Best home chargers UK

[W1NGE]

I remember in the early days, before my 4S arrived deliberating over the charging and the need to be ready when the car arrived. The big issue then was Porsche saying the expensive charger we were forced to buy would not provide 7.6kW from a single phase uk supply, as it was designed for operation over 2 phase 220V. Porsches words, “you need to purchase an Andersen charger for single phase 7.6kW operation”. I remember going over all the Porsche charging information and just thinking do the dealers know anything about electric charging! Yes I now know I could have used the supplied charger - with a different supply cable for the 7.6kW operation, but I needed a charger installed before the car arrived And that option was never put to me. I’ve since purchased the supply cable,but never used the charger. For me I went down the Zappi 2 route. Also helped as it integrated well with my solar generation.

The basic charger PMC+ has always been rated at 9.6kW and I don't think anyone would have been 'forced' to buy the more expensive PMCC (rated at 22kW). I ended up with the PMCC simply because there was a supply issue with the PMC+ from Sep'20 to end mid Dec'20 and it was provided to all customers as a no cost option (so a certain number of us got lucky). I have single phase, 32A supply from fuse box deriving 7.4kW (sometimes slightly higher) - perfect.

The advice given to you also does not make sense either. PMCC is designed for 3 phase - 11kW or up to 22kW depending on the AC onboard charger you have.

Andersens installed my electrics and PMCC - so again I doubt Andersen's would provide ill guidance.

The fact is that the dealers were 99.9% clueless as to the home needs from launch through most of 2020 (today it's better but not great). They ought to have known better since Porsche Hybrids have been around quite a while and suspect they got "confused" with the PMC unit (not PMC+) which was 3.6kW (max).

It's a real shame (if not tragedy) that you were so badly informed. Accept the stress associated with wanting to have something installed in advance. I was the same and simply borrowed the wall charging dock so that the template could be laid out in advance and the installation concluded when I took delivery of the car (last November).

I made quite some noise that this 'service' wasn't offered as part of the package - home survey, pre-install, train etc. Dealer Principle saw the merit in it but the excuse was simply that they did not have spare PMC+ / PMCC EVSEs or Wall Boxes as these came from the factory with the car (I'm sure he could have tried harder). He did lend me a Wall Dock which helped to a degree.

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[MajorJump]

I’ve just had an Ohme Home Pro installed. The app itself doesn’t seem to want to talk to the Taycan. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s just not supported.
I also can’t get the Octopus app to connect to the car… I go to register for Intelligent Go and a screen pops up to log in to my Porsche account, but it disappears after half a second before I can enter anything.

I am being advised to just connect to Octopus IG via the charger and ignore the car. But if the charger doesn’t speak to the car either how will it ever know what % my car is on to hit a target? At the moment it just keeps assuming 0%.

any help setting this up would be appreciated!

Thabks

 

[Bennachie]

I find Home Pro to be good. Make sure the car has no profile and/or timer selected. Registered for Octo IG yesterday and it was flawless.

 

[MajorJump]

Does your home pro connect to your car ok? For example to get a reading of the cars current battery percentage?

I’m not paying for the Porsche Connect service so I wonder if that’s the issue.

When you registered for OIG, did you connect your car or the charger, or both? It won’t let me log into the car via OIG at all.

 

[W1NGE]

Does your home pro connect to your car ok? For example to get a reading of the cars current battery percentage?

I’m not paying for the Porsche Connect service so I wonder if that’s the issue.

When you registered for OIG, did you connect your car or the charger, or both? It won’t let me log into the car via OIG at all.

Don’t think the issue relates to Porsche Connect but I may be wrong. Not sure why you would choose not to have this useful service - not least Charge Planning (for journeys), E-Control (timers, profiles when not charging at Home if using OIG), etc.

I use OVO ChargeAnytime in conjunction with my Porsche Mobile Charger Connect (PMCC). App connects directly to the PCM. Just need a Smart Meter and seamless after that.

 

[Bennachie]

Register the Home Pro rather than the car

 

[Bennachie]

You need Connect for it to work as you have to allow Ohme access to the Porsche servers. Set a basic timer/profile in the car and set Ohme to max charge

 

[MajorJump]

Register the Home Pro rather than the car

Thanks, if I do that will the home pro know the current charge state of my car?

 

[MajorJump]

You need Connect for it to work as you have to allow Ohme access to the Porsche servers. Set a basic timer/profile in the car and set Ohme to max charge

Oh so I could set the car to receive a maximum of 80% say, and then the Home Pro will just fill it until the car says it’s had enough?

 

[Bennachie]

Set Ohme to max having first set car profile to (say) 80% with a charge time from 11.30 to 05.30 and all should be tickey boo.

Connect services are required for intelligent charging via Home pro, as it needs to access Porsche server to get state of charge from the car. If you do it via the car and tell it to only charge in the cheap period it will work - just within the cheap period, just not a 'cleverly' as it would with Connect working, where you can get cheap periods throughout the day if there is excess capacity.

Good luck, enjoy.

 

[DSB]

Mine is an easee and connected first time through octopus. It works well through the octopus app, just set to 80% and time between 23.30 and 05.30, it charges in the day for 10 mins, stops and sets the charge up for the night. It does occasionally go over the max setting, I don't touch any settings in the car or Porsche app. The last time was when I left the car plugged in over two or three days as I wasn't using it, not sure if that was the problem?

 

[sraworld]

Porsche have a box at about £800. Is that just cosmetic?

 

[Murph7355]

Mine is an easee and connected first time through octopus. It works well through the octopus app, just set to 80% and time between 23.30 and 05.30, it charges in the day for 10 mins, stops and sets the charge up for the night. It does occasionally go over the max setting, I don't touch any settings in the car or Porsche app. The last time was when I left the car plugged in over two or three days as I wasn't using it, not sure if that was the problem?

I've noticed similar with my car paired with Octopus. It'll ignore the car limit if plugged in for a few days. Not ideal but not the biggest deal (generally find I only need to plug in once every couple of weeks currently. Seeing 245 miles on the guessometer lately, probably 215 real world. Amazing how much difference warmer mornings make).

 

[BigBob]

Mine is an easee and connected first time through octopus. It works well through the octopus app, just set to 80% and time between 23.30 and 05.30, it charges in the day for 10 mins, stops and sets the charge up for the night. It does occasionally go over the max setting, I don't touch any settings in the car or Porsche app. The last time was when I left the car plugged in over two or three days as I wasn't using it, not sure if that was the problem?

Similar for charge anytime/ovo. Charges up to scheduled amount without fail (famous last words) on day 1. If you leave the car plugged in it seems to give you an extra 5% charge each day after (or sometimes fills you right up). I imagine its some sort of lag between the charging initiating and the porsche server telling the charge anytime app it's at the desired amount - a bit like the short charge you get when you first plug in, before the app takes over. But that's all a total guess.

I've got a Wallbox pulsar charger. Apparently that's also compatible with octopus and Ovo for direct communication with the charger (ok, ok EVSE) rather than the car. But i've not tried it.
I've had no problems with it except a tendency to crash when i first got it, which turned out to be caused by low voltage into my house (aka the grids fault). It's small and neat which was my primary reason for choosing it at the time.

 

[Murph7355]

Porsche have a box at about £800. Is that just cosmetic?

I think so.

I use the std charger that came with the car. Wall mounted and into a 32a socket. Has been working fine for a year now.

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