Is it worth getting a EV Charger at the house for a Hybrid?

shodan

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My conundrum, is it worth getting a EV charger at the house for a hybrid with a range of about 26 miles? (Golf GTE).

I'm thinking yes, because my next car will most likely be full EV..
what do you guys think?
 
Not directly for the PHEV directly, unless it can charge at 7kw or the hours to charge are bigger than you have, but I’d say yes to get the current grant (which may go / reduce again later) for future cars or family and friends visiting. Thing on the flip side is they may become cheaper and smarter in years to come - or have the ability to plug in more than one car, but charge one after the other has finished etc. I’d get one for a PHEV if in the same position.
 
I’m driving a GTE. At the moment I’m using the granny charger with an external socket Someone will be along in a minute to tell you this is super dangerous. Look into it yourself and make up your own mind.

The cost of a full fat charger install isn’t justified for me as I can easily charge within economy 7 and the GTE doesn’t charge much faster through the type2 lead.
In the long run I’ll get a proper charger as the next car will probably be all electric.

I’m in 2 minds about the grant. If you look at the bare bones chargers on amazon etc. They aren’t crazy expensive. The companies installing on the grant all offer very similar prices. Smells a bit of subsidy farming.

A pal who runs a commercial renewables business says domestics are a gamble. If it’s simple they are done quickly and make money. If it’s complicated they make nothing.

I would prefer a dumb socket and keep the smart in the car. To qualify for the grant the charger has to be smart and connected which makes it dependant on apps etc.

My discussion
 
Not all cars are smart
 
As for drivers...

:D
 
I’m driving a GTE. At the moment I’m using the granny charger with an external socket Someone will be along in a minute to tell you this is super dangerous. Look into it yourself and make up your own mind.

The cost of a full fat charger install isn’t justified for me as I can easily charge within economy 7 and the GTE doesn’t charge much faster through the type2 lead.
In the long run I’ll get a proper charger as the next car will probably be all electric.

I’m in 2 minds about the grant. If you look at the bare bones chargers on amazon etc. They aren’t crazy expensive. The companies installing on the grant all offer very similar prices. Smells a bit of subsidy farming.

A pal who runs a commercial renewables business says domestics are a gamble. If it’s simple they are done quickly and make money. If it’s complicated they make nothing.

I would prefer a dumb socket and keep the smart in the car. To qualify for the grant the charger has to be smart and connected which makes it dependant on apps etc.

My discussion
Actually I was thinking of you.. We spoke before I think about the GTE as you were on the fence about one and I had just bought one. I still love it.
I do the same as you, except my parking bay of about 5m from my house, the other side of a private road so to make matters worse, I run an extension lead across the road....
 
I run an extension lead across the road....
I’m grateful for your thoughts on the GTE it helped me take a chance on buying online without test driving.

The extension lead dilemma is obviously about power/heat, water penetration and I guess trip hazards. If it’s brightly coloured, heavy duty and weatherproof...

I dialed the charge rate down from max/13A to 10A as I’m not in a my hurry so why push the battery?
That makes it less likely to heat up in use but to be fair I’ve not had any reason to worry.

Currently mucking about with the scheduled charging so I can just plug in when I get home and it’ll be ready on the morning. VW could have made it easier to set up!
 
Returning to your original post.
Fitting an external socket with built in RCD (£20 from Screwfix) and £25 of cable into a dedicated rcbo on my secondary consumer unit cost me a pint and Sunday roast.
If I didn’t have a pal to help I might have gone for a full charger.
Also worth checking out the cost of long type 2 leads or long tethered chargers they are very expensive.
Screwfix have a masterplug 10m granny charger for £170 that tempted me for a while.
 
@AMc I couldn't agree more! I keep mine on 13a because I prefer to do "a little and often" and I rarely leave it to charge overnight. Don't trust that a fox might try to chew through the cable...
I bought mine online without even seeing one, let alone driving one. Which is odd because I wouldn't spend £50 on a pair of shoes without trying them on first, but I spent £20,000 on a car without even seeing it....
 
@AMc my extension lead is a pretty durable and weatherproof bright yellow cable from Screwfix for £20 and when that goes, I'll probably just replace it with another.
But I am seriously considering a tethered charger on a post fitted by means of impact moling as the people who own the private road outside my house don't want me to dig it up..
 
