi-Fi relay from the wall box. This original outlay of about £20 for the Wi-Fi relay, has resulted in saving me a LOT of money over two years of use. One of the advantages of having a basic dumb unit really, is that I had full control of when I wanted the car to charge I guess. Smart charging wall boxes have changed all of this of course now. The very new smart wall box units will have the facility to delay people charging at peak times to help protect the demand on the grid. You just have to love progress 🤣
100% agree ... - Made sure that our home charger (WallBox Pulsar Plus) was intelligent (can also be adapted to work with solar power) and that it has an intelligent fuse that makes sure that when you are charging and running appliances you do not exceed your maximum load. i.e. it adjusts what the car can pull through your home charger. - Were already on a split tarrif, but when the contract ended moved to an EV tarrif ... 6 hrs at 3c/kW (midnight to 7) and the rest 30c ... bonus; the electricity is 100% renewable. - A bonus ... car is intelligent too (Swedish brand) where I can set charging times (and charging limit - mostly set to 90%) both in the car and using the car's app. --> Result; massive savings ... sure electricity prices are higher, but boy diesel prices (what the old car ran on) have shot up too and that car wasn't very efficient.
As a comparison to the UK lecky prices, yesterday I completed a two day round trip to Montréal and back-1005 km or circa 629 miles in my Kona EV. I fully charged at home before leaving and the rest on an excellent public charging network here in Québec, the total cost was $39 or £26. 😊 We are blessed with the cheapest electricity in N America.
My Octopus go renewal email came today - these are the new rates for me (West Sussex). Also, Octopus Go is now a variable rate tariff - details below copied from their email. Your new Octopus Go prices Peak unit rate: 43.40p / kWh Off-peak unit rate: 12.00p / kWh Standing charge: 41.13p / day No more annual renewals: Fixed-term contracts aren't eligible for the Energy Price Guarantee, so our smart tariffs will now technically be "variable" products, without an end date. Whilst we don't currently have any plans to change prices (either up or down), prices will eventually change - but we'll always give plenty of notice. If government rules change, or we get to the end of the 2 year Energy Price Guarantee, we may reintroduce fixed terms, if it means we can make EV charging cheaper.
I've just ordered my first EV on Motability which is going to be a Renault Megane Etech. Won't be getting it till end of January though but I'm looking forward to it. Also getting a free Ohme Pro Charger installed as well so will be checking the Octopus Go and intelligent tarrifs for sure at that time. I've been watching your channel for years now and I'm surprised it's taking me this long to decide to get an EV but I have learned alot from your channel over the years. I still get some of my friends trying to talk me out of getting an EV which is quite funny with some of the reasons they come out with 😂
we've just started the journey with an Enyaq on order. We're waiting for the installers to come out and look at our electrics. It's a bit nerve wracking as it's an old house with electrics that have been added to over the years. Cross fingers it works out!
As you touched on you can make considerably savings, when you take advantage of the EV off peak tariff then once your old white goods fail and in need of replacement such as washing machines,dish washer and tumble dryer replace with one's fitted with start time delay and take advantage of the cheap rate For example a typical 3kw tumble will cost will cost 22.5 pence an hour to run on the cheap rate against £1.14 on the standard rate
We're having a bit of a national energy crisis. In Japan, when they had an earthquake which knocked out the power stations, Nissan LEAF owners were able to plug their cars into their 2 way chargers and keep things going, to a certain extent. As a LEAF owner, I'm so frustrated that this technology is not available to us, my car has done 1600 miles since new (I'm retired) so that battery could have been helping taking the strain (and the wife really puts some strain) off the national grid.
@Electric Vehicle Man I know you said your brother was already on the Octopus Go tariff, but what is usually not mentioned is how much extra the day time electricity costs. I totally agree with a time of day tariff if you have a BEV, but how big that saving is also depends a lot on how much you drive it, as if you don't charge enough kWh a lot of that savings gets eaten up by the higher day time rate. My own example. Our car charges 2000kWh/year at home. On top of the car charging our household uses another 4000kWh/year pretty much exclusively outside of that cheap night window. So at this moment where the car only uses 1/3 of the total electricity we are at a pretty much break-even situation where octopus go would cost the same. For us the increase in day time rate eats up roughly £400/years of the savings over night. Yes, a home battery would be great to have... (Yes, our car at the moment is PHEV and only uses electricity for 2/3rd of the distance driven. On the other longer journeys it uses petrol instead and if it would be a BEV the car would probably need twice the electricity to drive the final 1/3rd of the distance given the higher consumption on the motorway instead of in town. But, a big chunk of that electricity would be at public HPCs. So yes, Octopus Go would still be cheaper and save a few hundred £££/ year, just not as much as one thinks initially.)
Don't forget though, if you switch things like Washing Machines, Dishwashers and Tumble Driers to your cheaper hours, you'll be doing a significant portion of those 4000 KWh's at the cheaper rate too. Agree though it only works if your lifestyle and usage can utilise the cheap rate sufficiently. We've found that Intelligent Octopus is 6 hours at 10p, with the peak rate approx 7p higher than the energy cap of 33p. The 7p extra is more than offset by what we can use overnight at the cheaper rate.
Thanks, I've just signed up to Octopus as my ev is arriving in a few months. Once I have it I'll switch to Octopus go, current rate is 12p and 39p but they seem to be the only company still offering a time of day tariff to new customers. Still worth it though.
I got smart meter September 2021 . Got smart charger and Bulb have smart tarrif. But even Ombudsman can’t get my Smart meter working . I have put plenty effort into this but no result. Hopefully Octopus buy Bulb and they can sort it. Cheers Andrew
Merci beaucoup for this. I'm waiting to see what happens with the Big Oil lies here in Swiss-stan. An example is that my local paper (which used to be great for renewables and EV) ran a story with an energy ex-spurt who said that when we didn't have any more coal or electricity, we'd still have petrol to help us out. They never mention the YUGE energy and electricity costs of petroleum and bitumin.
I am a non ev car owner (at the moment) but have Octopus Go Tariff and a Ohme Commando charger . My son has an ev and no drive so does his charging at my house (lives 100mtr away) Its a no brainer to be on Go Tariff 7.5p 4hr rate 33.75hr day rate standing charge is slightly more than my previous Tariff with Octopus but easily recouped when using diswasher and washing machine during cheap rate . People on media slagging off smart meters are welcome to stay on dumb meters will leave more for us smart users . By the way any dumb charger can be converted into smart by installing a smart AC contactor into the circuit readily available. Cant recommend Octopus enough they have been great to deal with .
Hi always a fan of your stuff. Just received my new Go charges and the cheap rate will now be 12p / KwH as my contract is ending in November. The daily tarrif will now be 44p, which is a bit mental, however I will stick with go as most of my use is at the cheap rate with utilities and car charging. Hopefully my solar system and battery should be installed before then which should help cutout most of my daily usage. Which makes me think that you may want to do a smiliar thing to this video explaining the potential benefits of installing solar/battery system as the cost benefits now even better than when you talked about this in the past.
Thanks, I have solar panels and a nearby Tesco store so I manage less than 2p/mile. Yes I am lucky, off road parking and managed to afford solar and an EV, but I am investing for my future. Yes you are right we will all need a smart charger that will optimise when it takes advantage of cheap rates
Get a smart circuit breaker for 25€ or a smart outlet for 10€ and turn the dumbest of chargers into a smart charger. I did that for my charger at home and I use it to charge either at the night tarif or when I have excess photovoltaic during the day.
We went with a Zappi which while it doesn't talk to the energy companies so it's smart functions are only what you programme it does work really well with solar. We can tell it all manner of balance between times and solar yields. As a result we are on EDF with 4.5p/kWh at night. As we are confident of never charging at peak.
Brilliant advice. Was already getting these in place for my first ev - e Berlingo, PodPoint Solo3 Octopus Go, but very useful to know I'm on track , and what a difference it will all make. Great information very well presented. Many thanks, and yes, I'm from Yorkshire.
Being smart about charging is what its about. I cannot get a smart meter due to coverage so now EV tariff, but 18k miles has still only cost me £950 including all rapid charging needed. Actual cost is 5.3p a mile compared with my previous diesel at 18p a mile at current prices.
timmer plug for any charger could work too its just under £10 and will on off the charger according to your timetable. thank you for the video learn a lot
Nicely timed video for me. Currently on Octopus with dual fuel and have podpoint charger. Waiting for my first EV to arrive next week. I also believe I will get extra £90 credit off my bill for buying new or used Etron. I expect I will have to demonstrate I have a Audi for that as per other comments.
I did look at octopus energy dual tariff. But was advised to stay with my current provider by octopus at this time. That being October this year we’re all the energy companies panic. I’m with EDF and pay 33p kWh on a standard rate as of October. We charge our car about every two weeks at home and use the chargers at our local asda. So for us it’s not that important to go on a dual rate tariff because the day rate is a lot more about 50p kWh
Let's face it, Octupus are selling electricity to Evs owners at a loss now and don't want any new customers. If youre not already in the club an EVs no longer make sense.
