Home charger installation problems and reservations

[Louie]

I am currently waiting for British Gas to install an ABB TERRA 3   charger and its filling  me with dread. Hive is owned by BG.

 My power supplier Octopus are saying that they cannot currently offer an EV tariff to any  CHR owners with ABB TERRA 3  chargers purchased by HIve exclusively for Toyota who are in partnership with British Gas. I believe ABB is a Swedish concern I think.

Now the odd thing is if you have an an OHME charger Octopus will support the  CHR or BZ4X. Now the million dollar question if Octopus are coming out with this policy how are other suppliers  such as EON,EDF and other power suppliers going to treat this what a mess !

 

 

[philip42h]

Folk have had plenty of 'hassle' one way and another. The world of "intelligent" tariffs is rather immature - in order to benefit from an intelligent tariff, you need to have a compatible car and/or charger that is compatible with that specific supplier's system.

So, if you want to benefit from an Intelligent Octopus tariff you would need to have one of their approved chargers. You will be able to use Octopus Go with a C-HR and a Toyota / Hive installed charger.

[Louie]

Houston we have a problem.

Toyota have a relationship with British Gas who supply Hive chargers (actually ABB Terra 3) and this at present is a free home installation if you  have purchased a Toyota PHEV/EV. This is a fixed period  a promotion.

 I appear to have hit the buffers as our energy supplier Octopus cannot at present support this charger supplied by British Gas. Has anyone had any experience with the British Gas Hive installation and compatibility with their energy supplier's EV tariff ??

I don't want to change my energy supplier to British Gas anytime soon not by any stretch of imagination. I have just purchased an expensive Hybrid PHEV and find that I cannot enrol in a cheap EV tariff really makes me wonder if I have made a dreadful error of judgement.

[FROSTYBALLS]

See:

Perhaps it may have been prudent to  check with Octopus first ...

The other option would be to buy an Octopus charger.

[philip42h]

9 hours ago, Louie said:

 I appear to have hit the buffers as our energy supplier Octopus cannot at present support this charger supplied by British Gas. Has anyone had any experience with the British Gas Hive installation and compatibility with their energy supplier's EV tariff ??

If you want to use an Intelligent Octopus tariff you will need to install a compatible charger - that's a restriction / limitation imposed by Octopus.

You can use Octopus Go with pretty much any EV charger and still be free to switch to any other supplier without significant penalty or inconvenience.

The world of intelligent tariffs is still very immature ...

So, 'yes' you have made an "error of judgement", but not in your choice of car - rather in you lack of research into EV tariffs ... 😉

[AJones]

Just to add to the above, the EV tariffs divide into two main groups, the first group, are simple time of use tariffs that have a block of off-peak hours at fixed times, there's no connection between the supplier and the EV charge-point or EV, so they typically work with every EV, you just use the timer in the EV or charge-point to ensure it starts charging when the off-peak rate starts. Simple to understand and use.

The second block are the new smart/intelligent/dynamic type tariffs, where the off-peak times can vary each day, so there needs to be some connection/comms between the supplier and the charge-point or EV in order to ensure the charging starts at the right time. These are the ones where compatibility issues pop up because it's all non-standardised as yet. These are much more complex and there's more issues around the reliability of the comms.

You want the simple ones, like the original Octopus Go or failing that, Economy 7 also works.

[Louie]

Thank you guys for all your help.

I have now ordered a smart meter from Octopus to go be used with the Go tariff currently at 9.5 kw/hour and await my British Gas  "Hive" installation. 

 

[Olympicswimmer]

Sorry a bit late with my reply but I've just gone over to Eon EV tariff and they didn't question which charger was being used.

[philip42h]

2 hours ago, Olympicswimmer said:

Sorry a bit late with my reply but I've just gone over to Eon EV tariff and they didn't question which charger was being used.

Which makes sense. I assume that you are on the Eon Next Drive EV tariff?

The Eon Next Drive EV tariff is an 'unintelligent' tariff that simply provides cheaper electricity between midnight and 7:00 am - very much like Economy 7 with peak and off-peak rates. You need a smart meter so that Eon can charge at the correct rate for the time that you are using power, but it is entirely up to you, your car, or your charger when you schedule to charge the car. It doesn't require any communication between the charger and Eon.

