EV general discussion

Pottsey said:
Could be useful will save it to look at later along with a Pod Point which seems popular.
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Mainly because they're one of the cheapest in the OLEV grant. I didn't like the look and size of them, though, given my charger's on the front of my house. I'd have probably gone for the EO Mini but their CS was rubbish and the cost for the slight decrease in size over the one I got just wasn't worth it.
 
Russinating said:
Mainly because they're one of the cheapest in the OLEV grant. I didn't like the look and size of them, though, given my charger's on the front of my house. I'd have probably gone for the EO Mini but their CS was rubbish and the cost for the slight decrease in size over the one I got just wasn't worth it.
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As silly as it sounds in a way choosing the charge point is harder then choosing which EV to get. Mine will be on the side of the house and I have Solar Panels to consider but I am not convinced the charge points which charge via solar without mains are worth it. It means leaving the EV plugged in all day every day and drip feeding it. Wont that be bad for the battery? Would have thought one good charge overnight once a week is more healthy for the battery then a drip feed every day over for half the year. I know the point can switch back to the mains but still I was told not to leave the EV plugged in 24/7. Best to let it run down before charging it back up?
 
Is there any reason why you wouldn’t get the charge point now if you already and an EV? You also can’t get the grant until you actually own an EV.

The grant works on a per vehicle basis, once its claimed for that vehicle its claimed. You don’t need to be the first owner, as long as the previous owner hasn’t claimed it (has to work this way because of pre registered cars). No one can say when it will go away, it’s allocated a pot of money at each budget, they’ll either give it more money and extend it or the money runs out and it goes away at very short notice. The amount of grant is unlikely to increase as EVs get cheaper and more popular. I’d claim it as soon as you are able. That said it’s ‘only’ £500 and your spending £20k-£100k on a car...

If you have solar I don’t know why you wouldn’t get a charger capable of diverting excess solar power to the car. Leaving the car plugged in doesn’t effect the battery at all, manufacturers even encourage it (Tesla being one of them).

Solar diverted chargers tend to just divert and excess solar energy to your car rather than pulling it from the grid. Doing so will save you cash in the long term because you typically sell back to the grid at a lower price than what you buy it back for. Doing this will not effect the health of the battery. If anything the slower you charge it the better for the battery but given the relative size of an EV battery it’s literally makes no difference at this point.

Zappi is a charger that people often go for when they want a solar diverted, they also do an additional add on to divert excess solar to your hot water cylinder if you have one. It’s very programmable, you get set it up to divert excess energy and to take advantage of time of use tariffs automatically. E.g. leave the car plugged in and the charger will automatically fill it with free solar in the day or cheap off peak electric at night until the car is full. I’m sure there are others that have the same functionality.
 
Pottsey said:
The OLEV Grant for installing home charge points. Is there any known timeframe on how long its active or if there are any changes upcoming? Not sure to get one installed now or wait as it wont get used for 6 to 12 months. Waiting would make more sense but not if the grant disappears.
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You can't get the grant unless you have a PHEV/BEV already or one on order at the very least.
 
Pottsey said:
As silly as it sounds in a way choosing the charge point is harder then choosing which EV to get. Mine will be on the side of the house and I have Solar Panels to consider but I am not convinced the charge points which charge via solar without mains are worth it. It means leaving the EV plugged in all day every day and drip feeding it. Wont that be bad for the battery? Would have thought one good charge overnight once a week is more healthy for the battery then a drip feed every day over for half the year. I know the point can switch back to the mains but still I was told not to leave the EV plugged in 24/7. Best to let it run down before charging it back up?
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I don't think there's any issue with being plugged in or trickle charging, it's the keep topping up the battery to 100% that isn't good for it.
 
Didn’t realize you have to have an EV for the grant which I found out earlier today. We just sold one car and although I will be getting a new one I am not shopping around for 6+ months as I don’t need to drive right now. Plus I am waiting to see the precise details of that £6000 part exchange deal for an ICE to EV as we have a spare sub £500 unused at the moment ICE.

I seem to be getting conflicting information or I am misunderstanding. I was told when the battery is at 90% or 95% you shouldn’t plug it in and charge it up every day like that. If that is not true then it does make sense to get a Zappi or similar unit.
 
Pottsey said:
Didn’t realize you have to have an EV for the grant which I found out earlier today. We just sold one car and although I will be getting a new one I am not shopping around for 6+ months as I don’t need to drive right now. Plus I am waiting to see the precise details of that £6000 part exchange deal for an ICE to EV as we have a spare sub £500 unused at the moment ICE.

