EV general discussion

[VincentHanna]

I've had my BEV for 2 weeks today, and only charged it twice at home so far, and once out and about, such is the mileage I am doing

And both times at home were just for 4 hours overnight on Octopus Go's cheap 5p per KW rate.

The other time was more for the sake of it to:
1) To check my £450 credit with BP Pulse worked ok (Thanks Polestar )
2) To see what sort of speeds I would get.

So in two weeks and 200 miles, it's cost me less £3 to charge at home so far

 

[WJA96]

im pretty sure when lamp posts were installed, the calculations on cable size for power usage wasnt taken into factor to tap of for a 22kw charger on every post LOL.

you wouldnt spare of your upstairs lighting to power a 10Kw shower would you? haha

Thanks to wonderful old British Standards, streetlighting continues to be installed with a particular type of CNE cable as a minimum. And although not all of it will be connected up as three phase, it is relatively inexpensive to enable all three phases because all three phases are generally in the street already and the cables are run in conduits so the DNO can pull a new one if they need to. So no, I wouldn't spur off my upstairs lighting to power anything (because I'm aware of the 18th Edition wiring regs) but I would know how to connect it up separately to the consumer unit. Just because they're using LED emitters in street lamps these days doesn't mean they cabled them up with twin and earth. [Nelson Munz]Ha Ha[/Nelson Munz]

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

The old street lights were around 1kw new LEDs around 100w so there is probably 900w or so of guaranteed capacity in older lights
No idea how easy it would be to pull more/better wiring through

If the average driver is doing 20 miles per day ( https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/averag...On a daily basis, cars,and 7,400 miles a year. ) then even assuming only 2 miles per KWH (very low) then the average driver would just need 10KWH per day to top up.
So even 10 hours on a 1KWH lamppost would meet that.

Once more places you travel to have chargers I personally think for all apart from very high mileage drivers be that occasional or regular are not going to find it hard, it will be top up often and little as opposed to a full charge from very low to full infrequently

 

[WJA96]

The street lights are just tapped off the standard street cabling, just like anything else. In most cases the cable used is 3-phase capable but they are not always. If they are single phase then you could get a 7.4kW EVSE on each lamp-post but the ones they are looking at in Thetford and Brandon are 3-phase 22kW AC.

 

[RoboCod]

With much greater battery capacity and with an average of 250 miles drive a week for most drivers, we'll probably only need to be charging up once or twice a month.

 

[Cleisthenes]

there really is no need for every home to have a charge point

I agree. My father is soon taking delivery of a Polestar 2 and whilst he has a garage/driveway in/on which he could easier have a fast charger, he is instead just going to charge it from the solar at his work. Given his mileage he will be unlikely to ever need to fast charge at home.

 

[WJA96]

There will be someone who doesn’t want to change. People who just like to sniff petrol fumes or who need to be able to experience sleep deprivation by driving for 8 hours without a break etc.

I REALLY thought my BEV experience would be a disaster and apart from crashing my first one it’s been a joy really.

 

[Judgeneo]

If you have a driveway, and can afford a polestar, why wouldn't you get an at home charger just in case? Aren't costs after the grant something like £200?

 

[Bear]

If you do charge from commercial charge points if you dont have the means to charge at home i.e. no drive, how does fast charging constantly affect battery life?

 

[WJA96]

If you have a driveway, and can afford a polestar, why wouldn't you get an at home charger just in case? Aren't costs after the grant something like £200?

£450 is the cheapest currently (untethered Pod-Point), or £500 for a tethered Pod-Point. Most are £600-ish with the Andersen coming in at about £1000.

 

[WJA96]

If you do charge from commercial charge points if you dont have the means to charge at home i.e. no drive, how does fast charging constantly affect battery life?

All the batteries are guaranteed to hold at least 90% of the originally quoted charge level for at least 8 years. Some battery warranties are longer.

 

[Judgeneo]

Cool, so £500 for a pod point, £350 gov grant, total cost £150. Bit of a no brainer if you have the driveway imo.

 

[WJA96]

No, £850 for a pod-point, £500 after the grant.

 

[SDK^]

Cool, so £500 for a pod point, £350 gov grant, total cost £150. Bit of a no brainer if you have the driveway imo.

Podpoint is £500 after the grant !
Still worth having one installed for convenience.

 

[Judgeneo]

Podpoint is £500 after the grant !
Still worth having one installed for convenience.

Good to know!

 

[WJA96]

Podpoint is £500 after the grant !
Still worth having one installed for convenience.

For convenience, absolutely. It's about a year on payback based on costs. £500 for a charge point buys you 2170kW of power from Pod-Point on one of their 50kW chargers are Tesco or Lidl. Or 1666 kW of power from Instavolt at 30p/kW. If you charge up only using Octopus Go at 4.5p/kW then you'd need to drive over 10,000 miles to see your £500 investment back. Which is roughly a year for most people. And if you're on a higher rate tariff at home the payback is longer.

 

[Bear]

All the batteries are guaranteed to hold at least 90% of the originally quoted charge level for at least 8 years. Some battery warranties are longer.

Even if you fast charge all the time? If thats the case it would become more viable for people without the means to charge at home

 

[WJA96]

Even if you fast charge all the time? If that's the case it would become more viable for people without the means to charge at home

Yes, even if you fast charge all the time to 100% from 0%. Most cars have 'spare' or 'buffer' capacity that the BMS can use up if it needs it to maintain the total charge capacity. You see this when Tesla state it's a 77kWh battery with 72kWh usable.

AC charging is generally held to be kinder on the battery but in truth the warranties are written to allow for battery abuse. At home I almost always charge to 100% because I do 500-700 miles per week but on DC chargers I only charge to 80% because anything above that it's faster to drive to the next charger and charge up to 80% again than to wait a REALLY long time to charge it to 90% or 100%. On my own car (Kona) it takes 45 minutes to go from 20% to 80% then another 45 minutes to go from 80% to 100% so there is literally no point in waiting that extra 45 minutes.

 

[Bear]

Yes, even if you fast charge all the time to 100% from 0%. Most cars have 'spare' or 'buffer' capacity that the BMS can use up if it needs it to maintain the total charge capacity. You see this when Tesla state it's a 77kWh battery with 72kWh usable.

AC charging is generally held to be kinder on the battery but in truth the warranties are written to allow for battery abuse. At home I almost always charge to 100% because I do 500-700 miles per week but on DC chargers I only charge to 80% because anything above that it's faster to drive to the next charger and charge up to 80% again than to wait a REALLY long time to charge it to 90% or 100%. On my own car (Kona) it takes 45 minutes to go from 20% to 80% then another 45 minutes to go from 80% to 100% so there is literally no point in waiting that extra 45 minutes.

Brilliant, thanks. Something to consider for my next car, although it will be hard to give up the v8 because of the epic noise

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Don’t forget the charger will have a long life, a lot of the cost is in the install/labour rather than the actual charger itself.