Evening,

Looking at installing a home charging point for my car. Prices seemed to have more than doubled for a charging point since last looked last year. Seems to be around 900-1000 at the mo:(

Does anyone know if there are any deals or incentives out there at the mo?

Dunno about prices but get an Ohme one. It’s the only one that works with Intelligent Octopus and any car. 10p/kWh for your driving.

Wow, the ohme is now £900 installed, I’m sure only about 2 years ago it was about £450, 4 years ago you could get a Rolec untethered installed for £149. I’m assuming the gov. grant must have been axed?. I think if I was doing it now on the cheap, I’d buy on ebay and get my electrician to install it.
On ebay there’s some new old stock Rolec, preowned chargemaster / Rolec / podpoint, all probably will be pre smart features so will most likely just be a dumb charger, no app or smart tariff support, but it’ll charge your car and you might be able to set start and finish charge times in your car. Obviously, you need to know what you’re buying.

I have an old Rolec dumb untethered charger and use an Ohme cable (to make it a smart charger).

It was £700 when we got one 18 months ago, but there was still a grant back then.

If you’re quibbling over a few hundred pounds for a charger installation perhaps you can’t afford the car…

Tightwad

I had an Easee One installed a few weeks ago (free from work) but the guy installing it said it was now £950 if paying. Seems about right (though still pricey!)

Bear in mind that if you do enough miles being able to be on Intelligent Octopus could pay for the extra cost of a compatible smart charger quite quickly. It’s currently 10p/kWh, and you can use it for running your dishwasher, washing machine, water heater etc too if you want.

However, if you’ve got a Tesla, Ford, Land Rover, Jaguar or VW (excluding ID models) then you don’t need the Ohme charger.

I’m assuming the gov. grant must have been axed?

It has indeed been, last spring.

I’d buy on ebay and get my electrician to install it

I’d prefer to have it installed by somebody who’s familiar with the regulations and dealing with the DNO. They need to confirm that the supply to your house is adequate (also, if the cable supplies several properties it may not be) – when I had mine installed, the DNO were too busy to check, but allowed the installer to go ahead if they were happy, on the basis that they knew the installer and they’d check later to confirm. Otherwise I’d have waited 2 months. The DNO did check, and all was fine, but if it hadn’t been the comeback would have been on the installer, not me.

Here’s a suggestion that might be a bit cheaper. Get an electrician to install a commando socket in an appropriate place, buy an Ohme Go portable cable with commando socket @ £449 (on offer @ £400 but might just be for Octopus energy customers, if you’re not an Octopus customer you’ll almost certainly know someone who is).
octopus ohme cable

Hmm, I can’t see the difference between the normal and portable one, other than the fact one includes installation.

It’s identical. It’s the same as I have, except mine is type2 to type2 rather than commando to type2 (and mine cost £199 in Jan 2020). It also has screw eyelets so you could attach it to a wall like an installed charger if you wanted

I just got one free, sorry!

The downside is I have to have my employers sign written van on my drive for the foreseeable future and keep an eye on the credits to my energy bill.

At least I get a prettier van out of it to replace the one that’s 8 years old, and I am looking forwards to watching it defrost/heat/cool itself from my kitchen whilst I spend an extra 10 minutes with my coffee 🤣. Our vans are normally base spec (well this one is too actually)

I’ve just done the numbers on the Bulb EV and Intelligent Octopus rates for our use (14,000 miles across 2 cars and 6000 domestic kW per year)
These numbers don’t include running other stuff on the night time tarrif, but I guess we could look at up to 25% of the domestic use running in the night.

Standard EV SC Car Domestic SC Total
EV Rate 37.87 11.50 51.16 £596 £2,272 186.734 £3,055
Standard Rate 33.07 33.07 51.16 £1,715 £1,984 186.734 £3,885
Oct Intelligent 40.00 10.00 49.52 £519 £2,400 180.748 £3,099

So around £830 savings on the Bulb EV vs standard rates which is a bit cheaper than the Intelligent Octopus number. Of course rates vary by region.
We lose the free charging in Perthshire in January, so it will be time to shift tariffs then.

