The all things EV chat thread

[Mudball]

My experience is slightly different. Just took delivery of a Tesla last week. I already had a 7kW charger installed by British Gas last year.

Plugged the car in to charge. Then went on the octopus app and changed my tariff to intelligent go. Took about 5 mins to link to the car and set up.
In the Octopus app set to charge to 80%. Next day all was good.

The app tells you when they are going to charge depending on your current charge taking into account off peak rates.

Now have 6 hours (23:30-05:40) at 7.5p per kW.

To be honest I can’t see how it could be easier. Don’t know if it’s because it’s a Tesla or I just got lucky.

Congrats on the Tesla.. did you have an EV in the past??

I think I have figured out what is happening. What they are trying to is intelligent albeit a bit clunky.

The Octopus app is now talking to my car app. In the car app I set my departure time eg 7am tomorrow along with precondition. The car app knows that it is at 40% and needs 30kwh to hit 80% target. It tells octopus it needs 30kwh by 6:30 tomorrow ant a rate of 10kwh per hour (so 3 hour window) allowing for preconditions by 7am departure. Octopus then figures out grid load in order to figures how it can give me a 4 hour charging ‘map’… today it has told me via the octopus app that I can charge between 12:30-3:30am at off peak rate.

My car is plugged in, but it is not charging the car. The car is sitting in a ‘planned’ charge phase. It says it will start charging at 10:59.

I had to go somewhere and so I unplugged the car and went around. It meant all the numbers changed. Got home and plugged in. Between Octopus and the car, they figured out a new charge map. All this is indeed very clever. I am assuming this is allowing Octopus to predict its own load and buy accordingly. The only hitch in this metaverse is that the car and octopus seem to be one hour out. German car is 1 hour ahead of British time zone. Thank God I did not buy a Chinese or Korean car..

(Edit: numbers are made up for simplicity.. so don’t beat me up)

 

[PJ87]

Congrats on the Tesla.. did you have an EV in the past??

I think I have figured out what is happening. What they are trying to is intelligent albeit a bit clunky.

The Octopus app is now talking to my car app. In the car app I set my departure time eg 7am tomorrow along with precondition. The car app knows that it is at 40% and needs 30kwh to hit 80% target. It tells octopus it needs 30kwh by 6:30 tomorrow ant a rate of 10kwh per hour (so 3 hour window) allowing for preconditions by 7am departure. Octopus then figures out grid load in order to figures how it can give me a 4 hour charging ‘map’… today it has told me via the octopus app that I can charge between 12:30-3:30am at off peak rate.

My car is plugged in, but it is not charging the car. The car is sitting in a ‘planned’ charge phase. It says it will start charging at 10:59.

I had to go somewhere and so I unplugged the car and went around. It meant all the numbers changed. Got home and plugged in. Between Octopus and the car, they figured out a new charge map. All this is indeed very clever. I am assuming this is allowing Octopus to predict its own load and buy accordingly. The only hitch in this metaverse is that the car and octopus seem to be one hour out. German car is 1 hour ahead of British time zone. Thank God I did not buy a Chinese or Korean car..

One point 10kwh is impossible your charger is only 7kwh

However it will be fine I'm sure

You will find you will get mapped as random times of the day which then tell your home battery to charge! As it's all at 7.5p at those hours

 

[Mudball]

One point 10kwh is impossible your charger is only 7kwh

However it will be fine I'm sure

You will find you will get mapped as random times of the day which then tell your home battery to charge! As it's all at 7.5p at those hours

Yes I know..

Fixed it.. the numbers are made up. The max it can put in is just above 7…

Currently it does not know much about the home battery. It will do that once I get the MCS and move to flux …

 

[PJ87]

Yes I know..

Fixed it.. the numbers are made up. The max it can put in is just above 7…

Currently it does not know much about the home battery. It will do that once I get the MCS and move to flux …

It doesn't need to know about the home battery and never will in that respect

You control the battery

You tell it to charge at what times

 

[D-S]

The more I read this thread, the more I come to the conclusion that "certainly not yet" is my answer to the OP's question.

 

[Fade and Die]

Yes I know..

