t's approaching electricity renewal time so I'm now looking at EV friendly tariffs like Octopus Go (currently on a fixed rate tariff around 14p/kWh). My problem is I have a dumb charger (6 year old 7kw tethered Rolec Wallpod). From my reading to-date I don't believe I'll get the benefits of timed charging on the likes of Octopus Go without upgrading my charger.
Not so, I have a dumb 32 Amp 7 kw Rolec wall box and it is over five years old now.
On my previous VW PHEV - The delayed charge could be set from the head unit inside of the car.
We have been a few different "Off - Peaks" tariff's over the years from different networks.
Originally, we had a dual rate meter installed by British Gas.
When ordered our ZS EV in July 2019 and collected it in Jan 2020.
While waiting for our car, we discovered that the lack of use of delaying charging, was likely to be a huge issue to ourselves and other owners !.
Then we found that the answer was to installing a Wi-Fi relay inside of the wall box.
This relay could be controlled by a free App from your phone.
Other owners have also found different ways of navigating around this problem.
In the simplest form, a mechanical timer control can be installed along side of your RCBO breaker in your dumb Rolec.
Or using the Wi-Fi relay gives you more control from your phone.
Others have installed a timer unit inside of your consumer unit, this type of unit will be switching the load supply, which tends to make the units a fair bit more expensive.
I am personally using a "SonOff" Wi-Fi relay, but a popular relay is a "Shelly" device.
These will both give you the control you require.
Installing is pretty straight forward as long as you feel confident to take on the work and you adopt a safe isolation process before commencing the work.
If you are in ANYWAY unsure, get a friendly spark to do it for you.
Time to install - about 20 minutes !.
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