Electric car charging

[ajandjjmum]

We will shortly be getting an all electric car - a charging point is being installed tomorrow.

Our power is supplied by Octopus - we were moved to them when our previous supplier went bump.

We haven't used a day/night tarif for years, but I think it might be useful now, so that the vehicle can be charged overnight.

Has anyone got any experience of this?

Many thanks.

Yes we are with octopus on their day:night tarriff. Car goes on timer to charge between the lower rate hours.

Thanks @Brogues - seems sensible to look at this then.

Yes, we have octopus and a hybrid. Car is plugged in whenever but the unit is set to charge it overnight only.

We have EV and octopus - 5p per kWh between 0030-0430. Rest of the day is 14p per kWh.

We have a different supplier but day and night rates. As others say, car is programmed to charge overnight during night rate.
Having an electric car means a bit of 'habit forming'. Car is always plugged in when returned to home. Have a mindset of always leaving home with a 'full tank'.

It really is going to be a change of mindset - it will be DH's car, but as my car is just a two-seater, it's very much the 'family' car.

Does the four hours on charge completely 'fill' it (as in the battery!) @toomanychickens ?

We are with octopus and getting our charger installed next week as getting Tesla.

The 4 hours will get you roughly 28kw, as most home chargers charge at a rate of approx 7kwh.

My car Leaf e+ has a 62kw battery so the cheap rate will fill just under 50%.

In reality this works out fine 90% of the time as I rarely use more than 50% battery in a day, and if I do it's usually made up again in the next charge or 2.

It does 52% in 4 hours. We don't usually charge it to 100%.

We have 7kw charger, but it only seems to charge at 3.5kw

We are stuck with British Gas till April (after being with Bulb much more cheaply) and we charge our EV overnight as well as run one each of the dishwasher and washing machine loads, plus heat our external office overnight. But Octupus sounds like a good move next time if they are still so favourable. Thanks for the heads up!

You will need a smart meter to get the cheaper night rate from 00.30-04.30. So if you don’t have one contact octopus now to get one.
The 5p per kWh is not being offered - my year on this is nearly up and my new offer was 7.5p for the night 4 hours and 30p the rest of the time.
I did the maths and it pretty much came out even whether to go for this. We can use a timer on washing machine and dishwasher to take advantage of night rate and don’t use very much in the day.
You would need to work out your own costs eg are you high milage or high day time electricity users

Rhino - we have been incredibly fortunate as they've just renewed our Octopus Go tariff at exactly the same rate as it was. We have the 5p night rate and 14p day rate until next February

@toomanychickens

Rhino - we have been incredibly fortunate as they've just renewed our Octopus Go tariff at exactly the same rate as it was. We have the 5p night rate and 14p day rate until next February

Wow that is lucky! We are now debating solar panels ….