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Home Charging Methods & Tariffs in the UK

Dabz

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I’m with OVO, commando socket for 7kw charging using the Porsche charher…but sadly because we have solar panels we can’t use Charge Anytime. Instead I’m waiting on a solar compatible charger to be installed when I’d far rather continue using the dumb but simple Porsche one
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D00notD00d

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How odd. We registered my wife’s Evoque hybrid and just said we didn’t have any of their listed chargers. It worked with no issues. We don’t use the intelligent charging because it doesn’t take account of our house battery / solar system. But there was no issue registering the car with a test charge using my supplied Porsche charger running off a 13A socket. We have no extra data cables etc.
The Octopus sign up journey seems to push you towards Octopus Intelligence. My understanding on speaking to them about the installation quote was to get this tariff, I’d need a specific charger, mains and data cabling. Octopus Go was probably available to me but the reduced tariff only has a 4hr window and the standard day rate is more than OVO’s. Others here have said that the Octopus day rate is being reduced from July. But on Go, that still leaves you with a narrow 4hr charge window that may not be long enough to get you to the charge % you need for the next day. There’s much devil in the detail, which is why I thought sharing experiences here would be useful
 

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For those who’ve been informed of the new lower rates for Intelligent, were you already on it? I’m on a GO tariff expiring in 3 weeks and Octopus keep pushing Intelligent but with day rates far in excess of what you’re being quoted. Their CS reps don’t seem to know anything about it either so at the mo it looks like we’re off to OVO in a few weeks.
 

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I went over to Octopus 6 weeks ago and onto OI soon after. I was told about the fall in rates a few days ago. We don’t use the intelligent charging, just the cheap overnight rate
 
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I was also on OI already when I was informed of the new pricing. I’m pretty sure it, or a version of it, will be applied to all OI customers however. They do seem to be trying to get customers off the Go tariff.
 
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A long story, but hopefully sharing my experience will be useful to others buying their first EV and looking at home charging methods and tariffs. All of this was new to me. Please let me know if you found a better option.

Background

I recently replaced my 911 C4S with a Taycan 4S. I’d wanted a 911 since I had one on my bedroom wall as a kid. The 911 gave me memories of some great drives, but was spending more time cosseted in the garage, being used only as a treat. I wanted something more usable. If I could afford a different car for every day of the week, one of those would definitely be a naturally aspirated 911. Almost nothing beats being connected to a 911.

Home Charging Methods & Tariffs in the UK

I soon realised that while faster, public charging costs are up to 10x those of the cheapest home rate. Just to be safe, I had acquired around 8 new charge point apps and RFID cards before my first long trip in the Taycan.

After comparing the EV and day rates, and installation requirements of Octopus, EDF, British Gas and OVO, I plumped for OVO Charge Anytime. At 10p, their EV rate isn’t the cheapest, but, swings and roundabouts, most day rates are higher than OVO’s 30p - which matches the cheapest public charge rate I had found (other than secret free ones). And for some EVs, including Taycan, the OVO physical installation requirements are zero.

The cheapest EV rate is provided by Octopus Intelligence - 7.5p for a narrow 6hr overnight period. But their day rate is 40p, compared to OVO’s 30p. Also, Octopus seem to have a one size fits all charger installation requirement,where they want to run additional electric and data cables from your smart meter to one of their specific compatible chargers. I already had a 40 amp supply to my separate garage and didn’t fancy digging up the drive to lay more cables. Also, the Taycan came with the dumb Porsche Mobile Connect Charger, so I didn’t want/need to buy another charger.

The cheapest Octopus rate of 7.5p isn’t yet available to Taycan drivers, so meanwhile they’ll sell you their ‘Go’ product, with a 9.5p EV rate and a 40p day rate. British Gas wanted to fit a British Gas specific Smart Meter, despite SMETS2 meters allegedly being compatible with all suppliers.

OVO Charge Anytime (10p EV rate, 30p standard ) is a fairly new product. Unlike the others, it relies on an app and integration with a compatible Car rather than with a ‘smart’ charger. If your car isn’t compatible, a specific smart charger is required. Fortunately the Taycan is compatible - although in seeking verbal confirmation of this, their Customer Service team initially said it may not be and essentially, I had to suck it and see. I had to escalate to get the web site info confirmed before switching from EON to OVO. EON will sell you and install a charger, but don’t yet have a reduced tariff for EVs(!).