Fixed it.. the numbers are made up. The max it can put in is just above 7…

Currently it does not know much about the home battery. It will do that once I get the MCS and move to flux …

But (following on from your making things up)if your brother phoned you and said “bruv my rides not turned up, can you run me to the airport?” Is your car able to do it… is it fit for purpose?

 

[PJ87]

But (following on from your making things up)if your brother phoned you and said “bruv my rides not turned up, can you run me to the airport?” Is your car able to do it… is it fit for purpose?

Yes you can force it to charge anytime you want. You don't have to charge cheap.

 

[Mudball]

But (following on from your making things up)if your brother phoned you and said “bruv my rides not turned up, can you run me to the airport?” Is your car able to do it… is it fit for purpose?

Great question and Yes.. you can do a force or ‘bump charge’ which will start charge immediately but at the day rate. Bit remember this takes time. Every hour on my home charger adds about 20miles to my range. I can also go to the public charger

Or just book him another Uber - the cheapest and fastest option

 

[Fade and Die]

Yes you can force it to charge anytime you want. You don't have to charge cheap.

But his car is sitting around on 40% waiting for the cheap juice…@Mudball what range is that?

 

[Mudball]

It doesn't need to know about the home battery and never will in that respect

You control the battery

You tell it to charge at what times

How? I have had the home battery for 2 days, but i haven’t seen it charge from the grid so far…. It is slowly building capacity via the solar… so far about 17% full (charging and discharging).
The only app I have is a Shinphone from the solar guys

 

[Mudball]

But his car is sitting around on 40% waiting for the cheap juice…@Mudball what range is that?

It’s at 38% / 75 miles…. Given that he is in Kent… it will get me there. He has a charger … so I can charge my car while we wait for the Uber together

 

[PJ87]

How? I have had the home battery for 2 days, but i haven’t seen it charge from the grid so far…. It is slowly building capacity via the solar… so far about 17% full (charging and discharging).
The only app I have is a Shinphone from the solar guys

You need to go into the settings and look how to do it. Or if it works with home assistant you need to program it

It will be in the manual

 

[PJ87]

It’s at 38% / 75 miles…. Given that he is in Kent… it will get me there. He has a charger … so I can charge my car while we wait for the Uber together

Or gets you to a fast charger to recharge (If it's working)

If he willing to wait for an Uber he doesn't need to call you

 

[Fade and Die]

It’s at 38% / 75 miles…. Given that he is in Kent… it will get me there. He has a charger … so I can charge my car while we wait for the Uber together

See I would be uncomfortable with a car that only has 75 miles in the “tank” I would want it charging as soon as I got home.

 

[Mudball]

For the naysayers… if you don’t like EVs…

 

[PJ87]

See I would be uncomfortable with a car that only has 75 miles in the “tank” I would want it charging as soon as I got home.

Again. You can do that. Just plug it in and charge it. It's a choice to charge the way we do

 

[jim8flog]

Mrs just come back and so I plugged the car into my brand new Project EV charger .. all excited to see how quickly it will charge..

But it refuses to charge. I am sure there is a way I can override the off peak setting. The car is set to immediate’ so this will be at the charger end.

How many new tricks should I learn just to drive my own car ..


View attachment 51507
Update:
Looks like the app was forcing ‘EV smart regulation’. Have disabled it and it seems to have worked. I still don’t know how this charger app works. It is very user unfriendly and designed by someone who does not own an ev.
Well we are off to our first charge.. I will relook at it again over the weekend

I had a similar problem with OHME. An email to them bought about a very swift response.

 

[Slime]

Great question and Yes.. you can do a force or ‘bump charge’ which will start charge immediately but at the day rate. Bit remember this takes time. Every hour on my home charger adds about 20miles to my range. I can also go to the public charger

Or just book him another Uber - the cheapest and fastest option

I can get 550+ miles in under three minutes at Sainsbury's.

 

[jim8flog]

It’s at 38% / 75 miles…. Given that he is in Kent… it will get me there. He has a charger … so I can charge my car while we wait for the Uber together

This might help

Pod point and instant charging

www.evoqueownersclub.co.uk

There are a lot of forums that are car specific about EV charging. Worth an internet search

 

[bobmac]

I can get 550+ miles in under three minutes at Sainsbury's.

That would be really handy if you have to drive suddenly from Surrey to Inverness without stopping