New owner, home charging

[sipaldi]

Hi All,
Collecting a new to me PHEV saturday and am looking to get my home charging organised.

I was contemplating the £799 home charging box (less the £500) plus any extra charges incurred as my meter is on the opposite side of the house from my vehicle parking.
Now I am thinking, why don't I just use the 3 pin charger supplied and fit an external 240v socket with a suitable watertight box to house the "brick"? I sleep at least 8 hours so It really does not matter if the vehicle charges in 5 hours or 3 hours.

Am I correct in thinking this is my cheapest and best option? Any negatives?

My daily commute is under 6 miles and I am also running it as my company vehicle.

Thanks ,
Phil

 

[Artleknock]

I use the 13amp socket just inside the garage door. The cable from the granny charger runs under the garage door so no one can nick anything. Set the timer in the car to charge from 'Midnight to Full'. Bobs your uncle.

 

[BrianTheSnail]

You can definitely get by just with the supplied charging cable.

We bought a basic 15A charger to use at home and we find the faster charging rate helps on days when we make more than one trip, which is most weekend days; if you want to maximise EV usage then the faster charger gives more chance of getting the battery full again in between trips on these days. If you're not bothered about that and just want to charge overnight then it's probably not worth it (many people feel that it's a hybrid, you're going to use some petrol anyway, so there's no point agonising over trying to maximise battery use).

Having a dedicated home charger does also mean that the regular charge cable can live in the car, so if you do ever happen to be stopping somewhere where you can use it you always have it with you, but in practice we've rarely encountered that situation.

Enjoy the PHEV!

 

[jaapv]

Hi All,
Collecting a new to me PHEV saturday and am looking to get my home charging organised.

I was contemplating the £799 home charging box (less the £500) plus any extra charges incurred as my meter is on the opposite side of the house from my vehicle parking.
Now I am thinking, why don't I just use the 3 pin charger supplied and fit an external 240v socket with a suitable watertight box to house the "brick"? I sleep at least 8 hours so It really does not matter if the vehicle charges in 5 hours or 3 hours.

Am I correct in thinking this is my cheapest and best option? Any negatives?

My daily commute is under 6 miles and I am also running it as my company vehicle.

Thanks ,
Phil

Makes sense to me.

 

[sipaldi]

Thanks Guys

I think thats the route I shall go then. I will get an electrician to do the work. I have a spare cable which once fed my electric shower direct from the fuse box in my loft. I think he should be fine using that. Probably have to run in down the external wall from the loft though.

I will have to wait until I pick the vehicle up as the plan is to use one of the waterproof lockable ip rated boxes and place the charger brick in there overnight whist charging. I will have to ensure the IP weatherproof box is large enough to take it. I have seen some which are 300mm long.

I will be using the vehicle at the weekends so will have to check what fitment Aldi etc use as that would be my nearest public charger.

 

[user 3575]

I am going to order a 7kWh tethered Pod Point start on March £290

 

[ThudnBlundr]

One reason to put in a charger is to take advantage of the free OLEV cash to get a charger fitted. You, or whoever owns the house in the future, will definitely be buying an EV in the future, so why not get the charger fitted now while the free cash is available?

We already had a charge point fitted for our Zoe, and we used to charge the PHEV from a 13A socket inside the garage. But like many others, our plug started to run hot in the summer, so we bought a type 1 to type 2 cable and share the charge point between the 2 cars. I've had the socket apart, and took apart and reassembled all the connections, so we should be OK using it in an emergency

 

[sipaldi]

Hmmm......
I see where you are coming from too.

I imagine it will cost me more to fit the car charger than £300 though.

Who have you guys used? The dealer mentioned Chargemaster and to get untethered if I was to go this route.

I could get them in to quote I suppose but I have to lay the cash out first I think?

Thing is, my useage is local through the week. I would only exceed the 25 miles battery limit at weekends and then there is not much I can do about it.

Does worry me if the supplied charger overheats.

 

[jaapv]

Only very few tend to overheat.

 

[user 3575]

We ordered a new Outlander PHEV on the Motability scheme today, now we have the Mitsubishi order form we decide to order a 7kWh tethered PodPoint £270 just in case they remove the £500 in the March 11th Budget. Just need to amend my Octopus Energy account to OctopusGo off peak 0.30am - 04.30am 5 pence @ kWh that's £0.50 for 25 miles

 

[ThudnBlundr]

In the UK, the quote comes with the OLEV grant factored in, and the supplier claims the grant, so you justmake one payment to the supplier. The survey should not cost you - our Chargemaster survey was done with some photos of the distribution box and the area where we wanted the point sited and no site visit.

 

[sipaldi]

Thanks Thud,

You seem a very knowledgeable chap, which would you recommend please, POD Point or Chargemaster?

I am leaning towards an unthethered pod point as it seems I will receive free membership to their public sites? The local public ones to me, Aldi/Lidl appear to be pod point and I will need membership to use them?

Thanks again, sorry for all the questions. Pick the vehicle up saturday.

 

[mbasjm]

I'm in North America and ended up buying this:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07KQZWPD1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There is probably a UK equivalent? This was a great price, and cut the charging time in half compared to the stock charger.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Sorry - I missed your reply.

We went with Chargemaster, but only because that's what Renault recommended when we bought a secondhand Zoe. We went untethered which was useful when we bought the PHEV, as their charging cables are incompatible. The Zoe has a Type 2 connection and the PHEV has a Type 1. Type 2 is far more common in Europe and I think the PHEV is the only car now on sale in the UK with a Type 1 charger. Don't go for a tethered type 1 unless you're happy to replace it with a tethered type 2 when you buy your next EV.

 

[littlescrote]

Does worry me if the supplied charger overheats.

it's not the 'charger' (brick) that tends to over heat, it's the contacts of the plug/socket and you might care if it starts a fire. also, the granny chargers are not cheap to replace, although they are generally serviceable.

 

[GerritPhev]

I have the solution with the 230v socket at the wall with the “brick” hanging at his cable. I have a bold cable to the socket so it doesn’t get warm. For now i am happy whit this (i am a “fresh” phev driver, so mayby in the future i think different, but for now