EV Thread

[davecG60]

Yep it is certainly a beautiful place ( even when it rains ).
We live just outside Buxton and are surrounded by hills and fabulous walking routes. Bakewell is a bit touristy for us but there’s decent places for food / tarts to get you ready for a walk around Chatsworth.

[Matty]

Had my Pod Point 3S installed today. Took about 2 hours, installed next to the main meter but unfortunately, couldn't fit the new trip/fuse inside the box, so an additional grey box fitted alongside it, along with more cables across the side of the house.

It's about as tidy as he could make it, but it's certainly not increased the curb appeal of the property. Function over form, I guess.

[davecG60]

So now I seem to be spending hours comparing EV home chargers

We are currently with British Gas on their fixed until feb 27 tariff but have started to look elsewhere in preparation for a switch. BG do their own EV tariff which would be the easy switch but now looking at Octopus. Octopus seem really well rated and also roughly the same cost as to what we pay but has anyone used them before?
Octopus also have decent Ev tariffs and 'Electroverse' thingy which offers discounts on public charging ( may be wrong as I've only just read a bit about it ). Octopus intelligent tariff seems to be the one that most charger companies integrate with so should be a good idea for futureproofing as we may well get solar panels fitted in the coming years.

Is there any realworld benefit to having a screen on a home charger when everything is done through an app?

We have a basic short list of Anderson A3 / quartz, Ohme Home Pro and Hypervolt Home 3 Pro so far. Has anybody got either of these fitted and how reliable have they been? We'd be going for tethered cable with at least 5m length.

[Jobbo]

We have both Ohme Home Pro and Andersen Quartz chargers. Both have been solidly reliable, the only glitch being that an R5 doesn’t like the combination of an Ohme and Octopus smart charging but that was fairly easy to solve by turning off smart charging. The car’s fault I believe - we didn’t have the Andersen at the time to see if the same happened with that.

The Andersen looks nicer. We have an 8m tethered cable on the Andersen and 5m on the Ohme; the Ohme cable is thicker and much easier to wrap round its hook one-handed because it returns to shape better. The Andersen cable feels premium but is floppier and doesn’t like being coiled up neatly.

The Ohme has a screen, the Andersen doesn’t. I prefer no screen; you just plug it in, the car shows it’s charging and I don’t like looking out of the window when drawing the curtains and seeing the Ohme screen lit up dimly

[dinny_g]

@Matty We have a work discount on Pod Drive Solo 3S and I'm thinking of taking the plunge but I know very about home charging.

How are you finding it ? What are your Charge Times like ?

I appreciate this is a how long is a piece of string and it depends on what you're charging - how big the battery is etc but I'm just trying to get a feel for it.

Cheers

[Matty]

@Matty We have a work discount on Pod Drive Solo 3S and I'm thinking of taking the plunge but I know very about home charging.

How are you finding it ? What are your Charge Times like ?

I appreciate this is a how long is a piece of string and it depends on what you're charging - how big the battery is etc but I'm just trying to get a feel for it.

Cheers

Unfortunately, it's not been used yet! I've still not got an EV on the drive to see if it even works

[dinny_g]

Me too - I'm still at least 6 months away from the possibility of one but as the offer is here now, I figure I might just go ahead and get the kit in.

It would only be a back up anyway - I would still be able to charge it at work (Solar Farm and Free Charging) but it's to cover that odd day when you make a journey on a Saturday and still want range for Sunday

[Carlos]

I've had a Podpoint Solo 3 for about 4 years with no issues other than a couple of occasions this summer when the thermal cutout prevented a charge when it was very hot. It was only a day or 2 when it was 35+ as it's on the front of house in direct sunlight.

Worked fine then in the evening when it cooled down.

It's just had a new app as well so great that they are supporting it years down the line.

[dinny_g]

Interesting Point - the logical place to locate it (as it's where the car is parked and nearest to the fuse box) it is on the side of the house that gets direct sunlight. I can hit very significant temps in the late afternoon

[Carlos]

It wasn't really an issue as those temps were brief and extreme. We also rarely charge during the day.

It's not something unique to the Podpoint as there's lots of specific canopies available for EV chargers now which I would consider if these extremes became the norm.

[dinny_g]

Yeah you're right.

99 times out of 100, I'd be charging overnight anyway in the 1 time out of 100 I'd be charging at home.

[Jobbo]

Both our chargers are under cover so don't get hit by direct sunlight. So you might find some sort of shade solves the issue.

[DeskJockey]

We still have an issue when charging at the full 32A. Half is fine. Need to run a test with a friend's car to confirm it is the charger and not the Zoe.

If it is the charger, changing the handle/plug is the first step according to Zappi.

[dinny_g]

I thought the Car always determines the charge rate???

[DeskJockey]

It'll take as much as it can get up to the maximum rate. But you can restrict that on the charger as well.