Which EV home charger?

[NSS]

Mrs NSS has a Mini electric on order so I wondered whether any of the electric car users among you have any recommendations as to which home charger to go for?

 

Mini partner with Pod Point but thought I'd see what others would choose before committing. 

 

We have solar pv but rarely have enough surplus to make much of a contribution to car charging. As such, we'll aim to use the 4-hour Octopus Go night rate for charging so the ability to programme charging times is the only obvious requirement.

 

Any suggestions/experiences would be appreciated 👍🏻 

[severnside]

We have both Zappy and Podpoint chargers, we prefer Zappy a lot. It can be configured to charge with solar surplus or a mix (e.g. Max 20% import from Grid). Podpoint is very basic in terms of control.

Also I would recommend universal charger instead of one with fixed cord

[NSS]

20 minutes ago, severnside said:

We have both Zappy and Podpoint chargers, we prefer Zappy a lot. It can be configured to charge with solar surplus or a mix (e.g. Max 20% import from Grid). Podpoint is very basic in terms of control.

Also I would recommend universal charger instead of one with fixed cord

Thanks for that. My understanding was that Zappy requires a minimum input of 1.4kWh from solar or it will draw any shortfall from the grid. Are you saying you can limit it such that it only charges if sufficient there is sufficient solar to meet the minimum required?

 

Was also thinking untethered, if only for future proofing against connector type changes 👍🏻 

[severnside]

There is minimum 1.2kw needed to charge the car, I think it's charging standard not a zappy limitation.

On Zappy there is a Eco+ mode where you can choose within app (1%-100%)how much Grid electricity you want to add to reach minimum 1.2kw. Another keypoint to consider is which brand hot water diverter you are using? We have both Eddie and Zappy, so it can programmed from one app and they play nicely with each other. You don't want two different brands competing for surplus

[NSS]

18 minutes ago, severnside said:

There is minimum 1.2kw needed to charge the car, I think it's charging standard not a zappy limitation.

On Zappy there is a Eco+ mode where you can choose within app (1%-100%)how much Grid electricity you want to add to reach minimum 1.2kw. Another keypoint to consider is which brand hot water diverter you are using? We have both Eddie and Zappy, so it can programmed from one app and they play nicely with each other. You don't want two different brands competing for surplus

 

Ah, we have one of the first generation Power Diverter fitted so that could be an issue. Chances are we'll only need to charge it once a week so may stick to using the cheap nighttime rate.

 

I presume the Pod Point does at least allow you to programme the charging times?

[jack]

14 hours ago, NSS said:

Mini partner with Pod Point but thought I'd see what others would choose before committing. 

 

Massive NO to the Pod Point for me. I can't tell you how much trouble I've had with their public chargers (mainly the app forgetting that I've claimed the session and then refusing to release my car).

 

The last time I was forced to use one of their chargers, it refused to disconnect. In the end, I had to change the max charge setting on my car to force it to break the session. It took me over 20 minutes to think of this solution, so I had to buy a lot of expensive electricity that I didn't want or need. 

 

Unbelievably, they no longer have a phone number you can call for help, either. I sent them a message via their (very difficult to find) contact form when I couldn't disconnect and it took them over 24 hours to reply. That was event though I'd selected the "I can't release my car" from the drop-down in the contact form (which would seem like an urgent issue to me!) 

 

I don't believe there's phone support for their home chargers either, but check.

 

Also, take a look at the online reviews about support generally. 

[severnside]

36 minutes ago, NSS said:

I presume the Pod Point does at least allow you to programme the charging times?

I never installed PodPoint App, I program charging time in car

[NSS]

59 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Massive NO to the Pod Point for me. I can't tell you how much trouble I've had with their public chargers (mainly the app forgetting that I've claimed the session and then refusing to release my car).

 

The last time I was forced to use one of their chargers, it refused to disconnect. In the end, I had to change the max charge setting on my car to force it to break the session. It took me over 20 minutes to think of this solution, so I had to buy a lot of expensive electricity that I didn't want or need. 

 

Unbelievably, they no longer have a phone number you can call for help, either. I sent them a message via their (very difficult to find) contact form when I couldn't disconnect and it took them over 24 hours to reply. That was event though I'd selected the "I can't release my car" from the drop-down in the contact form (which would seem like an urgent issue to me!) 

 

I don't believe there's phone support for their home chargers either, but check.

 

Also, take a look at the online reviews about support generally. 

Yikes! Which home charger do you use Jack?

[NSS]

51 minutes ago, severnside said:

I never installed PodPoint App, I program charging time in car

Okay, didn't realise that was an option. I'll check with Mini 👍🏻 

[jack]

22 hours ago, NSS said:

Yikes! Which home charger do you use Jack?

 

Still on a 13 amp plug after 2 years!

