MG4 Range

[Les burrows]

We moved onto the same 12p rate when we had the home charger installed at the beginning of the month; I worked out (hopefully correctly) that the cross over point for Octopus Go being more cost effective was charging the car for 71kw per month - so bit of a no brainer to move tariff. Turns out our washing machine, dryer and dishwasher all have timers (who knew?? ) so they're running overnight now as well.

That’s good about timers on your and appliances and many people do just that that, but a dryer that’s a no go to be left to run unattended while you sleep please don’t do that and that’s the advice given buy the fire service and rightfully so
Les

 

[Morg]

Hi Morg I agree with some of your points Mg4 is a great drive,no one as any disputes with that I don’t think, and yeh you paid your money and have the car it’s not perfect and as it’s problems but it’s a good car in general, I to now have got to the stage of when it needs to be charged I charge it probably less than you as I don’t drive the way you do so very likely get more miles than you out of it and on the whole just enjoy it, i hope that MG via the dealers get the issues with it sorted out than it should be a Great car.

Just one thing you say when the lady say I’m low on battery, what lady is this, has been puzzling me since we had the car.
In my MG5 Mk1 and now Trophy when I get down to 25% around 50 miles left I get a warning bong and the battery symbol turns red and it will warn me again at 25 miles and 10 miles maybe 5% by now.
But in the wife’s MG4 none of that, no battery warning has ever been seen in that car as far as I know and that’s been down to 10% a couple of times, so are we missing something ? and is this something else to go on the dealer fix list.

And if you don’t mind I will throw this question open to the forum for comments
Les

Hi Les, nothing I've set/done, she just chirps up at about 20%. There is a voice greeting you can set in the menu, (mine currently says 'hello sexy, I missed you) which my partner finds hilarious, my 91yr old mother had a different view

 

[Cocijo]

That’s good about timers on your and appliances and many people do just that that, but a dryer that’s a no go to be left to run unattended while you sleep please don’t do that and that’s the advice given buy the fire service and rightfully so
Les

I hear what you are saying. However.. I do have a slight issue with this - especially with the exceptionally high peak electricity prices.
I know that the fire service do report on fires that can be caused by tumble driers in particular and other appliances.
More and more will use the off-peak rates so more appliances will be used at night in particular .
Many appliances are also specifically designed with timers to be used in this way.
My view is that the really important areas are often missed off advice.
Always make sure that all appliances are properly installed. regularly checked and used in accordance with the manufacturer recommendations. Make sure that you have working and approved smoke alarms in the home and that your home wiring and sockets are in good and safe working order.
The ‘don’t use unattended’ that you sometimes see - what does that actually mean? Only use when you are in the home?
How many can actually do that? Don’t use when you are in bed?
The broad brush approach and advice may be designed to help prevent domestic fires and to provide simple guidelines, but it needs a rethink in the current climate of heavy overnight domestic use of appliances by those looking to reduce electricity costs.

 

[Les burrows]

Well I know what you are saying about the costs of these things but there’s no way I would use a dryer over night there as been to many fires and lives lost hence the advice from the fire services I know it’s possible for anything to go wrong and cause a fire but dryers are notorious for it because of the way they work dust and fluff get into the heating elements and it will burn about a year ago friends of ours had a drive belt brake on there’s and when we took the back off to replace it I could not believe the build up of dust and fluff inside the casing very dangerous in my view anyhow sorry to disagree with you but not dryers thank you.
Les

 

[Cocijo]

Well I know what you are saying about the costs of these things but there’s no way I would use a dryer over night there as been to many fires and lives lost hence the advice from the fire services I know it’s possible for anything to go wrong and cause a fire but dryers are notorious for it because of the way they work dust and fluff get into the heating elements and it will burn about a year ago friends of ours had a drive belt brake on there’s and when we took the back off to replace it I could not believe the build up of dust and fluff inside the casing very dangerous in my view anyhow sorry to disagree with you but not dryers thank you.
Les

Good points Les. They can be dangerous appliances under certain circumstances.

 

[TheMacDon]

That’s good about timers on your and appliances and many people do just that that, but a dryer that’s a no go to be left to run unattended while you sleep please don’t do that and that’s the advice given buy the fire service and rightfully so
Les

Bless you, Les, for the kind words. Thankfully the tumble dryer is on it's lonesome in the old brick outhouse.

 

[Les burrows]

Bless you, Les, for the kind words. Thankfully the tumble dryer is on it's lonesome in the old brick outhouse.

