Which electricity co is best for smart meter EV charging

[sidekickdmr]

We got our tesla in June, knowing it was coming we moved to octopus energy in May to get this live for the delivery date. On their home page it says "sign up now and once this is done you can move to a EV package and get a smart meter installed or some such.

Once we moved it over, they told us there were no engineers available at the moment in the area, and to check back every monday for new appointments, 3 months later, numerous calls and complaints later we were no closer to getting this sorted

So left to move to British gas, it was slightly more expensive, but they said you could book a smart meter install same day, this went well, and despite the fact the next appointment wasn't for 4 weeks, we booked it and dealt with the wait.

The day before the smart meter appointment, we check the app and the appointment is gone, call them, and we get some bull excuse about the account not being transferred from octopus in time, and now we are back at square one, need to wait 30 days for a 'cooling off' period to finish before we can even book an appt, and that may be fruitless at this point.....

---

TLDR - Octopus and British gas are useless

Who are you using that offers cheap night charging, and do I NEED a smart meter?

[gmaz]

Yes, you need a smart meter.

Octopus are quite responsive to posts on X/twitter so you may find some progress by complaining on there

[alishutc]

I use OVO Charge Anytime. Still needs a smart meter though.

[Discombobulate]

Octopus are leagues ahead of anyone in my experience. But you need a smart meter and as new customer will have to join the queue.
We waited six months for ours with EDF. Switched to Octopus when we got an EV a year later. Never looked back.

[Nomme de Plum]

I use Octopus and they have been fine and very responsive.

Ohme pro charger installed.

[clockworks]

I think it's best to get the smart meter installed first, by your existing supplier.

Once that's done, and, importantly, sending readings, look at switching.

Octopus have been fine for me, with Go being the best tariff (not got a car of charger that works with Intelligent Go).

[page3]

Do not simply assume that an “EV tariff” will be the cheapest for you. For example, we have two EVs and both Octopus EV tariffs are significantly more expensive than their tracker tariff, even when taking in to account shifting as much usage as we can in to off-peak periods.

[tendown]

I was with British gas and wanted to book a smart meter fitting but they had no appointments.

I got in touch with octopus and on 10th October they said they were booking smart meter fittings for 5th November.

I completed the switch to octopus and the smart meter was fitted yesterday (6th Nov).

So in the east midlands i reckon octopus is the better option.

[Actual]

Most will say that Octopus the best for EV charging and they are probably right.

When we moved here it was already Octopus on Economy 7 and a very expensive daytime tariff and Octopus would not change to a single rate or fit a smart meter.

I switched to British Gas who allowed a single rate.

British Gas did not have any smart meter install availability so I booked an engineer to install an isolator and got him to install a smart meter at the same time.

I changed to British Gas EV tariff.

I installed a Hive EO Mini Pro 3 EV Charger and now overnight EV charging with British Gas Free Charge is FREE.

British Gas also do Demand Flexibility discounts and half price on Sundays.

I probably need to switch to Octopus.

[RayDonovan]

No issues with Eon. They've been surprisingly helpful when I've needed to speak with them.

[-Cappo-]

page3 said:

Do not simply assume that an “EV tariff” will be the cheapest for you. For example, we have two EVs and both Octopus EV tariffs are significantly more expensive than their tracker tariff, even when taking in to account shifting as much usage as we can in to off-peak periods.

I moved to Octopus recently as I had an EV incoming, and I'm now on IOG (Hypervolt charger, VW ID.7). I've queried whether they can see my smart meter OK, which they say they can, as the bills I've seen so far don't show the car on a separate tariff. I'm supposed to be on something like 26p day rate and 7p night & car rate. Apparently the rest of the house only gets the 7p rate between 2330 & 0530 - I though there was some wrinkle where the house got the 7p rate when the car was charging even if that wasn't during the off peak hours (which the car does)? Anyway, I'm about 2 months into Octopus and I currently have no view on whether my tariffs are competitive or not!

