Home Charging options

[WestyCarl]

Assuming no delays I'll be getting a 530e in early August, this has prompted me to start looking at a home charger.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem so simple and needs inquiries to each company, therefore I thought I'd ask PH.

What I'm after is

3.7kW
Timer (so I can use economy 7)
Tethered cable

Anyone got any good recommendations for the above?

Thanks

Carl

[essayer]

I’d get a 7kW Type 2 charger fitted on a dedicated circuit on your consumer unit. Do you have a spare slot? If not, they’ll need to fit a bit more stuff around it, but it’s worth going to 7kW to future proof yourself

Our Polar one has been fine, although it is a bit large! It’s in the garage with the cable running under the door, but can be installed outside.

For Economy 7, doesn’t the car do the scheduling?

IMO tethered is a good idea, then you don’t have to faff with cables in the boot when you get home, or drive off then realise you left your only charge cable at home..

[WestyCarl]

essayer said:

I’d get a 7kW Type 2 charger fitted on a dedicated circuit on your consumer unit. Do you have a spare slot? If not, they’ll need to fit a bit more stuff around it, but it’s worth going to 7kW to future proof yourself

Our Polar one has been fine, although it is a bit large! It’s in the garage with the cable running under the door, but can be installed outside.

For Economy 7, doesn’t the car do the scheduling?

IMO tethered is a good idea, then you don’t have to faff with cables in the boot when you get home, or drive off then realise you left your only charge cable at home..

Car does do scheduling but I'll also be plugging it in at work during the day, therefore I'd like the timer to be on the charger.

[Mr E]

WestyCarl said:

Car does do scheduling but I'll also be plugging it in at work during the day, therefore I'd like the timer to be on the charger.

My car has a simple override button that triggers “charge now”. I use that to bypass the schedule when needed.
Does the BMW not have similar (seems a very obvious usecase).

[WestyCarl]

Mr E said:

WestyCarl said:

Car does do scheduling but I'll also be plugging it in at work during the day, therefore I'd like the timer to be on the charger.

My car has a simple override button that triggers “charge now”. I use that to bypass the schedule when needed.
Does the BMW not have similar (seems a very obvious usecase).

Honestly don't know, even if it did have chances are I'd regularly forget whenever I'd plug it during the day....

[TooLateForAName]

I thought economy seven had a timer built in?

Its years since I had it but I remember a flat with storage heaters and they just came on with the e7.

[ChasW]

I had a charging point fitted for our E Golf. I needed to have an isolation switch fitted first. My electricity provider installed it at no charge. Worth checking.

[Merry]

essayer said:

IMO tethered is a good idea, then you don’t have to faff with cables in the boot when you get home, or drive off then realise you left your only charge cable at home..

Is it though? What happens if you're next EV has a different cable?

[Mr E]

WestyCarl said:

Honestly don't know, even if it did have chances are I'd regularly forget whenever I'd plug it during the day....

Given public chargers, I’d never walk away without confirming the car was pulling power.

[essayer]

Merry said:

Is it though? What happens if you're next EV has a different cable?

I’d be confident that every new EV on sale for the foreseeable future will use Type 2 AC charging.
Even the Leaf ditched Type 1. Just the Outlander left now isn’t it?

Edited by essayer on Monday 18th June 20:30

[WestyCarl]

Mr E said:

WestyCarl said:

Honestly don't know, even if it did have chances are I'd regularly forget whenever I'd plug it during the day....

Given public chargers, I’d never walk away without confirming the car was pulling power.

As it's "only" a PHEV most of the time it'll be work and home. It's a first world problem I just don't want the hassle of setting / overridding the car every time it's plugged in.

A charging unit with a built in timer is my only requirement as I've decided the box will be inside my garage with only the cable outside. Anyone have any experience with homer chargers with built in timers?

[Sleepers]

My installer informed that the chargepoint with a built in timer was not included in the OLEV grant even though almost identical price to one without...

[Rostfritt]

TooLateForAName said:

I thought economy seven had a timer built in?

Its years since I had it but I remember a flat with storage heaters and they just came on with the e7.

Your heaters would be on separate e7 circuits that are only live during e7 hours, switched by the meter itself. The charger could be wired to this circuit, but that would remove the option to charge out of those hours, which you might want to do on occasion. You might also want to make sure it is plugged in properly and not just hope it is ok at midnight or whenever it is on.

How flexible is the timer option on the car? Can you set that to charge during your e7 hours and also during work hours? Assuming you get a full charge overnight, if your car is still plugged in at home during normal office hours, ie at the weekend or when working from home or sick, it wouldn't be drawing anything anyway as the battery would already be full. Otherwise if you have got to work and plugged it in there it would be ready to charge anyway without having to change the settings or override it each time.

[craig1912]

Each time you turn the ignition off, the car asks if you want to charge now- click on yes and job done.Can also do it from the app on your phone and the BMW digital online solution has a timer so you don’t need a timer on the charger.

[WestyCarl]

craig1912 said:

Each time you turn the ignition off, the car asks if you want to charge now- click on yes and job done.Can also do it from the app on your phone and the BMW digital online solution has a timer so you don’t need a timer on the charger.

For the 530e? (I don't believe the demo model did this).

However this would be a good solution as it's a pain trying to get a timer on a home charger.

[craig1912]

I have the 330e but would have thought similiar (or not maybe given the Connected Drive issues over the last few months!)

[Merry]

essayer said:

I’d be confident that every new EV on sale for the foreseeable future will use Type 2 AC charging.
Even the Leaf ditched Type 1. Just the Outlander left now isn’t it?

Edited by essayer on Monday 18th June 20:30

Well I have got a mk1 Leaf, my charger was fitted as part of the deal when I bought it, so I probably made the right decision going untethered then!

[iain123]

How much are people paying? I appreciate that every installation is different but up here in Scotland we get the UK govs £500 quid contribution plus the Energy saving Trust £300 on top. But guess what? Installers prices seem to start from £60 on top of the total for what seems like very basic installations. Are the milking it?

[essayer]

iain123 said:

How much are people paying? I appreciate that every installation is different but up here in Scotland we get the UK govs £500 quid contribution plus the Energy saving Trust £300 on top. But guess what? Installers prices seem to start from £60 on top of the total for what seems like very basic installations. Are the milking it?

Probably. Considering a Zappi is £500, and that does intelligent PV use etc, the numbers north of that for the very simple pod point/chargemaster units are ridiculous. Half day for an electrician, unless it's complex or needs chasing in etc. Luckily I bought a ZOE so install was free!

I guess EVs would be £4500 cheaper if there was no OLEV grant..

[damiangt3]

BMW Connected Drive will allow you to schedule the timing of the charge, preconditioning and charging mode.