Do I really need an 'proper' EV charger?

[quilkin]

I've had my MG5 for 2 weeks now and have been charging it from the 'granny' charger. I could install a proper Type 2 charger but it's going to cost around £1000. I can charge the car to 50% overnight with the granny (it delivers 2.2 kW). 50% of charge per day (~100 miles) is more than enough for me (unless I'm on a long drive when I'll be using public chargers anyway).
If I had a Type 2, I could charge it more quickly, but do I need to?

Each night I can add 10 kWh (20% charge) at cheap rate. Let's say that 3 times a week I will need a 50% charge (this would be the worst case I suspect):

• 10kWh per night @ 8p / kWh (all on cheap rate for 5 hours)= 80p per night = about £290 per year
• plus an extra 20kWh for 3 days a week at peak rate = 60kWh @ 30p = £18 a week or £936 a year.
• so about £1200 per year using the granny charger.

with a type 2 charger:

• 10kWh per night @ 8p / kWh (all on cheap rate)= 80p per night = about £290 per year
• plus an extra 20kWh for 3 days a week, also at cheap rate = 60kWh @ 8p = £4.80 a week or about £250 a year.
• so £540 a year with the type 2 charger

so I would be saving about £660 a year by using the type 2 charger. That's less than a 2 year payback time, which is good if I don't have solar power. But I will be getting solar power soon (the type 2 charger would be part of that, to save on VAT) so most of the charging (in summer at least) will be free anyway.

Also, in 2 years' time there should also be V2H (bi-directional) chargers available, so I would be able to use the car to power the home, and I will want to buy a different charger for that - the type 2 charger would be redundant.

Should I just use the granny charger? Is there a danger in doing so?

 

[Gadget Geek]

J charge most of the time on the granny charger, including excess solar.

 

[Jomarkh]

I've had my MG5 for 2 weeks now and have been charging it from the 'granny' charger. I could install a proper Type 2 charger but it's going to cost around £1000. I can charge the car to 50% overnight with the granny (it delivers 2.2 kW). 50% of charge per day (~100 miles) is more than enough for me (unless I'm on a long drive when I'll be using public chargers anyway).
If I had a Type 2, I could charge it more quickly, but do I need to?

Each night I can add 10 kWh (20% charge) at cheap rate. Let's say that 3 times a week I will need a 50% charge (this would be the worst case I suspect):

• 10kWh per night @ 8p / kWh (all on cheap rate for 5 hours)= 80p per night = about £290 per year
• plus an extra 20kWh for 3 days a week at peak rate = 60kWh @ 30p = £18 a week or £936 a year.
• so about £1200 per year using the granny charger.

with a type 2 charger:

• 10kWh per night @ 8p / kWh (all on cheap rate)= 80p per night = about £290 per year
• plus an extra 20kWh for 3 days a week, also at cheap rate = 60kWh @ 8p = £4.80 a week or about £250 a year.
• so £540 a year with the type 2 charger

so I would be saving about £660 a year by using the type 2 charger. That's less than a 2 year payback time, which is good if I don't have solar power. But I will be getting solar power soon (the type 2 charger would be part of that, to save on VAT) so most of the charging (in summer at least) will be free anyway.

Also, in 2 years' time there should also be V2H (bi-directional) chargers available, so I would be able to use the car to power the home, and I will want to buy a different charger for that - the type 2 charger would be redundant.

Should I just use the granny charger? Is there a danger in doing so?

If you get solar get a house battery too.
Don't use excess solar to charge the car as you can do that over night at 7p plus charge the house battery with IOG and export solar and discharge house battery at 15p.

 

[salty]

I've had my X Power for 3 months and only use the Granny Charger, and it suits me just fine. My intention was to get a home charger fitted at a later date. But don't think I'll bother now. The Granny charger is perfect for my needs.

 

[Barrie]

Only ever used granny charging in my 4 years of EV ownership with no issues whatsoever. It's a "horses for courses" situation. If it works for your situation stick with it. I already have a bidirectional set up with solar inverter and battery with my MG Marvel which works fine.

 

[quilkin]

I already have a bidirectional set up with solar inverter and battery with my MG Marvel which works fine.

Sounds great. Going a bit off-topic but I'd be really interested to know about your inverter and its connections to the car.

 

[Barrie]

I have a 7.2kW AIO inverter with 15kWh battery and 4kW of solar. It powers the house during the day and any excess goes to the car and/or house battery. At night I run off the house battery which is also drip fed via the car which is connected to a 48V battery charger. In France we don't really have ave cheap overnight rates so this works better for me - as long as we have sun !! The inverter has by pass mode so if all else fails I can still take grid power.