May be ok with that then, ours in the shed at bottom of garden around 15 meters from the house but still is not used at night
Les

 

[Torryhun]

Would not have the dryer on at night anyway, it's to bloody noisy

 

[Les burrows]

Cocijo r:e electric cost I’m still on a fix for this yet around 20p PKW got a few months to go don’t have a smart meter did try it once the fitted it but it wouldn’t work in our area something to do with mobile single anyhow that’s buy the buy so each month I read my meters and email them to e-on no problem with that but about 2 months ago I sent my readings in and they email me back asking me to check the readings as they where higher than expected so I checked all fine return the mail to them with a note saying it’s very probably due to the fact we now have 2 EVs being charged I’m almost certain I heard a cheer come out of my ipad
Lol
Les

 

[Cocijo]

Cocijo r:e electric cost I’m still on a fix for this yet around 20p PKW got a few months to go don’t have a smart meter did try it once the fitted it but it wouldn’t work in our area something to do with mobile single anyhow that’s buy the buy so each month I read my meters and email them to e-on no problem with that but about 2 months ago I sent my readings in and they email me back asking me to check the readings as they where higher than expected so I checked all fine return the mail to them with a note saying it’s very probably due to the fact we now have 2 EVs being charged I’m almost certain I heard a cheer come out of my ipad
Lol
Les

Yes Les. You really should look again at an EV tariff if you can. Even it is just to discount that it doesn’t work for you.
The smart meters do use a sim to connect to the servers, but if the signal in your area is poor there are things that they can do to try to improve it.
I would give it another look for when you come off the 20p tariff. The current octopus go is about 12p and 42p. Your capped none-EV rate would be 34p. I think at the moment anyway…

 

[NickHeynes]

I think they will come down somewhere close but probably not to where they were as inflation alone will push them up.

The thing is, at the moment the only EV tarriff i can find is with Octopus. BG and EDF for example are not allowing new subscribers.

At some point better tarriffs will come back.

Also, consider what govt will do once 2030 comes. They wont want a scenario where we are like Cuba, running 50 year old cars.

I suspect one way to ween people over to evs will be petrol and diesel and the road tax on them, increasing year on year. This will change the maths and people will be forced to move over.

British gas have an ev driver tariff that is open to new customers
45 p/kwh std
12 p/kwh off peak
39 p/day standing charge

 

[Buster72]

British gas have an ev driver tariff that is open to new customers
45 p/kwh std
12 p/kwh off peak
39 p /kwh standing charge

And this is available for BG customers to transfer their tariff to. I am thinking about it when we have the smart meter installed and when I get my car delivered.

Cocijo r:e electric cost I’m still on a fix for this yet around 20p PKW got a few months to go don’t have a smart meter did try it once the fitted it but it wouldn’t work in our area something to do with mobile single anyhow that’s buy the buy so each month I read my meters and email them to e-on no problem with that but about 2 months ago I sent my readings in and they email me back asking me to check the readings as they where higher than expected so I checked all fine return the mail to them with a note saying it’s very probably due to the fact we now have 2 EVs being charged I’m almost certain I heard a cheer come out of my ipad
Lol
Les

Regarding smart meters. The early versions were termed SMETS 1 and were inherently unreliable.
The current ones are SMETS 2 and are supposed to be far better. Just for info.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

Octopus intelligent tariff is still amongst the best value of the current available tariffs 6 hrs cheap rate (2330-0530) 10p and the rest at 39p..

Obviously Im aware this (intelligent) is currently only specific to certain manufacturers or the use of an ohme but still a good deal.

 

[stevegus]

if you are doing around 10k miles a year I would be very surprised if the Go tariff didn’t save you money. The maths is straightforward - a member on here even produced a spreadsheet. Worth doing properly.

We are not doing 10k a year on one particular car as we also have two other cars and a motorhome so the mileage gets pretty much shared out. And i work from home.

I did do calculations. It seemed that a lot of other things needed to be done to make the increased day tarrifs worthwhile in our case. The biggest gain wasn’t actually the car charging but the fact we also have a hot tub which can really take power keeping it at temperature during the summer months.

We also have a fair amount of washing in the house and to do a timed load every night almost would be a hassle.

Ive got statistics for the power the house has used for the last 6 years and im pretty sure at current rates the savings for ev charge will be minimal.

The hot tub is the biggest reason to change!

 

[stevegus]

British gas have an ev driver tariff that is open to new customers
45 p/kwh std
12 p/kwh off peak
39 p /kwh standing charge

Hi

Wasn’t available last time i looked.

Entering our current details without adding the extra power for the car gives a figure higher than im paying right now.

And the EV tarrif sans car for the house alone is £100 more than the standard tarrif they offer…..

 

[NickHeynes]

Hi

Wasn’t available last time i looked.

Entering our current details without adding the extra power for the car gives a figure higher than im paying right now.

And the EV tarrif sans car for the house alone is £100 more than the standard tarrif they offer…..

I got it in December so it might be that they've removed it again.

 

[siteguru]

FYI - standing charge is a daily charge, not per kWh.

 

[NickHeynes]

Thanks for pointing out my error!
Edited to correct

 

[nbenn]

Yes definitely worth posting.

Today I was a little shocked at what I lost.

Started with 43% and 127km of range. Drove home 26km in moderate 10deg temp.

Left with 16% and 42km of range.

Lost 60km somewhere.

Went through settings and saw intelligent battery heating is on so I'm going to give this a go. I'm not sure if it's been on since I got it a few days ago. Battery was dropping like a stone while I was driving.

I'm fairly efficient in my driving. Getting about 3.3miles/kwh or 18.6kwh/100km.

Does this setting revert every time you get into car like other settings?

Maybe I need to recalibrate my expectations but this felt excessive.

 

[siteguru]

Intelligent Battery Heating should remain off if you turn it off. (At least until a software update that may affect that module).