Free domestic EV charging points

tunnel

Had a flyer through my door from a company called solartex uk ltd offering for a limited time, in association with the government/OLEV grant funding for a free electric vehicle charging point, here's the best bit, whether or not you have an electric vehicle or not


Install would include:-


Rolec wallpod EV homecharge unit
GPRS modem data package
Full installation inc materials
Test & certification


Anyone heard about this?
Or more to the point, anyone want one?


Be ok if I had an electric car and worked from home to make most of the free leccy I produce but I don't....but.....and I say but....it may be worth looking at.....for free.

Kernel_Sanders

Yes tunnel, there was a large ad in our weekly paper yesterday from a company who even suggested installing it in case future occupants needed one;
I thought it might be a ploy to get a salesman in to try and sell you an EV! They state it's worth £1500 which seems steep for a glorified outdoor 13A socket !

legoman62

I've seen several Ads for these
Put a link on here some months ago:D

Here's one
http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/free_homecharge_offer/

(Terms and conditions apply)

mac2008

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I had one of these fitted by Chargemaster recently and thought some here might be interested in it.

I don't currently have an EV, but toying with the idea of getting one when I change my car later this year, and with the Solar PV I thought it'd be a useful bit of future-proofing.

Chargemaster took a few weeks to get back to me from application, but the electrician who turned up (on a Sunday!) was friendly and did a very tidy job. No sell of any type at all - he was just a sparky subbed out to do the job. They will only surface mount cables (in trunking obviously) for free, but as my consumer unit is in a converted integral garage at the front of the house, this didn't really matter. Took a couple of hours in total.

I suspect there will be a lot more EVs on the market in the coming years so I felt it made sense to grab this whilst free, especially if you've got PV.

jimmyboy420

mac2008. Any idea how much it is likely to cost in terms of running costs of the charging point? Ie, does it have a small draw when not being used?

Thanks,

James

mac2008

jimmyboy420 wrote: »

mac2008. Any idea how much it is likely to cost in terms of running costs of the charging point? Ie, does it have a small draw when not being used?

Thanks,

James

I'm sure it does, but I have a Wattson which did not register any significant difference in overnight base load with it installed, so I'm guessing the draw is minimal. I'll take a look at the manual this evening.

It does have a GPRS modem in it and a standby light that is constantly on. The electrician advised I could turn it off at the MCB if I wasn't using it - no obligation to leave it powered.

I have to say, I imagine the majority of these are not going to be sending much data back to OLEV! I did debate the ethics of the scheme given there is no requirement to actually own an EV. My fear was the government would be shelling out £1200 per install and companies like Chargemaster would be raking it in. A bit of a middle class subsidy if ever I've seen one I guess, but hey, I like gadgets.

[Deleted User]

Just applied for this. Cheers for the heads up!


Not got an EV yet but looking seriously into an eUp as my citicar is just economical enough

Buzby

This has been stopped for abuse - they've been appearing on eBay. Not all EV's have the same connector either, so you'll be asked to confirm your EV and mag have to provide a copy of your V5C.

zeupater

Hi

Are these units fast charge, slow charge or switchable between the two ???

To charge EVs from grid tied pv you really need to control the charge rate to reasonably match the array output to the charge rate of the car so that you're not importing the majority of the energy going to the batteries (as would be the case in a fast charger). If it's a 30A fast charge, the load could be ~7kW .... then again, if you don't currently have an EV, what vehicle will you be getting and therefore what type of connector do you need to have installed ? - J1772 or Type2 ?, can the vehicle fast charge ?, do you need fast charge ?, is the free offering for fast charge, or is it an additional cost ? (£100 now ? -or- £1000 later ?), is there a cancellation clause charge (house move etc) .... all questions which need to be considered & addressed ...

There's another issue to also be considered - where & how is the unit connected ? .... I suspect that some will be a separately smart-metered standalone module which is connected behind the 100A house fuse in parallel to the domestic meter and separately billed by another supplier, so PV would make no difference at all - you'd just be metering the re-import of your own export and paying the charge-point owner for the privilege .... of course, many (/most) would be connected to the domestic metered supply, but like everything else that's offered for 'free', it's worth doing a little research into what it's actually going to cost ....

Running entirely in EV mode for local runs or getting close to 100mpg in ECO mode is brilliant, but we still find it really hard to find charging points -and- ones which actually work, so tend to not even bother looking anymore as life's just to short! ..... a car park in a local town had 3 until recently, but for some reason they've been decommissioned, covered, and converted to 'mother & toddler' reserved spaces ... okay for MrsZ as there's plenty of liquid carbon in reserve to get home, but that's not exactly the case for all !!

HTH
Z

mac2008

Mine is a 3kW unit, but they will fit a 7kW for £95. It is wired directly into the consumer unit via an RCBO so usage is metered in the same way as any household usage.


The T&Cs are pretty lightweight. It does not appear to matter if I move house. I can't use it to charge anything other an EV though (not sure why I would anyway).

mac2008

Buzby wrote: »

This has been stopped for abuse - they've been appearing on eBay. Not all EV's have the same connector either, so you'll be asked to confirm your EV and mag have to provide a copy of your V5C.

Thanks. You will indeed have to provide evidence of EV ownership from 1st Sept. apparently. No mention of abuse being the reason for the change (though I'm sure it happened!) - OLEV claim funds exhausted:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/323459/domestic-recharging-grant-guidance.pdf