New to EV’s / home chargers.

[Jonno02]

Hi guys,

Ordered our first EV today, a Tesla model 3 long range. Now looking at getting a home charger set up.

SWMBO has requested a charger that logs the usage so we can determine how much the car is costing. It’s her car and she wants to cover the fuel bill as if she was filling up a normal car.

Any recommendations? Or is this not really a thing?

Cheers.

[stef1808]

Tesla app does that under charge stats. Shows total charged for each month, total spent, petrol saving etc

[tamore]

most chargers have an app which will do this too. then you get into the world of chargers that can take advantage of smart tariffs, solar PV, etc

[Blockbuster]

Zappi definitely does it in the app. I would suspect most others would as well.

[pills]

I've got a Zappi, works well with the app, if you have or are considering solar it works well with too.

[Jonno02]

Great, thanks so much all.

[Hill92]

stef1808 said:

Tesla app does that under charge stats. Shows total charged for each month, total spent, petrol saving etc

Just to be clear OP - this is using the Tesla app with the car. You don't need to specifically have a Tesla charger to get the stats.

[lazybill]

I have a Hypervolt charger, via the app you can generate tailored reports

[CheesecakeRunner]

stef1808 said:

Tesla app does that under charge stats. Shows total charged for each month, total spent, petrol saving etc

Only if you own the car or lease through Tesla. If you lease through a third party, you get a driver account that doesn’t show this information.

[carl_w]

Ohme charger and app does this, at least it does with Octopus Energy.

[kambites]

How does the Tesla know how much the electricity it's using costs? Is there a protocol for that built into the charging standard?

[stef1808]

kambites said:

How does the Tesla know how much the electricity it's using costs? Is there a protocol for that built into the charging standard?

You enter the electricity costs yourself and it gets petrol prices automatically online to compare

[kambites]

stef1808 said:

kambites said:

How does the Tesla know how much the electricity it's using costs? Is there a protocol for that built into the charging standard?

You enter the electricity costs yourself and it gets petrol prices automatically online to compare

Ah OK, so it can't deal with electricity tariffs which dynamically change the amount you're paying based on grid load.

[Hill92]

kambites said:

Ah OK, so it can't deal with electricity tariffs which dynamically change the amount you're paying based on grid load.

No. Not sure any charger app is currently set up to do that. You may have to look at an app from your energy supplier instead.

[kambites]

Hill92 said:

kambites said:

Ah OK, so it can't deal with electricity tariffs which dynamically change the amount you're paying based on grid load.

No. Not sure any charger app is currently set up to do that. You may have to look at an app from your energy supplier instead.

I suspected that was the case. Clearly smart meters know because they report real-time costs to the user, but as far as I know there's no standard protocol to get that information from the smart meter out to client devices.

It would be a useful feature to have built into a car/charger because it would allow those with dynamic tariffs to say "only charge when the unit rate is below X p/kWh".

Edited by kambites on Thursday 27th July 13:24

[carl_w]

kambites said:

I suspected that was the case. Clearly smart meters know because they report real-time costs to the user, but as far as I know there's no standard protocol to get that information from the smart meter out to client devices.

It would be a useful feature to have built into a car/charger because it would allow those with dynamic tariffs to say "only charge when the unit rate is below X p/kWh".

Edited by kambites on Thursday 27th July 13:24

I've just switched to Intelligent Octopus (in the last hour) and set the Ohme Home Pro to not charge when the price is more than 10p/kWh. Let's see if it works out.

[kambites]

Ah so there are chargers which can do it. Do you know where it gets its data from? Did you have to somehow connect the charger to Octopus, or does it talk to the meter?

ETA: Ah it looks like Agile Octopus integrates with IFTTT, so you can integrate the real-time cost of electricity into all sorts of smart devices.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 27th July 15:16

[carl_w]

kambites said:

Ah so there are chargers which can do it. Do you know where it gets its data from? Did you have to somehow connect the charger to Octopus, or does it talk to the meter?

ETA: Ah it looks like Agile Octopus integrates with IFTTT, so you can integrate the real-time cost of electricity into all sorts of smart devices.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 27th July 15:16

Oops, now I've read the instructions and I'm not supposed to do that. I'm supposed to create a charging schedule (x% of juice by y:00 am) and then it will charge whenever the price is low, but definitely in 5 hours between 11:30pm and 5:30 am.

I don't know how it works, I assume the charger (bought from Octopus) has a SIM in it and Octopus contacts it to start the charging.

[James6112]

Quick question regarding chargers ..

My wife has a Volvo xc40 phev on order (friend gets staff discount)
I intend getting a Tesla 3 soon, when I decide if to buy now or wait for the updated version!

What’s the charger to go for please?

I have a 32a cable run in back to the fuse box during building work, the other side of the wall to where charger will go.

Currently with EDF flexi so can switch suppliers

I know the answer will be in the thread but it’s pretty fast moving!

[NDA]

Jonno02 said:

Hi guys,

Ordered our first EV today, a Tesla model 3 long range. Now looking at getting a home charger set up.

SWMBO has requested a charger that logs the usage so we can determine how much the car is costing. It’s her car and she wants to cover the fuel bill as if she was filling up a normal car.

Any recommendations? Or is this not really a thing?

Cheers.

I have the same car.... but I put a 32amp commando socket in my garage as I figured the car did the smart stuff (which it does) and I have no need to talk to the socket (the car does that) or have the socket ever be able to talk to the electricity provider.

3 years later and 35,000 miles and never had a problem.

Initially I was very interested in what it cost and what I was saving - nowadays I have zero interest. It's a lot cheaper than petrol and it is what it is.

As above, the Tesla app will give you the costs - you enter any normal/off peak electricity costs, the times of normal/off peak and you get a detailed break down as often as you need.