EV Charger Installation & Tariff

SuzeQStan

I’ll check it out thanks - our calculations for the charger were based on ICE vs EV ownership and costs to run each.

the choice to get a charger was mainly based on convenience, safety and savings compared to ICE

SuzeQStan

@Exodi - checked it out and not sure we would get a high enough export rate as we shift all
our usage inc charging solar battery/ev/ high leccy use items to cheap nite rate so all solar generation is exported 

looks like. Eon next only gives good export rates to those who have gotten their SA thru them but I might have missed something on first read 

also it was such a pain getting 🐙 to be able to read our smatt meters (they replaced them twice before realising they had recorded wrong mpan/human error) and get the charger working as it should charging from grid and not the solar battery - would be loathe to go thru all that again

Exodi

BarelySentientAI said:

Exodi said:

I would have thought inevitably charging by granny plug would cause more charging cycles, which in turn would degrade the battery 

I'm not sure it would.  The amount of charging is surely based on the mileage of the vehicle?

If anything, faster charging, which allows a vehicle to be driven further and/or more frequently, would promote a higher number of cycles.  Or perhaps you mean that people would plug in more frequently to keep topped up because if their battery drained it would take too long to fill?  So not charging 'cycles' but rather charging 'events' (which mean something a little different to battery designers).

Generally with batteries, charging rapidly at either end of the state of charge and/or at 'extremes' of temperature are the most damaging for the battery - although that's what the battery management system on the vehicle should be dealing with anyway.

Sorry I don't understand the logic behind a faster charger means you drive the car further/more frequently?

The amount of charging is based on the mileage of the car yes, but also the ability to charge it.

If I'm doing 60 miles per day, I would either have to use a granny charger every day, or a dedicated charger every 3 days.

I would assume that charging it and discharging it every day would degrade the battery more than charging the battery every 3 days, but I'm certainly no expert.

Yes, I am referring to the need to charge the car more frequently - charging events as you put it, sorry if this has caused confusion, I thought this was the same as a charging cycle but it appears not?

BarelySentientAI

Exodi said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Exodi said:

I would have thought inevitably charging by granny plug would cause more charging cycles, which in turn would degrade the battery 

I'm not sure it would.  The amount of charging is surely based on the mileage of the vehicle?

If anything, faster charging, which allows a vehicle to be driven further and/or more frequently, would promote a higher number of cycles.  Or perhaps you mean that people would plug in more frequently to keep topped up because if their battery drained it would take too long to fill?  So not charging 'cycles' but rather charging 'events' (which mean something a little different to battery designers).

Generally with batteries, charging rapidly at either end of the state of charge and/or at 'extremes' of temperature are the most damaging for the battery - although that's what the battery management system on the vehicle should be dealing with anyway.

Sorry I don't understand the logic behind a faster charger means you drive the car further/more frequently?

The amount of charging is based on the mileage of the car yes, but also the ability to charge it.

If I'm doing 60 miles per day, I would either have to use a granny charger every day, or a dedicated charger every 3 days.

I would assume that charging it and discharging it every day would degrade the battery more than charging the battery every 3 days, but I'm certainly no expert.

Yes, I am referring to the need to charge the car more frequently - charging events as you put it, sorry if this has caused confusion, I thought this was the same as a charging cycle but it appears not?

Charging from 60% to 80% three times degrades the battery less than charging from 20% to 80% once.  Usually.

Often mitigated within the BMS in any case.

Exodi

BarelySentientAI said:

Exodi said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Exodi said:

I would have thought inevitably charging by granny plug would cause more charging cycles, which in turn would degrade the battery 

I'm not sure it would.  The amount of charging is surely based on the mileage of the vehicle?

If anything, faster charging, which allows a vehicle to be driven further and/or more frequently, would promote a higher number of cycles.  Or perhaps you mean that people would plug in more frequently to keep topped up because if their battery drained it would take too long to fill?  So not charging 'cycles' but rather charging 'events' (which mean something a little different to battery designers).

Generally with batteries, charging rapidly at either end of the state of charge and/or at 'extremes' of temperature are the most damaging for the battery - although that's what the battery management system on the vehicle should be dealing with anyway.

Sorry I don't understand the logic behind a faster charger means you drive the car further/more frequently?

The amount of charging is based on the mileage of the car yes, but also the ability to charge it.

If I'm doing 60 miles per day, I would either have to use a granny charger every day, or a dedicated charger every 3 days.

I would assume that charging it and discharging it every day would degrade the battery more than charging the battery every 3 days, but I'm certainly no expert.

Yes, I am referring to the need to charge the car more frequently - charging events as you put it, sorry if this has caused confusion, I thought this was the same as a charging cycle but it appears not?

Charging from 60% to 80% three times degrades the battery less than charging from 20% to 80% once.  Usually.

Often mitigated within the BMS in any case.

That's what I like about this forum, you learn something new everyday.

Thanks.

Gerry1

Exodi said:

I don't have a plug on the front of the house

Not many people do, killing anyone who bumped into the live prong could be a wee bit problematic ! ⚡

Reed_Richards

SuzeQStan said:

because of the charger we have been able to make use of 🐙 intelligent go which gets us 6 hours of 7.5p per kWh per night. Without charger we would only get 4hrs of charging at 8.5 per kWh.

I myself use the cheaper Eon NextDrive tariff, 7 hour at 6.9p per kWh.  Is that 4 hours at 8.5p per kWh the Octopus Go tariff (i.e. not intelligent)?  I didn't realise it was that bad.

SuzeQStan said:

we have a friend who doesn’t go anywhere at the weekend in his EV as he has to spend the whole weekend charging his EV on the granny charger. And he’s worried he won’t have enough to drive to work if he doesn’t. That just doesn’t seem right to me.

we like to have weekends away and travel - if we only had the granny charger we would have to charge at expensive fast charging points which further erode the savings you have identified.

 

Your friend must be running down their charge during the week faster than they can replenish it.  I can add about 60 miles of range overnight so would only find myself in that situation if I drove over 60 miles each weekday - which I never do.  Likewise you won't be able to get away for the weekend if your car isn't fully charged before you leave.  That would only happen to me if I had driven over 60 miles the previous day and even then it's only a problem if my weekend drive was a long way, i.e. beyond the remaining range of my car.

Exodi said:

I installed a dedicated charger - I think at the time I was in cloud nine at the fact I was saving £200 a month in my pay packet having an EV. 

This state of mind seems to be the norm but since this forum is about saving money I feel I should keep pointing out that not every EV owner, perhaps not even most of them, need a dedicated charger.