Bulb EV here also works out slightly cheaper for me.

Slight hijack but I am having PV and a home battery fitted soon (I know there is another thread for this Solar) and although I dont have an EV at the moment I will ask the spark to put the cable in, given they will add another board for the PV and battery, and loop the cable up. I had planned to add a Zappi later but I have been looking at the Autel Maxicharger and thinking of adding it to one (or all) of the apps/maps that allow people who may be in the area or dont have home charging to book them. Anyone have any experience of this?

😳 things have changed in 2 years. Mine cost me £100 for an untethered EO Smart.

Depending on mileage you could get by on just the granny but likely won’t get enough charge off peak if you’re changing to an EV tariff.

I’ve just done a very quick check of mine and doing 1000 miles a month and putting 425kWh into the car it costs about £32 off peak vs £148 if I charged on peak. So it would pay for itself pretty quickly (ideal conditions, always charging off peak etc which we don’t quite manage).

Lots of stuff to consider, thanks for the ideas. I will do some more research….

Because I am a tightwad @unfitgeezer.

@b.a.nana

That is my current set up but with a 3 pin plug in the garage.

I am always though the transformer(or what ever that box on the lead is) isn’t waterproof so have that bit inside.

Just looked at the commando lead I have, yeah getting a socket fitted for that would do the job.

I alway charge it over night so don’t need a fast charge at the mo.

Thanks for the advice:)

I’d prefer to have it installed by somebody who’s familiar with the regulations and dealing with the DNO

Can’t see why the DNO need any involvement for a basic 7.5kW charger, less power draw than a shower. If they do it will crush a lot of home chargers. We do have a crisis coming as the current infrastructure will not locally support lots of people charging for extended periods and it’s likely to be localised. For example my estate of 100 houses all have drives and there are already a number of people with EVs. We will be earlier adopters of the technology. The rows of terraces down the road not so much.

It’s not rocket science to install a charger, simple 32 amp MCB in the consumer unit and some 6mm cable.

Any reason for me not to buy a Podpoint 7kw for £899? Is an Ohme better? I understand they are all smart these days. This is a model without a cable tethered which supplying car dealer has recommended? Is this correct or is it better to get one with a cable attached?

(We appear to have spontaneously bought an electric Mini this afternoon hence asking)

OP have you made a decision?

Tethered vs untethered is really down to your preference.

I went for untethered, mainly because I like being able to unplug the cable and be left with just a small neat black box on the wall although I usually just leave the cable plugged in all the time hanging off a hook fitted above the socket.

If I know I’m likely to charge away from home (which until recently was quite rare) I just chuck the cable in the boot and take it with me.

Is an Ohme better?

It’s the only one that works with Intelligent Octopus to get your 10p rate. I don’t know if there are other such tariffs from other providers that are as cheap.

It’s not rocket science to install a charger, simple 32 amp MCB in the consumer unit and some 6mm cable.

DNO is tracking the overall load on their network so want to know if a car charger is being used. It’s literally just a notification. Northern Powergrid did visit to upgrade my fuse from 60A to 80A though. Didn’t care (or notice?) that I was at the end of a looped supply either.

Can’t see why the DNO need any involvement for a basic 7.5kW charger, less power draw than a shower.

This is why you need to get someone qualified to install a charge point (or a commando socket used specifically for charging an EV).

You may not be able to see the need, but legally installation of an EVSE requires notification to the relevant DNO. You will either need to apply before connection, or notify afterwards, depending on characteristics of the installation. Flowchart here that describes it…

https://www.energynetworks.org/assets/images/Resource%20library/LCT_Combined%20EV%20&%20HP%20Process%20v5.5.pdf

Installation and then notification of mine to Western Power resulted in WP giving me a completely free upgrade to 3-phase (albeit with only one phase connected for the moment) because the install notification triggered the discovery that I had a looped supply. That looped supply was in no way apparent in the building.