[Big Nanas]

Another vote for OVO with their 'Charge Anytime' add on.
Benefits being, the Charge Anytime add-on is separate from your main tariff. Plus it's available 24/7, not just in an overnight window.
They also have quite a lot of good promotions, including 1000 miles free EV miles etc.

They've been perfect for our two EVs for the past two years.

[Ankh87]

Can someone tell me why a smart meter is needed if you're on the cheaper rate? I don't mean the flexible one, I mean the one where 5 hours during the night is like 7p.

Back in the day there was economy7 or whatever which was cheaper during the night which did not require a smart meter. It's not like the energy companies can't use their own systems to see you using more electricity at 1am or whenever.

[samoht]

Ankh87 said:

Can someone tell me why a smart meter is needed if you're on the cheaper rate? I don't mean the flexible one, I mean the one where 5 hours during the night is like 7p.

Back in the day there was economy7 or whatever which was cheaper during the night which did not require a smart meter. It's not like the energy companies can't use their own systems to see you using more electricity at 1am or whenever.

The Economy 7 tariff requires a special Economy 7 electricity meter. This meter has a clock inside so it can toggle between logging electricity used as 'day' and 'night' on two separate counters, these two separate usage totals can then be charged at the two separate rates.

This means the tariff times are effectively 'locked in' to the meter itself, so it's somewhat inflexible and in some cases won't change when the clocks go backward and forward.

If you're going to go to the trouble of charging different rates at different times, nowadays it's much simpler and more flexible to have a smart meter which logs usage per 30 minutes, and you can then change between different tariffs seamlessly and charge each 30 minute block accordingly.

I don't think you could get a traditional 'dumb' Economy 7 meter newly installed today, but if you already had one then you could certainly use it to charge an EV overnight at the lower rate.


The electricity companies have no way of knowing how much electricity each individual household is using except via your electricity meter. That's why the meters exist in the first place. They'll know the load on each substation, but beyond that it's just a big copper wire connecting all the homes on a street or whatever, they don't know who's using the power except by what the meters tell them.

[Pistonheadsdicoverer]

-Cappo- said:

I moved to Octopus recently as I had an EV incoming, and I'm now on IOG (Hypervolt charger, VW ID.7). I've queried whether they can see my smart meter OK, which they say they can, as the bills I've seen so far don't show the car on a separate tariff. I'm supposed to be on something like 26p day rate and 7p night & car rate. Apparently the rest of the house only gets the 7p rate between 2330 & 0530 - I though there was some wrinkle where the house got the 7p rate when the car was charging even if that wasn't during the off peak hours (which the car does)? Anyway, I'm about 2 months into Octopus and I currently have no view on whether my tariffs are competitive or not!

It won't show the car on a different tariff. It will just show one bill and that's it.
Octopus won't charge the car UNLESS you boost it (force it to do so) or Octopus decides to charge when there is excess power on the grid or if you are charging between 2330 and 0530. It usually sets a schedule via the octopus app and informs you when it will be ready.

[-Cappo-]

Pistonheadsdicoverer said:

-Cappo- said:

I moved to Octopus recently as I had an EV incoming, and I'm now on IOG (Hypervolt charger, VW ID.7). I've queried whether they can see my smart meter OK, which they say they can, as the bills I've seen so far don't show the car on a separate tariff. I'm supposed to be on something like 26p day rate and 7p night & car rate. Apparently the rest of the house only gets the 7p rate between 2330 & 0530 - I though there was some wrinkle where the house got the 7p rate when the car was charging even if that wasn't during the off peak hours (which the car does)? Anyway, I'm about 2 months into Octopus and I currently have no view on whether my tariffs are competitive or not!

It won't show the car on a different tariff. It will just show one bill and that's it.
Octopus won't charge the car UNLESS you boost it (force it to do so) or Octopus decides to charge when there is excess power on the grid or if you are charging between 2330 and 0530. It usually sets a schedule via the octopus app and informs you when it will be ready.

