When and where was this? Seems a bit of an odd choice.
EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
- Start date
When and where was this? Seems a bit of an odd choice.
This.Why? Aside from the "intelligent" tariffs there is nothing stopping you from having an EV tariff while using a 3-pin charger.
I've had my plug in hybrid for 7 months, charged daily (sometimes twice daily) via a 3-pin charger and it works perfectly for me. I'm on Tomato's lifestyle plan, not the EV one as I worked out I only needed 5 hours of cheap rate to charge the car. Prior to that I was on Octopus Go.
I didn't add anything to my existing electricity setup, just ran a £120 3-Pin EVSE under the weatherstrip on my garage door and plugged into an existing socket. Total investment of £120 and I'm doing up to 35 miles a day at 2ppm. Happy days
@unwashed potato! look at my posts further up. We've just bought a PHEV, and even though we use up most of the battery each day, it's small enough that it takes just under 7 hours to charge from empty.
We switched to the Eon EV tariff which gives you an off-peak rate of 6.7p/KwH from 12:00-07:00, and set the car's charging schedule to run at the same time. Plug it in last thing every night, it waits until midnight before charging, and it's ready to go by 7am having cost (in our case) about £1.19...works out about 3.3p per mile. Even if you don't have a cheap tariff, based on 24.3p, it would cost us about £4.30 to fill, or roughly 11p per mile....not ideal, but still cheaper than fuel.
The only issue is where to plug in, but if you can get an outdoor socket installed you can just leave the granny charger plugged in to it so it's close to hand when you need to plug in (again, see my exciting pictures above).
EDIT: Forgot to add....yes, with the Eon tariff, the on-peak cost is slightly higher, but because the off-peak applies to the whole house, you can balance it out with some stricter routines...make sure you washing machine and dishwasher only goes on during the off-peak period, etc.
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A week ago, near the English/Welsh border south west of Hereford.
Its just maths..
Based on
PHEV using 7.5kwh/day
House using 1kw/day during 'off-peak' hours
House using 9kw/day during 'peak hours'
Then using the following rates: Oct Int: 7p/27.5p, Oct Go: 8.5p/27.5p and Oct Standard 24.3
That (if my quick maths haven't failed me) works out a daily cost of
Oct Intelligent - £3.07
Oct Go - £3.20
Oct Std - £4.25
7.5kwh of EV charging is granny charger for sure during off-peak, it's approx 2kw/hour so would be full in any of the EV tariff off peak windows..
Basically, get Excel (or similar) out and play with the numbers..
But for me, Octopus Intelligent seems best..
If we just look at a house consuming 9kw peak, 1kw off-peak with the same numbers*
Oct Intelligent - £2.55
Oct Go - £2.56
Oct Std - £2.43
* Assumes 1kw for the off-peak windows which do vary, but the maths is easier!
So effectively it's costing £0.12 to go on to intelligent from a standard tarriff, but you are saving ~£1.30 charging the vehicle
In terms of 'future proof' EV Chargers (7.4kw), kind of.. but the Gov't are mandating more features be added to smart chargers for load management, and sometimes incentives (or lack of penalties) is the carrot (or stick) used, so it's impossible to predict the future..
However, with a small battery PHEV, that can be charged in <4 hours on a granny charger whilst asleep, I don't think I'd bother..
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Battery size (in this context) is irrelevant. What matters is how much you are driving.
Let's say you drive an average of 24 miles per day. Go would give you a saving of roughly 50-55p per day on your EV charging. That's enough to offset the extra daytime cost on 12.5kWh to 13.75kWh of electricity per day. The national average amount of electricity used per day is about 7.4kWh.
If, on the other hand, you are only driving 5 miles per day, your savings on Go would only be about 18.5p, which would only cover the higher cost on about 4.6kWh of daytime use.
Is it? 2x chargers is 64 AMP constant draw. If you put on lots of other high power devices in your home (oven, shower, kettle etc) all at the same time as charging, you might be getting into squeaky bum territory.
Though granted you will likely be charging overnight, so unless you household are night owls, its unlikely your will be using much other power other than the chargers at night.
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Soldato
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- 12 Feb 2006
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I think the error here is assuming a full charge is required each night. She did 3 miles today. Likely again same tomorrow. That is the current situation I shohld add only due to maternity leave for the rest of the year.
Hence, stop asking and get the spreadsheet out
Even with 1kw of extra charging it might work out fractionally cheaper on an EV tariff, which then increases those savings on days you use more.
Only calculating based on your specific situation and intended usage will reveal all..
Yeah absolutely do this. For context I basically wiped out any extra peak rate difference between EV and non EV tariffs by simply pressing the delay start button on the dishwasher each night. Dishwasher cycle at 5p/kWh = in the black, any vehicle charging is then icing on the cake.Hence, stop asking and get the spreadsheet out
Even with 1kw of extra charging it might work out fractionally cheaper on an EV tariff, which then increases those savings on days you use more.
Only calculating based on your specific situation and intended usage will reveal all..
Soldato
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- 26 Aug 2012
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- North West
Use delays to wait for off-peak.Also if you're on IG, you can plug your car in when you get back and then the whole house gets cheap juice. I then automate it to pull minimum Amperage possible so charges super slow so I pretty much get all the time I'm in the house at off-peak rates.
Same, my household bill went down moving to octopus intelligent go before I’d even plugged in the car.
Are you me lol
The only load shifting I actually do is dishwasher in the night.
Although it also makes runnign the aircon at night much cheaper during the heatwave
As I was driving home today I was randomly wondered if someone had found a way to gain maximum cheap rates on IOG... And here is the answer
We'll save a small fortune if we can stretch out our evening cheap slots
Yeah it isn't really in the spirit of things. There is nothing 'intelligent' about the charge taking so long that you end up with almost constant discounted electricity so it would be a fair cop for them to put a stop to that.
Well technically I already have two chargers, as I have a normal fitted Ohme and a 32A Ohme with commando connection that lives in the boot most of the time. I've only ever used both of them once at full rate and there was zero impact to the house, the most I have even seen on the total draw at once was a shade under 20kW (~85A), but that doesn't really happen anymore due to inverter etc.
Tracker is the answer tbh
We also do this with our dishwasher and washing machine, a Octopus CS also told me to use them whilst the intelligent charging was taking place during the day as well.
It's the unmovable evening meal cooking that takes 60% of daily use, so intelligent charge slot would need to be consistently across that period.
(I'd maybe invest in an ooni electric pizza oven though, deliveroo and air-fryer aren't in my french dictionary)
(I'd maybe invest in an ooni electric pizza oven though, deliveroo and air-fryer aren't in my french dictionary)