Fast Charge Point at Home - Do you need one?

[Ocho]

Hello all

Got a 530e on order and looking into charging options. I have a 3 pin socket close enough to where it'll be parked at home and was looking into these fast charge options for home.

However, I'm interested to know how much I'm likely to need a faster charge? I guess it's a simple case of whether I'm likely to be running the battery right down, parking at home and then expecting to drive off somewhere again quite soon after. If not then a 3 pin should suffice perfectly well for charging overnight.

Is there any more to it than that? Any other advantages that the fast charge option gives other than the obvious faster charge? I just got thinking that if I'm going to be charging overnight most of the time then it makes no difference how I charge it, right?

Thanks in advance.
Jem

[TooMany2cvs]

9kWh battery - even from completely pancake, it won't take much more than 3-4 hours to fully charge from a 13A socket.

[covmutley]

As above. if you were having an outdoor 3 pin fitted then it may be worth getting a phase 2. But if you can use existing 3 pin, not really worth it.

[modeller]

BMW refer to the 13A charger as an OUC - Occasional use charger. It's going to be pulling 3kW for 3+hrs - is you wiring up to it?

I'd get an L2 charger and take advantage of the OLEV grant. You're then future-proofed for your next EV with a bigger battery.

[sjg]

I have a Golf GTE on the way - planning to get a charge point fitted because:

- I have no idea what state the existing sockets and wiring are in, not enough to want to pull 10+ amps for hours via it.
- dedicated charge point is typically fitted on a new dedicated circuit, with nice new wiring, to a convenient place for the car.
- OLEV grant currently covers the majority of the cost of a dedicated charge point (they pay £500, you pay between £150 and £300 depending on what you want). I can see us having at least one plug-in car going forward, and can't see that grant getting more generous over time as electric cars get more popular.

Not about speed of charging for me (not right now at least) but planning to get a 7kW charge point put in for future-proofing.

[Chris-S]

There was already one report of the OUC failing and not being replaced under warranty as it had been used regularly. That aside, the simple convenience of having a permanently installed charger is worth having one. I opted for a 7kW Rolec with tethered cable for convenience and all the reasons the last poster made. I only charge my car (C350e) at 1.9kW as I'm not in a rush. A number of good reasons to reduce the charge rate if you can.

[Ocho]

Thanks for all the replies. Lot of sense made.

I've read in a few places (including EVO that arrived this morning) that charging at night is cheaper too. I must admit to thinking that this ended some time in the nineties (wasn't it called something-7?). Is this still the case then or does it depend on my energy supplier?

If so, do the charge-points you can get under the grant have an option to set them up to come on whenever that cheaper supply kicks in?

[Heres Johnny]

Forget economy 7 in your situation, typically you pay more in the day and less at night that a good value single tariff plan, you'll probably need a new meter, and you need to shift a chunk of your usage to night time. If your take 7kwh, you're probably talking less than £1 to charge and on a E7 tariff you might save 30p at the expense of increasing your daytime consumption costs by 20%

Put it another way, it wasn't worth the hassle for me with a Tesla charging overnight and taking up to 10x the amount of electrons.

It is though an often overlooked point that unless you can charge somewhere for free, running on pure electricity will still probably cost 4-5p a mile in electricity. Charge publicly and it can cost the same as petrol.

I dare say someone will now either ignore the "unless you can charge somewhere for free" bit of that, or that if they drive at 34.6mph and have solar panels at home which they use to charge the car with or they also drive a Tesla and have super charging (which is free, see point 1) and subsequently claim it costs them much less, but that's the figure I would work on.

[modeller]

Heres Johnny said:

I dare say someone will now either ignore the "unless you can charge somewhere for free" bit of that, or that if they drive at 34.6mph and have solar panels at home which they use to charge the car with or they also drive a Tesla and have super charging (which is free, see point 1) and subsequently claim it costs them much less, but that's the figure I would work on.

E7 definitely does work for some. If you find your usage overnight is > 45% of daily kWh then it's worth looking at. Solar makes this more likely because it reduces daytime grid demand.

[Heres Johnny]

modeller said:

E7 definitely does work for some. If you find your usage overnight is > 45% of daily kWh then it's worth looking at. Solar makes this more likely because it reduces daytime grid demand.

I can't have solar panels because my property needs to fit into its environment as a barn conversion, and my roof had to remain wonky to retain its character. I wish the planners actually came out to the country to see what a barn actually looks like nowadays and relaxed a little on what people want to do.

Best i could get when I last looked was about 7p/14p on E7 and 10p on an all day tariff. The maths suggested with a following wind I might save about £50 a year which wasn't worth the hassle.

