Home charging point

[MGCamb]

Going to install a home charger and requested some quotes.
Any recommendations for ease of use particularly with a 4 and support.
Any point in buying anything smarter than what the App and car offer?

 

[Grriff]

I bought a Hypervolt and it has been good and was easy to fit. However, if you want to use Octopus Intelligent tariffs you will need an Omnipro.
Check out other threads on this topic

 

[MGCamb]

I am with EDF.
First thread I found said - check out the other threads - many dating back some time
Avoid BP appears to be the only advice.

 

[Jomarkh]

Going to install a home charger and requested some quotes.
Any recommendations for ease of use particularly with a 4 and support.
Any point in buying anything smarter than what the App and car offer?

If you have or are thinking of getting solar and/or a house battery check out the Zappi. It's not the cheapest and some people don't like the look of them but they do a good job. The don't currently work with Intelligent Octopus but they say its coming but it does work with Go as a cheap night tariff.
What sort of milage do you do!

 

[MGCamb]

If you have or are thinking of getting solar and/or a house battery check out the Zappi. It's not the cheapest and some people don't like the look of them but they do a good job. The don't currently work with Intelligent Octopus but they say its coming but it does work with Go as a cheap night tariff.
What sort of milage do you do!

No plans for house solar as house is at awkward angle.
Mileage is probably around 8ishK but got son at home who does about 40 miles a day if I am not here and we are away on holiday for 3 months of the year in our motorhome.
Happy with EDF - just want to charge to 80% in 5 hours without plugging in every night

 

[Tig170]

By pure luck, I got an ohme Pro installed for £600, next day (via zenith lease, but the car deal fell through). Although I only use it currently in base overnight charging mode (via EDF), it does look like its the gold standard with regards to time of day charging (I think i'll go with octopus intelligent when my current deal runs out next year) - so if you are choosing I'd go with this! - also the installer told me that they are at times short of work, so you might be better to fill in your details and see what happens with regards to special offers.

No plans for house solar as house is at awkward angle.
Mileage is probably around 8ishK but got son at home who does about 40 miles a day if I am not here and we are away on holiday for 3 months of the year in our motorhome.
Happy with EDF - just want to charge to 80% in 5 hours without plugging in every night

We're the same, but got in a small (7.5Kw) battery storage, just to cover the base load through the day on the house (we have oil for main heating). Overall 12 months later, we're still £200 in credit due to the £66/month rebate from Rushi (+ extra oil rebate of £200?) - crazy times!

 

[Koomi]

We have just got an Ohme Pro installed (£999) to work with intelligent octopus... but put in any tariff and it will try to make sure the charging happens when your cheap energy is.
Happy so far, and there is a big tick box to say don't charge above my "cheap rate"
Zappi is the one to go for if working with Solar or Battries as it knows to balance the load and not draw from the battery if it dosn't need to.

 

[Themist0]

I’ve got the ohme pro too with intelligent octopus, never had a problem. Once you plug the car in, octopus will charge it either at 11:30 to 5:30 or when they have low demand all for 7.5p. Install was just a few quid over a grand

 

[mg4mc]

Happy so far, and there is a big tick box to say don't charge above my "cheap rate"

But don't tick it if you are on IO.

 

[siteguru]

I'm with EDF (but not on an EV tariff) and I have a Wallbox Pulsar Plus. Mine was acquired via Bumblebee EV (who I think are now owned by Arnold Clark, but they weren't when I used them). The wallbox has worked flawlessly.

 

[Tigger]

I installed a PodPoint last November for about £900 - no idea what it is now. It does what I want of it reliably, and for people who don't trust the MG4 overnight scheduling, the PodPoint app will do it for you. The colours of the lights displayed on the unit are usefu;l, and not intrusive - for example flashing green while waiting to charge, solid green while charging. It also makes an attempt at telling you how much each charge costs - but you have to tell it what yoiur current rates are.

Only issues I am aware of are, first, the PodPoint app uses Wifi access, and may not work if the unit is too far from the router (it charges fine - you just can't schedule it with the app). And second, as far as I know, it is not compatible with Intelligent Octopus.

 

[Tig170]

We're the same, but got in a small (7.5Kw) battery storage, just to cover the base load through the day on the house (we have oil for main heating). Overall 12 months later, we're still £200 in credit due to the £66/month rebate from Rushi (+ extra oil rebate of £200?) - crazy times!

.... EDIT: apologies for replying to my own post - I should point out that it took 6 months to get the smart meter up and running (5-6 'engineers' were needed to get it through the DNO system! - fair play to EDF who I ended up on 1st name terms with! :- its still not 100% perfect via EDF - so do still give them the readings once in a while, however I've also got the bright app, which works 100% of the time and is about 6 hrs behind (as most) in updating my usage )

 

[Enjoying my MG4]

Going to install a home charger and requested some quotes.
Any recommendations for ease of use particularly with a 4 and support.
Any point in buying anything smarter than what the App and car offer?

We are with Octopus Go which gives us 9p pkw hour from midnight (12.30) to 4.30 in the morning. We are waiting to go onto Octopus Inelegance EV tariff as soon as we can, that gives cheaper electricity and for two more hours (Aug23 info). I see others are able to use Octopus intelligence which Octopus are not able to offer in our area (Hence Octopus Go at the moment!)

