EV chargers which to avoid or which one to get?

[Tony]

Hello there unfortunately not pinball related but does anyone have a ev charger? About to get one, just wondering if anyone could recommend one or probably more important are which ones to avoid?
Home install 7-7.4 kw, they all appear far to fancy, all I really want it to do is be a “plug” no off peak tariff’s etc, probably won’t get used much as I have option to charge at work
Any advice appreciated
Thanks Tony

 

[Pooman2084]

I’m very happy with my Ohme Home Pro

It was about a grand with installation.

I just plug it in and it figures out the best / cheapest time to charge to meet my request i.e 90% charge by 7:30am for example. A few times we have just put it on a manually for a quick top up.

Having it unlocked much cheaper tariffs for Octopus so we pay 7p a unit to charge anytime of the day.

 

[Monkeyboypaul]

I use a Zappi, but I’d go with anything the Octopus Intelligent Go supports as that unlocks the best home tariffs for everything such as a home a battery, not just the EV.

 

[cyberkryten]

Avoid the cheapo non intelligent ones, esp Rolec

Zappi works well with IOG, hard to argue with 7p/kWh!!

 

[Tony]

I think I’m missing a trick? What’s IOG? I’m not with octopus, I’m with eon, and when I looked into there cheaper night time tariffs it made it more expensive in the day, which is and will be my most use? Which when I ran the calculation's meant I actually spent more? I don’t have solar or batteries? I quite fancied the Rolec quad smart it had quite a good review? I’ve read about some of the other smart ones modules breaking, or the app being useless (Last bmw hybrid I had there app could set charge times % etc why do I need charger to do this?) isn’t it just something else to break? but I believe they all have to be smart nowadays? Might just be take your pick? And go for it?

 

[Fantazia2]

I think I’m missing a trick? What’s IOG? I’m not with octopus, I’m with eon, and when I looked into there cheaper night time tariffs it made it more expensive in the day, which is and will be my most use? Which when I ran the calculation's meant I actually spent more? I don’t have solar or batteries? I quite fancied the Rolec quad smart it had quite a good review? I’ve read about some of the other smart ones modules breaking, or the app being useless (Last bmw hybrid I had there app could set charge times % etc why do I need charger to do this?) isn’t it just something else to break? but I believe they all have to be smart nowadays? Might just be take your pick? And go for it?

IOG = Intelligent Octopus Go

Intelligent Octopus Go

The UK's most awarded energy supplier. We're doing energy better - for you and the environment.

octopus.energy

5 hours of super cheap electric during the night to charge your car and then close to the normal capped rate the rest of the time.

I would have thought most people with an EV that was used most days would benefit from paying the lower rate to charge the car vs paying slightly more during the day.

 

[Monkeyboypaul]

5 hours of super cheap electric during the night

It’s 23:30-0530, so 6hrs.

Each to their own in terms of attitudes, mindsets and actual benefits to their lifestyle, but I’ve moved nearly all of our electric usage into the off-peak period - this requires reasonable home battery storage (~13kWh in our case, which also includes a full house back-up from power outages, and we get loads of those, so it’s something I wanted to include).




Then we got paid for the solar export:

 

[Fantazia2]

Lol, 6 hours, yes says it right on the page, had it in my head it was 5 for some reason.

 

[Pooman2084]

Actually the lower rate now applies all day for EV charging if you use the app to schedule. If you need a quick top up, just schedule that time and it’ll charge straight off.

We put washing machines, dishwashers, dehumidifiers etc on at night to take advantage of the lower rate too.

 

[Monkeyboypaul]

Actually the lower rate now applies all day for EV charging if you use the app to schedule. If you need a quick top up, just schedule that time and it’ll charge straight off.

We put washing machines, dishwashers, dehumidifiers etc on at night to take advantage of the lower rate too.

Agree, but my battery kicks in and tries to power the load outside of those off-peak hours! Doh! It’s solvable, but not causing me any issues right now.

 

[cyberkryten]

It’s difficult to be certain which tariff is best, pick one and see how it works for you

As I said, avoid Rolec. Have had four of their chargers inc warranty replacements and had problems with all of them, three burned the breakers inside so badly they melted!!