@@bikeman123 I agree with you on the first point but disagree with you on the second point. As I said in my comments I pay 33p kWh and have just charged my e Niro which cost me £18 and got 250 miles for that cost. In a petrol car giving you 50 miles to the gallon which is a big ask in a car of an equivalent size to mine would cost over £36 at today’s fuel cost. In a diesel a lot more. But also I enjoy the smooth quiet drive of an EV not to mention the instant torque you get when you need to put your foot down. Of course there is the fact that your not pumping out Exhaust fumes at street level as you pass people walking on the pavement. But we all make our on choice’s in life.
Have you had a look at IntelligentOctopus. 10p per KWh between 11:30pm and 5:30am and then 40p the rest of the time. We found we still saved as the 10p rate and our use of appliances overnight offset the extra 7p Peak rate. Open to new customers too.
Better still - get a smart charger with energy diversion like the Zappi (if you have solar panels). It has all the timer functions PLUS will charge your car for free when the sun is shining. Next emerging technology is vehicle to home (V2H) which will allow you to charge your car at cheap rate and use this to power your home at expensive times. Will be commonplace in the next few years, and will also power your house during power cuts.
I have the Zappi, solar panels, Tesla battery and an EV6 that has the V2H, if I keep the EV6 topped up through winter we will have a13.5kw and a 77kw battery if there are any blackouts. Also have a big wood burner that heats two rooms so hopefully most bases covered.
@@ElectricVehicleMan not a house, granted - but at over 3kW of power from the V2L adapter, that'd be enough for running a freezer, boiling a kettle, lots of (LED) lights and even, at a push, running an efficient washing machine...
We finally jumped and got an EV in July but I ordered it before the charger grant ran out so I got a decent discount on my wall box. I only charge using my EV tariff with Bulb as we are retired and don't do mega miles. The car (a Kia Soul) allows me to set up when it charges either in car or using an app. Initially a bit tricky until I understood the language (departure time - wtf is that about) Overnight I can put about 30kw in at 9p a KW (latest October rate). Car does 4 miles per kw so 120 miles for about £2.70. Rather cheaper than my old diesel. But the main thing is not the economy, it is the sheer ease and pleasure of driving an electric car! It is almost as pleasurable as riding my motorbike on a sunny day.
I have a Podpoint smart charger & own a Corsa e. Vauxhall app allows you to set start time for a charge but not to stop! Podpoint has facilty to do both start & finish times but have been unable to get it to work. As I do not have off peak tariff not really a problem but could be for those on a cheap tariff
My free BP pulse charger works flawlessly. I can set multiple charging sessions and select one of three different charging rates for each session - all via the app. So I charge at full rate during the GO cheap night rate and during the day I set the slow rate to use spare solar. Never let me down yet
The cost savings are immense, and when you factor in the use of the cheap tariff for other high load appliances the savings only get better. I got a pod point installed for free when I got leaf in 2017. When I got MG5 I just bought and adaptor for the change of charge type and the app had been updated to set charging times.
I have a contract with ENEL in Italy where between 11pm and 7am the cost is 0 (zero)€ per kWh. I just need to use my Tesla "charge planning" feature to start at 11pm. Voilà....life is beautiful!
I had the same problem with the BP charger but with persistence they eventually changed the old charger for their latest charger. It works perfectly now as it’s Wi-Fi based and not SIM card based
Just switched suppliers today to Intelligent Octopus, you get 6 hours of overnight cheap rate (11:30pm - 5:30am) for 10p per KWh. Peak rate is around 40p per KWh but still saves a lot if you are charging and using Washing Machine & Tumble Drier overnight. Not sure if Octopus Go is still 7.5p for brand new customers or renewals (I think it's around 12p now) so Intelligent seemed a good tariff if you are new.
Neither car we have (BMW i3 & Mercedes EQC), nor the the 2 wall chargers (BMW brand, & BP Pulse - latter provided free) have the functionality to set a start and finish time for a charge. However, I specced a non-tethered BP Pulse charger, and bought an Ohme smart cable, which gives the same functionality as an Ohme wallbox. (The Ohme cable can be bought at a discount if you have an Octopus tariff). The cost of running your EV also depends on your EVs efficiency - the EQC is big & heavy, and does 3 miles/kWh, so costs us about £25 to do 1000 miles on our Octopus Go tariff. Our i3 - at 4 miles/kWh - costs around £19.
@@jamesgrover2005 I've got a Dec 2019 i3. The charging software cannot be set to only charge for a certain time - it will keep charging after the time period if the car hasn't reached 100%
Correct me if I am wrong but unless you are currently with Octopus you can't switch to Octopus? I have an two 4kw arrays, one gets the full feed in tariff the other doesn't. I charge exclusively on solar via a Zappi so in effect I get paid to drive around, barring the odd public charge.
GO is stopped just now. I finally got the batteries that made overnight house charging worth while. So I changed from Ecotricity who don't do 'off peak' to Octopus who do. The smart meter that I got from ecotricity and its remote readout showed that I was on Octopus but didn't show the off peak rate. After several days of emailing octopus, today I finally got through by phone and found I'd not been put on Go (off-peak or flexible) which was a tad tiresome. This was somewhat exacerbated by my finding out that Octopus are not putting new customers onto Go, presumably because of the recent energy cost increases. The representative on the phone said he thought the ability to join GO would be reinstated 'quite soon' (probably a week or so) Rather a pity that the emails I sent weren't answered because the cut-off was a day after my first email and a week after I transferred to them. I had mentioned GO several times but it seemed to have not been enough. The long and the short of it is that the GO tariff (and the intelligent one) are not available just now
Sometime in the spring the Go tariff changed to having a requirement for the household to have an electric vehicle (before that anyone could transfer on to it). As when we joined all new customers go on their standard rate anyway until they approve your switch to Go which can take a few weeks.
Smart meter - or an economy7 meter. The rest of the hardware can all be configured to run off an external timer - should be said that most relays can’t cope with the load, so it’s used to power a contactor (ie a relay) to switch the EVSE on/off
I use a Time Guard WiFi fused spur which was made for an immersion heater, so I assume it will be fine with my 3 kW charge point, but as you say, won't cope with a 7 kW one.
It looks like Go is becoming more aligned to everything else if 12p is the new rate. I am on SVT with Eon (capped) and my night rate for 8 hours is 13.8 including VAT, with the day rate at 42.2 which seems the same as Go. So I can shift more of other stuff for longer and win there, and I have 4.2 kw of solar to offset the day usage. I charge occasionally at 3.5 kw using my wife’s Volvo hybrid cable, rather than the 7 kw Audi cable for my Q4, so harvest some sunshine occasionally too. I don’t have a smart meter and struggle to see where this would help, other than allowing access to smart tariffs which seem to be more aligned just now.
Hi, I’m really enjoying your channel. Thanks to you I am charging my Kia e Niro via an Ohme smart charger ( courtesy of OCTOPUS £199 at the time😊) on the Octopus Go Tariff. Currently I’m also enjoying totally free charging whilst parked in a multi storey car park at work due to my local council promoting the use of EVs in the town! Have also just taken delivery of two Givernergy home batteries together with eight Jinko solar panels ( my wife won’t let me install more than eight as they ruin the look of our house), this also after following your own installation at your house. Please keep up the good work, my favourite EV channel. BTW - does anyone have any news on the UK release date for the Kia EV 4?
Time of day slots need to change and by that I mean have more slots if everyone goes on the same 4 hour period it could cause stress to the grid when there are 40 million EVs doing it . Maybe 10-2,2-6 or 10-1,1-3,3-6 .
Octopus agile. Dumb charger. 6hrs 23.30 to 05.30 7.5p kw. Plug in octopus creates a charging plan every day to charge your car. It signals car start and stop throughout night to get to my required charge % by the time I want it. It can even charge out side the 6 hours and still charge at 7.5p kw. Like tonight it will charge several times and the last time slot is 6.00 to 6.30. It works with many EV makes. Mine is a Tesla.
… but the Zoe has the ability to set charging schedule and this is selectable in the car or in the Renault app … so your brother could have avoided the extra charges without the Ohme charger ( unless he had the 22 KWh Zoe and that was different?) Otherwise all good!
Alot will depend how many miles you do a year. I've just bought an ioniq electric I'm a 10k a year driver. Also on fixed tarrif until sept next year at 21.9p kWh. Gas 4.9 p. So the figures don't currently add up to jump on octopus go.
