please recommend me a charger

[Cherry]

Has anyone created a list of chargers on the market, cost, features, warranty, maintenance costs and reliability?

Which particular features should one be looking for when making a decision to buy?

[monkeyhanger]

My Ohme has been excellent so far. Only 1 occasion noted when charging was instigated, ignoring scheduled cheap times, soon resolved. Otherwise it has faultlessly charged in the 4 hour cheap Octoous GO window, as requested and was a breeze to set up to do so. People have been known to go the slightly dodgy commando socket route of installation, but mine is installed properly as per current regs.

I have no reason not to recommend one.

EDF just been advertising 4.5p per kWh overnight on TV (not sure how long in the night it lasts), so potentially other options to Octopus.

[Utumno]

My Ohme has been excellent so far. Only 1 occasion noted when charging was instigated, ignoring scheduled cheap times, soon resolved. Otherwise it has faultlessly charged in the 4 hour cheap Octoous GO window, as requested and was a breeze to set up to do so. People have been known to go the slightly dodgy commando socket route of installation, but mine is installed properly as per current regs.

I have no reason not to recommend one.

EDF just been advertising 4.5p per kWh overnight on TV (not sure how long in the night it lasts), so potentially other options to Octopus.

Its a shame people aren't doing the right thing in getting their existing commando sockets brought up to regs. There's nothing dodgy with the commando route when it's done properly.

[gailjon]

My Ohme has been excellent so far. Only 1 occasion noted when charging was instigated, ignoring scheduled cheap times, soon resolved. Otherwise it has faultlessly charged in the 4 hour cheap Octoous GO window, as requested and was a breeze to set up to do so. People have been known to go the slightly dodgy commando socket route of installation, but mine is installed properly as per current regs.

I have no reason not to recommend one.

EDF just been advertising 4.5p per kWh overnight on TV (not sure how long in the night it lasts), so potentially other options to Octopus.

The website has the details now:

GoElectric single-rate tariff costs from just 18.61p per kWh all day, depending on where you live.

GoElectric 35 comes with 5 hours off-peak charging every evening 12 am to 5 am GMT. It costs just 4.5p per kWh during off-peak hours and from 22.79p per kWh during peak hours, depending on where you live.

GoElectric 98 comes with off-peak charging every weekday 9 pm to 7 am GMT and all weekend. It costs just 11.50p per kWh during off-peak hours and from 24.89p per kWh during peak hours, depending on where you live.

[Utumno]

My Ohme has been excellent so far. Only 1 occasion noted when charging was instigated, ignoring scheduled cheap times, soon resolved. Otherwise it has faultlessly charged in the 4 hour cheap Octoous GO window, as requested and was a breeze to set up to do so. People have been known to go the slightly dodgy commando socket route of installation, but mine is installed properly as per current regs.

I have no reason not to recommend one.

EDF just been advertising 4.5p per kWh overnight on TV (not sure how long in the night it lasts), so potentially other options to Octopus.

The website has the details now:

GoElectric single-rate tariff costs from just 18.61p per kWh all day, depending on where you live.

GoElectric 35 comes with 5 hours off-peak charging every evening 12 am to 5 am GMT. It costs just 4.5p per kWh during off-peak hours and from 22.79p per kWh during peak hours, depending on where you live.

GoElectric 98 comes with off-peak charging every weekday 9 pm to 7 am GMT and all weekend. It costs just 11.50p per kWh during off-peak hours and from 24.89p per kWh during peak hours, depending on where you live.

Oof. Those 'peak' rates are a bit eye-watering. Think I'll be sticking with Octopus Go at 5.00p/kWh 00:30-04:30 daily and 13.80p/kWh !

Always good to see more entrants into the EV tariff field though.

(above tariff comparison based on smart meter readings for our property processed by Guy Lipman's website - Go for us remains by far the cheapest option based on our usage)

[MotMot]

From another forum - I think with the EDF tariff the gas prices are decent - whereas the Octopus ones are less so. Therefore if you have a significant gas consumption (as many people with gas CH will) then the EDF deal works out cheaper… (by a fair bit someone worked out). Both Octopus and EDF require you to have dual fuel.

I’m on an OVO non EV tariff where its 15p kWh any time… probably going to keep that until it expires (march) then see what’s going on…

(Edit - its not my Calcs so the above might be wrong etc..)

[Utumno]

Both Octopus and EDF require you to have dual fuel.

I didn't know this, and indeed can find no facts to support this except on forums. Nowhere on Octopus's website, including the T&C's specific to Go, does it stipulate that you have to have gas with Octopus as well. It only stipulates you have to have a Smart meter. I wonder whether this is some people being mis-sold by Octopus.

