British Gas Shock Increase

[Deleted User]

Dolor said:

Jenni_D said:

born_again said:

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

They may simply be doing top-up charges without really needing to. (It's generally better to run an EV between 80% and 20% charge, then recharge to 80%).

Out-of-interest, where has this piece of advice come from? I am on my third EV and there is no manufacturer-imposed restriction on charging: indeed, charging to 100% is advised for cell balancing purposes. 

You'll probably find that the quoted 0-100% range is actually more like 20%-80% of the true technical cell capacity (although the amount of headroom left can vary substantially based on cost).  That's been common in large battery systems for quite some time, partially for technical charge/discharge profile reasons and partially because customers don't like their useful capacity dropping below 100% from the very first charge.

The end-user doesn't have to apply this headroom again, it's already done by the manufacturer and BMS, but the perception of the need persists from older battery-powered things (and poor media reports) where it was recommended.  It's become one of those self-perpetuating myths.

OP - you're in debt after the cheapest part of the year, that means you're playing catch up in a big way.  No wonder your DD is planned to increase so much.

MWT

Deleted_User said:

Dolor said:

Jenni_D said:

born_again said:

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

They may simply be doing top-up charges without really needing to. (It's generally better to run an EV between 80% and 20% charge, then recharge to 80%).

Out-of-interest, where has this piece of advice come from? I am on my third EV and there is no manufacturer-imposed restriction on charging: indeed, charging to 100% is advised for cell balancing purposes. 

You'll probably find that the quoted 0-100% range is actually more like 20%-80% of the true technical cell capacity (although the amount of headroom left can vary substantially based on cost).  That's been common in large battery systems for quite some time, partially for technical charge/discharge profile reasons and partially because customers don't like their useful capacity dropping below 100% from the very first charge.

Tends to be a lot tighter these days, more like 90 - 95% usable out of the total, so the top and bottom buffers are much smaller.

If it is one of the new LFP chemistry packs that it is important to charge to 100% quite often as the BMS needs the help to spot when the pack is close to empty as the discharge curve tends to drop off a cliff at the bottom end, unlike the older chemistry packs.

For the older packs the important bit is not to charge to 100% and let it sit there, or discharge below 20% or so and not charge up again for a long time.

It is not like it is fatal, if just adds to the degradation a little over time.

Ant555

gandalftheking said:

 I know the landscape and was expecting a rise from 1st Oct, but...

total estimated usage on our fixed to May 2023 tariff 

There seems to be some debt based on previous payment levels but just out of interest, why were you expecting a rise on October 1st if your BG tariff is fixed until next May?

Was it a 1 year fix taken out in 2022 or a 2 year fix taken out in 2021 (ie have you been underpaying on your usage by aprox £75 month for 4 months or underpaying by aprox £19 month for 16 months)

[Deleted User]

MWT said:

Deleted_User said:

Dolor said:

Jenni_D said:

born_again said:

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

They may simply be doing top-up charges without really needing to. (It's generally better to run an EV between 80% and 20% charge, then recharge to 80%).

Out-of-interest, where has this piece of advice come from? I am on my third EV and there is no manufacturer-imposed restriction on charging: indeed, charging to 100% is advised for cell balancing purposes. 

You'll probably find that the quoted 0-100% range is actually more like 20%-80% of the true technical cell capacity (although the amount of headroom left can vary substantially based on cost).  That's been common in large battery systems for quite some time, partially for technical charge/discharge profile reasons and partially because customers don't like their useful capacity dropping below 100% from the very first charge.

Tends to be a lot tighter these days, more like 90 - 95% usable out of the total, so the top and bottom buffers are much smaller.

If it is one of the new LFP chemistry packs that it is important to charge to 100% quite often as the BMS needs the help to spot when the pack is close to empty as the discharge curve tends to drop off a cliff at the bottom end, unlike the older chemistry packs.

For the older packs the important bit is not to charge to 100% and let it sit there, or discharge below 20% or so and not charge up again for a long time.

It is not like it is fatal, if just adds to the degradation a little over time.

Not surprised the buffers are smaller, particularly for consumer devices (if an EV counts as one of those) - my last project was specifying utility scale battery storage systems where the 'guaranteed' capacity after 5 and 10 years was the more important factor than CAPEX so we had a huge buffer.

Coffeekup

gandalftheking said:

Our three-person average use home Gas/Elec DD has gone from £200pm to £550pm. This has to be a mistake surely. We've just come off the back of the summer period too, and while I recently got an electric car, it's charged overnight only 2-3 times a week as we do little mileage. On the BG account page it gives me a total estimated usage on our fixed to May 2023 tariff of £2400 approx. for both services (not £6600 (£550x12)). Thats 4,219.62 kWh for Electric, and 15,603.54 kWh for Gas. There is around £300 of debit at the moment.

I'm calling BG today obviously to query this, but any thoughts welcomed at this stage.

A bit to look at here....

No such thing as average use home unfortunately.

As you say you're £300 in debit before the start of winter (the biggest usage period of the year).

Are you on a fixed tariff currently if so when does it end and what are the prices per unit?
If you are not you are on a SVR which went up in April and will go up again on October 1st.

The 4,200 kwh's for electric and 15,500 are they BG estimates or are they actual usage figures? 
Either way I would double check them and dig through old bills that have reading not estimated readings, photos of meter readings or smart meter data and find out what your actual usage is for the last 12 months.
You also have a few week/months of electric car usage on there which will make you need to account for, and then project that on to next year's usage.

A calculation on October's government cap per unit with you're projected usage of 4,200/15,500 and the £300 debit the monthly DD will be £315 a month to bring you back in credit this time next year.
However how much of that 4200 is charging your car? It's not known at the moment, so that 4,200 electric usage could be 6,000 by this time next year which would be costing you £375 a month (with the 300 debit).