Ludicrous! ... but there is option#4 - free public charging (ikea, grocery store, Toyota dealerships ;) OR, tell your boss, "instead or a 50p raise, install a charger at work for me" =this will save a substantial amount! (Also reduce your income tax)
Enjoyed your video. I have a Niro connected to a dumb charger and no matter how I set the car to charge during the off peak tariff it never worked. Kia made continual updates to the cars software but the car would never start to charge at the correct time. I have now fitted a smart charger , iACharger, which charges at the off peak time. From what I hear Kia have a lot of trouble with their software.
Love watching your videos ! Could you tell me how much your ohme charger was installed? How long would it take to pay for it if I was 15000 miles a year ?
Helpful vid. Ouch 38p peak! I'm not looking forward to March when my Go tariff ends. Thanks to a certain company who didn't install a home storage battery. That's going to be painful. 😫
Just make sure you continue your Octopus Go tariff - albeit at the higher rate. We mainly run our dishwasher / washing machine / tumble dryer at night, so other electricity usage is fairly low at the higher rate (our Octopus Go went up in July).
Yeah, in September my Octopus Go jumped from 16p/5p to 40p/7.5p , that was pretty painful :( It was still cheaper over the year than moving to a regular tariff though because so much goes into the car on the night time rate.
I'm still charging in daylight because we have solar panels... but no storage battery (they werent about when we fitted the panels). We get a good FIT (feed in tariff payment) and I charge whenever the sun is shining enough to bring the cost down. During the day we run child-minding from our home, so are using power at that time.... Sooo I have not yet decided to change to more expensive day tariff to get cheaper night time one? Another factor is that my daughter whose bedroom is above the charge-point complains about the electrical noises that the Zoe ZE 40 makes when it is charging? It is very quiet where we live. Am I wrong? I'd like to have a battery, but seems too expensive still. Should I be changing to a time of day tariff? K ( :
It's definitely worth doing the maths. If your have a smart charger you can probably download your usage data ( I did this from my Octopus account) and chuck it in a spreadsheet. The solar might make the calculations a little more complicated but it's worth spending an hour or two finding out.
I am seriously thinking of going electric I have my electricity from ovo and will get a 7.5 charger. I wonder if you can answer a question? I noticed your charger is in your garage, do you charge it overnight in the garage? Now every insurance company gives a " discount" if your car is garaged overnight and that's where I want to charge my car on the cheaper tariff simply put do you charge in the garage, as a Lancasterian we are as tight as any Yorkshire man 😁
they seem to be not accepting from any area, like most energy companies they seem to NOT want customers to move from the company they are with. and most seem to just be setting the same prices
EVM, are you sure your advice in this video is still relevant due to the current situation in the energy markets? The problem at the moment is that most of the EV tariffs have been taken off the market, including EDF who is currently my supplier. Even Octopus are now trying to persuade people not to move to them, I’m guessing this is because of the complications with the government price cap and administration of the £400 credit being applied to peoples accounts? Fortunately, I’ve had solar panels since 2011 with the maximum FIT and also recently GivEnergy battery storage (on your recommendation) but I really did want to move to a time of day tariff when my current fixed deal with EDF finishes at the end of October, so as to charge both battery and EV through the winter.
This is the problem with relying on subsidised tariffs. They can pull the rug from under you. There is lots of talk on EV forums that Octopus have suspended taking on new customers. The big pull for ICE is the fueling market is very competitive due to its size. We can only hope the EV market manages this in time.
@@gavjlewis I also avoid any form of subsidy for the same reason and is why I charge from my solar PV system on a standard fixed rate tariff, which works out at a net of 12p per unit over the year to "refuel" the car. I believe this matches the current cheap rate for Octopus and avoids the 44p peak tariff that others have quoted on this forum.
I’ve been on a time of day tariff for 5 years, it seems ‘odd’ to never move to one just in case it stops. Even if it does, had years of benefit. And they are still accepting new customers as of at least yesterday, had a neighbour shift. They’ve also just put up the rates, which they wouldn’t do if it was about to end.
@@ElectricVehicleMan Nobody is saying don't use it if it's available, you definitely should as you say. All we are saying is don't take it as gospel. So what is your "plan B" if you received an email tomorrow from octopus saying they are going to stop "Go"? I guess you will be charging at normal rates. While it could happen in the ICE world. Say you always shop at Waitrose and one day they said we are going to shut down all their petrol stations it doesn't matter as you can get it for basically the same price anywhere else. So essentially doesn't matter. It's just something to think about for people that might be stretching themselves to get an EV just on the maths of considerably cheaper charging tariffs.
@@gavjlewis Like changing to a slightly cheaper petrol station, this is the cheapest today, fixed for a year. 1 years savings pays for any outlay (although most would get a smart charger now anyway) Although I’m convinced TOD tariffs will not disappear (and only paused due to current prices) if they stopped then the next vid would be whoevers cheapest at that time. Smart meters are free to the customer and everyone will get one eventually. Smart chargers are now legislation. If they do stop, there’s no real downside to doing this.
We looked at the Octopus Go tariff, but wouldn’t save us money as I work from home 98% of the time. What I’ve found interesting is the lack of research people do themselves to understand their potential costs. Buying an EV and then going back to a ICE car seems mad.
It's the standing charge which stings as this just hits the poorest. If you use more you pay more so the standing charge should be part of the overall price and those who need to use more should pay more. The idea that a homes first 10kwh should be at a reduced rate is a really good idea and link that with a overnight reduced rate. Then target the people that need help perhaps give them the first 10kwh free. Those who are fortunate enough to drive EVs and have solar are really fortunate and I include myself but some people don't have that option. It's great to save money but it's also great to help others. We need a different approach.. Consume less and look after what we have more..
Hi EVM. I thought I should alert you that my recent Octopus Go renewal rate from Nov 6th is 12p for cheap rate. Quite an increase but thankfully followed your advice and Solar and storage battery installed. Thanks for heads up. I would like to change to Intelligent Go but not yet available for BMW i3 & Hypervolt charger. Octopus claim this should be available soon. Don’t quite understand the delay in view of my setup. Thanks again.
If I posted 48 hours ago Id be saying that the smart charger is not needed as Ive been on Go Faster using dumb charger and had the start time at 21:30 so just plugged it then. Fast forward back to now and they have now killed Go Faster so its either plug in at 00:30 or get smart charger. Issue with Octopus Intelligent is its so limiting with its compatibility setup, if you have the wrong car then the only solution is to have a compatible smart charger at the moment only one make Ohme works with it, though they claim wallbox will be along soon - but if you have a smart meter say like a hyper volt your out of luck you have to stay on the much compromised go tariff 12p 4 hours v 10p 6 hours. So Im lucky Im with Octopus but Id need to spend £1k for a charger which is a gamble that after two years could then be a waste if they return back to more normal flexible tarrifs Other issue this whole electric protection thing has kicked up is that your stuffed if your with the wrong providor as nearly all at the moment have shut shop in switching to a eco tarrif. Forgot to add - I do agree though that with the right tariff even with moving to 12p per kWh comparing like for like (I use full tank and mileage comparison) my Enyaq (135KwH @ 3.1 MpkWh) to my old Terraco (59L 33mpg) aka 420 mile range its still cheaper to run electric £16 v £96 (@1.63 per litre)
I am with octopus but the new rate for ev is 12p kwh and for day rate 41.36 kwh has opposed to 33.48 normal I only need to charge up to 3 times a week it is not cost effective, and I get the occasional free top up at super market. I think all new builds should have three phase installed as standard it be long before more than 1 ev at every house, and then they want you to have heat pumps, it won't be ready by 2030
I charge mine when the sun is on my solar panels which have provided me with £1215 during the past year. This easily covers my electricity bill because I only do a small annual mileage.
I’m with Octopus, I’m looking at getting a Renault Zoe. I will be doing about 180 miles a day. I drive a Citroen Cactus and getting 64 mpg. Is it worth changing? I also am not sure how to work out how much % the car would be charged up in the four hours. Thanks.
Thanks for your great information I live in council flats what can I do? until I change my home 🏠 I have Kia Niro I’ll wait for your reply thanks a lot 😎
How efficient is it to charge a car at home, what is the total amount of electricity required to charge a 50kWh battery with and without conditioning the car and battery? How does temperature effect the charging efficiency, outside in summer, outside in winter and in a temperature-controlled garage? Yes, you maybe able to get x miles from a 50kWh battery, but how much extra energy is used during the charging process?
how much £ does it cost to charge on the cheap tarrif for how much range? im looking at a solar compatible charger as i have solar,but i will get a smaet tarrif
Hi, great content as usual. I’m on EDF’s Goelectric 35 tariff which gives 5hrs at 4.5p/kWh, I just looked and they still seem to be offering this tariff at the moment.
Online they are still showing the old rates, you are correct after contacting EDF I’ve just had a response which confirms all their electric car rates have been stopped until the market stabilises. So pleased I had a fixed three year deal at 4.5p evening rate in February. Sorry for the miss information.