I didn’t yet have a smart meter, having resisted to avoid the possibility of supplier tie in. To avoid wait times, forums recommended getting your existing supplier rather than one with a specific EV tariff to install a smart meter before switching. The lead time for EON to install a smart meter was only 2 weeks rather than the months that other providers with in demand EV tariffs can take.

EON’s smart meter installation was smooth and despite our rural location, connectivity was instant.

Once the smart meter was installed, I switched from EON to OVO, having first paid off the outstanding EON balance to avoid any snags there. The switch to OVO was completed within 2 days and was trouble free.

The day following the switch, I downloaded and installed the OVO Charge Anytime app. This integrates with your OVO Account, your Porsche Connect/My Porsche account and another OVO/SSE system called Kaluza.

In the OVO Charge Anytime app you schedule your required charge percentage and completion time. Any profiles/timers on your Taycan will override those you instruct in the app. As the product name implies, charging can occur Anytime and isn’t necessarily restricted to a narrow overnight window. The Kaluza system will talk to your car to complete your charging instruction and arrange charging according to supplier capacity - which may not just be overnight. E.g. if you plug in at 6pm with target completion of 9am it can spread the charge across that period, at the reduced rate. If you want to override your schedule, you can set the app to start an ad-hoc urgent charge, at the 30p rather than 10p rate.

I definitely wasn’t expecting an integration across multiple systems and the car to work first time, but it just did.

I’ve not yet seen my first monthly bill with charging credit applied (the back office OVO and Kaluza systems log your EV charging hours and deduct 20p from the standard 30p unit cost). But for me this proved that with a simple 32 amp supply to a commando socket, you can use a dumb charger to charge a Taycan at 10p per unit, while still having a standard day rate, and avoiding tie in to suppliers and their specific and expensive smart chargers and installation costs. The market is young and evolving, todays ‘smart’ chargers will be overtaken.

In my case I’m using the dumb but very expensive Porsche charger, others are available for a few hundred pounds. Similarly you can get a lead to extend the Porsche one way cheaper than the £700 they charge.

Even if you can only charge with a 13amp plug, the OVO tariff may still be worthwhile.
Hi, I’m sure youve worked it out by now but no need to ever start a ‘urgent charge’ on OVO charge anytime and charge at the park rate, just adjust the ‘ready by’ time and it will start charging regardless of time of day and all at the cheap rate. When comparing to other tariffs this has really been a key differentiator as I know I can charge a whole battery at 10p a kw when ever I want.
 
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Nickj

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I've been on OVO anytime for about 3-4 months and you do end up with the full monthly credit back to 10p but initially they forgot to refund the VAT - this has been sorted now and they refunded all the VAT and a £10 apology credit.
For me, the OVO deal means I can plug in anytime and generally it charges straight away @ 10p/kwh linked to my included Porsche 3 pin charger. If you need a fast charge though this system might not be for you as it only gives about 2.5kw/h charge but I'm a relatively low milage driver so topping up whenever I pull up home just works for me. In future I might go to a blue commando socket to get the 7kw speed but currently no need.
Incidentally, I got 282 predicted range miles from 100% charge yesterday morning and drove a known 216 mile route to Devon - on arrival it showed 66 miles left - great accuracy
Same here. Raised the issue of ex vat on my first bill. It corrected itself on the second, but after raising the question got the missing credit back and 10 pound goodwill also.
 

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The Octopus sign up journey seems to push you towards Octopus Intelligence. My understanding on speaking to them about the installation quote was to get this tariff, I’d need a specific charger, mains and data cabling. Octopus Go was probably available to me but the reduced tariff only has a 4hr window and the standard day rate is more than OVO’s. Others here have said that the Octopus day rate is being reduced from July. But on Go, that still leaves you with a narrow 4hr charge window that may not be long enough to get you to the charge % you need for the next day. There’s much devil in the detail, which is why I thought sharing experiences here would be useful
This is not quite right. You don't need a specific charger - any charger will do as long as it has a plug and charge or dumb charge setting.

Our Hypervolt has this, alongside a schedule charge setting. When we were on E7, we set the schedule to midnight to 7am giving us a full 7 hours at the cheaper rate. This added about 50kWh or 140 miles.