We purchased a MyEnergy / Zappi solution for £670 and had a electrician / friend install it. Note - This solution can use what is known as a CT clamp that can be (not required) clamped to your mains supply (Simply clip / clamp around the mains supply), that uses technology to review what's being used in the home to ensure the fuse does not blow / trip. For example, electric shower, kettle and cooker are on and are using "x" power, so EV (Zappi) will know how much power is being used in the home and reduce how much to send to the car to ensure the fuse does not trip / blow.

It's a nice bit of kit. We continue to play around with trying to schedule it to only come on at the times we are at the cheapest tariff. This is not very straight forward.

Zappi technology also interact with your electricity grid and solar panel solution (Optional and if applicable). You have a fast charge (Charge regardless), ECO and ECHO+, that can work with other solutions (or independently) such as a home installed solar solution.

Note with our MG4 EV - We have noticed (perhaps a software glitch) that when we set our EV to only accept a charge at a certain time, this function is not working with our MG4 EV. This may be a software problem we will review later. we are still playing around with My Energy / Zappies "only charge at these times" options. Zappie comes with a (5 meter attached to unit) cable and without (Without = use your own) EV cable. we purchased the one with cable (attached).

We remain happy to date with our Zappi / Myenergy solution.

I would say allocate anything between £800 to 1k for the kit and install. However, if CT Clamp Kit available (as described above), you may want to discuss this part of the install separately and or include it in the quote. If your garage is / kit far away, a cable needs to be run from the kit to your mains home power (Clamp to go over mains power, where the fuse box is, so that the kit can monitor what your home is currently using to decide how much power to give to your EV at that time).

 

[Tig170]

Note with our MG4 EV - We have noticed (perhaps a software glitch) that when we set our EV to only accept a charge at a certain time, this function is not working with our MG4 EV. This may be a software problem we will review later. we are still playing around with My Energy / Zappies "only charge at these times" options. Zappie comes with a (5 meter attached to unit) cable and without (Without = use your own) EV cable. we purchased the one with cable (attached).

We remain happy to date with our Zappi / Myenergy solution.

... perfect, we have never used the MG4 system to charge, but the important take home message is here is that most of use have found a "seamless" ???, system that just works for our own needs. Thanks again. (I wish I could have got a 10m cable though - which would neglate the need to charge under a tree!)

 

[Ian Key]

(I wish I could have got a 10m cable though - which would negate the need to charge under a tree!)

You can. EV Cables can supply a 10m replacement tethered cable, or even longer if you want, in various colours.

Type 2 Tethered EV Charging Cable

Designed for your home EVSE tethered charge point. ONLY TO BE INSTALLED BY A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIANThis Type 2 tethered cable is suitable for use with all major brands of home chargers that have a tethered cable. Use this cable to:- Increase the length of the tethered cable from the charger to...

evcables.com

 

[AB71]

I bought a Hypervolt and it has been good and was easy to fit. However, if you want to use Octopus Intelligent tariffs you will need an Omnipro.
Check out other threads on this topic

OhmePro

 

[squirrelz]

We have an Ohme Pro and it just works fine with Intelligent Octopus.
The CT clamp isn't reading anything though, and the electrician is coming back today to fit a replacement one (had to come from Ohme as a warranty thing).

 

[gus]

I am on EDF, with the cheap 5 hours overnight and I use a SyncEV wallbox, cheap as chips (have you noticed the price of chips recently ), I use the SyncEV app twice a year to change the cheap rate times as EDF's changes with BST/GMT times and don't touch the settings on the car and if I notice it needs charging when I park up I plug in the charge cable and it charges at the cheap time.

 

[MGCamb]

Deed done, Pod Point are recommended by MG, EDF and number one on a Which list. THey are coming tomorrow

 

[ukslim]

Ohme Home Pro here too. I think it's nice and neat, it's physically robust and the software seems reliable.

£999 install through Octopus - I could have got it cheaper probably, but since I intended to get Intelligent Octopus, I thought it would smooth the support.

There have been some very slight teething problems with Intelligent Octopus (when it split the charge schedule into two blocks some time apart, the car went to sleep and refused the second block), but this gave Ohme the opportunity to show how good their support is - top marks.

The stats the app gives you are pretty nice - e.g. CO2 savings compared to an ICE car - but could go further.

It's a awful shame that Ohme can't use the MG API. We therefore miss out on features -- the charger can't make smart decisions based on the current SOC. I really hope they get this sorted. It's hugely annoying that the whole industry is a mish-mash of competing, often proprietary, API standards. See also Plug & Charge for public charging.

My other gripe, as with MG iSmart, is password sharing. If you want two people to control the charger with the phone app, they have to share a username and password. If you start off by authenticating using a Google/Apple/Facebook account, you have to wipe that account and start again with email/password authentication, so you can share. This is pretty pathetic in 2023.

(Come to think of it, this would be a real problem if I wanted to do something like Co-Charger, and I wanted to lock the charger... Do PodPoint home chargers have a solution for this?)