Not sure I should get a smart meter, as I have a solar panel feed in tariff that I get paid for what I generate not what I export. For me a zappi charger is better, so that I can use up the solar electricity generated before it is exported to the grid.
Hi.octopus and others are not accepting new customers on ev tarrifs at the present time.i have tried.i was on british gas ev tarrif which was 6.5 pence at night.but that is no longer available.
@@bikeman123 You said they advised against it. That’s not ‘no you can’t’. Not sure what more to say. They just changed the price of Go, why would they do that if it’s not available?
I have octopus go, a VWID3 and PodPoint charger. The timed charging did work for a few months initially but now fails every time, the car just charges as soon as I plug in. PodPoint just say it’s a problem with my WiFi which hasn’t changed. Would it be a good idea change to a different charger? Has anyone else had this problem?
I have been an EV driver for nearly 5 y and I only public charge. I don't even have a wallbox. Here in Germany the govt is really pushing EVs and I have never had to pay for charging. We have high elec prices and no dual tariff like in UK, so home charging isn't so worthwhile.
Be careful getting a smart meter as if you swap supplier some will not work with different suppliers so the hassle will stop some people and the day off work for the install. I agree that the low tariff is good but limited to 4 hours so at 7kw you would get 28kw, most EV cars will only get 30 to 50% charge in 4 hours. Personally I top my car up every week at local supermarket on 11kw charger for FREE setting my car to charge when I want it to at home.
@@ElectricVehicleMan Newer ones yes but older ones not so interchangeable. The smart meter is more for the power / utilities company more than the user. You can get cheap (about £70) power meters you can clip on the power cables so why have one fitted by the power company ?
@@RB-lt8kt because it needs to communicate back to them and be immensely accurate. Then they can give you tariffs that change every half hour etc. You said ‘be careful getting a smart meter’. They’re all new style so there’s nothing to be careful about. I have a SMETS1 smart meter. Works fine with Octopus.
Wow, I'm happy then that my tariff with Scottish Power is *only* 44p peak and 11p off peak for 7 hours. Clock is set to give cheap rate from 3am to 10am in the summer time. That's rather useful actually!
@@SheepShearerMike 34p is for standard tariff, mine is an Eco7 hence the split. It's calculated to deliver approx the same. I have a solar battery though and that's getting charged at cheap rate and if we're frugal, can end up using only a tiny bit of normal rate. A couple of days ago, my normal rate expense was 25p :) I'm in the fortunate position that it's just bloody mindedness to pay as little as possible, I worry more for those who are really going to struggle.
Hi just a question I just charge my tesla on a 13 amp trickle charge as not in any rush to top it up.I am with Octopus energy EV tarrif 6 hours off peak to get a EV wall charger fitted it would cost me about £1300 thats a lot of electricity do I need to really bother with a Wall charger?
Can you do a video regarding intelligent octopus. Seens that the cheap rate window is bigger but us the same price when compared to go. There must be a catch.....
Even at 12.5p per kwh, its still only around 4p per mile. No ICE car could get near that, particularly with petrol and diesel prices on their way up again.....around 7 to 8p per litre increase I believe? That's 30p+ a gallon!!
I have been trying to move over to Octopus from Shell Energy for what seems like a year now. But the quotes I get now are worse than Shell's economy7 which uses the same 00:30 till 04:30 to charge 12p/p/kwh & 40p during the other hours, which just for accuracy is 7p more during the day than at the current costs. So Shell are matching Octopus, my question is would it still make sense to move over to Octopus with my own solar panels approx. 4kwh & a standard socket charger but a car that can chose the times to charge or remain with Shell?
See I’m on a fix until 2024 at 20.40p kw. All my workings outs suggest I would be no better off going over to an EV tariff now . So if people are still on these types of tariff , It’s cheaper to stay
Out of interest why not use the octopus intelligent tarrif? I get the same rates as go but 6 hours at the cheaper rate. Also when my car very low it often does longer. Like today it was from 11pm to 8am so it could complete the charge. I get this slot for the whole house so didn't see any benefit not switching. (as long as you have a compatible car or specific charger. ). Just wondering .
@@ElectricVehicleMan makes sense. Mine expired in Oct so I switched end of sept to intelligent in case it went up more in Oct. At least I got 7.5p before it jumped to 12. 👍
Another great upload, I've tried going online with both Octopus and EDF (my current provider, no pun Intentend) .Both have withdrawn their EV tarriffs. Any ideas?
Octopus are now allowing online switches - just done this myself from EDF to IntelligentOctopus (you have to go onto standard variable whilst they switch you).
Solar panels on roof, household full of people working from home during the day, couldn't afford to switch to a tariff that would increase the price of electricity during those hours. Or have I misunderstood or not thought of a way around it? It does fry the head 🤯
I work random times so am looking at solar so the car can charge up while I sleep during the day. Fortunately most of my “antisocial” hours are during the summertime.
I've had an EV for a few weeks now but am stuck with my flat rate tariff as the energy companies don't want us to switch suppliers. This is great advice, but currently irrelevant.
If you want your own Ohme charger: www.smarthomecharge.co.uk/chargers/ohme/home-pro/?EVMan&UA-cam&
I'll let the Essex snub slid 😁 as if it wasn't for watching your videos about this subject I'd still be spending £160-£180 a month on petrol not the £20 to £25 I am now. Since looking into and getting a EV for the first time, I've had a smart charger fitted, switch to octopus go and even gone as far as having a battery storage unit installed this week. Thank you
Octopus intelligence is better, same cost but 2 extra cheap hours 23.30 to 5.30
I listened to you some years ago and followed your advice, I also did some research of my own. By taking note of your advice I've actually saved a few thousand pounds in fuel cost which actually paid for my smart charger within seven months, I am on octopus go tariff, I very rarely charge my Nissan Leaf away from home and I get around 200 miles per charge which for me works out OK. I fully appreciate the work you put into your videos and for sharing what you find with us. 👍
Octopus intelligence is better, 2 more free hours free
I had the same ZS EV as your brother ( Gen1 ) with a Rolec dumb wall box installed way back in 2015 ( it was used to charge my then, VW PHEV Golf.
When we bought the ZS EV it was a problem, because the car had NO means of setting the charging times via either an App or internal to the car systems.
I therefore installed a Wi-Fi relay into the wall box and then used the free App supplied by the relay company, to set a schedule charging requirement to align with my off - peak tariff from my energy company.
This worked absolutely fine for over two years !.
I now own a ZS EV Gen 2 ZS EV and now have control of the off peak charging times from within the car or the MG ISmart App, so I have disconnected the Wi-Fi relay from the wall box.
This original outlay of about £20 for the Wi-Fi relay, has resulted in saving me a LOT of money over two years of use.
One of the advantages of having a basic dumb unit really, is that I had full control of when I wanted the car to charge I guess.
Smart charging wall boxes have changed all of this of course now.
The very new smart wall box units will have the facility to delay people charging at peak times to help protect the demand on the grid.
You just have to love progress 🤣
100% agree ...
- Made sure that our home charger (WallBox Pulsar Plus) was intelligent (can also be adapted to work with solar power) and that it has an intelligent fuse that makes sure that when you are charging and running appliances you do not exceed your maximum load. i.e. it adjusts what the car can pull through your home charger.
- Were already on a split tarrif, but when the contract ended moved to an EV tarrif ... 6 hrs at 3c/kW (midnight to 7) and the rest 30c ... bonus; the electricity is 100% renewable.
- A bonus ... car is intelligent too (Swedish brand) where I can set charging times (and charging limit - mostly set to 90%) both in the car and using the car's app.
--> Result; massive savings ... sure electricity prices are higher, but boy diesel prices (what the old car ran on) have shot up too and that car wasn't very efficient.
As a comparison to the UK lecky prices, yesterday I completed a two day round trip to Montréal and back-1005 km or circa 629 miles in my Kona EV. I fully charged at home before leaving and the rest on an excellent public charging network here in Québec, the total cost was $39 or £26. 😊 We are blessed with the cheapest electricity in N America.
My Octopus go renewal email came today - these are the new rates for me (West Sussex). Also, Octopus Go is now a variable rate tariff - details below copied from their email.
Your new Octopus Go prices
Peak unit rate: 43.40p / kWh
Off-peak unit rate: 12.00p / kWh
Standing charge: 41.13p / day
No more annual renewals: Fixed-term contracts aren't eligible for the Energy Price Guarantee, so our smart tariffs will now technically be "variable" products, without an end date. Whilst we don't currently have any plans to change prices (either up or down), prices will eventually change - but we'll always give plenty of notice. If government rules change, or we get to the end of the 2 year Energy Price Guarantee, we may reintroduce fixed terms, if it means we can make EV charging cheaper.
