wall mounted charger

[davidc]

we have just bought a Taycan 4s and are considering what charger units we need at home. We are currently using the Mobile charger from our Cayenne and it works ok with the Taycan, can more experienced owners please advise if it really is a good idea to spend £1400 on the wall charger, we only travel nominal mileage, we are not working and so the mileage per day will normally be less than 50 miles, unless we make special longer journeys

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[W1NGE]

we have just bought a Taycan 4s and are considering what charger units we need at home. We are currently using the Mobile charger from our Cayenne and it works ok with the Taycan, can more experienced owners please advise if it really is a good idea to spend £1400 on the wall charger, we only travel nominal mileage, we are not working and so the mileage per day will normally be less than 50 miles, unless we make special longer journeys

What is the power output from your existing unit?

If you are getting up to 7.4kW then no need to upgrade/ change.

More info on your charging setup would help to advise - cabling, fuse etc

Car controls the charging so no need necessarily to have anything fancy but if you don't have a 32A setup then you will be limited until you upgrade your fusebox to charger arrangement.

 

[davidc]

the charger unit we are using runs from a 13amp plug into a wall socket, last night we charged at around 2.70kws
can the present charger take a 32amp fuse power level

 

[W1NGE]

the charger unit we are using runs from a 13amp plug into a wall socket, last night we charged at around 2.70kws
can the present charger take a 32amp fuse power level

Again, more details on the charger you have - photo of the back panel where the details are.

Also, many of the Porsche Mobile Charger / Charger Plus units have an interchangeable supply cable meaning that you can swap the 13A tail for a 32A one. If your model doesn't support this then I'm afraid you are limited to what you have.

The solution then is to get a dedicated 32A fused supply from your main fuse box terminated in a 32A receptacle to which you can then attach any EVSE ("charger") which supports up to 32A (pretty much all). This will give you a full single phase AC supply providing up to 7.4kW of juice and perfect for home overnight charging.

Another thought is that your Taycan is being supplied too little juice and therefore charging sessions become problematic.

 

[Ray67]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DXQ5189S?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
£300 for above charger, £80 for cable to main fuse box. Fitted to wall and ran cable myself. Electrician connected to main fuse box, £200.
All in, just shy of £600. 7.4kw charge, and my miles per day is once or twice weekly charges.

 

[Shug]

I have a Porsche wall charger, probably an older version with a 32 amp supply.

The Taycan 4S J1.1 dash reports that the charging rate is 6.4 kWh

I recently switched to Octopus with the expectation that their app would successfully control the charging of the car.

Just in case you are thinking about chargers and off-peak charging, my experience after a month of trying with Octopus is that their app does not work. I live in an area with strong 5G, so connectivity should not be any kind of issue.

Problem 1, is the above Porsche charger is not listed in the Octopus app, so unless you lie and say you have an approved charger, you cannot enable smart charging in the app.

In the app, I selected a charger that outputs 7.2kW/h and that give Octopus an idea what the charging rate on the car will look like.

Once you are through that part of setting up the app, it then asks you if you want to control the car or the charger - I chose the car since that was the only option that should work.

Before you start with the Octopus app, you must disable all the timers and switch off all profiles in the car.

When you plug the car in, it will start charging and apparently the Octopus system will spot the car charging and pause charging - this sometimes works and sometimes not.

The real ball ache is that the car randomly charges before the off-peak rate starts and you are charged at the peak rate.

I am about to give up on the Octopus app and go back to setting a profile of preferred charging times in the Porsche app and use a timer, again in the Porsche app to end charging at 5:30a.m. At least this works if you set an up to 40% increase in battery charge, you will remain in the off-peak rate window.

With all the hype around switching to EV's, it is incredible that it is so difficult to manage the off-peak charging process.

 

[Taycan barry]

we have just bought a Taycan 4s and are considering what charger units we need at home. We are currently using the Mobile charger from our Cayenne and it works ok with the Taycan, can more experienced owners please advise if it really is a good idea to spend £1400 on the wall charger, we only travel nominal mileage, we are not working and so the mileage per day will normally be less than 50 miles, unless we make special longer journeys

I just sold my taycan ct and have a Porsche wall mount I paid over $ 900 willing to sell for $450 perfect condition only used for 9 months. You can email me at bsavitz1@ gmail. Com if interested.

 

[tophamn]

When you plug the car in, it will start charging and apparently the Octopus system will spot the car charging and pause charging - this sometimes works and sometimes not.

When I tried this I too found the communication between Octopus and the car to be somewhat unreliable. It's definitely not the app because it's been faultless controlling my wallbox (Zappi).

The real ball ache is that the car randomly charges before the off-peak rate starts and you are charged at the peak rate.

If Octopus has scheduled the charge you'll get the cheap rate (for your whole house consumption), even if it's outside the normal overnight window.