Now we are on Intelligent, I have to switch to plug and charge on the Hypervolt, so Octopus is notified every time the car is connected. It then sends you a charging scheule for at least a 5 hour charge via the App and takes control of the charging process - in my case charging the battery to 85%.

I've done 2 charge sessions so far, and neither has worked properly. The battery was charged to 85% but when you plug the car in (as I did at 10pm), the Intelligent App is supposed to detect the charger is connected at the peak rate time. It then switches off until the cheap rate time kicks in.

I called Octopus today to check I was doing this correctly. They said they detected the car was plugged in at 10.05pm. A signal was then sent to turn off charging, but they said the Taycan didn't respond. I said there is no way I could know this other than spot it kept on charging after 10.05.

This meant my first 2 hours or so of my charge would have been at the 40p/kWh rate. This would add up if I hadn't spotted it!

I've agreed to monitor the next few charges and feed it back to them. I don't know if this is a Taycan glitch or if other manufacturers have the same issues.
 


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D00notD00d

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Hi, I’m sure youve worked it out by now but no need to ever start a ‘urgent charge’ on OVO charge anytime and charge at the park rate, just adjust the ‘ready by’ time and it will start charging regardless of time of day and all at the cheap rate. When comparing to other tariffs this has really been a key differentiator as I know I can charge a whole battery at 10p a kw when ever I want.
Thanks. I guessed that may be the case, but haven’t tried it.
i wondered whether there could be a peak time grid capacity constraint which could prevent you hitting the required charge by and charge % figures, if your targets are ambitious. Even if that is the case, the 30p urgent charge rate is still competitive.

The ability to Charge Anytime for 10p, coupled with a standard 30p rate for household use, compared with rigid 4/6 hour Octopus windows and higher standard rates (which are possibly now being reduced) while using a simple dumb charger were deciding factors for me. There seems to an industry selling you stuff that you don’t need.
 
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D00notD00d

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This is not quite right. You don't need a specific charger - any charger will do as long as it has a plug and charge or dumb charge setting.

Our Hypervolt has this, alongside a schedule charge setting. When we were on E7, we set the schedule to midnight to 7am giving us a full 7 hours at the cheaper rate. This added about 50kWh or 140 miles.

Now we are on Intelligent, I have to switch to plug and charge on the Hypervolt, so Octopus is notified every time the car is connected. It then sends you a charging scheule for at least a 5 hour charge via the App and takes control of the charging process - in my case charging the battery to 85%.

I've done 2 charge sessions so far, and neither has worked properly. The battery was charged to 85% but when you plug the car in (as I did at 10pm), the Intelligent App is supposed to detect the charger is connected at the peak rate time. It then switches off until the cheap rate time kicks in.

I called Octopus today to check I was doing this correctly. They said they detected the car was plugged in at 10.05pm. A signal was then sent to turn off charging, but they said the Taycan didn't respond. I said there is no way I could know this other than spot it kept on charging after 10.05.

This meant my first 2 hours or so of my charge would have been at the 40p/kWh rate. This would add up if I hadn't spotted it!

I've agreed to monitor the next few charges and feed it back to them. I don't know if this is a Taycan glitch or if other manufacturers have the same issues.
I’m relying on advice from Octopus.
https://octopus.energy/intelligent-octopus/eligibility/
This lists the eligible chargers. The Porsche dumb charger isn’t in the list.
If you say you don’t have a charger, it tells you ‘it looks like you’re eligbile’. That doesn’t sound definitive.
Later Octopus required me to send photos of the existing supply to my garage forward from the meter. They quoted circa £1500 for installatio. When I asked for a breakdown they said new electric and data cables would be required. They knew I already had a 40 amp supply and wifi in the garage but they said their compliance team wouldn’t accept that. This could be a one size fits all approach for simplicity/to maximise revenue/or a lack of training. Maybe you’re right that the reality is that any charger will do and their advice wasn’t accurate.

OVO Support staff directly contradicted their web site eligibility content and T&Cs and also said I needed one of their certified chargers. I had to speak to a complaints team to get 100% confirmation that only a compatible EV is needed. Both companies seem to be failing their front line staff/trying to sell charger installations that you don’t need.

I‘ve only done one OVO Charge Anytime so far. Plugged in at 7pm for an 85% charge by 9am. The app showed it charging straightaway. I noticed it paused a few times, with the app saying charging would resume at 8pm, 1:30am etc. it completed well before the 9am target.

