Electric vehicle home charging points

I hated the granny charger. It went out of the window next to where I sit between December and March so was bloody freezing and a nightmare to coil it up back into its bag!

On the look out for the best deal on an EV home charger?

Our content team has recently published this guide to the OLEV grant, which can be used on some of the great chargers, @NinjaGeek mentions in the guide above.

Got an extra EV? You could be eligible for another grant to install a second charging point:

“It’s also important to note that you aren’t eligible if you’ve claimed the grant before – even when it was known as the Domestic Recharge Scheme. But if you’ve bought an additional EV, you could claim another grant for a second chargepoint. There’s a 2-chargepoint maximum for any household”

Fortunately I went for the Ovo recommended SmartPro charger which has the Kaluza app with it. Together with my Smart Meter that’s meant I’ve been able to go onto the Drive+Anytime tariff this month so I’m only paying 5p/kWh overnight. Win-win!

So please clarify @Jess_OVO -

1: Let’s suppose a customer with no EV decided to buy two at the same time, and wanted both to have the OVO SmartPro charger…

How does the Flex Platform handle the charging schedule?

Does it wait until the evening peak is over and then charge both vehicles simultaneously at 32A each? 

Or does it charge one and then the other in order to not overload the Distribution Grid?

2: What happens if the customer already has a Nissan Leaf with a V2G charger, and then buys a second EV with a CCS connector?

If the new vehicle is to have a SmartPro charger, is there a software interlock to prevent the Leaf discharging if the customer tells the SmartPro “charge now!” ?

3: What happens if a household has two EVs, but only one has an OVO charger controlled by Flex?

How could Flex ‘know’ whether the other smart-charger is currently charging?

Or would it just go ahead with its own schedule and risk charging both vehicles at the same time?

4: Do you think that DNOs are going to approve the installation of a second smart charger at an address without having an ‘approved’ interlock to prevent simultaneous use?

Or will they just be happy to go around replacing 100A service fuses whenever a customer forgets about the two chargers and tries to use the electric shower (45A) at midnight?

Not sure I’m best placed to comment on how Kaluza’s Flex platform would manage multiple EV chargers, @Transparent.

This might be one to keep in mind for a future AMA perhaps (fingers crossed we can get that Kaluza expert booked in)

So can my 4 questions be dangled in front of Kaluza as ‘bait’ please, @Jess_OVO ?

There’s no point in the Government making pronouncements about financial subsidies for two charging points per house if there isn’t the supporting technology to prevent this pranging the Grid!

If Flex doesn’t (yet) support the required level of charger management, then Kaluza should be knocking on BEIS’ door and requesting funding to implement it!

This might be looking at things on a more macro-level, @Transparent  but I was really interested to hear about how the grid is anticipating the future of EV ownership on The Future of Energy Podcast - The road to clean.

Interesting to hear about the behavioral changes they’re suggesting too - Having access to a vehicle rather than private car ownership perhaps? 

On all new homes from 2022?

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/boris-johnson-electric-vehicles-cbi-speech-b1961700.html

Thanks for linking that one, @Jeffus.

I was actually surprised by how few public EV chargers there currently are - less than 26,000 serving the whole UK! Really highlights the current issues our EV members have described especially when heading into sparser EV areas.

On that topic - How did you find the charging availability on the Isle of Wight in the end, @juliamc? Better or worse than the picture painted by EV charging apps?

1: Whyever has HMG made that announcement now… when the only available V2G chargers are CHAdeMO (not CCS connectors)?

BEIS is well aware of the large trial conducted by OVO/Kaluza, and having widespread V2G capability is an essential plank of the UK’s future renewable energy strategy.

Yes, Indra has grant-funding to develop a CCS-compatible V2G charger, but it could still only operate universally when

a: the car manufacturers change their designs to permit it

b: the CCS Consortium ratifies the required ‘standard’, which isn’t going to be until spring 2025

2: The major house-builders, like Bovis/Vistry, Wimpy, Redrow etc who use the NHBC, will be able to ignore the directive for those new houses to have EV chargers for the next 5-10 years anyway.

They pre-register land in which they’re interested, even if they don’t yet own it. That stops the clock running on three key bits of legislation:

• Building Control standards
• SAP energy-efficiency score criteria
• NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework). Any local/regional planning requirement can be ignored by the developer because it’s not enshrined in the NPPF.

Guess which sector of the economy is the biggest donor to the current Government?!