Best Wall Chargers & Best Energy Suppliers

[Hybrid Paul]

Hi all,

I collected my HS PHEV Exclusive this week. Fantastic car. Very pleased.

Currently using the 3 pin charger. I am looking into wall chargers.

What are the recommended ones among the community?

It seems to cost £550 to £750 for a 7kw charger, fitted. Given that this includes the £350 rebate, does this not look quite expensive?

It seems that the installer is getting £300 odd to install, and then getting the £350 rebate as well. So £700 to £750 for some basic installation work.

I calculated that the saving of an intelligent charger on a "car" tariff like Octpus would save me about £300 p.a on the basis of 6k mile of electric drive out of 8-9k annual mileage. So a two year payback for the wall unit.

So far so good. But when I look at energy companies, the reduced "nighttime" tariff seems to come at the expence of daytime rate, and of a higher Gas rate than I currently pay. I reckon that I will pay £50 more for my daytime electric, and £300 more for my Gas.

In which case, why bother?

Does anyone have a workable solution?

Thanks

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi,
You dont have to change your gas supplier you just need a smart meter for your electric.
I use the Ohme that you can get from Octopus for £199. Brother in law is a sparky and connected it up for me..
Worth a look and don't worry about using the grant

 

[hermitdave]

I’ve been with Octopus for over 12 months now. For most of 1st lockdown Agilex was cheap as chips however it got expensive from November.. I mean really expensive. Switched to Go Faster from 20:30 and I charge the cars (Leaf on dumb Rolec, Outlander before, HS now using granny + smart switch). I also run utilities at that time.

5.5p from 20:30 to 1:30
14.2p for rest

gas 2.8p

It works for us. If you decide to switch let me know - you can use my referral access we both get a £50. You don’t have to though.

 

[Hybrid Paul]

Hi,
You dont have to change your gas supplier you just need a smart meter for your electric.
I use the Ohme that you can get from Octopus for £199. Brother in law is a sparky and connected it up for me..
Worth a look and don't worry about using the grant

Thanks Jomarkh,

My deal is duel fuel, so I do have to leave. I will look at the Octopus deal for an Ohme, I did not see that on their site (but I may well hae missed it!).

 

[Hybrid Paul]

I’ve been with Octopus for over 12 months now. For most of 1st lockdown Agilex was cheap as chips however it got expensive from November.. I mean really expensive. Switched to Go Faster from 20:30 and I charge the cars (Leaf on dumb Rolec, Outlander before, HS now using granny + smart switch). I also run utilities at that time.

5.5p from 20:30 to 1:30
14.2p for rest

gas 2.8p

It works for us. If you decide to switch let me know - you can use my referral access we both get a £50. You don’t have to though.

Thanks for your reply,

Octopus current gas rates and day electric, are higher. But I will look again.

Paul

 

[hermitdave]

Thanks for your reply,

Octopus current gas rates and day electric, are higher. But I will look again.

Paul

I’m not sure about current rates - read that day time electricity has gone up to 15p.

when I was with a EDF I was paying 3.3p

 

[hermitdave]

As far as chargers are concerned I wouldn’t bother for HS. Get a good quality outdoor socket installed.

 

[Hybrid Paul]

As far as chargers are concerned I wouldn’t bother for HS. Get a good quality outdoor socket installed.

Sounds like good advice!

 

[jem111111]

I'm the same as Hermitdave and on octopus go faster from 20:30 for 5 hours at 5.5 p
So if I need a full ( or partial charge) I just plug my car in at 20:30 and leave it all night for a full charge , or just unplug it about 22:30 ish for a partial charge.
Both ways I back it up to the garage , so I leave the main body of the granny charger in the garage , and just feed the cable under the garage door to the car.
Don't really need an outside wall charger at present.

 

[hermitdave]

I have replaced outdoor sockets and have had a burn where it connected inside due to persistent use of Granny before - once with Leaf and another with Outlander.

Just make sure Outdoor socket is good quality and wiring is tightened properly - especially if you are doing it.

 

[hermitdave]

I'm the same as Hermitdave and on octopus go faster from 20:30 for 5 hours at 5.5 p
So if I need a full ( or partial charge) I just plug my car in at 20:30 and leave it all night for a full charge , or just unplug it about 22:30 ish for a partial charge.
Both ways I back it up to the garage , so I leave the main body of the granny charger in the garage , and just feed the cable under the garage door to the car.
Don't really need an outside wall charger at present.

I have a smart switch that comes on at 20:30. I tend to plug in afterwards as HS can't start charge if it was connected before granny is powered on. Either way it switches off at 1:30 no matter what time I plug in.

 

[sky0000547]

As soon as I received my HS PHEV, I fitted a Wallbox Pulsar Plus and switched to Octopus Go from EON for my electricity. Octopus standing charge is a fair bit more than EON and the daytime rate is marginally more too but the off peak 5p rate of course is significantly cheaper. To fully charge the HS from 0 to 100% will cost you less than 70p. Luckily I already had a smart meter installed previously so transferring to the Go tariff was almost immediate. The 4hrs off peak time on the Go tariff is just about long enough to fully charge the HS from zero.

