EV cars, home chargers, energy providers

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

Hello all,

My wife is wanting to get an EV car through her work car scheme. Currently she has a Peaugot 108 60000 miles, and she's wanting to change. She spends about £250 a month on fuel, tax is free, £300 a year insurance plus yearly service and Mot. She's almost settled on the MG 4 as the price is right, reviews are great and it comes in blue. £388 per month, no deposit, all bills taken care of except power (maintenance, breakdown, tyres, insurance, tax - if there was any, etc) plus she'll get to sell her current car.

We quickly realised using home 3 pin plug for charging will not cut it so will be needing a charger box.

We saw that octopus energy do a thing where they sort you a box and also put you on a super cheap night rate for charging. Has anyone used this? Is daytime rate super expensive? We're at work during the day anyway, just use home electric 5-10pm then probs similar on a weekend if we're out.

Any thoughts on the whole thing?

darthed1981 · September 2023

I've got an MG ZS EV - its very good indeed to drive extremely well equipped, and... I know that they consider the MG4 the best car they have released to date (so the engineers told me) - so great choice. The MG Smart app needs some work, but they are currently working on it, that's really handy, can see how your charge is going from the living room.

You WILL need a proper charge point, no doubt whatsoever. I got one from Podpoint installed but they are all much of a muchness. a 3-pin plug would do with daily charges but it's so... slow...

I got a 7kw one. Be prepared, it does whack up your energy bills a chunk but still quite a bit cheaper than petrol or diesel. Not sure what the recommendation is on the MG4 but mine you are supposed to maintain between 40 and 80% charge, charging to 100% for long journeys. Dead easy, just charge every other day for me when get home, usually can put the charge cable away before bed.

wibble · September 2023

If you want to swtich to Octopus then here's my referal link - we both get £50

https://share.octopus.energy/storm-louse-315

I used to be on Octopus Go (4 hours of cheap rate overnight charging) - I'm now on Intelligent Octopus (where you get 6 hours of cheap rate overnight charging at 7.5p/kWh . Your car/charger needs to be supported by Octopus as they control the charge times. I have a Tesla so they talk direct to the car. I have a https://hypervolt.co.uk/ charger

Depending on your daily mileage, you'll probably be fine with 4 hours. My commute is 80 miles round trip which uses approx 30% charge. This can be be put back in within the cheap rate window depending on the size of your battery.

I keep it charged up to 80% every night usually if I'm going into the office.

roundthebend · September 2023

If the car doesn't do many miles each day then a 3-pin plug for slow charging overnight every day may be sufficient to begin with. The proper charge points are all similar prices, but the installation will vary depending on your home wiring and location of the point.

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

Interesting. The commute is about 70 miles per day.

relic245 · September 2023

If you use a 3 pin plug then you can't use an extension cable as it's unsafe.

So you need to make sure you have socket close enough.

Kittyfrisk · September 2023

relic245 said:

If you use a 3 pin plug then you can't use an extension cable as it's unsafe.

So you need to make sure you have socket close enough.

I don't think that is strictly true.
You can charge an electric car with a UK domestic extension lead, but only one that is rated for 13A continuous use, sold as heavy-duty. Keep the cord as short as practically possible. Check the cord frequently for heating up. Best practice is to only use this method in an 'emergency' situation.
https://topcharger.co.uk/how-to-use-an-extension-lead-to-charge-an-electric-car/
https://evzone.shop/can-i-extend-my-ev-charging-cable/

grungebob · September 2023

Don’t use the 3 pin method full stop. It kind of makes me laugh when people say only use in an emergency situation. What possible emergency situation waits 11-18+ hrs it takes to put a meaningful charge in your battery?

Chalky · September 2023

grungebob said:

Don’t use the 3 pin method full stop. It kind of makes me laugh when people say only use in an emergency situation. What possible emergency situation waits 11-18+ hrs it takes to put a meaningful charge in your battery?

A very, very, slow non-urgent slowly emergent emergency....

grungebob · September 2023

Chalky said:

grungebob said:

Don’t use the 3 pin method full stop. It kind of makes me laugh when people say only use in an emergency situation. What possible emergency situation waits 11-18+ hrs it takes to put a meaningful charge in your battery?

A very, very, slow non-urgent slowly emergent emergency....

Getting a bit low on Gin, might need to pop to the shops in a few days to grab a bottle? That type?

Hoof · September 2023

EV installation specialist here:

The 3 pin plug lead is for occasional and emergency use. Frequent use WILL shorten the life of your sockets (cheap to replace) and your sockets wiring (rewiring the house is definitely not cheap!). Although sockets are rated to 13a, continuous high loads should have a dedicated circuit. Your kettle/toaster may run at similar loads but that's only on a for a few minutes, not for what is likely to be up to 10 hours or more at a time, running your house wiring at high temperatures. Especially worth considering you'll be asleep in bed most of that time.

Get a proper 7kw smart charger and have it installed by a decent company. Ohme's home pro and Epod work especially well with Octopus. It doesn't integrate with solar or battery though.