We had to upgrade our unrated supply to 3 phase a few years back for our heat pumps.
Iirc it cost about £3500 to mole new cable under the road outside and connect it all up done by EDF. That did include digging up pavement, some traffic control barriers etc so a private road might be cheaper?
At least you won’t be paying one electrician to work on the live street supply and another to watch him in case he makes a mistake and needs rescuing!!!
 
I'm hoping if I stick to a 7.5KW charger I won't need to go to three phase. If I do need to go to it, I probably won't bother getting a charging point at all as I understand that alone can cost a few grand.
 
I can't imagine you'd need triple phase for a 7kW charger. Our first 7kw was throttled to 3kW as that's the maximum our Leaf could take. I'd be surprised if the latest (smart) chargers are any different and possibly can be done in software from the app. They were happy to put our latest charger in on a 60A supply (although they added a cut out so the charger cut out if the house got close to the 60A max). Shortly after out supplier upgraded us to a 100A main fuse.
 
Thanks mate. The more I look in to it, the more I think certainly at the moment I'll be OK with my 60amp header fuse and a 7Kw charger as the current car (Golf GTE) is limited to a max charging of 3.6Kw. But my parents who sometimes visit have a VW ID4 and eventually I'd imagine my next car will be full EV...
 
All single phase chargers are capped at 7kW. That would fully charge an ID4 in 10 hrs. I don't see 22kW charging at home on triple phase coming in any time soon for most of us. Within the next 10 years I still see fast chargers on the move and overnight 7-12kW at home .
 
I won't need to go to three phase.

Highly unlikely.

We had an "unrated" supply which basically meant EDF had no record of what was connected or when! That meant we needed the supply uprated to at least 60A which meant holes and moles.
My heat pump supplier said if I spent a small amount more then 3 phase would give me more options on which pump(s) to use.

If/when I get a "proper" charger I can't imagine I'd want anything beyond 7kW but perhaps when that time comes it will make sense to use the capability of the supply I have available.
 
A quick search suggests that, at the moment, 11 and 22kW chargers are a lot more expensive than 7kW, but that may change if they become more popular in the future.
 
If you’ve a 60A supply and want to fit a charger without the supply upgrade to 80A or 100A then look at a smart charger that provides built-in supply capacity monitoring - this will allow you to set the threshold on the incoming supply which must not be exceeded. What this means is that the charger will step down it’s power automatically, or even suspend the charge session, while you are drawing too much power elsewhere, but at any other times it will allow the charge session to run at maximum.

I have a Zappi as my 2nd home charge point because it includes this feature, and DNO approval for suitable load management was a requirement to allow my installer to fit the unit as otherwise my 2 x 32A charge had the potential to put my total load over the 100A limit of my single phase supply.
 
Personally for my Outlander PHEV I won’t bother with a dedicated charger. It charges at 8A here (GPOs are only 10A) and charging at home is for the day-to-day runs that barely exceed full EV range. Also I don’t want to push the charge currents higher on the small battery pack. Degradation is a thing (Outlander reportedly more than most) so i only charge at home and on long runs just accept the fuel consumption. If I had daily long runs I wouldn’t have bought a PHEV. I do 200 miles once a week or maybe every other week to our rural pad and back and that still means the Outlander is way better fuel wise than the Skoda Superb 2.0TSi it replaced.
 
Yes - cost of electric at home vs cost of electric at public charger + convenience at home
 
Yes - cost of electric at home vs cost of electric at public charger + convenience at home
The title says for a hybrid so it is hard to think when more than a granny charger is needed at home. Is a charger required at home for a plug-in hybrid. No. If you are moving on later to full EV and want grants now then sure.
 
We
The title says for a hybrid so it is hard to think when more than a granny charger is needed at home. Is a charger required at home for a plug-in hybrid. No. If you are moving on later to full EV and want grants now then sure.
We have a full 7KW charger for our hybrid (2nd one) and are always charging from home. currently, 90% of all journeys are all electric. 2800 miles in 9 months
 
The Golf GTE won't charge at 7kW it maxes out at 3.6kW depending on which one you have I think mine is lower still.
I dial mine down to 10A and charge overnight - it's "full" after 3 hrs using the granny charger.
The granny charger is a (very small) faff to get out of the house and plug in at some point I'll probably get a tethered Type 2 connector so I don't have to bother going in and out.

I have just read some people think the pre-warming and pre-cooling work better with a dedicated charger and the higher capacity from a dedicated charger - might be something to look into further if you plan on using those functions often.
 

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