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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not get a "Pod Point" installed at home?

32 replies

FooFighter99 · 14/02/2020 14:43

Right, so, I've ordered an electric car through work, on a 2 year lease scheme, it's coming mid-May and I'm super excited! I've never had a brand new car before and my current 11 year old pertol car only gets 26.5MPG (shocking, I know!)

Anyway, part of the deal for the car is that you get a government grant for the installation of a home charging "pod point" that charges the car in about 5 hours.

I've filled out forms and done questionnaires and taken pictures of our electricity supply/meter in the front porch and where the cable would need to be routed through the house as we'll be parking in the back yard (had special gates fitted so I can drive the car in as there's no dedicated parking on the front as it's a main road and a free for all) but long story short, they can't fit the pod point - too many obstacles due to the house layout and I'm not paying £300+ for parts and labour for them to drill and run a very thick cable through our rented property in a convoluted way so as not to cause a problem...

Now, I have read up online that you can charge an electric car on a normal 3 pin plug, granted it will take about 16 hours for a full charge, but as I should only need to charge it once a fortnight, I'm not that concerned about it taking that long.

I am, however, hearing coinflicting advice along the line of "it's not meant to be charged like that" and so on and I'm just wondering if anyone on here has any experience of using an electric car and can reassure me that I can charge it at home using an extension lead without burning my house down.

There are charging points at work that I could use if I needed to, and there are a few in various places throughout my town so I don't think I'd have to charge at home very often

TIA

OP posts:

MrsTerryPratchett · 14/02/2020 14:45

Extension lead should never be used for any permanent purpose.

Singlebutmarried · 14/02/2020 14:46

You’d probably be better posting in a car forum where people have loads of experience of this sort of thing.

Tbh I doubt you’d be allowed to modify your rental property in this way. Not sure I’d be that happy as a landlord with this sort of work being carried out.

BringOnTheBotox · 14/02/2020 14:49

We have an electric car and a charging point at our house. However, there are more and more charging points in public places now, such as supermarket car parks and in multi storey car parks, so if you would only need to charge it every couple of weeks then couldn't you just charge it at one of those? Some of the public chargers are extreme super chargers that will charge a car in less than the 5/6 hours it takes at home.

Stilllivinghere · 14/02/2020 14:49

It’s a bit of a pain without a charge point at home, we’ve had problems at charging stations before. I’m not sure I’d have an electric car without one at home. Not helpful I know!

BarbaraofSeville · 14/02/2020 14:51

Are you sure about charging it once a fortnight? Or will you also be charging it at work?

The range of electric cars is still only about 100-150 miles so I would have thought most business users would need to charge them more like several times a week if not daily or more.

BringOnTheBotox · 14/02/2020 14:56

We get roughly 300 miles per full charge of our car. I usually charge my car every 4 or 5 nights to keep the charge topped up just in case I need to go on a long journey.

OP, if there are chargers at your work then you could just charge it every day there and you definitely wouldn't need a home charge point then.

Beamur · 14/02/2020 14:59

We have an electric vw. It came with a cable that you could plug into a socket.
Could you have an external socket put in?
I don't think you can run it safely on an extension cable.
There are charge points increasingly available, but they don't all work, some you need to download apps for, many charge and with these cars gaining popularity you can't always find a point available.
I wouldn't have an electric car without being able to charge it at home.

Original poster

FooFighter99 · 14/02/2020 15:04

Thanks all

I have a daily commute of 11 miles and the car has a range of about 124 miles per full charge so I'd probably need to charge it every 10 days or so

I'm not a business user, I just drive to work and back and ocassionally take my elderly mum shopping

I do plan on charging at work as often as I can, there are about 12 charging points dotted around the various sites, and then there are the ones at supermarkets I could use

Charging at home would probably be as a last resort because I wouldn't want to risk overloading the circuit board or anything

OP posts:

Beamur · 14/02/2020 15:08

You can't trust the mileage to be that absolute either. The last half mile to my house eats up 6/7 'miles' of charge as it's steep.
The range also depends on whether you are driving on flat or hilly terrain. Same as fuel consumption varies.

nornironrock · 14/02/2020 15:09

We drive an EV, and have found it ok so far with just the 3-pin. However, a couple of notes.

It does take a long time to fully charge - but if you plan then it's not a problem.

Your car will not travel as far as the manufacturer tells you it will on one charge.

You CANNOT plug the cable into an extension lead, so do make sure you will have somewhere you can pass the plug through into the house (we use our front door letterbox and have a socket just nearby).

What I will say though, is that we have two cars, and one is still petrol. When we replace that, it will also be an EV. There is no way I want to ever pay for petrol ever again.

