Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

10kwh our typical daily usage for 40 miles costs £1 if we pay for the leccy or £0 if we plug in between 11 and 5 when the solar panels are generating so I spend a lot of time trying to make sure dw does plug in in the day to save those few pennies.....

It might be "free fuel"... but aren't those sort of cars etc expensive? And the cost of a socket.

It's like those eco houses they build on Grand Designs "Spent £100k on a high tech system so they don't have gas/electric bills". You could buy a LOT of electricity/gas with their "investment"

michaels

Almost all come with a free charge socket as there is a govt grant, we just use a standard plug socket in the garage.

Cost of car brand was 12.3k which we are paying interest free over 6 years, car is about focus/golf size. There is no road tax or congestion charge. Servicing at dealer is 120pa and there are very few parts to go wrong once the 3 year warranty (6 years on motor and battery) run out. Even brakes last much longer because regen braking means discs and pads don't get worn.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

So it works for some.

If you'd not had a garage/socket, there'd have been a cost to dig a trench and get a post with a socket fitted to, say, a parking spot.

Here I'd have to dig up the garden, go under the fence, then under 20' of tarmac and the length of the parking spot (15'?) to get to a point where a socket could be fitted.

Although I could "skimp" and park my car outside of my marked bay, but still on my freehold ... and stick a socket as part of the gatepost.

Maybe I can get a "fake" socket stuck to my car .... and run a "fake" lead trailing across the tarmac ... because that'd be in the way of skaters
Just because I can.
Some nice "Warning! Electricity" signs....

I have no idea how long a run from the consumer unit to the charging socket is covered by the govt grant. Google might?

silvercar

Friends got a deal (from British Gas I think, though why British Gas would be supplying electric charging points??) whereby they had a free fast charging point for their car installed in return for allowing a SIM card in it to monitor its usage. Joke is that the charging point is at a barn they have as a second home, well off the beaten track and behind a locked gate.

They have a Nissan Leaf and it displays nearest charging points, including residential ones where the "all in this together" mentality is meant to encourage allowing stranger use of your charging point.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

I have no idea how long a run from the consumer unit to the charging socket is covered by the govt grant. Google might?

First result I chose indicated "may get" ... 75% of costs covered, capped at £500. Although, unless I read further I don't know if the grant is capped at £500, or the payment by the individual is capped. I'd imagine the grant is capped.

I've not got solar panels either, so no "free electricity" for me.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

...to encourage allowing stranger use of your charging point.

Nobody could use mine, in reality. Except me ... and anybody I liked, who had asked...

vivatifosi

Just saw an A&E doc on tv with some practical advice...

If you need to go to hospital or docs while system down, take your hard copy medical info with you. Diagnosis notes, NHS number, prescription details, etc all v useful.

I thought this worth mentioning as I know my local trust affected and that others here also use affected trusts.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Just saw an A&E doc on tv with some practical advice...

If you need to go to hospital or docs while system down, take your hard copy medical info with you. Diagnosis notes, NHS number, prescription details, etc all v useful.

I thought this worth mentioning as I know my local trust affected and that others here also use affected trusts.

My area's unaffected; many areas are. It seems to mostly be London area and top left north cities.

So if it's A&E another piece of advice might be to find out which hospitals are covered, so you might be able to choose to drive in a different direction to one not so affected/no affected.

I checked if mine were affected as I was going to get my passport and ID and get the bus up there to offer myself as a volunteer to do whatever job they needed anybody to do ... whether that were sticking up notices, answering phones, or whatever... but they weren't on the list.

Even "a random stranger" able to pop out to the local shops to collect sandwiches/drinks for staff as they couldn't get out would be helpful....

vivatifosi

That's a really nice gesture PN.

Round here it's all the hospitals, though we could leave Herts and go to the L&D. So my nearest hospital, second nearest, third nearest and fifth nearest hit. Luton and Dunstable is fourth closest.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

First result I chose indicated "may get" ... 75% of costs covered, capped at £500. Although, unless I read further I don't know if the grant is capped at £500, or the payment by the individual is capped. I'd imagine the grant is capped.

I've not got solar panels either, so no "free electricity" for me.

I think you have to buy an electric car to get the grant at which point the manufacturer ponies up the other 25% to make it free.

Ours never happened because when they came to install it they decided we needed our main fuse upgraded. The local power network operator did this for free but by the time they had the company contracted to fit them had pulled out of doing installations so it never happened. However it only reduces charge time by about 25% on our model so we just plug in to a normal socket.