The OVO method seems to rely only on connectivity between the car and the Kaluza (vehicle to grid?) system. There‘s no charger or smart meter data connection. As the car is inside, relying on its own connectivity, I have wondered if signal strength could sometimes be an issue.

Does OI depend on your charger’s internet connection, your charger‘s Smart Meter connection and the Smart Meter’s RF connection? Or only the car’s internet connection? Do the car’s other apps connect ok from wherever you’re charging?
 
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W1NGE

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A long story, but hopefully sharing my experience will be useful to others buying their first EV and looking at home charging methods and tariffs. All of this was new to me. Please let me know if you found a better option.

Background

I recently replaced my 911 C4S with a Taycan 4S. I’d wanted a 911 since I had one on my bedroom wall as a kid. The 911 gave me memories of some great drives, but was spending more time cosseted in the garage, being used only as a treat. I wanted something more usable. If I could afford a different car for every day of the week, one of those would definitely be a naturally aspirated 911. Almost nothing beats being connected to a 911.

Home Charging Methods & Tariffs in the UK

I soon realised that while faster, public charging costs are up to 10x those of the cheapest home rate. Just to be safe, I had acquired around 8 new charge point apps and RFID cards before my first long trip in the Taycan.

After comparing the EV and day rates, and installation requirements of Octopus, EDF, British Gas and OVO, I plumped for OVO Charge Anytime. At 10p, their EV rate isn’t the cheapest, but, swings and roundabouts, most day rates are higher than OVO’s 30p - which matches the cheapest public charge rate I had found (other than secret free ones). And for some EVs, including Taycan, the OVO physical installation requirements are zero.

The cheapest EV rate is provided by Octopus Intelligence - 7.5p for a narrow 6hr overnight period. But their day rate is 40p, compared to OVO’s 30p. Also, Octopus seem to have a one size fits all charger installation requirement,where they want to run additional electric and data cables from your smart meter to one of their specific compatible chargers. I already had a 40 amp supply to my separate garage and didn’t fancy digging up the drive to lay more cables. Also, the Taycan came with the dumb Porsche Mobile Connect Charger, so I didn’t want/need to buy another charger.

The cheapest Octopus rate of 7.5p isn’t yet available to Taycan drivers, so meanwhile they’ll sell you their ‘Go’ product, with a 9.5p EV rate and a 40p day rate. British Gas wanted to fit a British Gas specific Smart Meter, despite SMETS2 meters allegedly being compatible with all suppliers.

OVO Charge Anytime (10p EV rate, 30p standard ) is a fairly new product. Unlike the others, it relies on an app and integration with a compatible Car rather than with a ‘smart’ charger. If your car isn’t compatible, a specific smart charger is required. Fortunately the Taycan is compatible - although in seeking verbal confirmation of this, their Customer Service team initially said it may not be and essentially, I had to suck it and see. I had to escalate to get the web site info confirmed before switching from EON to OVO. EON will sell you and install a charger, but don’t yet have a reduced tariff for EVs(!).

I didn’t yet have a smart meter, having resisted to avoid the possibility of supplier tie in. To avoid wait times, forums recommended getting your existing supplier rather than one with a specific EV tariff to install a smart meter before switching. The lead time for EON to install a smart meter was only 2 weeks rather than the months that other providers with in demand EV tariffs can take.

EON’s smart meter installation was smooth and despite our rural location, connectivity was instant.

Once the smart meter was installed, I switched from EON to OVO, having first paid off the outstanding EON balance to avoid any snags there. The switch to OVO was completed within 2 days and was trouble free.

The day following the switch, I downloaded and installed the OVO Charge Anytime app. This integrates with your OVO Account, your Porsche Connect/My Porsche account and another OVO/SSE system called Kaluza.

In the OVO Charge Anytime app you schedule your required charge percentage and completion time. Any profiles/timers on your Taycan will override those you instruct in the app. As the product name implies, charging can occur Anytime and isn’t necessarily restricted to a narrow overnight window. The Kaluza system will talk to your car to complete your charging instruction and arrange charging according to supplier capacity - which may not just be overnight. E.g. if you plug in at 6pm with target completion of 9am it can spread the charge across that period, at the reduced rate. If you want to override your schedule, you can set the app to start an ad-hoc urgent charge, at the 30p rather than 10p rate.

I definitely wasn’t expecting an integration across multiple systems and the car to work first time, but it just did.

