Posted 3 January 2024

What EV Charger?

My wife, in a fit of uncharacteristic spending, has bought a nearly new Mini Electric EV
I've been asked to get a suitable charging point installed at the hosue, which has off street parking.
I know nothing about this!
Any pointers please.
New or Used.
Any product to avoid.
What to look for?
Help!
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  1. FloppySquid's avatar
    I have a Zappi with no solar and love it. Very easy to use with the smart tariffs. Would recommend that or an Ohme. 

    Regards the comment on pod point, they’re owned by EDF and I believe that you’ll have a hard time using it with any other firm’s smart tariffs as my friend has recently found out. 
    airbus330's avatar
    Author
    Thanks for the input. I agree the Zappi is very tempting, especially as they emailed me a 250 voucher. But the prospect of a used PodPoint fitted for about 300 is also very tempting. Thanks for the heads up over the smart tariffs, I think Octopus also offer PPod, but Intelligent Oct would probably do with the low charging requirements of the MINI E.
  2. AMaky's avatar
    divorce is free online, just fill in the forms
  3. KodaBear's avatar
    I'd personally suggest going for PodPoint if you don't have solar panels, and a Zappi if you do (or seriously plan to get them in future)

    I'm not a HUGE fan of granny cables as they aren't quite as safe, but with a battery as small as the MINI Has, you could realistically get by with just having a proper outdoor socket installed and plugging in the granny cable to that... Unless you plan on getting an Economy 7 tariff and wan't to quickly pull as much energy as possible in a few short hours in the middle of the night, you will easily be able to recharge this battery overnight even at 10 Amps.
    airbus330's avatar
    Author
    Thanks for the reply. What is a 'granny cable'?
    I have Solar Panels, why is Zappi a better choice if u have them?
    A neighbour has offered me a 2 year old PodPoint. Are these transferable?
    As you say, the Mini has a small battery, my wife has been told that you can recharge overnight just using a 13amp cable and an exterior socket. If that is so, why go to the expense of having a PodPoint or the like?
    cheers
  4. DaveG46's avatar
    Can you return it
    airbus330's avatar
    Author
    The wife or the car?
    Probably not!
  5. MT2045's avatar
    I had 2 Ohme Wall Chargers, now superceded by the Pro model, installed (one for one of my employees) in May 2020 by Smarthomecharge.

    More important than your charger is the electricty tariff you are on.

    Currently I am on Intelligent Octopus which is 7.5p from 23:30 to 05:30 and 30.52p at other times.

    The good thing with intelligent octopus is the 7.5p is for all the house use not just charging your car, so if you can schedule washing machines and dishwashers etc for the cheap period you only pay 7.5p.

    Also you sometimes get smart charging outside these times so it is possible to get 12 hours @ 7.5p if the car needs charging a lot.

    It is also possible to charge more than one car if the Ohme charger is linked to Intelligent Octopus instead of the car.
    airbus330's avatar
    Author
    Useful info. As it happens I'm with Octopus and had thought that the intelligent tariff might be more useful than a car specific one since the Mini has a small battery.
  6. matwalaboy's avatar
    Sorry to barge in here - but I am in a similarish boat - i.e. looking for an EV charger and tariff options - if you decided on something, can you please share? If others have any inputs they are greatly appreciated too.
    airbus330's avatar
    Author
    Hi, we are now into week 3 of EV Ownership. Bear in mind our decisions are based on a small battery EV with a projected mileage of 5000mls/year and that mostly in the local area that begin and end at home.
    We talked to quite a few owners and finally decided to start off just using the Granny cable. We had a new outside socket fitted and the electrics checked.
    This has worked fine, with the electricity consumption for charging largely inline with Mini's published figures. It charges at 7% per hour. Draws 10amps. c2.2kw per hour.
    We are having a Smart Meter fitted today. This will allow us to access Octopus Intelligent Ev tariff which will reduce the charge costs by 2/3.
    We have realised that unless we are happy to charge the car 2 or 3 times a week during the off peak tariff hours only, a substantial part of our charging will end up on peak tariff rates. Because this is a bit inconvenient, we will fit a 7kw home EV charger at some point. Hopefully, either a deal off HUKD or our neighbours used unit. The only issue here will be the labour costs to do the moving of the unit. If we go new, we will probably bite the bullet and get a Zappi as they have good feedback and are Octopus's preferred unit.
    Hope this helps.
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