I seem to be getting conflicting information or I am misunderstanding. I was told when the battery is at 90% or 95% you shouldn’t plug it in and charge it up every day like that. If that is not true then it does make sense to get a Zappi or similar unit.
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That's right. You wouldn't want to charge an EV which is currently at 95%. However my Nissan has a 'charge to 80%' option. So I leave mine plugged in quite a bit without worrying about that issue.
 
Price of (private) home charge points should drop with volume & competition, and could already be inflated with the availibility of the subsidy,

also (many people will need one), if, they had a scrappage scheme or, just increase the rebate, this can, notionally, cross-subsidise charge point,
 
Pottsey said:
As silly as it sounds in a way choosing the charge point is harder then choosing which EV to get. Mine will be on the side of the house and I have Solar Panels to consider but I am not convinced the charge points which charge via solar without mains are worth it. It means leaving the EV plugged in all day every day and drip feeding it. Wont that be bad for the battery? Would have thought one good charge overnight once a week is more healthy for the battery then a drip feed every day over for half the year. I know the point can switch back to the mains but still I was told not to leave the EV plugged in 24/7. Best to let it run down before charging it back up?
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Leaving EVs plugged in is Tesla's advise where possible. As above, just don't charge above 80% unless needed for a long trip.

Funny how people splurge on a charger but are then concerned about electricity costs or solar etc. Some people on another forum spend £1,500+ on an Anderson charger for example, which is the equivilant of 10,000kW @ 15p. You can schedule charge start times and set stop limits in-car, and even use third-party apps to do irregular charging in-line with prices, so I can't see much/any point in smart chargers.

Bug One said:
I was looking at that as well for when I move next month. I assume it all works as described. Did you fit it yourself?
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Yeah it's fine. And no, you won't be able to legally unless you're a leccy I don't think? Needs an earth rod and an RCD and whatever else.
 
The BMS software it’s very good in cars compared to say a laptop or phone. The reserve at the job and the bottom of the battery are far larger. 100% charged generally isn’t actually 100%. Cars either advertise their battery as the total capacity or the useable capacity. On a 50kwh useable pack they’ll be another 4 or five spread between the top and bottom. There are some exceptions, Tesla 100% means 100% but they have a lower daily charge limit between 60 and 90%, they advise you to charge to 90%.

Many cars allow you to set a charge limit but some don’t. Generally speaking if you are using the car it will not be an issue as you’ll be constantly discharging and charing it. You don’t need to worry about leaving it plugged in and in reality once you get an EV you’ll want to swap to a time of use tariff to lower your energy bills, you’ll set the car to be finished charging for the time the tariff clicks over to the higher rate again.


jpaul said:
Price of (private) home charge points should drop with volume & competition, and could already be inflated with the availibility of the subsidy,
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Unlikely, the chargers cost very little already, there are loads available and competition is healthy. However the installl costs are a major factor and are only likely to increase with demand and inflation (e.g wage and certification costs). It takes a long time to train up qualified electricians and there are only so many out there. As above there are earthing and RCD requirements so self install isn’t really advised.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Due to it being a high power outside pug the regs are quite specific and you need an electrician to do it in reality. As above there are earthing and RCD requirements.
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Genuine question as i may install a charger into a new garage soon. Why would you not earth it back to the source CU? You mention specific earthing requirement, and the poster above you mentions an additional earthing rod. There is nothing in Part P to require this so i wondered where this has come from and if there are additional regs specific to this that i am clearly unaware of :)
 
Jez said:
Genuine question as i may install a charger into a new garage soon. Why would you not earth it back to the source CU? You mention specific earthing requirement, and the poster above you mentions an additional earthing rod. There is nothing in Part P to require this so i wondered where this has come from and if there are additional regs specific to this that i am clearly unaware of :)
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https://professional-electrician.com/technical/ev-charging-equipment-the-new-rules-explained/
 
I am putting up a new garage block and everyone seems to have a Tesla these days (except me :p) - i figured that really this should almost just be standard issue for a garage now. Quite easy for me to do as i will be running a new circuit to it anyway, so will oversize it to 10mm on a 40A breaker.
 
Jez said:
Yep agreed. At £225 the unit above looks like a nice thing to put in place almost for the sake of it.
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Yep. Because it's a "cheaper" unit it's also more basic, in a good way. You can unscrew the whole front - which you need to to install anyway - and that allows you to also undo the cable socket and easily remove the QUBEV branding which is just a sticker. The whole box is plastic and I was tempted to spray it a different colour, but tbh black is fine. But you could spray the whole thing white, for example, or apply a vinyl to have it in keeping.

You could even make your own housing and sit all the components inside or re-box it.
 
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