56 minutes ago, unofix said:

The electrical infrastructure of the UK will struggle to carry the increased demand. 

They had a man on from National Grid who was saying it wasn't a problem! All will be magically taken care of by your home charger getting signals and only charging at time of low demand/cost, etc. Maybe that would work with cars left overnight on a home charger, but didn't seem to address those who can't charge at home or need to use public chargers mid-journey.

House down the road from me with an extension cable shoved through the letterbox in the front door, another extension cable plugged into that and the yellow lead to charge the car plugged into the second extension cable. All looks very safe (not). Interesting to see what happens when it rains overnight as neither of the extension cables are waterproof.

18 hours ago, iantt said:

Another one of our neighbours had 2 octopus energy vans outside his house today. As I drove past saw they were fitting a wall box. He must be having a new car as currently he drives a 59 plate Porsche SUV thing and his wife a fiat 500. 

Octopus have a tariff for EV car owners which gives a cheap rate of 7.50p/ kWh between 00:30 and 04:30

20 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

Octopus have a tariff for EV car owners which gives a cheap rate of 7.50p/ kWh between 00:30 and 04:30

I've seen that as well.  Though I'm not sure it's not quite as good as it seems.  Very few people will go out at midnight to plug in so will have used a few hours on high rate first, possibly not even using the full 4 hours later on.  Unless the charger can be timer programmed?

21 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

Octopus have a tariff for EV car owners which gives a cheap rate of 7.50p/ kWh between 00:30 and 04:30

Wow, I'd be trying to hook up my washing machine etc to that tariff! Maybe even taking a very early (late?) shower...LOL

May be 7.5p for 4 hrs but normal rate the other 20 hrs higher than usual normal rate. 

 

So unless you use the 4hrs worth of elec charging elec car, then not worth bothering. Most people's commute is still only 10-15 miles. Ok if your doing 100mile commute   5 days a week. Save around £4.50 a week less the other 20hrs elec at higher rate. Mmm 

Edit. Found the higher rate . Ouch. And even higher daily rate. 

With my current elec  consumption , that works out at extra £8.62 a week Inc extra daily. 

So that's extra £4.12 a week . Am I missing something here. This also assumes I'm on capped variable rates currently  which I'm not. I pay 21.9p for elec on fixed until sep 2023. 

So if I had elec car and commute 100miles a day then it would probably cost me probably £6 a week more on octopus go. Surely I'm miss calculating some where. As my daily is 28miles  a day then I wouldn't use the full 4 hours a night cheaper either. I would only need 1.5 hrs a night . 

Anyone able to use calculator better than me? 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Unless the charger can be timer programmed?

I think this is what the National Grid man I mentioned above was referring to. It was only a couple of minutes of the programme so I wasn't clear if he meant a signal being sent to your charger by some magic down the supply wires, or if your car and/or charger had to be capable of receiving a signal from, eg, a mobile phone network to trigger charging at the optimum time.

 

10 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I think this is what the National Grid man I mentioned above was referring to. It was only a couple of minutes of the programme so I wasn't clear if he meant a signal being sent to your charger by some magic down the supply wires, or if your car and/or charger had to be capable of receiving a signal from, eg, a mobile phone network to trigger charging at the optimum time.

 

From what I've read, the wall charger is connected to your WiFi router and then the electric grid can assign a good time for the wall charger to switch on. 

16 minutes ago, iantt said:

From what I've read, the wall charger is connected to your WiFi router and then the electric grid can assign a good time for the wall charger to switch on. 

It will need to be adjustable by the customer too, as if they start a work night shift at 1am, would be a bit of a bummer if the car was sat from 7pm doing nothing, but I'm sure they've thought of that. Our government is very clever...

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Anyone able to use calculator better than me? 

Your calculations seem about right to me. Even if you had 2 electric vehicles charging at the same time (assuming the supply was big enough) you would still be running at a loss of a couple of pounds a week.

16 minutes ago, iantt said:

From what I've read, the wall charger is connected to your WiFi router and then the electric grid can assign a good time for the wall charger to switch on. 

Different wallboxes have different systems. As you might expect Tesla is the most 'intelligent'. The Tesla charge point communicates with the car and with other Tesla wall boxes so it can load share. They can be remotely programmed via an App to switch on and off at given times and prioritise which vehicles should be charged first if for example you have 3 Tesla EV's. In addition to all this, the Tesla vehicles can also communicate back to the wallbox how much charge it needs and if the driver has requested the vehicle to charge at a specific time.

Most normal wallboxes are just a fancy heavy duty 30Amp socket with an inbuilt contactor. Some do have timers and some do have the ability to be remotely switched on/off via an app or they can be connected via Wifi to work in conjunction with Smart meters.

All smart meters have the inbuilt ability to be controlled remotely by the supplier and can be turned off or back on by signals sent to the Sim card inside the meter.

31 minutes ago, iantt said:

, the wall charger is connected to your WiFi router 

All this supposes that everyone has decent broadband and/or mobile reception.

Although he was principally referring to the public charger situation, the presenter was saying if you don't have a reliable working smartphone you'd better forget about having an EV for the time being.

1 minute ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

All this supposes that everyone has decent broadband and/or mobile reception.

Although he was principally referring to the public charger situation, the presenter was saying if you don't have a reliable working smartphone you'd better forget about having an EV for the time being.