I've just ordered my first EV on Motability which is going to be a Renault Megane Etech. Won't be getting it till end of January though but I'm looking forward to it. Also getting a free Ohme Pro Charger installed as well so will be checking the Octopus Go and intelligent tarrifs for sure at that time. I've been watching your channel for years now and I'm surprised it's taking me this long to decide to get an EV but I have learned alot from your channel over the years. I still get some of my friends trying to talk me out of getting an EV which is quite funny with some of the reasons they come out with 😂
we've just started the journey with an Enyaq on order. We're waiting for the installers to come out and look at our electrics. It's a bit nerve wracking as it's an old house with electrics that have been added to over the years. Cross fingers it works out!
As you touched on you can make considerably savings, when you take advantage of the EV off peak tariff then once your old white goods fail and in need of replacement such as washing machines,dish washer and tumble dryer replace with one's fitted with start time delay and take advantage of the cheap rate
For example a typical 3kw tumble will cost will cost 22.5 pence an hour to run on the cheap rate against £1.14 on the standard rate
We're having a bit of a national energy crisis. In Japan, when they had an earthquake which knocked out the power stations, Nissan LEAF owners were able to plug their cars into their 2 way chargers and keep things going, to a certain extent. As a LEAF owner, I'm so frustrated that this technology is not available to us, my car has done 1600 miles since new (I'm retired) so that battery could have been helping taking the strain (and the wife really puts some strain) off the national grid.
@Electric Vehicle Man I know you said your brother was already on the Octopus Go tariff, but what is usually not mentioned is how much extra the day time electricity costs. I totally agree with a time of day tariff if you have a BEV, but how big that saving is also depends a lot on how much you drive it, as if you don't charge enough kWh a lot of that savings gets eaten up by the higher day time rate.
My own example. Our car charges 2000kWh/year at home. On top of the car charging our household uses another 4000kWh/year pretty much exclusively outside of that cheap night window. So at this moment where the car only uses 1/3 of the total electricity we are at a pretty much break-even situation where octopus go would cost the same. For us the increase in day time rate eats up roughly £400/years of the savings over night. Yes, a home battery would be great to have...
(Yes, our car at the moment is PHEV and only uses electricity for 2/3rd of the distance driven. On the other longer journeys it uses petrol instead and if it would be a BEV the car would probably need twice the electricity to drive the final 1/3rd of the distance given the higher consumption on the motorway instead of in town. But, a big chunk of that electricity would be at public HPCs. So yes, Octopus Go would still be cheaper and save a few hundred £££/ year, just not as much as one thinks initially.)
Don't forget though, if you switch things like Washing Machines, Dishwashers and Tumble Driers to your cheaper hours, you'll be doing a significant portion of those 4000 KWh's at the cheaper rate too. Agree though it only works if your lifestyle and usage can utilise the cheap rate sufficiently. We've found that Intelligent Octopus is 6 hours at 10p, with the peak rate approx 7p higher than the energy cap of 33p. The 7p extra is more than offset by what we can use overnight at the cheaper rate.
Thanks, I've just signed up to Octopus as my ev is arriving in a few months. Once I have it I'll switch to Octopus go, current rate is 12p and 39p but they seem to be the only company still offering a time of day tariff to new customers. Still worth it though.
I got smart meter September 2021 . Got smart charger and Bulb have smart tarrif. But even Ombudsman can’t get my Smart meter working . I have put plenty effort into this but no result.
Hopefully Octopus buy Bulb and they can sort it.
Cheers Andrew
Merci beaucoup for this.
I'm waiting to see what happens with the Big Oil lies here in Swiss-stan. An example is that my local paper (which used to be great for renewables and EV) ran a story with an energy ex-spurt who said that when we didn't have any more coal or electricity, we'd still have petrol to help us out. They never mention the YUGE energy and electricity costs of petroleum and bitumin.
I am a non ev car owner (at the moment) but have Octopus Go Tariff and a Ohme Commando charger . My son has an ev and no drive so does his charging at my house (lives 100mtr away) Its a no brainer to be on Go Tariff 7.5p 4hr rate 33.75hr day rate standing charge is slightly more than my previous Tariff with Octopus but easily recouped when using diswasher and washing machine during cheap rate . People on media slagging off smart meters are welcome to stay on dumb meters will leave more for us smart users .
By the way any dumb charger can be converted into smart by installing a smart AC contactor into the circuit readily available.
Cant recommend Octopus enough they have been great to deal with .
Hi always a fan of your stuff. Just received my new Go charges and the cheap rate will now be 12p / KwH as my contract is ending in November. The daily tarrif will now be 44p, which is a bit mental, however I will stick with go as most of my use is at the cheap rate with utilities and car charging. Hopefully my solar system and battery should be installed before then which should help cutout most of my daily usage. Which makes me think that you may want to do a smiliar thing to this video explaining the potential benefits of installing solar/battery system as the cost benefits now even better than when you talked about this in the past.
He already has, not that far back.
Thanks, I have solar panels and a nearby Tesco store so I manage less than 2p/mile.
Yes I am lucky, off road parking and managed to afford solar and an EV, but I am investing for my future.
Yes you are right we will all need a smart charger that will optimise when it takes advantage of cheap rates
Get a smart circuit breaker for 25€ or a smart outlet for 10€ and turn the dumbest of chargers into a smart charger. I did that for my charger at home and I use it to charge either at the night tarif or when I have excess photovoltaic during the day.
We went with a Zappi which while it doesn't talk to the energy companies so it's smart functions are only what you programme it does work really well with solar. We can tell it all manner of balance between times and solar yields. As a result we are on EDF with 4.5p/kWh at night. As we are confident of never charging at peak.
Brilliant advice. Was already getting these in place for my first ev - e Berlingo, PodPoint Solo3 Octopus Go, but very useful to know I'm on track , and what a difference it will all make.
Great information very well presented. Many thanks, and yes, I'm from Yorkshire.
Being smart about charging is what its about. I cannot get a smart meter due to coverage so now EV tariff, but 18k miles has still only cost me £950 including all rapid charging needed. Actual cost is 5.3p a mile compared with my previous diesel at 18p a mile at current prices.
timmer plug for any charger could work too its just under £10 and will on off the charger according to your timetable. thank you for the video learn a lot
Nicely timed video for me. Currently on Octopus with dual fuel and have podpoint charger. Waiting for my first EV to arrive next week. I also believe I will get extra £90 credit off my bill for buying new or used Etron. I expect I will have to demonstrate I have a Audi for that as per other comments.
Octopus have just increased their Go tariff.
I did look at octopus energy dual tariff. But was advised to stay with my current provider by octopus at this time. That being October this year we’re all the energy companies panic. I’m with EDF and pay 33p kWh on a standard rate as of October. We charge our car about every two weeks at home and use the chargers at our local asda. So for us it’s not that important to go on a dual rate tariff because the day rate is a lot more about 50p kWh
Let's face it, Octupus are selling electricity to Evs owners at a loss now and don't want any new customers. If youre not already in the club an EVs no longer make sense.
@@bikeman123 I agree with you on the first point but disagree with you on the second point. As I said in my comments I pay 33p kWh and have just charged my e Niro which cost me £18 and got 250 miles for that cost. In a petrol car giving you 50 miles to the gallon which is a big ask in a car of an equivalent size to mine would cost over £36 at today’s fuel cost. In a diesel a lot more. But also I enjoy the smooth quiet drive of an EV not to mention the instant torque you get when you need to put your foot down. Of course there is the fact that your not pumping out Exhaust fumes at street level as you pass people walking on the pavement. But we all make our on choice’s in life.
@@bikeman123Well they do if you have a night tariff which I have & it’s not with Octopus. My Electric provider EON charge 19p per kwh from 12pm - 7am.
Have you had a look at IntelligentOctopus. 10p per KWh between 11:30pm and 5:30am and then 40p the rest of the time. We found we still saved as the 10p rate and our use of appliances overnight offset the extra 7p Peak rate. Open to new customers too.
Better still - get a smart charger with energy diversion like the Zappi (if you have solar panels). It has all the timer functions PLUS will charge your car for free when the sun is shining. Next emerging technology is vehicle to home (V2H) which will allow you to charge your car at cheap rate and use this to power your home at expensive times. Will be commonplace in the next few years, and will also power your house during power cuts.
Giv charger a better option than the Zappi, which is now £1200 installed!
I have the Zappi, solar panels, Tesla battery and an EV6 that has the V2H, if I keep the EV6 topped up through winter we will have a13.5kw and a 77kw battery if there are any blackouts. Also have a big wood burner that heats two rooms so hopefully most bases covered.
@@timhollingsworth1920 The EV6 doesn’t do V2H (or V2Grid).
It’s V2Load. Which is just a plug socket. You can’t run a house from a plug socket.
