Get off your high horse. I'm pretty sure @CXRAndy or @Electric_Andy has done exactly this. It's not rocket science, it just requires fitting a socket via an RCD to the consumer unit I think. I'm not an electrician but I don't think it's hard. The car does most of the busy work.
EV Owners Thread
- Thread starter icowden
- Start date
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Legs
usually riding on Zwift...
- Location
- Staffordshire
So I took the MG4 down from Uttoxeter to Newbury on Friday morning to visit my parents and my bro’s family (my elder son had a sleepover with his cousins, and I got to see my dad who’d had a spell in hospital with Covid/pneumonia before Christmas).
We left on fully charged with 200 miles of projected range and got there 140 miles later at just under 30%. I plugged in the granny charger but we only got 1.8kW recharge rate. I only set it going on Friday evening, after their expensive 4-7pm tariff window had passed, which might have been a mistake…. By morning, we were nearly at enough charge to get home, but I needed to drive a further 35 miles to Basingstoke and back to collect Andrew (and to do parkrun…)
So in the end, on returning to Newbury, I dropped my car at Tesco to use a podpoint charger for a couple of hours (£11.50) - although it was a 22kW device, either my car or my cable caps the rate at ~10kW.
My mum came to give Andrew and me a lift back home. I turned their compost heap and did a couple of odd jobs before Mum gave us all a lift back up the hill to collect my car, by then 87% charged, which was plenty to return home just before the snow began.
In summary, although from a money pov it worked out cheaper to take the MG4 than our diesel-engined Kia, it was a bit of a ball-ache and I’ve learned that the trickle-charging at my parents’ is desperately slow. In the summertime, with only a little bit of juice being needed at the other end, it would probably be much more convenient.
We left on fully charged with 200 miles of projected range and got there 140 miles later at just under 30%. I plugged in the granny charger but we only got 1.8kW recharge rate. I only set it going on Friday evening, after their expensive 4-7pm tariff window had passed, which might have been a mistake…. By morning, we were nearly at enough charge to get home, but I needed to drive a further 35 miles to Basingstoke and back to collect Andrew (and to do parkrun…)
So in the end, on returning to Newbury, I dropped my car at Tesco to use a podpoint charger for a couple of hours (£11.50) - although it was a 22kW device, either my car or my cable caps the rate at ~10kW.
My mum came to give Andrew and me a lift back home. I turned their compost heap and did a couple of odd jobs before Mum gave us all a lift back up the hill to collect my car, by then 87% charged, which was plenty to return home just before the snow began.
In summary, although from a money pov it worked out cheaper to take the MG4 than our diesel-engined Kia, it was a bit of a ball-ache and I’ve learned that the trickle-charging at my parents’ is desperately slow. In the summertime, with only a little bit of juice being needed at the other end, it would probably be much more convenient.
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Depends on the range, we’ve been away for a week and it’s been no hassle but ours has a 300 mile range
Tim, you need to check whether its the lead that came with your car is throttling charge rate to 1.8kW or your Dad's supply. If the socket is on a spur with a long cable run, it could be dropping the voltage down and the car detects this.
Home charging even with the most expensive day tariffs is still less than half the cost of a rapid charger. I immediately plug in my lead when arriving at a destination, let it trickle for as long as possible.
Reading some further specifications the MG4 has a VTG/H capability of 2.2kW, so maybe 1.8kW is not unusual. I would have thought nearer to 3kW- happy to be corrected on this point
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potsy
Rambler
- Location
- My Armchair
Is it white?
Just seen one whilst out shopping and said I hadn't heard of them before.
Looked like everything else sadly
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Is it white?
Just seen one whilst out shopping and said I hadn't heard of them before.
Looked like everything else sadly
Yes, and usually driven badly
That's about normal. I'd put it on straight away and just offer them a £5 to cover any additional leccy costs.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
So are you going back on the claim he built a charger?
Or now saying he wired in a charger, big difference. I do hope this builder is an electrician that's trained to 18th Edition Regulations, or perhaps he subbed it out to a sparky, or once again the house insurer may have some say in the matter should it all go Pete Tong
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
Exactly that. Get the car changed asap. It will still be cheaper than going to a public charger.
About a tenth of the cost if you are on a decent overnight tariff
If you are using a granny charger at the parents house, it's unlikely that they will be on an ultra-cheap overnight tariff, and the point is that you need to trickle 24/7 when you can. The cost is still quite low.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
So basically it's a 32A socket on the wall, so the car has the charger built in, you just connect a fly lead between wall socket & car socket which sends 240V to the car, the actual charger/BMS & CAN Bus control are built into the car, as opposed to a charger on the wall that connects directly to the battery, with CAN Bus control over the charge cycle
