Charging Use Spike - 326 kw in one hour!

[Dorsetsi]

I have just provided meter readings to my energy supplier (Pure Planet) and was warned that my electricity use was significantly higher than expected in December. I have a home smart charger provided by ChargedEV, utilising the Kaluza app. I checked the app to look at the charge history in the month and found a very high usage spike of 326 kwh in one hour on the 12th of December. Obviously, it is impossible for my car to have used this much energy to charge, however this usage seems to be reflected in my actual usage on my electricity meter. I have contacted both the energy supplier to investigating, as well as the smart charger supplier.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before, or any ideas how this could have happened? The charge used £46 of electricity in one go...pretty much double my usual monthly usage!

I have had the charger since April when I got my Nissan Leaf and this has not happened before, so I am hoping this is not something specific to the Outlander PHEV.

 

[jaapv]

I thionk something went very wrong with the measuring by your meter or supplier. If the car or the charger had pulled 326 kWh in one hour, your house would be a smouldering ruin.

 

[greendwarf]

Aliens refuelling? :lol:

 

[STS134]

Assuming 240V, single phase electricity, you'd have to be drawing an average of 1358A to consume 326 kWh in one hour. That's literally off the scale in charts indicating ampacity vs. wire gauge size.

 

[michael8554]

Charging the Flux Capacitor perhaps........?

 

[BrianTheSnail]

As others have pointed out, it's physically impossible for you to have consumed that amount of energy. Your ChargedEV charger is at most 7kW (32A) - possibly less, depending on your wiring. Assuming it's wired for the full 7kW, the most it could possibly deliver in an hour is 7kWh (although not to the Outlander). If some fault caused it to draw more current than the maximum 32A then the circuit breaker would trip immediately. The main fuse protecting your whole house is almost certainly less than 100A - so the most your home could ever consume in one hour without blowing its main fuse would be less than 25kWh. It should be obvious to your electricity provider that the meter reading is wrong.

The strange thing is if your EV app and your smart meter say the same thing - I've no idea how that could happen with such an obviously wrong reading.

 

[Tai626]

To put in the energy prospective:

326kWh = 9.7 US gallons = 35 liters of gas (petro).

I think we can fill this amount of gas in our PHEV in 5min.

It is not that alien like anymore

Tai