 

[Hybrid Paul]

So if you charge at 15p per kw (my current non "car charging cheap overnight deal") , that would be £2.00 per full charge. So 6,000 miles of electric driving will cost £375 vs £131 from your cheap rate.

With day rate electricity and higher gas rates, I am struggling to understand what the benefit is.

My calcs suggest a saving on car charging of £250 per year for 6,000 miles of electric driving, but £50 more for my daytime electricity, and £170 more for gas. Am I missing something?

 

[Scalextric]

So if you charge at 15p per kw (my current non "car charging cheap overnight deal") , that would be £2.00 per full charge. So 6,000 miles of electric driving will cost £375 vs £131 from your cheap rate.

With day rate electricity and higher gas rates, I am struggling to understand what the benefit is.

My calcs suggest a saving on car charging of £250 per year for 6,000 miles of electric driving, but £50 more for my daytime electricity, and £170 more for gas. Am I missing something?

You make an interesting point Hybrid Paul. Perhaps we're missing the woods for the trees getting caught up with the nuances of smart chargers options..at the expense of the increased domestic tariffs for everything else.

Has anyone else had this experience having switched to Octopus Go?

And for those who did install a 7kW intelligent charger; Rolec or Pod Point or A.N other and why?

Getting my HS PHEV next week and still undecided about using the granny charger Vs
installing a a 7kW smart charger £££.

 

[hermitdave]

You make an interesting point Hybrid Paul. Perhaps we're missing the woods for the trees getting caught up with the nuances of smart chargers options..at the expense of the increased domestic tariffs for everything else.

Has anyone else had this experience having switched to Octopus Go?

And for those who did install a 7kW intelligent charger; Rolec or Pod Point or A.N other and why?

Getting my HS PHEV next week and still undecided about using the granny charger Vs
installing a a 7kW smart charger £££.

I’m on Go Faster and it works good for us. For the past decade 2010-2030 I had a special dual rate meter they gave me unique tariffs. I was used to off loading utilities to evenings and weekend.
With Go Faster, I started utilities after 20:30. Both Leaf and HS start charging at that time.

 

[Alb]

I'm on the 2018 Octopus Go tariff (13.7p peak and 5p off-peak).
Even if I'd consumed all of my energy peak it would still have been cheaper than my previous NPower tariff so I don't see any compromise.
I did my first overnight timed charge using the granny charger last night and it worked perfectly.

 

[Scalextric]

I'm on the 2018 Octopus Go tariff (13.7p peak and 5p off-peak).
Even if I'd consumed all of my energy peak it would still have been cheaper than my previous NPower tariff so I don't see any compromise.
I did my first overnight timed charge using the granny charger last night and it worked perfectly.

Very good, I think I will follow suit until I work out if installing a proper charger makes financial sense for a 16.6kWH battery pack.
Out of interest what is your set up for controlling the granny charger - plugged into an outside socket using a separate IP3 rated socket timer?

 

[hermitdave]

Very good, I think I will follow suit until I work out if installing a proper charger makes financial sense for a 16.6kWH battery pack.
Out of interest what is your set up for controlling the granny charger - plugged into an outside socket using a separate IP3 rated socket timer?

I have an smart switch on inside as I wired external socket a decade ago (when I had electric scooter parked outside)

i just set out to start at 20:30 and stop at 1:30. Issue with HS this is that car doesn’t charge unless power is active when connecting to the car so I tend to walk in and plug in after 8:30

other option is to momentarily power the switch and connect the car. Once car shows charging you can switch off the switch and let timer trigger it.

 

[Alb]

Very good, I think I will follow suit until I work out if installing a proper charger makes financial sense for a 16.6kWH battery pack.
Out of interest what is your set up for controlling the granny charger - plugged into an outside socket using a separate IP3 rated socket timer?

I have a 13A socket inside my garage adjacent to the door so the granny plugs into a timer in that socket remaining safe and dry while the output cable easily slips under the closed garage door and connects to the car on the other side.

I did a dummy run over several hours during the day to make sure nothing was getting too hot and everything was fine.

 

[AnthonyPHEV]

You make an interesting point Hybrid Paul. Perhaps we're missing the woods for the trees getting caught up with the nuances of smart chargers options..at the expense of the increased domestic tariffs for everything else.

Has anyone else had this experience having switched to Octopus Go?

And for those who did install a 7kW intelligent charger; Rolec or Pod Point or A.N other and why?

Getting my HS PHEV next week and still undecided about using the granny charger Vs
installing a a 7kW smart charger £££.

I went with Pod Point as they sorted out the government rebate. Good comms, prompt survey and a very efficient installation. I haven’t got into the weeds of the cost/benefit so grateful to everyone as we are on Octopus but don‘t (yet) have a smart charger.