[modeller]

Heres Johnny said:

I can't have solar panels because my property needs to fit into its environment as a barn conversion, and my roof had to remain wonky to retain its character. I wish the planners actually came out to the country to see what a barn actually looks like nowadays and relaxed a little on what people want to do.

Best i could get when I last looked was about 7p/14p on E7 and 10p on an all day tariff. The maths suggested with a following wind I might save about £50 a year which wasn't worth the hassle.

I live in a conservation area ( I cannot change any external feature of my property without planning consent) and had no problems getting panels. I was told no planning required. I pay 4.99p/unit on night E7 - so my EV costs ~1p/mile.

[oop north]

Heres Johnny said:

I can't have solar panels because my property needs to fit into its environment as a barn conversion, and my roof had to remain wonky to retain its character. I wish the planners actually came out to the country to see what a barn actually looks like nowadays and relaxed a little on what people want to do.

We are in a barn conversion and we were told the same sort of thing by the local authority about ten years ago when we first moved in. I was subsequently told (quite soon after) that they were talking nonsense as ecology trumps the historical look of the property but we ran out of money and we haven't tried anything since (well, apart from getting a wind turbine ). We will get some at some point when there is some competition for tesla wall and we can (hopefully) get a solar panel and battery set up to store surplus production

[chandrew]

I ran a BEV i3 charging only on a standard electricity socket overnight. The only times it failed to be full in the morning were when I arrived home late with most of the charge depleted.

If getting one again I'd be tempted for the same. Here in Switzerland all houses have 3 phase coming in and tesla owners tend to use that without a fast charger.

I would imagine for a PHEV there would be no point in getting anything other than a standard socket unless there was no extra cost.

[gangzoom]

I lived with charging our Tesla from a normal 3 pin plug for 6 weeks till when we moved house recently.

A PHEV will charge fine from a 3 pin plug.

However I recently discovered the house we moved into has a 3 phase supply, when we get rid of my wifes combustion car having a 3 phase supply will be very hand when it comes to charging two EVs at once .

[Leggy]

Another one here for using the standard domestic supply. I have a normal external power socket and set the Amps to 8.
Has been faultless and at no additional cost.

[andy43]

Depends on the size of battery as to whether you need big powaaaah.
24 kw Leaf on 13a brick charger, plugged in at about 25% at 8am this morning, up to 80% by 2pm. Will easily do a full charge from near flat overnight. Brick permanently plugged in in garage, cable fed under door, so effectively a tethered charge cable, but free installation
If a 530e is only 9kw I wouldn't bother with a high current charger. A Tesla on the other hand.....

[Orion917]

modeller said:

BMW refer to the 13A charger as an OUC - Occasional use charger. It's going to be pulling 3kW for 3+hrs - is you wiring up to it?

I'd get an L2 charger and take advantage of the OLEV grant. You're then future-proofed for your next EV with a bigger battery.

I bottomed this out with BMW. I charge twice a day once at home and once at work, this is acceptable use as far as BMW are concerned. Their only stipulation is to not use an extension lead.

I set mine to "Reduced" charging which pulls 8amps measured at my outside socket, this is not a big load on a 13amp socket. It charges in 4 hours. The only time I could do with it quicker is on the odd occasion at the weekends when I have arrived having used all the battery and I am off out again in a couple of hours. But that is few and far between.

[austinsmirk]

the obvious advantage of a proper charging plug, is that its all waterproof, plus with ours, you get the monthly data of yr kwh use.

so if you can be bothered, you can work out what its costing.

having said that, I have an app on my phone which tracks and monitors the car (driving/energy use/cost) anyway, telling me the same thing. No idea of BMW have an E car app ?


as long as the 3 pin plug of yr lead is made waterproof, or say leads direct from within a garage, can't see the bother.

I know charging off a plug was painfully slow. when we got the proper charger- much quicker- but as everyone has said- you've only a 9 kwh battery, not a 30 (ours) to fill.

wiring wise, its off its own board/circuit which I like- not sure I'd want to pull a high current all the time through a domestic plug- but that's me just being wary.

[cheeky_chops]

had my 24kw leaf 2 years and 16k miles, only have a 3 pin plug on the side of the house. Once i forgot to charge it so couldnt go to work - i can work from home so not a issue! And one other time i wanted go somewhere and had been on a long drive that AM so used OH car

If there is a grant to get a box put in i might do it as planning to keep it a few more years. I will also recheck the dual meter/night rate but it wasnt econmical when i checked 2 years ago