Do you keep a 'charge log'? ⚡️

[richlove]

Just curious how many owners are keeping a log of all their charging activity and costs and, if so, for what reason?

I started to, though missed a few recent charges and now wondering if there's much point and why I'm doing it! Does anybody find it particularly useful for any reason?

 

[Robf]

Just curious how many owners are keeping a log of all their charging activity and costs and, if so, for what reason?

I started to, though missed a few recent charges and now wondering if there's much point and why I'm doing it! Does anybody find it particularly useful for any reason?

Nah

 

[DBedford]

Have a record of my home changes via the app. But not logging charging which exceed my cars range when out and about, as I know it will cost more than I would like to pay and relatively rare. But as that is only once in a while I have to grin and bear it.

 

[Rolfe]

Good grief no. I used to keep a record of how much petrol I put in the car and the date and the mileage at that time. That wasn't especially onerous, and it was quite interesting at times, seeing how much my mileage varied with the type of driving and the time of year and so on. (Also, interestingly, the marked improvement in economy when the car had a new engine fitted under warranty.)

But for the EV? Are you seriously joking? If I use a public charger it will give me a record of how much I paid for, but what good is that unless I also record the mileage on the car? And even then, what am I going to do with it? I often charge the car up to 80-90% on the public rapid charger at the end of my road, then drive it home and stick it on the granny charger to get to 100% and balance. I have little clue what it's taking from the granny lead and care less.

I usually waited until the car was almost empty before filling it with petrol, and again that simplified matters. I could tell how much petrol it took from "almost empty" to "full". I charge the battery when I feel like it. Either the night before I'm going on a longer-than-usual trip (say 100 miles in a day), or when it's down low enough that I feel I want more range "just in case".

I did work out what it cost me to do a trip to Yorkshire and back, just out of interest, and it came out a bit less than it would have cost me to put petrol in the GTi for the same journey. That was at motorway speeds, and using rapid chargers at motorway service stations (plus an even more expensive type 2 at my destination in Yorkshire). It's not going to get any more expensive than that.

Most of the time I'm paying around 30p a unit, either on my granny charger or on the rapid charger at the end of the road. I know that's more than people with wall boxes and variable tariffs are paying, but at the moment I'm happy not to get into all that. I know that the EV is costing me a lot less than the GTi, and in fact having it has made me more conscious of electricity economy so I'm almost paying for it in the savings I'm making elsewhere.

Life is frankly too short to document every KWh obsessively.

 

[Themist0]

I do, but just do it out of interest… I wanted to see what happens in the winter (only got the car in May). It’s not onerous as I just use the monthly total from my ohme and the mileage at the end of the last charge. What is obvious (not from the stats) is that the M/KWh various enormously depending on the journey/speed etc, when I used to do this for my ICE cars then the variation in MPG was quite small… as I said I do it just for interest…

 

[siteguru]

I do, mainly for interest as to efficiency in different conditions/times of year. This is the spreadsheet format I'm using:

http://www.siteguru.co.uk/MG4/EVFuelConsumption.xlsx

 

[Alb]

Don't really see the point when the car tells you what it's average energy consumption is anyway.

 

[Bluesparky]

the battery is under warranty, my electric is free via solar, there's enough stress in life without worrying about kw and battery charge percentages, all I know is, I used to spend £80 a month on diesel & £700 per year on road tax, now I spend £0000

 

[Rolfe]

If you've invested in solar, you're laughing. I can just about understand someone who is paying for their electricity wanting to keep track of it though.

 

[siteguru]

I'm on standard variable (capped) rate for my leccy, so tracking gives me useful info.

 

[Susanna]

My Wallbox tells me how much each charge costs, and I can select by month or whole year too. I also have a simple table using ‘numbers’ on iOS. For a little over 3000 miles, my leccy costs amount to £66.85. I am very satisfied!

 

[evcog]

I do have a spreadsheet but after 5 months I have stopped entering charge info. I knew after the first 2 months what I was expending and the milage I was doing. As soon as I realised the costs were very similar to my previous ICE car there was little point in tracking it that closely. I do keep a record of my mileage however, because I am leasing the vehicle and have a max mileage per year.

Of course one of the things I do try is to look for bargains in charging. As one of the 26% of the population without the possibility of a home charger we prowl looking for good cheap chargers and graze as we do so. We are the lions of the EV prairie. Growl

 

[Rolfe]

Edited because I was talking rubbish.

 

[Themist0]

I've seen the price on your local charger. It's daylight robbery. The one at the end of my street, the one I can walk home from, also ChargePlace Scotland, is 30p a unit.

I have no idea why they do this.

Because a) they can due to supply and demand and b) to pay for the investment . If the government is serious about EVs then they should subsidise companies to invest and make driving cheaper than an ICE cars

 

[Rolfe]

Edited because I was entirely mixed up!

 

[slmorgan42]

Bearing in mind where evcog is, it's senseless. If they can put a charger in the village where I live and charge 30p per unit, the same charger in the small town near where evcog lives doesn't have to be charging 70p. Same company, same charger, same electricity grid.

I don't really know what we've done to merit the granting of a 30p charger, but where evcog is is far more worthy of a bit of support and subsidy than we are.

Most of the public chargers round me are 30 - 45p depending on which company owns it.

I use overnight lamppost chargers which gives you a slightly cheaper rates. It works a bit like a home charger. You can plug in after 16:00 then the charger starts at 00:00 and stops at 07:00. Obviously stops sooner if you car is charged.

 

[Rolfe]

To be scrupulously fair, I see that evcog's installation also has a couple of type 2 only connectors that are only 35p a unit. However evcog has said he's seven miles from the charger, and I wouldn't have thought he would want to leave the car there for hours on end. I would have thought he would mainly use the rapid.

 

[evcog]

You know if they just dropped the VAT rate from 20% to 5% to match with what the government take for home chargers it would be less discriminatory.

It would only cost £14m, a minuscule amount in all political parties financial plans to clean up our countries atmosphere.

 

[gus]

You know if they just dropped the VAT rate from 20% to 15% to match with what the government take for home chargers it would be less discriminatory.

It would only cost £14m, a minuscule amount in all political parties financial plans to clean up our countries atmosphere.

I thought home power was 5% ? Have I lost the plot somewhere - quite likely...

 

[evcog]

I thought home power was 5% ? Have I lost the plot somewhere - quite likely...

You are so right gus. I have amended the post and thanks for pointing it out.