AC charging rate

To minimise any discrimination against Grannies I shall now refer to it as the "Not so fast" cable. Maybe the "Perfectly adequate" cable.

Or even to make it sound extra special, the "Great Granny" cable ?
 
I had a problem last night when I tried for the first time to do a delayed time charge start via my EO Mini Pro. The 21.00 time to start came and went and the info in the car gave ; Charger connected but not charging. I checked the time on the app which was O.K. I then thought, "perhaps it hasn't changed with the clock or it has gone forward". I waited 'til 22.00 and gave it an extra 15 mins. Still no charging. Being I.T. savvy, I then switched it off and on again. I then deleted the App so that it would go back to normal. Still no charging! Had 75 miles left so no real problem as it is going in for de-bonging tomorrow. However, decided I needed to be able to charge. Got out Granny Cable for first time. Chucking it down with rain. Cable about 12 inches too short to reach. Sod it. Not getting wet any longer. I'll deal with it in the morning. Dawn came, bright and dry: still no charging. I re-installed the app and phoned helpline. Young lass (am I allowed to say that)? on line, went through my dilemma, looked up the hardware which had been installed and announced proudly that it had been set to default to "the" CANADIAN time zone"! I laughed and asked which one? Canada has 10 time zones East to West. Oh, the normal one was the reply. I thanked her and checked the car out. Lo and behold, charging was now happening, albeit at a more expensive Kw rate than I had planned. I am just about to investigate this further as my EO is definitely set to UK time. It made me laugh. I hope it makes someone else smile and may solve a problem somewhere for someone.
 
Exdro said:
I had a problem last night when I tried for the first time to do a delayed time charge start via my EO Mini Pro. The 21.00 time to start came and went and the info in the car gave ; Charger connected but not charging. I checked the time on the app which was O.K. I then thought, "perhaps it hasn't changed with the clock or it has gone forward". I waited 'til 22.00 and gave it an extra 15 mins. Still no charging. Being I.T. savvy, I then switched it off and on again. I then deleted the App so that it would go back to normal. Still no charging! Had 75 miles left so no real problem as it is going in for de-bonging tomorrow. However, decided I needed to be able to charge. Got out Granny Cable for first time. Chucking it down with rain. Cable about 12 inches too short to reach. Sod it. Not getting wet any longer. I'll deal with it in the morning. Dawn came, bright and dry: still no charging. I re-installed the app and phoned helpline. Young lass (am I allowed to say that)? on line, went through my dilemma, looked up the hardware which had been installed and announced proudly that it had been set to default to "the" CANADIAN time zone"! I laughed and asked which one? Canada has 10 time zones East to West. Oh, the normal one was the reply. I thanked her and checked the car out. Lo and behold, charging was now happening, albeit at a more expensive Kw rate than I had planned. I am just about to investigate this further as my EO is definitely set to UK time. It made me laugh. I hope it makes someone else smile and may solve a problem somewhere for someone.
Click to expand...

That's very interesting - I've booked the EO Mini Pro for install so am hoping that by the time I get it timed charging is sorted (between the comfort update on the car and any potential updates on the unit itself).

Just to clarify, what was it that was set to the wrong timezone, the car itself?
 
Portgordon said:
That's very interesting - I've booked the EO Mini Pro for install so am hoping that by the time I get it timed charging is sorted (between the comfort update on the car and any potential updates on the unit itself).

Just to clarify, what was it that was set to the wrong timezone, the car itself?
Click to expand...
i think the app on the MINI Pro.
 
Using granny charger, twice a week to top up the 70~80 mile a week for work commute and some shopping/personal trips is sufficient for us, plug in Saturday evening and by the morning all topped up.
We have an Audi A6 Avant for the long drives which is very rare these days but it does have a larger boot area which does come in handy. But we bought the ZS EV for local transport only, we are getting 10 miles per hour on 13A socket charge, enough to keep us on the road.
 
Okay, so Slow, Fast and Rapid.
I gues it's all in the name, but only that and nothing else, since Rapid means Fast which actually means Quick. ?
So maybe it should be renamed to Slow, Swift and Quick? Or just low, mid and high speed charging?
 
When you have a definitive answer let me know!

I think of
1) "granny". 13amp
2) Home-7KW.
3) modern fast...

.I'm sure I'm wrong, but thats how I think of them.....can we still say Granny ?
 
Hi All,

Yes it is in the name but the definitive UK classification of types of chargers is Slow up to 3kw, Fast up to 7kw but over 3kw and Rapid greater than 7kw and up to whatever.

Regards

Frank
 
So a 22kW AC (three phase) charger is classed as "rapid"? - that's interesting. That means there's no separation in the classifications between the onboard AC charger and external DC chargers. I must be too much of a techie! - I guess as far as the user is concerned, the implementation is irrelavent, it's simply the charging speed that matters....

BTW, our experience (post-comfort2 update) is:
Granny charger (measured during our holiday last week) - 8.5 miles per hour
Home 7.2kW Ohme charger (30.0A continuous indicated) - 24miles per hour
50kW CCS charging stations (Polar and Instavolt, measured at about 42kW) - 147miles per hour

Obviously the CCS chargers only ran at that speed up to 80% full, after which we either stopped the charger or I stopped measuring the charging rate.

Also, the above figures assume approx. 3.5 miles per kwh average consumption rate (we were getting > 4m/kwh for most of the holiday, so those speeds would be slightly higher).
 
DangerousDoug said:
So a 22kW AC (three phase) charger is classed as "rapid"? - that's interesting. That means there's no separation in the classifications between the onboard AC charger and external DC chargers. I must be too much of a techie! - I guess as far as the user is concerned, the implementation is irrelavent, it's simply the charging speed that matters....