I had been using the BP app to pay for fuel for the last few years.  Ideal for me as no need to enter the kiosk or wait in queues.  (Particularly as the local station has a small supermarket attached!)

However it just wasn't reliable enough.  Sometimes because I'd messed up (forgotten to switch on location before opening the app for example) and others I couldn't get it to work at all.  Very frustrating because it was great when it worked, but the lack of reliability was the problem.  There was no pay at pump there either, so it meant having to go in and wait in the queue...luckily I always had my card, but the last time it failed was mid lockdown and I didn't have a mask with me!

13 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

All this supposes that everyone has decent broadband and/or mobile reception.

Although he was principally referring to the public charger situation, the presenter was saying if you don't have a reliable working smartphone you'd better forget about having an EV for the time being.

I hate that ethos that you need a smartphone. I only got one last year when my 12 year old Nokia finally said it's good bye... The fact that you need to rely on something that itself is the opposite of rugged, oh yes, fragile, is just waiting for trouble. Despite keeping my phone regularly charged, it has run out when I have been out. So, if/when others do the same thing, not only have you got a useless phone, but it also impacts your ability to get home

On 4/14/2022 at 2:46 PM, StephenFord said:

I hate that ethos that you need a smartphone. I only got one last year when my 12 year old Nokia finally said it's good bye... The fact that you need to rely on something that itself is the opposite of rugged, oh yes, fragile, is just waiting for trouble. Despite keeping my phone regularly charged, it has run out when I have been out. So, if/when others do the same thing, not only have you got a useless phone, but it also impacts your ability to get home

 I understand that completely (and pretty much agree), but I guess the "younger" generation hate the idea of having to need a wallet and cash, preferring to do everything via phone (or watch)

2 hours ago, Mark-UK said:

 I understand that completely (and pretty much agree), but I guess the "younger" generation hate the idea of having to need a wallet and cash, preferring to do everything via phone (or watch)

It can be very frustrating at times.

On Wednesday when we bought the Picanto it took us an hour and  half to sort the insurance out online as every time we went pay the amount the webpage on the phone just exploded into a huge page and you could not navigate it at all. So called technology lol.

Younger generation?  My Mum does everything on her watch! 

Must admit, after forgetting my wallet, and only realising at Tesco checkout, last year, I have added some payment apps to my phone as a backup. 

I'd never done that before but really don't want it to happen again!  I always take my phone when I go out anywhere, but only took my wallet if I'd need to pay for something.  There's no denying that phone payment is more convenient for most as something they'll carry everywhere.

My phone has never run out of battery while out, but even if it did, I've had a car charger cable in the glovebox for the last 10 years.    

Yeah as Tom implies, you'll just charge the phone in the car, the EV battery will not be 100% flat when you pull into the charging station.

 

I also have £50 tucked away in the car just in case I forget/lose my wallet.

47 minutes ago, Mark-UK said:

I also have £50 tucked away in the car ...

That would double the value of my car 🤣

I always have my wallet on me . Why I don't know as there's absolutely nothing in it. Not a card or penny. Nothing. 

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

That would double the value of my car 🤣

Filling it up with fuel would also. If you find some. 

Just going back a few posts - our Outlander PHEV has a charging TIMER built into the car which you programme yourself. No app, no internet connection needed

I assumed that all electric cars had this facility, but I don't know for sure.

32 minutes ago, alanfp said:

No app, no internet connection needed

Oh my !! how very quaint 🤣

If you don't do it with an App then you're just so not with it !

10 hours ago, iantt said:

I always have my wallet on me . Why I don't know as there's absolutely nothing in it. Not a card or penny. Nothing. 

Same here for 30yrs due to the fact that we had to carry all our accreditation cards with us at all times.

It was ridiculous you had to literally have a card for anything and everything, pick a shovel up (need a ticket to prove you know how to use one) brush(same) pick axe, wheelbarrow,rake, lay concrete,lay kerbs,edgings,block paving,Asphalt,gravel,put a road sign out,bring the same sign back in,all plant hire.ticket,ticket,ticket ....think I better stop.......lol

Nowadays I often leave home with nothing. Even the phone stays at home when I'm not at work.

11 hours ago, iantt said:

I always have my wallet on me . Why I don't know as there's absolutely nothing in it. Not a card or penny. Nothing. 

As long as I've been an adult, (an arguable term LOL), I have never left the house without my wallet, and keys, a more than 4 decade habit. Wallet is real boy scout stuff with money, stamps, one of those credit card metal tools, a very small USB drive, driving license, photo of loved one, ICE with medication details, etc etc. How you guys manage without, well, I don't know!

15 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

As long as I've been an adult, (an arguable term LOL), I have never left the house without my wallet, and keys, a more than 4 decade habit. Wallet is real boy scout stuff with money, stamps, one of those credit card metal tools, a very small USB drive, driving license, photo of loved one, ICE with medication details, etc etc. How you guys manage without, well, I don't know!

Only thing I use from my wallet is a bank card & Tesco or Nectar card.  I've never randomly needed a stamp so keep those at home.  Same with the driving licence.  Not sure why you'd need a USB while out, unless you're intending to break into a high security compound and steal information like in the movies...  (And I don't have a significant other, let alone a picture of one.  )

I used to take my wallet everywhere a few years ago.  But then I also used to carry a few quid in coins as well...  Just swapped those from one pair of jeans to another for months before realising I hadn't used any cash in that time!  So stopped the about 5 years ago!