I know of three people personally with their electricity provided by Octopus Go, with their gas by a different provider so perhaps the dual fuel requirement is somehow "new". Here we have no mains gas (we're rural) so all our electricity comes from Octopus Go.

I’m on an OVO non EV tariff where its 15p kWh any time

That's a nice compromise, and easy to grok

[Utumno]

In fact the more I look at it the more I'm increasingly convinced this "dual fuel Octopus Go" thing is nonsense. Look at https://octopus.energy/vwpassenger/

What if I'm already an Octopus customer?
You're still eligible for free miles! If you switch both your gas and electricity supply to one of our standard tariffs you’ll receive a £90 credit. If you decide to switch to only one fuel type, you'll receive £45 credit. Drop us an email at existingevoffer@octoenergy.com to take the offer.

By definition then, Octopus is happy to switch you to Go for electricity only, but they'll halve the offer as you're only taking one fuel type. Thus they must be expecting, and supporting, single "fuel" switching to Go.

[MotMot]

I may well be wrong! Perhaps the dual fuel savings with EDf are better than getting gas alone with OG?

Getting info on any tarriff for any company seems hard at the moment! Often buried in the website somewhere…

[Utumno]

Possibly, but I can't really work out how much cheaper it'd have to be in order to make it worthwhile. Trying to compare energy tariffs is diabolically difficult in the UK, I completely agree.

[johnmfriend]

I went to Fully Charged Outside Show last Sunday. There were a lot of charger vendors there. I spoke to about half-a-dozen of them. My particular use case is that I want to be able to connect up solar panels to the charger. My favourite, having spoken to them all, was WallPod from RolecEV. Previously, I had been expecting to buy MyEnergi's Zappi (spoke to them too). There is a new version of the WallPod coming out in six weeks, so I'm going to wait for that. I also spoke to HyperVolt (seemed ok), Ohme (the ugliest charger of the lot in my opinion), and someone else.

A specific advantage of the WallPod if you have solar panels is that it doesn't need an extra cable. It's made in the UK, along with some of the others including MyEnergi.

[MotMot]

Wallpod is a Spanish company and made in Barcelona iIRC… not that it should matter.

Also I think all chargers require an extra wire / sensor for switching on when solar is charging. It’s a sensor that goes on your electricity supply to measure how much surplus you are making from the panels - and when it’s above a certain point it starts charging to the level of the solar surplus.

On SpeakEV there is some criticism (not sure if it’s justified) that the main controlling board on the wallpod is a (slightly) out of date raspberry pi. Which is OK except the memory cards the OS runs off tend to fail after a few years of continuous use (memory cards have a set lifespan apparently). Also users have commented that the LED ring is very very bright and can’t be turned down.

Again - none of this may be important but perhaps worth thinking about.

If you dig around the forums (there are loads of posts about this) there seems to be some issue with nearly every charger brand.

To me it’s a real minefield getting the right charger - and I’m not sure There is a clear market leader at all.

[degur]

I went for a SyncEV charger, which is a nice unit. Very minimal. However, the fitter stuck a white waterproof consumer unit where I explicitly said I didn’t want it. Not had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks nice and the app seems handy.

Only problem is it relies on the built in sim for connectivity because I can’t work out how to get it to play nicely with my Virgin wireless hub.

[bitmanEV]

Wallpod is a Spanish company and made in Barcelona iIRC… not that it should matter.

Also I think all chargers require an extra wire / sensor for switching on when solar is charging. It’s a sensor that goes on your electricity supply to measure how much surplus you are making from the panels - and when it’s above a certain point it starts charging to the level of the solar surplus.

On SpeakEV there is some criticism (not sure if it’s justified) that the main controlling board on the wallpod is a (slightly) out of date raspberry pi. Which is OK except the memory cards the OS runs off tend to fail after a few years of continuous use (memory cards have a set lifespan apparently). Also users have commented that the LED ring is very very bright and can’t be turned down.

Again - none of this may be important but perhaps worth thinking about.

If you dig around the forums (there are loads of posts about this) there seems to be some issue with nearly every charger brand.

To me it’s a real minefield getting the right charger - and I’m not sure There is a clear market leader at all.

We presently employ approximately 175 personnel in our purpose-built office, showroom, warehouse and two factory complexes in Boston, Lincolnshire - in addition to having a distribution network of representatives in over 40 countries.

source; https://www.rolecserv.com/about-us

[MotMot]

Oh crap - I was thinking of wallbox (BOX) not pod! sorry!! I should have read your post properly.

Have a google for Rolec and problems.

[bitmanEV]

Yeah the first batch of Rolec WallPod's had problems with the RCBO burning (Neutral) up but easy to replace as modular concept

Own one my self but hacked it to make it better