Others I would recommend are Hypervolt and Myenergi Zappi, especially if you have solar.

Podpoint, EO, Zaptec are all OK. Indra is smart but a bit troublesome.

Tesla's own is really a bit pants and has hidden installation costs as it doesn't feature PEN fault protection so requires a separate O-PEN device unless you're very lucky and have the right local geology for a sub 20ohm earth reading for an earth electrode that will be otherwise required (not likely).

If your installation is simple you're looking at between £950-£1400 depending in your choice of charger and the length of the cable run between the consumer unit and chargepoint position. You may, however, get this lumped into the price of the car if you shop smart.

Kittyfrisk · September 2023

Hoof said:

EV installation specialist here:

The 3 pin plug lead is for occasional and emergency use. Frequent use WILL shorten the life of your sockets (cheap to replace) and your sockets wiring (rewiring the house is definitely not cheap!). Although sockets are rated to 13a, continuous high loads should have a dedicated circuit. Your kettle/toaster may run at similar loads but that's only on a for a few minutes, not for what is likely to be up to 10 hours or more at a time, running your house wiring at high temperatures. Especially worth considering you'll be asleep in bed most of that time.

Get a proper 7kw smart charger and have it installed by a decent company. Ohme's home pro and Epod work especially well with Octopus. It doesn't integrate with solar or battery though.

Others I would recommend are Hypervolt and Myenergi Zappi, especially if you have solar.

Podpoint, EO, Zaptec are all OK. Indra is smart but a bit troublesome.

Tesla's own is really a bit pants and has hidden installation costs as it doesn't feature PEN fault protection so requires a separate O-PEN device unless you're very lucky and have the right local geology for a sub 20ohm earth reading for an earth electrode that will be otherwise required (not likely).

If your installation is simple you're looking at between £950-£1400 depending in your choice of charger and the length of the cable run between the consumer unit and chargepoint position. You may, however, get this lumped into the price of the car if you shop smart.

Oh no, this will not do. You qualified people, coming here & telling experts like @grungebob & @Chalky that they aren't right?
There are no such things as emergencies, even when this was clearly marked in inverted commas to show the lack of seriousness of the comment, yet some people cannot appreciate such subtleties...

grungebob · September 2023

I have the Tesla Gen 3 wall charger. It cost me £450. I bought a PEN device suitable for £119.
Installed and signed off by my DNO all in cost me £850.

Works like a charm.

The Tesla charger may need you to buy a separate component but it’s cheaper and looks far nicer on my wall than any of the others.

ChrisRG · September 2023

+1 here for Ohme Home pro charger on Intelligent Octopus.

We’ve recent got a Kia Niro EV and love it. Needs a bit more planning ahead to charge for long journeys but for the miles we do, it’s a no brainer when charging at 7.5p/kWh.

7.5p per kWh on a 7kW charge for 6 hours gives 42kWh for about £3. In the Kia, that’s 170 - 180 miles.

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

Thanks guys.

Mrs has ordered one as a company car, so we have to source the charger ourselves. We'll probably just use Octopus for everything to be fair! Can you program the Ohme charger to come on during the cheap hours?

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

ChrisRG said:

+1 here for Ohme Home pro charger on Intelligent Octopus.

We’ve recent got a Kia Niro EV and love it. Needs a bit more planning ahead to charge for long journeys but for the miles we do, it’s a no brainer when charging at 7.5p/kWh.

7.5p per kWh on a 7kW charge for 6 hours gives 42kWh for about £3. In the Kia, that’s 170 - 180 miles.

I have noticed out-and-about chargers are 75p per kWh, that's about the same as petrol now (per mile), so I suppose in a push the worst scenario would be we'd be paying the same as currently when going on a long trip.

ChrisRG · September 2023

If you use the fast charging CCS chargers then you will pay around 70p for them, especially on the motorway. Using the slower normal type 2 would be cheaper and good if you just needed a bit of charge.

You can link the Ohme to your Octopus tariff and set it so that it only used the off peak hours. You can set charging schedules as well. If for example you set a schedule to charge to 80% but it won't reach that in the off peak hours, the Ohme will reduce the target automatically. You can also override all of that with the "max charge" button which just charges there and then.
All of that is from the app.

The Ohme doesn't need wifi as it has it's own sim card. You can also lock the button and set it to approve plug ins to safeguard against other people using it.

ChrisRG · September 2023

For public chargers, I use the Car Wow chargers map to see what's around - https://www.carwow.co.uk/electric-cars/charging-points

HerbieTheRadDorklift · September 2023

It all sounds pretty decent then.

grungebob · September 2023

My last Tesla supercharger top up last month was £0.29/Kw it’s crazy to think some places are still charging £0.79/KW.

ChrisRG · September 2023

@HerbieTheRadDorklift just remembered something else that might be useful. The Ohme has an API which is compatible with certain EVs. The Kia is one of them. Check the website against the EV you’re getting. Some of the features I mentioned maybe reliant on a compatible EV

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