BTW, our experience (post-comfort2 update) is:
Granny charger (measured during our holiday last week) - 8.5 miles per hour
Home 7.2kW Ohme charger (30.0A continuous indicated) - 24miles per hour
50kW CCS charging stations (Polar and Instavolt, measured at about 42kW) - 147miles per hour

Obviously the CCS chargers only ran at that speed up to 80% full, after which we either stopped the charger or I stopped measuring the charging rate.

Also, the above figures assume approx. 3.5 miles per kwh average consumption rate (we were getting > 4m/kwh for most of the holiday, so those speeds would be slightly higher).
Click to expand...

Hi DangerousDoug,


I suppose at the end of the day, one does NOT care what or how the charger you are using is classified as but how quickly it charges your car (whatever type of EV it is) as you say.

With our cars the only thing we need to consider on long trips that the only feasible way to charge the car is via CCS and forget AC charging unless time is not an issue.

Regards

Frank
 
Hi Frank, I would have agreed completely with you, until an experience in Keswick last week. We only needed to top up the car with 20 miles or so, to make sure we got home (back to the holiday cottage) with a good reserve. We would be charging for free at the cottage, so didn't want to add too much charge (paid for) and we were going for a meal, so would be away from the charger for 90mins+. Of the two chargers in Keswick center, the CCS had a max. stay of 90mins (after which penalties ensued) and we were getting free parking while actually charging at the charger. So in that instance it made a lot of sense to use the 7kW AC post :)

We were actually away for about 2 hours, returning to find 40 more miles on the car at a cost of less than the parking would have been! Hoorrayyy for electric vehicles!! ;-)

It also meant we left the CCS post free for other cars - there was a BMW i3 on it when we returned...
 
DangerousDoug said:
Hi Frank, I would have agreed completely with you, until an experience in Keswick last week. We only needed to top up the car with 20 miles or so, to make sure we got home (back to the holiday cottage) with a good reserve. We would be charging for free at the cottage, so didn't want to add too much charge (paid for) and we were going for a meal, so would be away from the charger for 90mins+. Of the two chargers in Keswick center, the CCS had a max. stay of 90mins (after which penalties ensued) and we were getting free parking while actually charging at the charger. So in that instance it made a lot of sense to use the 7kW AC post :)
Click to expand...
Hi Dangerous Doug,


Fully understand that when parking and time restrictions are in place. Here is another example which annoyed me, I went to Glasgow to see a show at the Hydro and the only Chargeplace Scotland Charger convenient to the Hydro was in their car park and charging free but £5.70 for parking. This is happened to me a couple of times where the available convenient charger was free but had to pay parking fees. Falkirk Stadium has just installed (recently) about 12 chargers (mainly Rapid) being fed with Solar Panels and free to use (with a Chargeplace Scotland RFID card) and no parking fees.

The UK Government should (if they want their plans for 2035 to be fulfilled) start installing in EVERY motorway service station banks of rapid chargers just like Tesla have in a lot of service stations).

Regards

Frank
 
Frank, I absolutely agree! I went with my son-in-law to collect his new model 3 from Birmingham in March (just before lockdown). I took him up in the MG then followed him home. We visited the Strensham services on the M5 on the way home. I pulled in to the scruffy old Ecotrishitty charger (single CCS post) while watching him drive on to the bank of Superchargers occupying an entire corner of the MSA car park. The experience was EXACTLY that of taking a seat in cattle class on a 'plane, watching your boss walking up the asle to first class!!

I'm firmly of the opinion that we need fewer charging locations, with more (CCS) posts at each location. It's useless having several chargers within a 5 mile radius, if the one you turn up at is occupied, and you then play tag driving around to the others, trying to find a free one.

The model for me is the Astle retail park in west bromwich, just on the M5/M6 junction - four shiny new instavolt posts in a row, so very little chance of turning up to find them all full (at the moment!). BTW, they do also charge you for the parking, though (as well as the 30ppkwh for the juice)
 
The government need to be ahead of the tipping point of EVs. The tipping point for Tesla has been the model 3. My Brother in law has had his model S for 2 or 3 years and charging at the banks of Tesla chargers never used to be a problem. In the last few months, he has had to start waiting at the services because they are all being used...all 8 spots! All with model 3's. Once the public realise that EVs are affordable this will happen, except we will all be queueing for the single CCS spot.

Another thing...how do you queue for a charging spot. If theres a spare space thats fine, what about when there are 4/5 people queueing.

As my brother in law was going to the last empty Tesla space, someone obviously had the same idea and flew past him on the services slip road and nabbed the last spot. Not looking forward to that.
 
Hmmmm... you make a very valid point. We have queuing at petrol pumps already, with several separate queues for individual pumps, and/or a single queue forming out of the station (our local supermarket station is very often like this) so chaotic queuing is already happenning in the car filling world... My hope is that when most drivers move to EV, 90% of charging will be at home (or at "private" residents chargers) so the volume of public charging will be 90% less than current fuel stations and therefore a smaller problem to solve.

But, of course, solve it we must!
 
Hi Members,
Does anybody know what are the rules on electric car parking bays for electric cars only are? As I see a PHEV vehicles are not electric cars! Therefore shouldn't use the bays.
 
I've never charged my PHEV anywhere but at home....for a max range improvement of about 25 miles, its just not worth it. IMO. .....turn on the 2 ltr petrol engine. We only use it for very short trips.....or the very occasional emergency long one.
 
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