@@ElectricVehicleMan not a house, granted - but at over 3kW of power from the V2L adapter, that'd be enough for running a freezer, boiling a kettle, lots of (LED) lights and even, at a push, running an efficient washing machine...
@@jonathantaylor1998 Running them all from one plug socket will be the logistical issue. That’s a lot of extension leads.
We finally jumped and got an EV in July but I ordered it before the charger grant ran out so I got a decent discount on my wall box. I only charge using my EV tariff with Bulb as we are retired and don't do mega miles. The car (a Kia Soul) allows me to set up when it charges either in car or using an app. Initially a bit tricky until I understood the language (departure time - wtf is that about) Overnight I can put about 30kw in at 9p a KW (latest October rate). Car does 4 miles per kw so 120 miles for about £2.70. Rather cheaper than my old diesel. But the main thing is not the economy, it is the sheer ease and pleasure of driving an electric car! It is almost as pleasurable as riding my motorbike on a sunny day.
I have a Podpoint smart charger & own a Corsa e. Vauxhall app allows you to set start time for a charge but not to stop! Podpoint has facilty to do both start & finish times but have been unable to get it to work.
As I do not have off peak tariff not really a problem but could be for those on a cheap tariff
Thanks EVM. It's great to have people like you sharing their research. Perhaps one day You're show may feature EVW in a planned way!
...And EVKs?
My free BP pulse charger works flawlessly. I can set multiple charging sessions and select one of three different charging rates for each session - all via the app.
So I charge at full rate during the GO cheap night rate and during the day I set the slow rate to use spare solar. Never let me down yet
The cost savings are immense, and when you factor in the use of the cheap tariff for other high load appliances the savings only get better. I got a pod point installed for free when I got leaf in 2017. When I got MG5 I just bought and adaptor for the change of charge type and the app had been updated to set charging times.
I have a contract with ENEL in Italy where between 11pm and 7am the cost is 0 (zero)€ per kWh.
I just need to use my Tesla "charge planning" feature to start at 11pm.
Voilà....life is beautiful!
I had the same problem with the BP charger but with persistence they eventually changed the old charger for their latest charger. It works perfectly now as it’s Wi-Fi based and not SIM card based
Just switched suppliers today to Intelligent Octopus, you get 6 hours of overnight cheap rate (11:30pm - 5:30am) for 10p per KWh. Peak rate is around 40p per KWh but still saves a lot if you are charging and using Washing Machine & Tumble Drier overnight. Not sure if Octopus Go is still 7.5p for brand new customers or renewals (I think it's around 12p now) so Intelligent seemed a good tariff if you are new.
Neither car we have (BMW i3 & Mercedes EQC), nor the the 2 wall chargers (BMW brand, & BP Pulse - latter provided free) have the functionality to set a start and finish time for a charge. However, I specced a non-tethered BP Pulse charger, and bought an Ohme smart cable, which gives the same functionality as an Ohme wallbox. (The Ohme cable can be bought at a discount if you have an Octopus tariff).
The cost of running your EV also depends on your EVs efficiency - the EQC is big & heavy, and does 3 miles/kWh, so costs us about £25 to do 1000 miles on our Octopus Go tariff. Our i3 - at 4 miles/kWh - costs around £19.
I just put a timer on the contactor, and configured everything else as dumb.
Which i3 you got? Mine has a timer in the BMW app (which is temperamental).
@@jamesgrover2005 I've got a Dec 2019 i3. The charging software cannot be set to only charge for a certain time - it will keep charging after the time period if the car hasn't reached 100%
@@lauriemiles1842 oh great! 🤦🏻♂️😂 You do wonder how quality car manufacturers produce such buggy software..
Correct me if I am wrong but unless you are currently with Octopus you can't switch to Octopus? I have an two 4kw arrays, one gets the full feed in tariff the other doesn't. I charge exclusively on solar via a Zappi so in effect I get paid to drive around, barring the odd public charge.
GO is stopped just now. I finally got the batteries that made overnight house charging worth while. So I changed from Ecotricity who don't do 'off peak' to Octopus who do. The smart meter that I got from ecotricity and its remote readout showed that I was on Octopus but didn't show the off peak rate. After several days of emailing octopus, today I finally got through by phone and found I'd not been put on Go (off-peak or flexible) which was a tad tiresome. This was somewhat exacerbated by my finding out that Octopus are not putting new customers onto Go, presumably because of the recent energy cost increases. The representative on the phone said he thought the ability to join GO would be reinstated 'quite soon' (probably a week or so) Rather a pity that the emails I sent weren't answered because the cut-off was a day after my first email and a week after I transferred to them. I had mentioned GO several times but it seemed to have not been enough. The long and the short of it is that the GO tariff (and the intelligent one) are not available just now
Sometime in the spring the Go tariff changed to having a requirement for the household to have an electric vehicle (before that anyone could transfer on to it). As when we joined all new customers go on their standard rate anyway until they approve your switch to Go which can take a few weeks.
Great video and really funny. Keep it up EVM.
Smart meter - or an economy7 meter.
The rest of the hardware can all be configured to run off an external timer - should be said that most relays can’t cope with the load, so it’s used to power a contactor (ie a relay) to switch the EVSE on/off
I just turned my BP charger (provided by motability) to dumb and put smarts in the consumer unit to move the charging.
I use a Time Guard WiFi fused spur which was made for an immersion heater, so I assume it will be fine with my 3 kW charge point, but as you say, won't cope with a 7 kW one.
It looks like Go is becoming more aligned to everything else if 12p is the new rate. I am on SVT with Eon (capped) and my night rate for 8 hours is 13.8 including VAT, with the day rate at 42.2 which seems the same as Go. So I can shift more of other stuff for longer and win there, and I have 4.2 kw of solar to offset the day usage. I charge occasionally at 3.5 kw using my wife’s Volvo hybrid cable, rather than the 7 kw Audi cable for my Q4, so harvest some sunshine occasionally too. I don’t have a smart meter and struggle to see where this would help, other than allowing access to smart tariffs which seem to be more aligned just now.
Hi, I’m really enjoying your channel. Thanks to you I am charging my Kia e Niro via an Ohme smart charger ( courtesy of OCTOPUS £199 at the time😊) on the Octopus Go Tariff. Currently I’m also enjoying totally free charging whilst parked in a multi storey car park at work due to my local council promoting the use of EVs in the town! Have also just taken delivery of two Givernergy home batteries together with eight Jinko solar panels ( my wife won’t let me install more than eight as they ruin the look of our house), this also after following your own installation at your house. Please keep up the good work, my favourite EV channel. BTW - does anyone have any news on the UK release date for the Kia EV 4?
Time of day slots need to change and by that I mean have more slots if everyone goes on the same 4 hour period it could cause stress to the grid when there are 40 million EVs doing it . Maybe 10-2,2-6 or 10-1,1-3,3-6 .
There is now, it’s called Intelligent Octopus.
Octopus agile. Dumb charger. 6hrs 23.30 to 05.30 7.5p kw. Plug in octopus creates a charging plan every day to charge your car. It signals car start and stop throughout night to get to my required charge % by the time I want it. It can even charge out side the 6 hours and still charge at 7.5p kw. Like tonight it will charge several times and the last time slot is 6.00 to 6.30. It works with many EV makes. Mine is a Tesla.
did Simon's Zoe have a charge timer?
… but the Zoe has the ability to set charging schedule and this is selectable in the car or in the Renault app … so your brother could have avoided the extra charges without the Ohme charger ( unless he had the 22 KWh Zoe and that was different?) Otherwise all good!
He’s had the ZS for a lot longer.
Alot will depend how many miles you do a year. I've just bought an ioniq electric I'm a 10k a year driver. Also on fixed tarrif until sept next year at 21.9p kWh. Gas 4.9 p. So the figures don't currently add up to jump on octopus go.
I got 2050w of solar and am adding another 1230 next week .👍🇬🇧
Im getting my EV friday and hopefully getting a smart meter and charge point from octopuss soon.
Ludicrous! ... but there is option#4 - free public charging (ikea, grocery store, Toyota dealerships ;) OR, tell your boss, "instead or a 50p raise, install a charger at work for me" =this will save a substantial amount! (Also reduce your income tax)
As it is I have to charge my Kona with a granny charger. I'm on an ev tariff. Pleasantly the car has it's own charging scheduler.
Enjoyed your video. I have a Niro connected to a dumb charger and no matter how I set the car to charge during the off peak tariff it never worked. Kia made continual updates to the cars software but the car would never start to charge at the correct time. I have now fitted a smart charger , iACharger, which charges at the off peak time. From what I hear Kia have a lot of trouble with their software.
Love watching your videos ! Could you tell me how much your ohme charger was installed? How long would it take to pay for it if I was 15000 miles a year ?
Just wondered why you aren't on Octopus Intelligent [6hrs off peak] as opposed to Octopus Go [4hrs off peak] with the same tarrif rates?