 

[davidc]

Thanks for all msgs, got a lot of information from the group

 

[anonymouse]

One of the nice things of EV ownership is waking up to a nice 80% charged car. I’d therefore always recommend putting in a 7.4kW charger of some kind. But you don’t need the overcomplex Porsche solution. Nor do you need the added aggro of an EV tariff that needs to interface with the charger eg octopus. If the maths works out you can take a tariff like E.on next drive which gives very cheap power 0000-0700 every day (but conversely, expensive power during the day).

Keep it simple. Get a Type 2 wall unit and have a local electrician install it.

 

[pollybampton]

I have a Porsche wall charger, probably an older version with a 32 amp supply.

The Taycan 4S J1.1 dash reports that the charging rate is 6.4 kWh

I recently switched to Octopus with the expectation that their app would successfully control the charging of the car.

Just in case you are thinking about chargers and off-peak charging, my experience after a month of trying with Octopus is that their app does not work. I live in an area with strong 5G, so connectivity should not be any kind of issue.

Problem 1, is the above Porsche charger is not listed in the Octopus app, so unless you lie and say you have an approved charger, you cannot enable smart charging in the app.

In the app, I selected a charger that outputs 7.2kW/h and that give Octopus an idea what the charging rate on the car will look like.

Once you are through that part of setting up the app, it then asks you if you want to control the car or the charger - I chose the car since that was the only option that should work.

Before you start with the Octopus app, you must disable all the timers and switch off all profiles in the car.

When you plug the car in, it will start charging and apparently the Octopus system will spot the car charging and pause charging - this sometimes works and sometimes not.

The real ball ache is that the car randomly charges before the off-peak rate starts and you are charged at the peak rate.

I am about to give up on the Octopus app and go back to setting a profile of preferred charging times in the Porsche app and use a timer, again in the Porsche app to end charging at 5:30a.m. At least this works if you set an up to 40% increase in battery charge, you will remain in the off-peak rate window.

With all the hype around switching to EV's, it is incredible that it is so difficult to manage the off-peak charging process.

I'm in a similar position to you except i have an andersen 22kwh supply.
My main gripe is that the porsche app doesn't have the ability to set s start time, only an rnd time. I find this infuriating.

 

[W1NGE]

I'm in a similar position to you except i have an andersen 22kwh supply.
My main gripe is that the porsche app doesn't have the ability to set s start time, only an rnd time. I find this infuriating.

My view is that you don't really need a start time if you work within preferred charging times - not a precise start but I guess the logic is that you charge the car for a departure / next journey rather than "I want to charge at a specific set time".

With certain suppliers the ability to have integrated charging at anytime of day off peak leverages this further. Ovo worked well for me.

I have the Porsche Dock + PMCC (22kW) with Ovo Charge Anytime and has worked well for years - never a charging issue in 4+ years.

If i go back to an EV and possibly the forthcoming Cayenne EV I'll be sure to tick the charging mat option for home charging to make the process even more seamless.

 

[Shug]

When I tried this I too found the communication between Octopus and the car to be somewhat unreliable. It's definitely not the app because it's been faultless controlling my wallbox (Zappi).


If Octopus has scheduled the charge you'll get the cheap rate (for your whole house consumption), even if it's outside the normal overnight window.

Thanks tophamn,

I guessed that Porsche is also part of the charging unreliability story with Octopus.

Clearly I walked blindly into this charging mess by choosing the Porsche charger, however your comments do not match my experience with the Octopus app where I will see a charging schedule after plugging in the car that I am later charged for at the standard rate rather than the off-peak rate. This happens every time, not just once in a while, so for me the Octopus option connecting to and controlling the Taycan has been rubbish and clearly is an expensive option.

Earlier this week I paid close attention to the state of charge during an Octopus controlled charge to 80% (schedule was showing in the app). By 11pm the charge had increased to 77% from 50% and when I checked the app, 70% of the charge was at the standard rate, so I could not recommend this service to anyone.

The Octopus helpline people are great to talk to but fall very short on actual support. I have sent them at least 20 emails on the subject of charging, with a similar number of calls. Not one response received that hints at a solution.

 

[pollybampton]

My view is that you don't really need a start time if you work within preferred charging times - not a precise start but I guess the logic is that you charge the car for a departure / next journey rather than "I want to charge at a specific set time".

With certain suppliers the ability to have integrated charging at anytime of day off peak leverages this further. Ovo worked well for me.

I have the Porsche Dock + PMCC (22kW) with Ovo Charge Anytime and has worked well for years - never a charging issue in 4+ years.

If i go back to an EV and possibly the forthcoming Cayenne EV I'll be sure to tick the charging mat option for home charging to make the process even more seamless.

Good for you

 

[tophamn]

Earlier this week I paid close attention to the state of charge during an Octopus controlled charge to 80% (schedule was showing in the app). By 11pm the charge had increased to 77% from 50% and when I checked the app, 70% of the charge was at the standard rate, so I could not recommend this service to anyone.

Others may correct me here but I'm not aware that the app knows about cheaper electricity outside the cheap window, such as when Octopus schedules a charge. To show "estimated" cost the app just works works with the normal times. I believe you'll need to check your bill to be sure.

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