 

We're about to have a Zappi installed, to go with the Eddi diverter we already have. The recent increase in electricity price when we came off our fixed price deal means we really need to be able to take better advantage of the 4 cheap hours we get overnight.

[NSS]

9 hours ago, jack said:

 

Still on a 13 amp plug after 2 years!

 

We're about to have a Zappi installed, to go with the Eddi diverter we already have. The recent increase in electricity price when we came off our fixed price deal means we really need to be able to take better advantage of the 4 cheap hours we get overnight.

Just had a quote for a Zappi but awaiting clarification as to whether or not it will conflict with our Power Diverter. 

 

Our GO rate increases at midnight tonight.

[Pocster]

Andersen is good but expensive. Software requires some understanding of its quirks ….

Edited August 19, 2022 by pocster

[TonyT]

The cheapest one available with no App or anything, still going strong 1year plus in

[Gone West]

On 17/08/2022 at 20:59, NSS said:

Any suggestions/experiences would be appreciated 👍🏻 

This thread may be of interest.

 

 

[jack]

On 19/08/2022 at 19:40, NSS said:

Our GO rate increases at midnight tonight.

 

Ours bumped from 5p to 7.5p /kWh a few months back. Still amazing value compared to the peak rate.

 

The inability to properly take advantage of the 4-hour cheaper overnight rate on a 13A plug is a major factor for getting the charger installed now.

[NSS]

4 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Ours bumped from 5p to 7.5p /kWh a few months back. Still amazing value compared to the peak rate.

 

The inability to properly take advantage of the 4-hour cheaper overnight rate on a 13A plug is a major factor for getting the charger installed now.

Yep, our night rate has just changed to 7.5p from 5p. Day rate is now almost 40p but at least that is now fixed for 12 months.

 

Should be possible to pretty much fully charge the Mini in 4 hours, though I doubt it will need charging much more than once a week.

[jack]

2 minutes ago, NSS said:

Should be possible to pretty much fully charge the Mini in 4 hours, though I doubt it will need charging much more than once a week.

 

We mostly get away with 4 hours a night, it's just when we do a long drive and then need the car again quickly. Maybe a handful of times a month.

 

I doubt it'll pay for itself all that quickly, but it'll be nice to not continuously be thinking about how to optimise charging.

[SteamyTea]

36 minutes ago, jack said:

We mostly get away with 4 hours a night

The Mini does only have a net 28.9 kWh battery. Which is 3 hours 12 minutes at 7.2 kW.

https://www.mini.co.uk/en_GB/home/range/more-mini-electric/mini-electric-tech-specs.html

 

Just about enough to get to other side of Exeter.

[NSS]

7 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

The Mini does only have a net 28.9 kWh battery. Which is 3 hours 12 minutes at 7.2 kW.

https://www.mini.co.uk/en_GB/home/range/more-mini-electric/mini-electric-tech-specs.html

 

Just about enough to get to other side of Exeter.

The range isn't a concern for us, it'll be very much a second car.

[MikeSharp01]

9 hours ago, NSS said:

it'll be very much a second car.

Seems wrong to have mini as 'a second car' they are such fun.

[NSS]

16 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Seems wrong to have mini as 'a second car' they are such fun.

Second car as in for local journeys (solo or two-up). I had a JCW for a while and we've had other minis so appreciate they are fun to drive, but not for longer journeys, carrying grandchildren or towing our caravan.

[Modernista]

My plain-and-simple Qube has performed faultlessly for the last year - hastily installed when I moved as there was no room for the massive OEM charger that I had before. It's just sat in place working happily as the garage has been demolished and rebuilt around it without complaint. I'm less sure that a programmable charger is worth the hassle in present circumstances tbh and some car makes allow you to programme charge timings on the vehicle app anyway.

[NSS]

Just completed our first full calendar month since the Zappi was installed and one of the major bonuses for me is the rather excellent reporting in the app.

 

The following image is fairly self-explanatory but feel free to ask if anything is unclear.

 

[NSS]

To add a bit more info for anyone interested, the graph shows we used 57.2 kWh charging the Mini in October, and we used a further 6.6 kWh at the end of September (checking the Zappi was working). All of this was delivered in the cheap 7.5p rate so charging has so far cost about £4.80 and mileage covered for that input is 223 miles (say 2.15p/mile). This compares very favourably to the circa 30p/mile for my Macan 😳

 

Since the last charge we've covered a further 77 miles and remaining range is shown as 44 miles so comfortably over 100-mile usable range which is fine for the intended use.

 

Oh, and no it's not a JCW but is still fun to drive - for short periods at least 🤣

[JohnMo]

For comparison, just bought a used 1.6 Focus for commuting (£4600).  Have done just over 2000 miles in the last 4 weeks and its averaging 64.9 mpg (incl. short trips to the shops).

 

Average fuel price £1.80 per litre, so about £8.10 per gallon, 8.1/65= 12.5p.