Thanks, that makes sense and is broadly what I thought, I just expected to be able to check that they're charging correctly for the car, when they can charge at random times and intervals during a 24 hour period.

I'm sure I previously heard about getting the cheap tariff at other times of the day, but maybe that was an old tariff which they don't offer any more.

[Actual]

Ankh87 said:

economy7...

Careful what you wish for...

When we moved here ours was a dual rate meter and the Economy 7 tariff with Octopus was
Unit rate (day) 62.43p per kWh
Unit rate (night) 33.71p per kWh

Octopus would not let us change to a single rate tariff.

I changed to British Gas with a single rate tariff
Any Time unit rate: 33.98p per kWh

I had British Gas install a smart meter and changed to an EV tariff
Peak unit rate: 30.732p per kWh
Off Peak unit rate: 9.400p per kWh

The British Gas EV tariff is now even cheaper.

[TheDeuce]

Actual said:

Ankh87 said:

economy7...

Careful what you wish for...

When we moved here ours was a dual rate meter and the Economy 7 tariff with Octopus was
Unit rate (day) 62.43p per kWh
Unit rate (night) 33.71p per kWh

Octopus would not let us change to a single rate tariff.

I changed to British Gas with a single rate tariff
Any Time unit rate: 33.98p per kWh

I had British Gas install a smart meter and changed to an EV tariff
Peak unit rate: 30.732p per kWh
Off Peak unit rate: 9.400p per kWh

The British Gas EV tariff is now even cheaper.

I assume you could just swap back to Octopus now and get even cheaper day/night rates - the BG ones you quote are quite pricey. Also the extra hours etc with intelligent octopus.


To the OP: Get a smart charger fitted by whoever can do it soonest, then swap to whoever actually offers the best rate ASAP - most likely Intelligent Octopus for most people/homes with an EV, although there are exception where you could save (literally) a few quid with other suppliers deals.

[Richtea1970]

-Cappo- said:

Thanks, that makes sense and is broadly what I thought, I just expected to be able to check that they're charging correctly for the car, when they can charge at random times and intervals during a 24 hour period.

I'm sure I previously heard about getting the cheap tariff at other times of the day, but maybe that was an old tariff which they don't offer any more.

That’s correct, whenever your car is charging at the low rate (outside of the ‘normal’ 11.30pm til 5.30am cheap slot), everything you use in the house will be at the low rate

[Alex Z]

samoht said:

Ankh87 said:

Can someone tell me why a smart meter is needed if you're on the cheaper rate? I don't mean the flexible one, I mean the one where 5 hours during the night is like 7p.

Back in the day there was economy7 or whatever which was cheaper during the night which did not require a smart meter. It's not like the energy companies can't use their own systems to see you using more electricity at 1am or whenever.

The Economy 7 tariff requires a special Economy 7 electricity meter. This meter has a clock inside so it can toggle between logging electricity used as 'day' and 'night' on two separate counters, these two separate usage totals can then be charged at the two separate rates.

This means the tariff times are effectively 'locked in' to the meter itself, so it's somewhat inflexible and in some cases won't change when the clocks go backward and forward.

If you're going to go to the trouble of charging different rates at different times, nowadays it's much simpler and more flexible to have a smart meter which logs usage per 30 minutes, and you can then change between different tariffs seamlessly and charge each 30 minute block accordingly.

I don't think you could get a traditional 'dumb' Economy 7 meter newly installed today, but if you already had one then you could certainly use it to charge an EV overnight at the lower rate.


The electricity companies have no way of knowing how much electricity each individual household is using except via your electricity meter. That's why the meters exist in the first place. They'll know the load on each substation, but beyond that it's just a big copper wire connecting all the homes on a street or whatever, they don't know who's using the power except by what the meters tell them.

At least some of the Economy 7 meters used a radio signal to switch between tariffs. The transmitters in Droitwich are still used for this.