Visitors Electric cars charging at your house?

[Reallyreallyborednow]

so random thought yesterday after receiving my electric bill.

couple of close friends/family have electric vehicles. These are fairly short range, so need charging after an hour or so.

when they come to visit it’s about 40 mins, so they drive, plug into my electric to recharge while visiting/we go out in my car, so they can get home.

never really thought about it before, but one is coming soon as we’re driving a couple of hours to visit an attraction that’s nearer me. So no doubt they’ll drive the electric car and want to charge it, and I’ll have to drive to the attraction as mine is petrol and they don’t have the range.

are electric car drivers bu to ask if they can charge at someone else’s house? It seems U to say no, but I wonder how much it’s costing me to charge their car for a day.

although I add these people do have a petrol car, they just choose the EV, no doubt because it’s cheaper. No malice or bad intention, I think they see the request for a plug to charge their car as no different to charging phone etc, and it’s not as if there’s anywhere else.

How much does it cost for a charge?

Due to the parking at my home, it's impossible to change a EV so I don't think anyone would ever ask. I think I wouldn't mind as a one off, but if they got into a habit and didn't offer something towards it, I'd be a bit cross.

If they are fairly short range, they will not have a huge battery. And if you are charging off a normal socket, it will be charging slowly.

I don't know what the numbers work out as exactly, but I'm guessing it's pennies.

when we visited family with an electric car wd calculated that a full load of the (300mile range) battery would take 10 hours and cost about 40€.

you need to calculate usage & cost and ask your friend to contribute accordingly.

I would only load at daytime to use solar (if the household has them) or would expect to pay for the electricity.

I feel like it must cost a few quid to charge. I wouldn't be happy with it. How far away do they live that they can't get to your house and back on one charge? That must be a tiny range. I think they're just trying to cadge a bit of fuel tbh.

😬 I hadn't thought of that! It'll obviously cost something, you just need to work out (battery size + charging time etc) and put it into £s. Can you see a difference on your bill?

Do you have an EV yourself OP, with a wall box for charging at home? I know it's possible to plug into your mains but it's cheaper via the wall boxes apparently.

I think it's less than a tenner to give a full charge, but don't quote me on that. As a one off I wouldn't mind it, but if they were visiting frequently and expecting it then I'd ask them to reimburse, especially if they're then expecting you to drive a couple of hours (and use your charge or petrol?) to get them to the attraction.

Depends how much charge they need - but a rule of thumb is you'll get 3.5-4m/kw. I used to sell very small EVs with about 80 mile range so I know a little about this. I reckon you'd be looking at approx 10KW to recharge - maybe £2.50 dependent on your rate.

Hi OP I have an EV. I would not charge for free at friends home if they had an EV charger. My friend has one and we used it once and paid them £15 which is a bit over what it would have cost them.

If your friends are using a three-pin charger in your home plugs for 40 minutes, that is a very slow charge, so I would not think more than a couple of quid. They should ask though, for sure! I would always offer to cover the cost.

Seems a bit off. You wouldn’t drive to someone’s house and then ask them to top up the car with petrol/diesel.
Personally, with a range that small, I wouldn’t have had the electric car, but if I did and needed a charge, I would expect to pay for it, just as I would for diesel or petrol.

Unless there's a drip feed I think its even cheekier of them to expect to use your petrol for the journey even though they also have a petrol car. We've got an EV and the few times we've charged at someone's house we've insisted on paying but then we got one with decent range so I imagine it costs us a lot more for a full charge.

If you think about it, would you ask a friend for petrol money if you were travelling in their electric vehicle? If the answer is no they are being cheeky. If it’s close family I would be ok with it; friends are just taking advantage. At the very least I would expect them to pay for lunch/coffees on your trip out.

Btw charging is not as cheap as it was due to energy prices going up.

I don't know what the numbers work out as exactly, but I'm guessing it's pennies.