Elphame · 14/02/2020 15:14

You need to have a suitable supply and socket.

I've just had a 3 pin socket fitted in my holiday rental to allow safe charging by guests. I had to upgrade my circuit breaker and have a separate cable run from the consumer unit to have an installation that was safe for the load imposed. It's also very useful for the hedge trimmer!

picklesdragonisawelshdragon · 14/02/2020 15:14

I have a phev.

I'd say, use the granny cable (3pin plug) for emergencies, when you get stuck, are out and about etc.

Build a charging routine into your week. Maybe at the supermarket, or at work. It will be fine.

Original poster

FooFighter99 · 14/02/2020 15:16

It's the e-Golf, so the official range is 186 but the real world range is apparently 124, it's mostly flat terrain from home to work but I'll just have to see how I go

We have an extension on the back of the house where the washing machine and tumble dryer live, so theoretically I will be able to plug the car directly into a proper socket as opposed to an extension lead

At the end of the day, I can't cancel the car (without incurring a massive fee) and I can't have a pod installed so I'll just have to make the best of it

Thanks for all the replies, it helps to talk it out with people who have experience of electric cars

OP posts:

picklesdragonisawelshdragon · 14/02/2020 15:21

It will be great! Honestly, I love my car.

Beamur · 14/02/2020 15:21

I think you'll be fine. We managed without the pod for several months.
It's just an adjustment you have to make and be more aware of charge options when out of your usual places.

Original poster

FooFighter99 · 14/02/2020 15:26

Thanks Pickles and Beamur that's what I'll have to do. I'm sure it will become routine to find somewhere appropriate to charge it and won't be as worrysome as I imagine

I've also never owned/driven an automatic, so thats going to be a learning experience!!

OP posts:

Beamur · 14/02/2020 15:28

If I drive to work I use the fancy multistorey as I can charge for free.
Some new cinemas also have multistorey parking with ev points and often give parking discount too.
I think we'll also see more ev preferential parking in congested areas. A few years ago I was on holiday, might have been St David's in Pembrokeshire. Parking expensive and limited, ev parking was free..

Beamur · 14/02/2020 15:29

Mine is a Golf too. Lovely to drive, first automatic for me too. I just keep stalling our manual drive now

SmellMySmellbow · 14/02/2020 15:31

Have the pod fitted anyway, if you have a full grant, at the front. Then just take the opportunity to charge it when there is a space there. Doesn't need to be where you normally park it if you won't be doing it often.

Original poster

FooFighter99 · 14/02/2020 15:38

That won't be an option Smell because the charging lead would be across the public pavement and no doubt someone will trip and sue me...

We're having a new multistorey built at/near work and they will be putting a couple more EV points in that too, so I'll be spoilt for choice

Beamur is the Golf nice then? I want to do a test drive at the local VW garage but they never got back to me, and the deal on the lease car was too good to pass up so I just blind-ordered it! Hoping I don't regret it... DH's best mate has an electric van that's an automatic, he let me have a drive and it was suprisingly easy so I think I'll be ok, just nervouse about that first drive home (cos they'll deliver the car to work)

DH has a motorbike so I won't be swapping between manual and auto

OP posts:

SmellMySmellbow · 14/02/2020 15:44

We have a few electric cars on my road. They all charge with the lead going across the pavement but one of those rubber cable guard ramp things that go over it that keeps it flush to the ground. Never seems to be a problem.

Emmelina · 14/02/2020 15:55

I also drive electric. We can’t have a charging point fitted at home as no driveway, but there are plenty of public charging spots in our town and also one at my work (though I rarely get a look-in on that one!). For the length of my daily commute and ferrying the DC around etc I can usually get away with one big charge a week, though can stretch that out by convenience charging whenever we go anywhere - basically, if there’s a charger in situ I’ll plug in while we go about our business and the car gets a nice boost.
Figure out how many miles you tend to cover daily and split it by the range. In cold weather they tend not to go quite as far, and if you use the motorway it also tends to be less efficient! You can also check apps such as Zap Map and PlugShare to work out where the nearest public chargers to your home/work etc are. Keep in mind it’s good etiquette to unplug when the car is done and move to a regular space!
Welcome to the world of Electric!

AdobeWanKenobi · 14/02/2020 15:55

Have you spoken to your landlord? A charge point is an excellent feature to have on a home.

Also, factor in things like heating and zircon affecting your range.

AdobeWanKenobi · 14/02/2020 15:55

Zircon? Aircon!!

nornironrock · 14/02/2020 15:57

Also, if VW are anything like BMW, you will need to buy a cable for public charging points that don't have a tethered cable. And they're not cheap.

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