Home Chargers

  • Thread starter Deleted member 27989
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Deleted member 27989

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As a newby and about to venture into an EV, the dealer recommended to confirm that I can get home charging installed before ordering. Very sensible I must say...

Whilst their partnership and recommendation is Chargemaster, I'm aware that there are many different options available.

Looks wise I quite like the Andersen EV units.

Any suggestions, experiences, recommendations for features etc to look out for?
 
I can't speak for any other - Hyundai (my car brand) has a tie-in with PodPoint and therefore, that is who installed my (free) unit. Aside from providing power (7kW), it communicates consumption data via WiFi and my router to PodPoint. This element of the device appeared to give odd results and it eventually ceased communicating at all. PodPoint came out quickly and replaced the MoBo, and all is now well. I can see the size (and thereby cost) of each charge session on the phone app - the same app used to start PodPoint units at stores and car parks etc.

I'd suggest, if you are offered, NOT to take a tethered cable to fit your car, but rather a T2 Mennekes socket. Reason = future proofing. Your next car may need a different connector; as long as the car comes with a loose T2 cable - or you can buy one - then anything will fit.....

If you have domestic solar panels, there is, I think, some sort of smart charger that monitors solar production vs. consumption and delivers surplus into the car, thus costing you nothing.....
 
Spot on. We are now regretting getting a tethered cable for the reason you suggest. There is a smart charger, I think @Stuart Wright has one, but bear in mind most cars have a minimum power requirement for charging, so unless your panels regularly produce a large excess then it may be of limited use.
 
Interesting, as I would have gone for a tethered :) I guess as we have plenty of secured off-road parking leaving an 'extra' cable with the home charger is fine as well.
 
I went for chargers with a cable as it's easier to plug that in than get the cable out of the case each time.
This is the video of the installation of the Podpoint before the car was delivered.

and this was the video of the installation of the Zappi charger. So there are two chargers on the house.
 
So for a non-tethered model, can you leave the cable in so you can just quickly plug it in and top it up, or do you have to physically take it out each time?
 
....... So there are two chargers on the house.

Are these on the same ring/circuit? I can see us being totally EV in the next few years, and just wondering what sort of ring/circuit we might need to install. Also, the distance from our garage to our meter/consumer unit is around 30m (why our electricity comes in the back of the house, we'll never know)! So wondering whether this will have a bearing on circuits etc.

Not trying to hijack Bl4ckGryph0n's thread, but we're a few months/year or so behind him, so following along avidly.
 
No worries, all useful. We are “lucky” as our consumer unit is in the garage. But...some changes are afoot and we will create a carport with electricity in there as well.
 
Are these on the same ring/circuit?
As they are at least 32A each they will be on individual circuits. So for 2 chargers, in your case, you'd have 2 thick cables running from the rear of the house to the charging points.
 
By thick I mean like the black one here (10 pence coin for scale)
IMG_20190623_120346.jpg
 
So for a non-tethered model, can you leave the cable in so you can just quickly plug it in and top it up, or do you have to physically take it out each time?
You can do either. As long as there is no risk of theft then, yes, you can leave the cable plugged in to the socket.

If you were to leave a cable with the socket (semi)permanently then I'd certainly buy a spare - they cost £150 give or take - because, you should keep one in the car permanently. It's a mistake to do otherwise; you never know when you might need (or wish) to use a car park (etc) charger that's just got a socket like yours.
 
Cool thanks.

So regarding chargers. How useful are those with apps, network connections etc. Is it worth paying more for those?
 
Can't answer that for you. For me - I like knowing what it costs to run my car. I did it with ICEs and I do it with the EV. The charging data I get from the PodPoint app tells me my domestic use/cost for inclusion in this data. If you aren't interested - no benefit.

Does this feature cost any extra? I did no research on costs - mine was provided, funded by Hyundai and the government. As far as I know, all PodPoints have this WiFi consumption data communication feature.
 
We've never connected to our Pod Point to get data from it, if we wanted a running total I think it's recorded in the car and we can access it that way. But I think you'll get more stats more easily direct from the Pod Point, but obviously you also need to figure in charging away from home as well. I suspect (but don't know) all home chargers have an app and a wifi connection.
 
We've never connected to our Pod Point to get data from it, if we wanted a running total I think it's recorded in the car and we can access it that way. But I think you'll get more stats more easily direct from the Pod Point, but obviously you also need to figure in charging away from home as well. I suspect (but don't know) all home chargers have an app and a wifi connection.
Nope they definitely have not :)

For example this is quite neat I think, simple and just does one thing, charge an EV.

EO Mini | EO Charging | Smart electric vehicle charging
 
I stand corrected :)
 
I stand corrected :)
LOL No worries. It’s just that when I looked into it that a whole world opened up. There is so much choice. I guess you early adopters had whatever the manufacturer provided or arranged.

My wife and I aren’t that interested in big white boxes on the outside wall of our house. We’d like something pleasing to the eye.

The Andersen EV we like a lot, but what would concern me is how long that company will survive and how open their data platform is. I mean the smart features could be rendered useless unless they can be pointed towards juicy net or something like that.

This I came across the EO mini and the pro is the same but with smart features but at least the data doesn’t get send to their own portal it is a bigger one.

But the again, I’m not going to do anything with the data. It will be what it will be.
 
Do not forget to look at energy suppliers that provide cheaper rates at night. I have noticed adverts for one on here (the only ad I have clicked on) and they offer electricity at 5p per kWh between Midnight and 5pm and the rate is comparable to my current supplier during the day
 
Speak to me I'm interested... :)
 
One such supplier is Octopus Go. There may be others.
 
After reading this thread (without clicking on your links) I went to GC and followed a link to a news article on TV licensing and it was covered in adverts for Octopus :laugh:.
 
Personally I'd still go tethered with a type 2 cable. Pretty much everything is moving to CCS which means type 2 charging at home.
 

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