According to this website a car with a 200 mile charge is about £15, I wouldn't class that as pennies. Especially if op is paying for the fuel in her car to drive them around.

pod-point.com/guides/driver/cost-of-charging-electric-car

If you don't have a special plug, don't let them as apparently it's a fire risk. If you don't have an EV yourself you probably don't have the plug so easy to refuse

Yep. 3 pin charges at 2.2kWH, so 40 mins of that will be about six miles. Hardly worth the effort (and would cost about 40p)

We don’t have off street parking so couldn’t offer this even if we wanted to. But we do now have on street charging points at the end of the road and have directed visitors to these.

I think I’d have to ask for a contribution to the cost of the electricity they were using if I were you. It’s very cheeky to expect others to subsidise this.

NBU to ask them to contribute.
Ideally you'd know what you're being charged for each kWh so you can ask in a very relaxed way. Might only be the cost of a box of biscuits, but if you're going on a full day out, they can buy your lunch, etc.

Adult DS lives far away, has an electric car. He can't be asked to charge for just an hour or so. When he does charge here (say, overnight), he always pays us something: he insists on that.

My experience of EV owners is they know exactly how much they charged up their vehicle while waiting (in kWh), what it probably cost in general rates, etc.

EV owner here, we charge overnight every night on a fast charge and my monthly bill is around £70. I would say on a 3 pin plug charge for 40 minutes you are literally looking at pennies.
What @CheGuevaraandDebussy says is all correct.
Also would like to see source for PP saying 3 pin charger is a fire hazard?

Not if they are using a normal 3-pin plug. That's not clear though. OP do you have an actual charger or are they just plugging into a socket in your wall? If it's the latter, as PP said it would take hours and hours to charge so for a short visit you'd be talking pennies and they'd probably only get about 3%.

We don't bother charging our EV at friends houses as the 3-pin plugs are so slow.

A fast charge for a decent amount of battery power eg 80% on a proper rapid charger would be around £10 but not the ones in peoples homes.

exactly
the electric car we used showed exactly the kw/h charged and we were able to calculate how long it would take and how much a homechargr would cost.

Interesting topic as assume this is going to become more common.

I dont think it would bother me so much if they were just visiting and plugged it in but to leave their car there and go out in mine (ie using my fuel), I would expect them to buy lunch or something to cover both.

Someone I know with an electric car told me that his electricity bill was over £100 a month higher, he drives a lot for work so it's a big saving on the petrol cost but it isn't pennies. It was more than he was expecting it to cost but I don't know what kind of charger he's using

BIG SMILE!!

"Sure plug your car in!! And don't worry I'll drive my smog machine to the big venue we're visiting!!! Oh, BTW, tickets are £50 each but i'm sure you won't mind covering that for the 6 people in my family!!!!!"

Using normal household supply, it will probably be charging at rate of 2.3 kw per hour. You need to know how much your suppliers charge per watt ( remember to add VAT). If they're charging for 8 hours at 35p per KW that would be £6.44. Each hour of charging would get them 5 -8 miles. I wouldn't be happy with charging that long, 3 pin is not safe to use for hours on end. There's a serious risk it goes on fire. Check the socket. If it gets hot,turn it off. I think it's really cheeky of them . I would insist that you want to visit the attraction a few hours away in their car. They can always stop off en route to charge.

I would let guests charge their car, of course I would! They're guests! I also feed them and water them and give them free rein over snacks and drinks, especially if they're staying overnight. They can use my toilet and shower, they can turn the radiator up in their room if they're cold or open a window if they're hot, they can wash their clothes and use my laundry supplies. They can have a piritin or a nurofen if they need it, tampons, pads, plasters, whatever.

I would probably draw the line at sharing my toothbrush but I do have a couple of extras from a multi-pack purchase so I would of course give them one if they forgot theirs.

Maybe it's a cultural thing but I would die of shame before I would begrudge anything a guest in my home needed. It's so weird to me that so many British people don't feel the same way.