I’ve not yet seen my first monthly bill with charging credit applied (the back office OVO and Kaluza systems log your EV charging hours and deduct 20p from the standard 30p unit cost). But for me this proved that with a simple 32 amp supply to a commando socket, you can use a dumb charger to charge a Taycan at 10p per unit, while still having a standard day rate, and avoiding tie in to suppliers and their specific and expensive smart chargers and installation costs. The market is young and evolving, todays ‘smart’ chargers will be overtaken.

In my case I’m using the dumb but very expensive Porsche charger, others are available for a few hundred pounds. Similarly you can get a lead to extend the Porsche one way cheaper than the £700 they charge.

Even if you can only charge with a 13amp plug, the OVO tariff may still be worthwhile.
Lots of similar guidance on other threads

I switched to OVO and rely on the Charge Anytime app for automatic control of the PCM profile and timers - works seamlessly and at 10p / kWh it's a no brainer for home charging.
 

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I’m with OVO, commando socket for 7kw charging using the Porsche charher…but sadly because we have solar panels we can’t use Charge Anytime. Instead I’m waiting on a solar compatible charger to be installed when I’d far rather continue using the dumb but simple Porsche one
Porsche Home Energy Manager (HEM) will support your solar and Porsche EVSE (PMC+ or PMCC) - mind that the EVSE is not a charger as the charger is in the car for both AC and DC).

Not sure if this helps with your OVO and Charge Anytime app setup?
 
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I’m relying on advice from Octopus.
https://octopus.energy/intelligent-octopus/eligibility/
This lists the eligible chargers. The Porsche dumb charger isn’t in the list.
If you say you don’t have a charger, it tells you ‘it looks like you’re eligbile’. That doesn’t sound definitive.
Later Octopus required me to send photos of the existing supply to my garage forward from the meter. They quoted circa £1500 for installatio. When I asked for a breakdown they said new electric and data cables would be required. They knew I already had a 40 amp supply and wifi in the garage but they said their compliance team wouldn’t accept that. This could be a one size fits all approach for simplicity/to maximise revenue/or a lack of training. Maybe you’re right that the reality is that any charger will do and their advice wasn’t accurate.

OVO Support staff directly contradicted their web site eligibility content and T&Cs and also said I needed one of their certified chargers. I had to speak to a complaints team to get 100% confirmation that only a compatible EV is needed. Both companies seem to be failing their front line staff/trying to sell charger installations that you don’t need.

I‘ve only done one OVO Charge Anytime so far. Plugged in at 7pm for an 85% charge by 9am. The app showed it charging straightaway. I noticed it paused a few times, with the app saying charging would resume at 8pm, 1:30am etc. it completed well before the 9am target.

The OVO method seems to rely only on connectivity between the car and the Kaluza (vehicle to grid?) system. There‘s no charger or smart meter data connection. As the car is inside, relying on its own connectivity, I have wondered if signal strength could sometimes be an issue.

Does OI depend on your charger’s internet connection, your charger‘s Smart Meter connection and the Smart Meter’s RF connection? Or only the car’s internet connection? Do the car’s other apps connect ok from wherever you’re charging?
No vehicle to grid dependency.

No EVSE dependency.

No smart meter dependency.

Car must be online so that Charge Anytime servers can communicate as and when in order to adjust profile / timer remotely for lowest tariff slot within your schedule.

Normal behaviour to initially start charging before pausing (still at the lowest rate). Cycle will continue until charge level and / or departure time has been reached.

Note that the only other dependency is that this only works at a home location where you have an OVO account.
 

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I’m relying on advice from Octopus.
https://octopus.energy/intelligent-octopus/eligibility/
This lists the eligible chargers. The Porsche dumb charger isn’t in the list.
If you say you don’t have a charger, it tells you ‘it looks like you’re eligbile’. That doesn’t sound definitive.
Later Octopus required me to send photos of the existing supply to my garage forward from the meter. They quoted circa £1500 for installatio. When I asked for a breakdown they said new electric and data cables would be required. They knew I already had a 40 amp supply and wifi in the garage but they said their compliance team wouldn’t accept that. This could be a one size fits all approach for simplicity/to maximise revenue/or a lack of training. Maybe you’re right that the reality is that any charger will do and their advice wasn’t accurate.