 

[Gomev]

with a type 2 charger:

• 10kWh per night @ 8p / kWh (all on cheap rate)= 80p per night = about £290 per year
• plus an extra 20kWh for 3 days a week, also at cheap rate = 60kWh @ 8p = £4.80 a week or about £250 a year.
• so £540 a year with the type 2 charger

...

Of course it is unlikely in practice that you would only put in 10kWh per night (only approx 1.5 hrs charging). You would probably add as much as you need, when you need it, charging perhaps once or twice a week only. So added convenience too.

 

[GaryMG4]

I've had my MG5 for 2 weeks now and have been charging it from the 'granny' charger. I could install a proper Type 2 charger but it's going to cost around £1000. I can charge the car to 50% overnight with the granny (it delivers 2.2 kW). 50% of charge per day (~100 miles) is more than enough for me (unless I'm on a long drive when I'll be using public chargers anyway).
If I had a Type 2, I could charge it more quickly, but do I need to?

I've had my MG4 for 18 months and so far and have used either granny or the occasional public charge (3 times this year). It works out fine 99% of the time, so long as you don't do long trips (100+ miles) on consecutive days. I tend to charge to about 80% then start the recharge process when I get down to around 30% unless I know I'll need more on the next day. In the winter there isn't really much solar to offset the peak rate vs overnight rates so I don't normally bother (I'm on FiT so get paid for generation even if I use most of it).
On a recent ski trip to Milton Keynes I misjudged my consumption so needed a quick £10 DC charge to make sure I got home, when I could have charged to 100% the night before and not needed it, but £1k buys quite a few DC top ups, plus the £1k not spent for 18 months has accrued almost 100kWh of DC charging in ISA interest!

 

[gazza487]

Another angle aside from ££ is safety and convenience.

Many will say yes granny charging is fine but there is the odd burned up socket and depending on supply type the PEN faults (I don’t need to worry as I have weirdly old overhead supply with no earth supplied). I am infinitely happier that the meter tails got split and all the car electrons bypass the house wiring. Having the charger installed also initiated an unloop and next door getting a new supply.

You can open up cheaper tariffs with the right charger (I don’t have a supported charger so just get 5 hours so important to cram in as much as possible cheaply).

Final bit with solar I don’t use it for the car as export is greater than night import BUT if things happen like in Australia where people are being charged for export - you could mop it up with a supported charger and charge if necessary.

Edit: final bit if you get an unexpected thing come up and are pretty low - obviously 7kW will top you up a lot quicker without needing to pop and pay eye watering rapid prices. Has only happened to me once but I have another vehicle tucked away but it was in use due to OH having car off road.

 

[Walks with Enzo]

I used to charge with the granny cable, could add 20% or so to the battery on cheap rate 12-7.
Now I've got the wall box activated, I can charge from 50% to 80% in 3hrs.

We have solar & 10KWh home battery. When this was first installed last August, I was charging both cars (MG & PHEV XC60) on the granny cable during the sunny days. The solar was also charging the home battery fully during the day, so we never had to charge the home battery. Solar export wasn't setup then so tried to find everything to charge

Now, with significantly less sun!, the Eon home app is set to charge the car between 12:30 & 7am, with the car set to 80% and then home battery charges between 4am & 7am.
We can power the house all day (both work from home) with the 10KWh home battery.

It's practically impossible to use the wall box with solar at the moment as it takes too much from the home battery.

 

[Jomarkh]

I used to charge with the granny cable, could add 20% or so to the battery on cheap rate 12-7.
Now I've got the wall box activated, I can charge from 50% to 80% in 3hrs.

We have solar & 10KWh home battery. When this was first installed last August, I was charging both cars (MG & PHEV XC60) on the granny cable during the sunny days. The solar was also charging the home battery fully during the day, so we never had to charge the home battery. Solar export wasn't setup then so tried to find everything to charge

Now, with significantly less sun!, the Eon home app is set to charge the car between 12:30 & 7am, with the car set to 80% and then home battery charges between 4am & 7am.
We can power the house all day (both work from home) with the 10KWh home battery.

It's practically impossible to use the wall box with solar at the moment as it takes too much from the home battery.

How much to you get paid for exporting excess solar?

 

[JimD]

I'm just coming up to 3 years of EV ownership and I've just used the granny charger. I had intended to get a proper charger, but soon realised I didn't need one.

 

[Walks with Enzo]

How much to you get paid for exporting excess solar?

With E.on we get 16.5p/kWh now.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

You don't need to but I find it way more convenient and easier to use a dedicated 7kw chargepoint (A hypervolt 2). The additional life utility of that convenience and ease of use is worth more to me than the cost of the installation. You would have to decide if it was for you. Don't analyse it on economics alone.

 

[salty]

You would have to decide if it was for you. Don't analyse it on economics alone.

Agree. Take advice by all means. But at the end of the day, it's up to you.
Personally I use a Granny Charger, because that, suits my needs perfectly.