[T.Mckee]

Found the same, also ordered my car from Toyota in July, received it late September but started the ball rolling for the EV Charger as soon as I ordered vehicle, now having to jump through hoops to get anything to proceed with Hive, British Gas and third parties. I was told today that I may be looking at Xmas-nearly six months. The only company to excel in all of this is Octopus Energy who have been excellent throughout.

[Louie]

I don't know how many people have had a charger installation carried out by British Gas. I have been waiting since the beginning of August and now keep getting alternative dates for the installation with British Gas changing the dates randomly after having confirmed them in the first place. I knew they were bad but this is now getting ridiculous. Any one else having similar problems.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Similar topics merged.

[Louie]

Agree Octopus are excellent I am on the Go tariff. 

[Olympicswimmer]

On 10/1/2024 at 1:36 PM, Louie said:

I don't know how many people have had a charger installation carried out by British Gas. I have been waiting since the beginning of August and now keep getting alternative dates for the installation with British Gas changing the dates randomly after having confirmed them in the first place. I knew they were bad but this is now getting ridiculous. Any one else having similar problems.

I'm scheduled for fitting this coming Tuesday, I'll let you know if they cancel. Any update on the £250 charging? Part of me wants to forget about it but another part of me is seething. 

[Louie]

Hi Elle my British Gas ABB TERRA 3 badged as Toyota is being fitted on the 14th of this month I hope. The charger should be fitted with an isolation switch somewhere convenient in your dwelling otherwise its not a secure connection  and apparently British Gas have assured me its part of the installation.  Please let me know how you get on and I hope it all goes well. 

The £250 voucher scenario has sunk without trace Toyota have washed their hands of it. 

[Olympicswimmer]

Hi Louie, Charger was fitted as scheduled. He described it as a simple job but still took him 3 1/2 hrs.He did have to crawl around under the house.

I totally forgot to ask about the isolation switch you mentioned. He didn't fit one.

Anyway, had my first charge last night, after messing it up the night before so I'm pleased about that. 

[Louie]

Hi folks just had my ABB Terra fitted by British Gas today.  The job lasted about 4 hours and appears to be have been fitted by a competent electrician. The box can only be described as quite big and just ugly (see pics) but then its free so I will button my lip. The techie for reasons best known to himself has fitted an isolator in the garage well beyond my reach unless I use a step ladder. The moral of this is you have to keep a beady eye on the techie which I failed to do. (see pic) 

Everything went smoothly until we got to the bit on how it all works with the MT app when it then became initially confusing and the technician seemed to provide woolly answers to my questions. He kept pointing continuously to the on line Charger setup instructions. The whole scenario becomes more complicated when you have to turn things off to make other things work. The techie  also asked me initially if I  had a technical background and I said have worked most of my life in IT and he seemed to breath a sigh of relief. 

The bottom line here is you have to spend time with with the installer so that he can explain how exactly everything works so that you can tailor it to your own vehicle charging needs especially if you are using an off peak tariff. I enclose a Toyota Home Charging PDF (6-7 pages) for more info. 

Watch this space for more info regarding my efforts at using Octopus GO via my new charging point.

Toyota HomeCharge _ Installing a Home Charger _ Toyota UK.pdf

[Louie]

A little tip for people using the British Gas ABB TERRA 3 boxes badged as Toyota.

Mine arrived with at least two versions of out of date firmware. Updating the box leaves one with a worrying message thrown up on your MT app saying the box has lost its 4G connection.

Don't panic the box hardware only decides to disconnect from the mobile network while its writing the contents of your download  to the box firmware chip and once its finished it automatically reconnects to the 4G network. This can take up to 20 minutes or more depending on how good your 4g signal is in your locality.  if you are several versions out of date. I trust I have not confused Forum members by my simplistic explanation of this event.

 

 

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[Louie]

Ellie are you sure the installer did not fit an isolator switch, I think this is a safety issue and should be fitted by law. If you look at your incoming mains fuse box and I don't mean the house fuse box you should find a small box with one breaker switch bolted to the wall next to it  looking something like the attached pic. There is a switch inside the little square box which isolates your electricity supply from your charger box,

[Olympicswimmer]

9 hours ago, Louie said:

Ellie are you sure the installer did not fit an isolator switch, I think this is a safety issue and should be fitted by law. If you look at your incoming mains fuse box and I don't mean the house fuse box you should find a small box with one breaker switch bolted to the wall next to it  looking something like the attached pic. There is a switch inside the little square box which isolates your electricity supply from your charger box,

OK, thank you Louie. I will try to have a look.