OVO Charge Anytime with Ohme smart charger and Porsche Taycan - is it better to go with direct to vehicle or via the smart charger?

Nice!!!

I’d suggest going for either an Indra or Ohme Charger in that case. That way you won’t need to worry too much as you can just schedule all charging via the charger and won’t need D2V at all. You can’t do both car and charger at once though

Nice post, @Meekon

If you’re considering a smart charger that’s compatible with Charge Anytime, this is worth a look:

If your car is compatible with the ‘direct to vehicle’ option that’s great. Just make sure any charger you do go for has high amps, so it can charge the EV at a decent rate. A socket style ‘granny charger’ isn’t suitable for charge anytime. 

@Tim_OVO is there a recommended minimum amps? 

@Jeffus ideally we'd recommend a 30A/32A (7kWh/7.4kWh) charger at the very least to ensure customers can make the most of flex charging.

@Meekon - sorry to contradict others here, but a dumb charger, the Charge Anytime app and a compatible car such as the Taycan are all you need. And a 32amp supply to a commando socket for your dumb charger, if you want to cut charging times to around a third of the 13 amp plug time.

As I see it, a ‘smart’ charger duplicates features the car has already. You’ve already bought those.

Above 13 amps, both  a dumb charger and a smart charger need a safe electrical supply. A NAPIT registered electrician can provide that. A dumb charger will obviously cost less than a smart charger, and will also be portable. The smart charger may have inbuilt safety features that your electrician would provide separately.

For me the advantage of Charge Anytime is that you don’t need a supplier specific charger, just a compatible car and a dumb charger. The other suppliers have specific and inflexible installation requirements. Octopus wanted to run separate electric and data cables from the meter in my house to my separate garage - that level of intrusion made them a non starter. British Gas wanted to install a specific SMETS2 smart meter. Supplier lock in is best avoided. The market is young.

@D00 glad you have your system up and running. You’re right that it’s either the charger which needs the link or the car and not necessarily both. The only thing with a basic 13A supply is that OVO can’t guarantee that the vehicle will be charged to the level set within the green slots available. That’s why that part of a supply is not recommended 

Fair point, but if you have only a 13 amp supply and are a low mileage user it’s still cheaper than a public supply. Have you seen any communication about slot availability? 

True but you can understand them wanting to make sure they can deliver a full charge when set. 
Nothing that I’ve seen about slots. I believe the system looks at generation forecast and selects the greener slots depending on where you are and your requested ready time