EV Home Charging Options - BP Pulse Charger no longer supported

IOWJJBTM2025

I am looking at replacing my old EV Home charger unit. I currently have a BP Pulse Charger unit with a tethered plug (Type 2) that fits directly into my MG4 EV.

It was professionally fitted six years ago and has its own dedicated fused 32A supply by the main fuse box in the house where a very thick cable runs to the outside, and feeds directly into the BP Pulse charge unit which is mounted on the wall outside.

We have had a couple of issues over the years and BP Pulse were able to remotely access to tell us to reboot locally so that the software could be updated to make it work again.

In December last year I got an email from BP Pulse saying that they were no longer supporting the charger. Since December I have not been able to connect to the charger via the BP Pulse Website or download the usage data.

We currently use the charger for 4 hours every 3 weeks. We do not have a time of use tariff so just plug the car in when it needs charging.

Every now and then the charger does not work and it just needs to be re-booted to get it working again. There is a button underneath that you hold for 10 seconds so you do not need to remotely access.

The charger still works ok but a few weeks ago I did an exercise to find out what background power the house is using. I discovered that even when nothing is plugged into the charger it is constantly taking 5W of energy. I know this is not a lot but over a year it adds 43.8 KwH to my bill which is £10.

I now switch it off for 3 weeks and then have to wait a few minutes for it to boot up before I can start charging.

When I go to the work office they have free charging. They have what looks like simple sockets on the wall on the outside of the building and I get my own charging lead and just plug it in and then turn on the isolator built into the socket unit. No apps or displays consuming power - just plug in and charge.

I was looking to replace the BP Pulse charger at home with a new one but have no real need to be able to have Apps on my phone or link to special time of use electric suppliers.

It got me thinking - Instead of spending £800 on getting an electrician to fit a unit that has lots of functionality that I do not need, could I just have a simple Type 2 socket fitted and use my own lead that was supplied with my car to plug in? Obviously It would need to be fitted by a qualified electrician.

Or are there recommended chargers that work well and do not consume power when not charging.

DrEskimo

I had an EO Mini installed at my parents many years ago as just a simple solution to charge if I needed (was living in a terraced house with no ability to charge at my own home at the time), so thats one option.

But - even a used unit will be >£100, and that's before any install cost (also not sure what the regs are for installing a non-smart charger now). Going to take a long time to recoup the cost back from the background 5W your current charger is using….feels like it would all be a false economy exercise.

facade

It got me thinking - Instead of spending £800 on getting an electrician to fit a unit that has lots of functionality that I do not need, could I just have a simple Type 2 socket fitted and use my own lead that was supplied with my car to plug in? Obviously It would need to be fitted by a qualified electrician.

You can't just wire up a type 2 socket to the mains, because the type 2 socket has a relay to power it on only when there is a car connected, so the cable is "dead" until it is plugged in properly. It also has to output a signal on the two pins at the top (BTW, if you try to use two type 2 leads connected together as an extension it won't charge because it doesn't pass the signal through due to the design of the plug) to tell the car to charge at 32A or whatever, you want a basic charger.

You could get a 32A commando socket fitted, and then plug in one of the cheap "chargers" that can select 10A, 16a, 20a, 32a etc. (EVDance do such) only when you want to charge, which would obviously consume zero power when it wasn't plugged in, but as DrEskimo says, it will take a generation to save the cost at £10 a year!

The Moneysaving solution is to just keep your existing one switched off and flick it on only when you want to charge 😉

Grumpy_chap

I fail to understand why the OP wants to change the current charger.

It works, albeit without some of the app functionality it originally had. That is fine for the OP because they would be happy with a new charger without the app functionality.

Obvious thing is to keep the current charger.

IOWJJBTM2025

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940250#Comment_81940250

When I am at work I just plug in the car and it just works every time. I look at the car App when I am in the office and it is always charging. I never have to press start charging on the App when I am at work.

When at home it does sometimes take some effort to charge. Will it work straight away or not - will I need to reset. Will I need to go on the car App and start charging from there? On occasion I have glanced at the Energy monitor in the house an hour later and noticed from the low use it has stopped charging. I go on the App and try to start charging and sometimes it works, if not I have to go outside and reboot the charger - hold the button for 10 seconds and then wait a few minutes.

I do not charge a lot and I would say that more times than not it works great. I am maybe painting a poor picture because it does work ok most of the time. There is only one time when it really let me down - I had got home late and was going away early the following morning. I set the car on charge before going to bed and found when I woke up that the charging had stopped after an hour. At 3am I was running around outside rebooting the charger to try and get an extra hours worth of charge before I had to leave.

