RAV4 PHEV

[bryanP]

I am about to buy a new RAV4 PHEV.

At home I have solar panels with a Solaredge inverter that has a EV charger with a 32amp/7.4 kw max charge rate attached to it, I also have the Cat2 cable .  
My current electricity tariffs are with Octopus who tell me that the only electricity tarrif I can use for the RAV4  to their Go.          They tell me that I will be able to charge from the panels during the day and use Go during the night, does any else do this and have there been any problems?

[Mike2222]

I've been with octopus for a few years. I used Go quite happily for a year or so then moved house and briefly was on economy 7, but I'm now on the 'Intelligent' version of Go, which I'm very happy with. You need a specific Ohme charger to access the intelligent tariff tho. 

Go is fine, but don't lose sight of your domestic electricity usage/needs, purely for the sake of saving a fed pounds on the Rav4 charging. With a 32amp charger, you will definitely have a full Battery from the overnight off-peak window, so unless your likely to drive a 40mile round trip first thing in the morning, your solar panels are fairly irrelevant in this equation, so you'd be far better off using that solar energy domestically during the day instead of pulling from the grid during the peak Go prices. 

Unless you're also planning on shifting a lot of domestic energy/appliance use into the same overnight 4hr window, it might not turn out as well as you'd hoped (compared to, say, a more balanced tariff and using any excess from your solar to top up the car Battery, instead of exporting to grid). 

I haven't recently researched the market, so can't actually attest that a good value "balanced" tariff exists, mind! 

[Mike2222]

Forgot to mention, but my particular use case is different in that I also have a BEV, and recently a Battery system, but have no solar panels, so we've always made *heavy* use of the off peak window.

[Hayzee]

42 minutes ago, Mike2222 said:

Forgot to mention, but my particular use case is different in that I also have a BEV, and recently a battery system, but have no solar panels, so we've always made *heavy* use of the off peak window.

Mike....is a standalone Battery system cost effective using the Go tariff?

[Mike2222]

@Hayzee - I was oversimplifying a bit. I got into a V2H Trial run by Indra for Nissan owners (it uses Chademo, but they're working on a CCS variant for the future market), so I actually have a special charger that can power the house up to ~5kw, and because the Leaf is a 2nd car and doesn't need to do many miles on a given day, I have the best part of 35kwh Battery to draw on. 

It cost me £1600 rather than the ~£10-12k for an equivalent standalone Battery system, so yes it is cost effective (or will break even within about a year by my calcs). 

[Mike2222]

@Hayzee prior to getting on the trial, I did the maths for a regular Battery system, and although it is a long payoff period (I worked out between 6-10yrs for the amount of energy our household uses), and the cost effectiveness calculation relies heavily on the electricity unit cost remaining high for many years, or at least the cost differential between normal tariff and the off peak of a dual rate tariff (higher the differential, the faster the payoff), it seemed like a much better bet than solar only or even solar and Battery, due to the variability of sunlight in the Midlands over a UK year (although, silver linings of global warming might help!). 

However, I think the changes to vat about 2years ago meant than there was no vat on a Battery system if you got it with panels, so you'd likely end up saving some cost even if you just got one token panel installed. 

Bottom line - fairly major investment, but if likely to stay put for at least 10yrs, and likely to go electric on other fronts in that timeframe (eg BEV, ASHP etc), then the odds are good. Hard to say if would do better with £10k in an investment ISA tho 😂

[bryanP]

11 hours ago, Mike2222 said:

@Hayzee prior to getting on the trial, I did the maths for a regular battery system, and although it is a long payoff period (I worked out between 6-10yrs for the amount of energy our household uses), and the cost effectiveness calculation relies heavily on the electricity unit cost remaining high for many years, or at least the cost differential between normal tariff and the off peak of a dual rate tariff (higher the differential, the faster the payoff), it seemed like a much better bet than solar only or even solar and battery, due to the variability of sunlight in the Midlands over a UK year (although, silver linings of global warming might help!). 

 

However, I think the changes to vat about 2years ago meant than there was no vat on a battery system if you got it with panels, so you'd likely end up saving some cost even if you just got one token panel installed. 

 

Bottom line - fairly major investment, but if likely to stay put for at least 10yrs, and likely to go electric on other fronts in that timeframe (eg BEV, ASHP etc), then the odds are good. Hard to say if would do better with £10k in an investment ISA tho 😂

Thanks Mike for all your advice and guidance on how to get the most out of sunlight/ car and tarriff, I am also in the west mids area.   It is complicated and I want to make the right decision 

[bryanP]

Thanks for all your advice and guidance, time to talk to Toyota and Octopus to try and get this sorted!

[Oscarmax]

We were on Octopus Flux (3 hour 2.00 - 5.00 off peak) for both import and export, we changed to Octopus Agile but left the export of Flux, we also installed a solar Battery so avoiding the 16.00 - 19.00 peak charge rate for our import we are averaging around  12 pence @ kWh

[Torrox]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:54 PM, Mike2222 said:

I've been with octopus for a few years. I used Go quite happily for a year or so then moved house and briefly was on economy 7, but I'm now on the 'Intelligent' version of Go, which I'm very happy with. You need a specific Ohme charger to access the intelligent tariff tho. 

Go is fine, but don't lose sight of your domestic electricity usage/needs, purely for the sake of saving a fed pounds on the Rav4 charging. With a 32amp charger, you will definitely have a full battery from the overnight off-peak window, so unless your likely to drive a 40mile round trip first thing in the morning, your solar panels are fairly irrelevant in this equation, so you'd be far better off using that solar energy domestically during the day instead of pulling from the grid during the peak Go prices. 

Unless you're also planning on shifting a lot of domestic energy/appliance use into the same overnight 4hr window, it might not turn out as well as you'd hoped (compared to, say, a more balanced tariff and using any excess from your solar to top up the car battery, instead of exporting to grid). 

I haven't recently researched the market, so can't actually attest that a good value "balanced" tariff exists, mind! 

Hi Mike,

I am with octopus and my rav4 plugin will come in March 24. Can you confirm that with out a charger such as Ohm I won't be able to sign up to the intelligent go tariffs?

Thanks

[Mike2222]

16 hours ago, Torrox said:

Hi Mike,

I am with octopus and my rav4 plugin will come in March 24. Can you confirm that with out a charger such as Ohm I won't be able to sign up to the intelligent go tariffs?

Thanks

When I joined, Toyota weren't part of the listed approved brands. The eligibility checker is part of the signup process by looks of octopus website, so can't say if this has changed. I already had the ohme home pro charger, so I simply joined up via the approved charger route. 

 

Looks like they have since expanded the approved charger range to include 3 others - another ohme model, as well as a model from wallbox and from myenergie/zappi.

https://octopus.energy/get-an-ev-charger/

[Torrox]

Thank you for your answer. Toyota isn't in the list of charges so for the intelligent go I will need a charger and they quoted £1098 for the ohm pro plus upto 20 metres of cables. I have just changed my tariff to octopus Go and with this tariff the cheap rate is between 0:30 to 4:30 in the morning as 9p per kwh. The Intelligent Go cheap tariff is longer ie. 0:30 to 6:30 but also whenever they have surplus during day time. I will try this tariff first and if I need more charging time I will have to change to the intelligent go later.