Helpful vid. Ouch 38p peak! I'm not looking forward to March when my Go tariff ends. Thanks to a certain company who didn't install a home storage battery. That's going to be painful. 😫
Just make sure you continue your Octopus Go tariff - albeit at the higher rate. We mainly run our dishwasher / washing machine / tumble dryer at night, so other electricity usage is fairly low at the higher rate (our Octopus Go went up in July).
@@lauriemiles1842 If you're that worried about electricity, maybe try washing the dishes by hand and hang your clothes out to dry ........
some companies are charging 48p a unit peak
Yeah, in September my Octopus Go jumped from 16p/5p to 40p/7.5p , that was pretty painful :( It was still cheaper over the year than moving to a regular tariff though because so much goes into the car on the night time rate.
I'm still charging in daylight because we have solar panels... but no storage battery (they werent about when we fitted the panels). We get a good FIT (feed in tariff payment) and I charge whenever the sun is shining enough to bring the cost down. During the day we run child-minding from our home, so are using power at that time.... Sooo I have not yet decided to change to more expensive day tariff to get cheaper night time one?
Another factor is that my daughter whose bedroom is above the charge-point complains about the electrical noises that the Zoe ZE 40 makes when it is charging? It is very quiet where we live.
Am I wrong? I'd like to have a battery, but seems too expensive still. Should I be changing to a time of day tariff? K ( :
It's definitely worth doing the maths. If your have a smart charger you can probably download your usage data ( I did this from my Octopus account) and chuck it in a spreadsheet. The solar might make the calculations a little more complicated but it's worth spending an hour or two finding out.
I am seriously thinking of going electric I have my electricity from ovo and will get a 7.5 charger. I wonder if you can answer a question? I noticed your charger is in your garage, do you charge it overnight in the garage? Now every insurance company gives a " discount" if your car is garaged overnight and that's where I want to charge my car on the cheaper tariff simply put do you charge in the garage, as a Lancasterian we are as tight as any Yorkshire man 😁
Any advice for night worker when car is needed to get to work during off peak times?
Ask for a day shift.
All very well and good. But octopus Go have not allowed new customers in my area for at least the past 6 months due to the cap.
they seem to be not accepting from any area, like most energy companies they seem to NOT want customers to move from
the company they are with. and most seem to just be setting the same prices
@@davidsworld5837 I’ve had loads from all over the UK tell me they moved. How have you tried?
This is also why you need a home battery. I have a Zappi charger which can be programmed for cheap times
EVM, are you sure your advice in this video is still relevant due to the current situation in the energy markets? The problem at the moment is that most of the EV tariffs have been taken off the market, including EDF who is currently my supplier. Even Octopus are now trying to persuade people not to move to them, I’m guessing this is because of the complications with the government price cap and administration of the £400 credit being applied to peoples accounts?
Fortunately, I’ve had solar panels since 2011 with the maximum FIT and also recently GivEnergy battery storage (on your recommendation) but I really did want to move to a time of day tariff when my current fixed deal with EDF finishes at the end of October, so as to charge both battery and EV through the winter.
This is the problem with relying on subsidised tariffs. They can pull the rug from under you. There is lots of talk on EV forums that Octopus have suspended taking on new customers.
The big pull for ICE is the fueling market is very competitive due to its size. We can only hope the EV market manages this in time.
@@gavjlewis I also avoid any form of subsidy for the same reason and is why I charge from my solar PV system on a standard fixed rate tariff, which works out at a net of 12p per unit over the year to "refuel" the car. I believe this matches the current cheap rate for Octopus and avoids the 44p peak tariff that others have quoted on this forum.
I’ve been on a time of day tariff for 5 years, it seems ‘odd’ to never move to one just in case it stops. Even if it does, had years of benefit.
And they are still accepting new customers as of at least yesterday, had a neighbour shift.
They’ve also just put up the rates, which they wouldn’t do if it was about to end.
@@ElectricVehicleMan Nobody is saying don't use it if it's available, you definitely should as you say.
All we are saying is don't take it as gospel.
So what is your "plan B" if you received an email tomorrow from octopus saying they are going to stop "Go"?
I guess you will be charging at normal rates.
While it could happen in the ICE world. Say you always shop at Waitrose and one day they said we are going to shut down all their petrol stations it doesn't matter as you can get it for basically the same price anywhere else. So essentially doesn't matter.
It's just something to think about for people that might be stretching themselves to get an EV just on the maths of considerably cheaper charging tariffs.
@@gavjlewis Like changing to a slightly cheaper petrol station, this is the cheapest today, fixed for a year.
1 years savings pays for any outlay (although most would get a smart charger now anyway)
Although I’m convinced TOD tariffs will not disappear (and only paused due to current prices) if they stopped then the next vid would be whoevers cheapest at that time.
Smart meters are free to the customer and everyone will get one eventually.
Smart chargers are now legislation.
If they do stop, there’s no real downside to doing this.
We looked at the Octopus Go tariff, but wouldn’t save us money as I work from home 98% of the time.
What I’ve found interesting is the lack of research people do themselves to understand their potential costs. Buying an EV and then going back to a ICE car seems mad.
It's the standing charge which stings as this just hits the poorest.
If you use more you pay more so the standing charge should be part of the overall price and those who need to use more should pay more. The idea that a homes first 10kwh should be at a reduced rate is a really good idea and link that with a overnight reduced rate.
Then target the people that need help perhaps give them the first 10kwh free.
Those who are fortunate enough to drive EVs and have solar are really fortunate and I include myself but some people don't have that option.
It's great to save money but it's also great to help others. We need a different approach..
Consume less and look after what we have more..
Hi EVM. I thought I should alert you that my recent Octopus Go renewal rate from Nov 6th is 12p for cheap rate. Quite an increase but thankfully followed your advice and Solar and storage battery installed. Thanks for heads up. I would like to change to Intelligent Go but not yet available for BMW i3 & Hypervolt charger. Octopus claim this should be available soon. Don’t quite understand the delay in view of my setup. Thanks again.
If I posted 48 hours ago Id be saying that the smart charger is not needed as Ive been on Go Faster using dumb charger and had the start time at 21:30 so just plugged it then. Fast forward back to now and they have now killed Go Faster so its either plug in at 00:30 or get smart charger.
Issue with Octopus Intelligent is its so limiting with its compatibility setup, if you have the wrong car then the only solution is to have a compatible smart charger at the moment only one make Ohme works with it, though they claim wallbox will be along soon - but if you have a smart meter say like a hyper volt your out of luck you have to stay on the much compromised go tariff 12p 4 hours v 10p 6 hours.
So Im lucky Im with Octopus but Id need to spend £1k for a charger which is a gamble that after two years could then be a waste if they return back to more normal flexible tarrifs
Other issue this whole electric protection thing has kicked up is that your stuffed if your with the wrong providor as nearly all at the moment have shut shop in switching to a eco tarrif.
Forgot to add - I do agree though that with the right tariff even with moving to 12p per kWh comparing like for like (I use full tank and mileage comparison) my Enyaq (135KwH @ 3.1 MpkWh) to my old Terraco (59L 33mpg) aka 420 mile range its still cheaper to run electric £16 v £96 (@1.63 per litre)
Great video also with smart chargers so easy to add solar generation.
I am with octopus but the new rate for ev is 12p kwh and for day rate 41.36 kwh has opposed to 33.48 normal I only need to charge up to 3 times a week it is not cost effective, and I get the occasional free top up at super market. I think all new builds should have three phase installed as standard it be long before more than 1 ev at every house, and then they want you to have heat pumps, it won't be ready by 2030
2035
I charge mine when the sun is on my solar panels which have provided me with £1215 during the past year. This easily covers my electricity bill because I only do a small annual mileage.
How big is your solar array?
@@ravisharma9683 I have 18 panels and purchased them in 2012. They cost £10,500 and I have received a return of £15,311 so far.
I’m with Octopus, I’m looking at getting a Renault Zoe. I will be doing about 180 miles a day. I drive a Citroen Cactus and getting 64 mpg. Is it worth changing? I also am not sure how to work out how much % the car would be charged up in the four hours. Thanks.
Thanks for your great information
I live in council flats what can I do? until I change my home 🏠 I have Kia Niro I’ll wait for your reply thanks a lot 😎
How efficient is it to charge a car at home, what is the total amount of electricity required to charge a 50kWh battery with and without conditioning the car and battery? How does temperature effect the charging efficiency, outside in summer, outside in winter and in a temperature-controlled garage? Yes, you maybe able to get x miles from a 50kWh battery, but how much extra energy is used during the charging process?
Roughly 10%.
how much £ does it cost to charge on the cheap tarrif for how much range?
im looking at a solar compatible charger as i have solar,but i will get a smaet tarrif
Hi, great content as usual. I’m on EDF’s Goelectric 35 tariff which gives 5hrs at 4.5p/kWh, I just looked and they still seem to be offering this tariff at the moment.