After one of the software updates when plugging the lead into the car, The charger had to wait a random delay for up to 3 minutes before starting. The BP Pulse help desk told me that the random delay was a new requirement so that when scheduled chargers start at a certain time when a time of use tariff changes, not every charger in the UK starts at exactly the same time giving problems to the electric generator. I explained that I was not using the scheduled charge function and they told me that there was a shortcut - you have to hold the reboot button on the unit for three seconds instead of ten and then it does not have to wait for the delay. This does not always work.

Now there is no support for the BP Pulse charger and am nervous that one day it will not charge after reboot.

The money is not the main issue or the saving - it is more the reliability of it just working every time. Also having a charger that is not consuming power all the time even when it is not in use is just a waste.

If someone has a reliable charger that they can recommend and eager to listen. The chargers at work are simple and are constantly in use by several people without any issues. This is why I asked the question if there is a simple charge point available. One that does not need a smart phone to operate. It seems the more complex, the more things can go wrong.

I do see now that there is a requirement for some basic intelligence to see if there is a car plugged in before allowing power into the cable is definitely a safety benefit. I will ask to see what they use at work - am sure they would be compliant.

Grumpy_chap

You say you have free charging at work and use the home charger 4 hours every 3 weeks.

Is that correct?

For such a low use of home charging, could you make do with standard outdoor 3-pin socket plus granny-charger?

IOWJJBTM2025

You say you have free charging at work and use the home charger 4 hours every 3 weeks.

Is that correct?

For such a low use of home charging, could you make do with standard outdoor 3-pin socket plus granny-charger?

Good idea - I was watching a YouTube Video last night on exactly this subject and yes I can. I do have a granny charger that came with the car. The only thing for this is I would need to get an an external power supply socket installed that is within reach of the car.

The reason for my original question is as with most equipment that is purchased today they only have a few years before they become obsolete and then throw in the bin as what happened with the BP Pulse charger. The chargers on sale have so many functions and need to be linked to wifi etc. Then you are told that the model you purchased is no longer compatible so you need to replace. If there is a simple charge point out there that can be purchased that do not need wifi and will not be obsolete and need replacing in three years after the warranty has expired I would be interested.

Grumpy_chap

There seem to be four options.

1. Keep the current charger, accepting it does not have the connectivity stuff (which you don't seem that bothered about).
2. Replace the current charger with a new charger
3. Replace the current charger with a simple outdoor weatherproof plug socket and use granny-charger
4. Keep the current charger and add a simple outdoor weatherproof plug socket adjacent.

I think, if this was me, I'd go for option 4. It offers you a simple solution now, can leave the EV charger switched off (as the residual power draw is a concern for you), but still offer the option to revert to the EV charger if required (or swap to a new EV charge point in the future).

Just one other thought about the difficulties you are having with the EV charger being temperamental even when not via the app. Many items designed to be left on do get "buggy" and take time to settle when switched off an restarted - the obvious thing that comes to my mind is the internet router. Does the EV charger suffer in a similar way? If so, when you do need to use it, would it be more stable if powered up in the morning ahead of charging in the afternoon / evening?

QrizB

If there is a simple charge point out there that can be purchased that do not need wifi and will not be obsolete and need replacing in three years after the warranty has expired I would be interested.

The current UK standard requires EV charge points to be "smart" ie. networked, either via cable, wifi or mobile data.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/regulations-electric-vehicle-smart-charge-points

The regulations ensure charge points have smart functionality, allowing the charging of an electric vehicle when there is less demand on the grid, or when more renewable electricity is available.

So you won't find a "simple" charge point from a major manufacturer.

You can however buy non-smart ones through the usual grey markets; eBay, Amazon Marketplace etc. You'll then need a cooperative electrician to install it. You also won't get much of a warranty or after-sales service, so caveat emptor.

IOWJJBTM2025

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940928#Comment_81940928

Thanks for the info - this is why I could not find a simple charger.

I would be a bit nervous of a grey import. Have seen the 'Big Clive' You Tube' videos where he pulls grey import electrical equipment apart and with 7kW of power it needs to be safe.

IOWJJBTM2025

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940893#Comment_81940893

Thanks for the message - I will go with option 4 for now and see how the BP Pulse unit behaves. It would be good to have an outside plug socket in any case.

The PB Pulse charger has been glitchy ever since it was installed six years ago and was left permanently switched on up until a couple of weeks ago when I discovered it was using 5W of power and switched it off. I used it today to charge. I switched it on and waited for 5 minutes before plugging the car in. It did the random delay and when I got into the house I saw the Energy monitor was red with 7kW flowing - it had started charging without having to start charging on the car App.