To think charging an electric car with just the 3 pin plug for 4 months is not a good idea

[Catsinacot]

DH has ordered himself a new electric car. We have spoken about it for a while and agreed it's a good call for us. However, he's ordered the car and then arranged for an at home charger to be installed through our energy supplier who have told us it's likely to be 16 weeks until they can install.

DH says this is fine, we'll just charge it at home using the 3 pin plug. DH does a lot of miles, probably 300 a week so this feels completely unfeasible to me given the charge will be so slow. Also, im worried trying to change that much on a normal plug will overheat the plug. We did have our electric mains fuse board upgraded 3 years ago so DH says there's no risk but I'm worried.
WIBU to tell him to cancel the order and just wait until the at home charger arrives? He ordered through an online retailer so he can cancel.

We've been charging our PHEV with the 3 pin plug for 3 years. You're being dramatic.

It'll be slow. But as others have said goto a fast charger locally if needed. It may well be sooner than 16 weeks anyway.

300 miles isnt a lot. It's what, 60 a day if weekdays only? I do that and I work from home most of the time! He may well have chargers at work or wherever he's going. Our office has them. A 3 pin will charge easily 60-100 miles overnight anyway which will do him for each day.

Also check the supply to the house is sufficient for a fixed charger. This is nothing to do with whoever you get your charging point from, it’s whether UKPN have installed an adequate service head. If not, the supply will have to be upgraded which means delay and possibly digging up the road depending on where the distribution point is. More likely with older housing. This shouldn’t cost you extra though, just delay.

I've had a hybrid company car for 6 years now (VW Golf and now Audi A3) and only ever used the 3 pin plug charging lead to charge it as I'm too skint to pay for a zappy thing to be installed. I plug it in at work (cable through my office window which does make it chilly at this time of year!) and it fully charges in about 3.5 hours, drive home then plug it in the garage when I get home. Charges overnight. Never had an issue. Just don't use an extension lead and it will be fine - never had a problem with anything overheating but am just waiting for HMRC to realise they are missing a trick by not taxing me on using company electricity to charge it!.

I'm assuming the OP's DH is going to be travelling more than 65 miles a day for business. Maybe 100 miles Monday, 20 on Tuesday, 120 on Wednesday . .

In which case he would a proper fast charge, not a trickle from a 3 pin plug.

It’s fine. We have been charging with normal plug for almost 2 years on and off.

We have a fast charger at home, but due to parking it’s in a not as convenient place. So I usually park in our open garage which is separate from house and have slow charger from plug there to use most the time. Only use fast charger if I have bought car up our long, narrow steep driveway occasionally to clean or if loading up with lots of heavy stuff.

Ours easily charges to overnight on slow charger. It’s far cheaper charging at home also. He can just plug in and top up each evening if needed so he’s not charging from low but just topping up nightly

It really depends on the state of your electrics so I wouldnt risk it. When you have a proper charger fitted the National Grid come
Out and check it and even with relatively new electrics at our house they still made some form of adjustment.
I would identify where your nearest fast charger is and if that is feasible. Ps I bloody hate charging!

We had to unexpectedly move out of our house unexpectedly for urgent repairs. Used a three pin charger for six months with no issues.

It's very slow and he will need to charge overnight to get enough miles. Also it's a massive issue if you loose power in winter storms

A friend did exactly this for more than a year, he just kept it plugged in 10-15hrs per day and topped up in the fast charging network where necessary. You’ll be fine.

He might also be able to charge it at his destination, while he's at work - a lot of workplaces have charging points these days.

Our charges on a three pin plug overnight it's totally normal. The car range is 220 miles, it charges 10mph from a 3 pin plug.

Just charge it up fully then top up overnight a couple of times a week. No reason why he couldn't have it fully charged each morning.