Incorrect, they aren't offering the GoElectric tariffs to new customers.
Online they are still showing the old rates, you are correct after contacting EDF I’ve just had a response which confirms all their electric car rates have been stopped until the market stabilises. So pleased I had a fixed three year deal at 4.5p evening rate in February. Sorry for the miss information.
That's odd. My MGZS EV has an app, which allows me to set the start and end time for charging. Does the Mk1 not feature this?
Not sure I should get a smart meter, as I have a solar panel feed in tariff that I get paid for what I generate not what I export. For me a zappi charger is better, so that I can use up the solar electricity generated before it is exported to the grid.
Smart meter won’t affect FiT.
Octopus obviously waited for you to release this before they increased the off peak rate to 12p and made Go into a variable tariff not a fixed one 😕
Have you looked at Octopus Intelligent? might be cheaper than GO which has now gone up to 12p at the cheap rate.
Are you using the 7kw one or you've opted to go for a 3phase one ? 11.5kwh?
Hi.octopus and others are not accepting new customers on ev tarrifs at the present time.i have tried.i was on british gas ev tarrif which was 6.5 pence at night.but that is no longer available.
They are.
@@ElectricVehicleMan so you keep saying but many of us have been turned down by Octopus.
@@bikeman123 You said they advised against it. That’s not ‘no you can’t’.
Not sure what more to say. They just changed the price of Go, why would they do that if it’s not available?
I have octopus go, a VWID3 and PodPoint charger. The timed charging did work for a few months initially but now fails every time, the car just charges as soon as I plug in. PodPoint just say it’s a problem with my WiFi which hasn’t changed.
Would it be a good idea change to a different charger? Has anyone else had this problem?
Octopus Go have just increased their home charging tariffs massively.
It’s not massively. It’s still very cheap to charge.
I have been an EV driver for nearly 5 y and I only public charge. I don't even have a wallbox.
Here in Germany the govt is really pushing EVs and I have never had to pay for charging.
We have high elec prices and no dual tariff like in UK, so home charging isn't so worthwhile.
The first 5000 miles using my MG ZS on Octopus Go recovered the cost of my Ohme installation.
Be careful getting a smart meter as if you swap supplier some will not work with different suppliers so the hassle will stop some people and the day off work for the install. I agree that the low tariff is good but limited to 4 hours so at 7kw you would get 28kw, most EV cars will only get 30 to 50% charge in 4 hours. Personally I top my car up every week at local supermarket on 11kw charger for FREE setting my car to charge when I want it to at home.
All smart meters should be SMETS 2 now, that issue shouldn’t exist anymore.
@@ElectricVehicleMan Newer ones yes but older ones not so interchangeable. The smart meter is more for the power / utilities company more than the user. You can get cheap (about £70) power meters you can clip on the power cables so why have one fitted by the power company ?
@@RB-lt8kt because it needs to communicate back to them and be immensely accurate. Then they can give you tariffs that change every half hour etc.
You said ‘be careful getting a smart meter’. They’re all new style so there’s nothing to be careful about.
I have a SMETS1 smart meter. Works fine with Octopus.
@@ElectricVehicleMan OK I didn't know there were changing tariffs every hour thanks.
Why don’t you use Intelligent Octopus instead of Octopus Go?
Octopus Go is now 44p peak & 12p 4hr night tarriff. 😢
40p for here?
Wow, I'm happy then that my tariff with Scottish Power is *only* 44p peak and 11p off peak for 7 hours. Clock is set to give cheap rate from 3am to 10am in the summer time. That's rather useful actually!
I thought the new UK Government energy cap thingy is 34p/KWh, so 40 plus sounds high.
But 7hrs of 11p sounds great
@@SheepShearerMike 34p is for standard tariff, mine is an Eco7 hence the split. It's calculated to deliver approx the same. I have a solar battery though and that's getting charged at cheap rate and if we're frugal, can end up using only a tiny bit of normal rate. A couple of days ago, my normal rate expense was 25p :)
I'm in the fortunate position that it's just bloody mindedness to pay as little as possible, I worry more for those who are really going to struggle.
@@ElectricVehicleMan tup north gets 40p and 10p I think. Down south it's 44p and 12p
Hi just a question I just charge my tesla on a 13 amp trickle charge as not in any rush to top it up.I am with Octopus energy EV tarrif 6 hours off peak to get a EV wall charger fitted it would cost me about £1300 thats a lot of electricity do I need to really bother with a Wall charger?
I’d say closer to £800.
The rest depends on how much you drive.
Can you do a video regarding intelligent octopus. Seens that the cheap rate window is bigger but us the same price when compared to go. There must be a catch.....
No catch. Although it only supports Ohme chargers and tesla cars at the moment.
It’s also 2p cheaper.
I was even able to select a time the reduced tariff starts with my electric supplier
I’m seeing Octopus are increasing the off-peak Go rate from 7.5p to 12.5p now. 😭
It’s still cheap but any increase is annoying
I have just had my email telling me that from November when my new tariff starts my off peak is 12.5p and day rate is 41.11p my bill has gone up 66%😢
Even at 12.5p per kwh, its still only around 4p per mile. No ICE car could get near that, particularly with petrol and diesel prices on their way up again.....around 7 to 8p per litre increase I believe? That's 30p+ a gallon!!
Swap to IntelligentOctopus - 10p per KWh for 6 hours 11:30pm to 5:30am
I have been trying to move over to Octopus from Shell Energy for what seems like a year now. But the quotes I get now are worse than Shell's economy7 which uses the same 00:30 till 04:30 to charge 12p/p/kwh & 40p during the other hours, which just for accuracy is 7p more during the day than at the current costs. So Shell are matching Octopus, my question is would it still make sense to move over to Octopus with my own solar panels approx. 4kwh & a standard socket charger but a car that can chose the times to charge or remain with Shell?
What tariff is that at shell?
It basically matches the Go tariff but isn’t as good as Octopus Intelligence.
@@ElectricVehicleMan just economy7 which you cannot see online, it's only available via telephone or economy10
I was hoping to get away with going from 5p/kWh to 7.5p on OctoGo, but it’s now 12p/kWh ☹️. A shame, but still tons cheaper than diesel
and you'll probably notice diesel has increased by 5 to 6p per litre, so the EV's running cost advantage remains.......
Have you just seen the news from Octopus?
12p/kWh for nighttime electricity now...
Still *way* cheaper than petrol, which has just increased by 7p per litre...
See I’m on a fix until 2024 at 20.40p kw. All my workings outs suggest I would be no better off going over to an EV tariff now . So if people are still on these types of tariff , It’s cheaper to stay
Out of interest why not use the octopus intelligent tarrif? I get the same rates as go but 6 hours at the cheaper rate. Also when my car very low it often does longer. Like today it was from 11pm to 8am so it could complete the charge. I get this slot for the whole house so didn't see any benefit not switching. (as long as you have a compatible car or specific charger. ). Just wondering .
Got cheap Go fixed til May
@@ElectricVehicleMan makes sense. Mine expired in Oct so I switched end of sept to intelligent in case it went up more in Oct. At least I got 7.5p before it jumped to 12. 👍
I think you need a qualifying vehicle or charger.
Great informative video
I know a few people like that . Buy an EV , solar or solar and batteries but use them like they did before just wasting many thousands of pounds.
Another great upload, I've tried going online with both Octopus and EDF (my current provider, no pun Intentend) .Both have withdrawn their EV tarriffs. Any ideas?
I’m similar. How do you switch to an EV tariff if you can’t switch with current provider.
Just need to ring octopus.
Octopus had suspended but now back at 12p. Bulb (I thought they’d gone) have a lower rate, about 9.5p in southeast but cheaper elsewhere.
Octopus are now allowing online switches - just done this myself from EDF to IntelligentOctopus (you have to go onto standard variable whilst they switch you).
Solar panels on roof, household full of people working from home during the day, couldn't afford to switch to a tariff that would increase the price of electricity during those hours.
Or have I misunderstood or not thought of a way around it? It does fry the head 🤯
Home battery would negate that.
But yes it has to make sense individually.
That octopus go tariff won't work for those working nights that need charging during day, like me.
Not much that can be done with that. Night time will always be cheapest rate for generation.
I work random times so am looking at solar so the car can charge up while I sleep during the day. Fortunately most of my “antisocial” hours are during the summertime.
Thanks alot man it is very useful video
I've had an EV for a few weeks now but am stuck with my flat rate tariff as the energy companies don't want us to switch suppliers. This is great advice, but currently irrelevant.
You can change to OctopusEnergy by picking the phone up. They’ve never stopped.
@@ElectricVehicleMan Cheers! I'll give them a call. My current provider won't even talk to me