OVO Support staff directly contradicted their web site eligibility content and T&Cs and also said I needed one of their certified chargers. I had to speak to a complaints team to get 100% confirmation that only a compatible EV is needed. Both companies seem to be failing their front line staff/trying to sell charger installations that you don’t need.

I‘ve only done one OVO Charge Anytime so far. Plugged in at 7pm for an 85% charge by 9am. The app showed it charging straightaway. I noticed it paused a few times, with the app saying charging would resume at 8pm, 1:30am etc. it completed well before the 9am target.

The OVO method seems to rely only on connectivity between the car and the Kaluza (vehicle to grid?) system. There‘s no charger or smart meter data connection. As the car is inside, relying on its own connectivity, I have wondered if signal strength could sometimes be an issue.

Does OI depend on your charger’s internet connection, your charger‘s Smart Meter connection and the Smart Meter’s RF connection? Or only the car’s internet connection? Do the car’s other apps connect ok from wherever you’re charging?
A lot to unpack here, but I'll do my best.

Firstly Octopus are right to say your garage set up is inadequate. You've got exactly what we have - a 40amp supply to the garage. Even though you may think otherwise, a 32amp 7kW charge cannot be taken from the garage supply. It needs its own fused connection to your consumer unit or meter cupboard. Part of the reason for this is load balancing. If your house is drawing say 50amps, the charger has to be told to choke back before you blow the main fuse. This is all part of the Smart bit of a smart meter.

The new electric and data cables you refer to is the armoured 6mm supply cable must include a data cable, to prrovide this load balancing connection. If you Google Doncaster cables, you'll see what most people use - everything is in one cable rather than having a separate network cable running alongside.

Octopus say it looks like you are eligible if you don't have an eligible charger because they don't need to connect with the charger - they connect to the car. They just need a charger that is on when you plug it iinto the car.

I understand this communication uses KrakenFlex software to work out the best time to charge. It does this via the Smart meter. When Octopus told me my car didn't respond to the 'stop charge' instruction, they couldn't explain how it does this, so I'm not sure if it's the RF connection (which I think is 3G) or something else.
 
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D00notD00d

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A lot to unpack here, but I'll do my best.

Firstly Octopus are right to say your garage set up is inadequate. You've got exactly what we have - a 40amp supply to the garage. Even though you may think otherwise, a 32amp 7kW charge cannot be taken from the garage supply. It needs its own fused connection to your consumer unit or meter cupboard. Part of the reason for this is load balancing. If your house is drawing say 50amps, the charger has to be told to choke back before you blow the main fuse. This is all part of the Smart bit of a smart meter.

The new electric and data cables you refer to is the armoured 6mm supply cable must include a data cable, to prrovide this load balancing connection. If you Google Doncaster cables, you'll see what most people use - everything is in one cable rather than having a separate network cable running alongside.

Octopus say it looks like you are eligible if you don't have an eligible charger because they don't need to connect with the charger - they connect to the car. They just need a charger that is on when you plug it iinto the car.

I understand this communication uses KrakenFlex software to work out the best time to charge. It does this via the Smart meter. When Octopus told me my car didn't respond to the 'stop charge' instruction, they couldn't explain how it does this, so I'm not sure if it's the RF connection (which I think is 3G) or something else.
Thanks for the reply Richard.

Not sure how you could know otherwise, but my garage does have a separate 32amp fused supply for the car charger, downstream from the main consumer unit, which in turn has a a separate RCD breaker for the garage cable. The overall supply is 100 amp. Overloading isn’t really a threat, particularly since charging occurs overnight when nothing else is in operation. The upgrade work was done by a qualified electrician, including EVs, sourced from the gov.Uk site.

40 amp supplies for electric showers (we don’t have one) & cooking predated Smart Meters. No one needs a Smart Meter to load balance inside their home? Load balancing via Smart Meters is optional and more for upstream purposes?

You’ve said that Octopus don’t need to connect to the charger but the data cabling requirement for Smart Meter driven load balancing seems to contradict that? If I’ve misunderstood please explain further.

If a new cable could be implemented cheaply and unobtrusively fine, but for me it would have required cabling through 200 year old 2ft thick walls, cabling along the wall outside the house, digging up the drive, and cabling through the garage wall. Unlike OI, the OVO solution doesn‘t require that.

It is possible that the data cable isn’t mandatory and Octopus misadvised me, or that they were upscoping to meet their own compliance bar.
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