What are you basing that assumption on? OP Has said 300 miles per week. Most EVs have a range around 300 miles now anyway so even if he doesn't get to 100% each day he'll easily be able to stretch out to a week

Worst case he'll have to use a fast charger on the road occasionally if he has 2 longer days back to back, but it's ridiculous to say "not even a consideration" and "forget that fantasy"

Do you have a source for the 40% drop in value claim?

Also, on the safety/will-the-car-blow-up point...slower charging is safer than fast charging when unattended. The same goes for everything with a battery in it; faster charging generates more heat, which in turn increases the chance of swelling/fire.

My sil just plugs hers in at Morrisons when she does the weekly shop. And occasionally at KFC

We had a hybrid for 3 years, fully electric for 3 years and have just gone back to hybrid and have only ever charged on a 3 pin plug.

It’s slow but works perfectly for what we need. I’d estimate that we do around 250 miles per week.

Do they? We’ve had chargers installed at two different houses now and never knowingly had the National Grid come and check it?

But a 'proper' charger is a fast charger. If you're just plugging it into a normal socket it will charge slowly and surely there wouldn't need to be any adjustment. A quick Google suggests it's perfectly safe and won't use more electricity than an electric kettle or an immersion heater, ok kettles aren't on for hours, but for a while I had to plug our immersion heater into a normal socket and there were no issues.

Selfish. Trip protectors just make the public pavement bumpy for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs. The pavement is not for your personal charging convenience. Use a proper charger

DD has an electric car which when fully charged says the range is 220 - it goes down 2 miles for every mile she drives though. Utter waste of time but she is stuck with it for another 2 years.

She charges in public chargers which isn't an issue at all, juts the actual range

We've been doing it for 6 years ...! Like the PP, we're in London with no off-street parking, but we run from an outside plug point in our garden and use a heavy-duty trip protector to cover the cable. No idea if it's actually allowed, but no one has complained (yet!). In fact, there are several cars in our road now doing the same. It is of course slow to do it that way, but I find I get around 20 miles overnight, which is fine for day-to-day use.

I don't think there's any danger with a 3-pin plug though.

A proper charger at home isn't necessarily a fast charger @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair
At home charges can charge at 7kwh max, while a fast charger somewhere else can be up to 50kwh
So while it takes me several hours overnight to charge my car, which has a 51 kwh battery, I could do it in an hour on a fast charger
the good thing though about charging at home is the low cost....both myself and DH have EVs and our electricity bill is about £100 per month, where as previously we were spending £350-£400 on petrol and diesel
And would second what a PP said about getting an EV tariff from your electricity provider - we have this and also run washing machine, dishwasher etc overnight when our electricity costs are much cheaper

@Midnightstares yeah we purchased ours via Podpoint then received a letter from the national grid saying it would need an inspection!

It's a very quiet street. And the best quality (designed to drive over in a warehouse so hardly any disturbance) cable cover. I make DH pack it in at dusk to just in case. What really brought home the beauty of EV and, yes, made me feel decidedly unselfish, was a small incident the other day. I was stopped at a corner, waiting to turn, and a dad and a very young child crossed the road immediately behind me. My initial reaction was a guilty 'oh that child is very close to the exhaust' and then I remembered there is no exhaust – so whatever the debate about EVs, the undeniable fact is that a child walking near one is not sucking in particulates or fumes. That's worth having to have a few charging apps on my phone and being a little creative on long journeys.

And it's not for long - after months of promises, the council are installing an on-street one this week!😀

We were on this situation for a while when we got our EV. Not 3 months though. I think it took about 6 weeks to get our charger installed. It's perfectly safe. VERY slow though and meant that we couldn't restrict charging to the cheap tariff so that, plus the fact that we needed to use public chargers a few times as it wasn't ready prior to longish journeys made it more expensive than it is now. It's much more convenient with a proper home charger but you can make do with a 3 pin plug. I wouldn't like to do so long term, but for a short while it's doable.

A trickle from a 3-pin plug will still be fine for this usage. A little bit annoying depending on where OP’s nearest plug socket is, but it’s only a few weeks.