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]

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