Pre heat

I’m interested in this. Have another thread running in which I’m considering getting a MG4 but am (unduly) fixated on the pre-heating of the cabin. As I see it, one quite big advantage over my ICE car.

I’ve been told I may get an OHME charger with the lease deal and I’m currently with OVO for my electricity so will probably use their smart EV tariff rather than swap suppliers.

Are you saying you can smart charge the MG4 using the OHME but also tell the charger you need it to supply power to the car when the car demands it purely for pre-heating of the cabin thus getting around the bug of not preheating whilst plugged in and not receiving charge? Or is it just a clever scheduling thing for the same departure time each day? I work shifts……

Thanks.
Hi

I personally have a schedule set to automatically add 60miles overnight each night ready for 7am then if I want to precondition the car I tick this option too, it then supplies power for a set time before 7am i.e. 30mins, then I can request to preheat/cool the car and as its receiving power from the charger it will operate.

You could have a different schedule for each day if each day is different shift, (say mon, Thursday friday give 100miles and to ready 6am and Tues+ Sat give 50miles for 10am) but its probably easier setting one schedule and then if want more mileage its simply move a slider to desired amount and the same principle if time needed to be ready for is different, the ohme then works out the cheapest way to do this as you tell the app when setting up what your electric tariff is.

It doesn't only supply once the car demands it to preheat it would supply it anyway so if you didn't preheat it would still supply power for the period you have set before departure.

Hope this makes sense
 
In reply to accuracy of GoM, In my experience, slow charges affect the battery much less than fast charges, including the accuracy of the GOM
 
That would figure. However, at the end of a long journey where I had to use three ultra-rapid chargers in succession, my GOM was spot-on as I covered the last leg to home. I had balanced the car on a destination charger before setting out, and I think this was a wise move.
 
Tried the pre heat this morning for the first time. Plugged in, finished charging, worked perfectly! A/C, drivers seat and cabin temp change. Couldn't see anything in the app to heat the steering wheel though.
Trophy.
If you try the heated seats you will probably find that they work the wrong way round . Right hand seat selected , left hand seat warms up. Brilliant!
 
I think it makes sense, MGFour. I’ve never had an EV before.
I assume the OHME provides charge in the requested ‘preheat period’ at standard tariff then unless it luckily coincides with nationally low demand and the smart tariff applies? And the charger then adds even more range than you initially requested as it actually is charging the car rather than just supplying power for the HVAC?
I’m genuinely sorry if these are silly questions! Shame the car won’t preheat plugged in but without charging. Would be so much easier I feel and I don’t even own one!
 
If the car has already reached the percentage charge you requested, then when the charger switches on again it will not charge any futher.
 
I had the car on the charger last night and this morning it was at 100%. It was autumnal rather than perishing (9°C) so I didn't bother thinking about pre-heating. I went into the garage and unplugged the granny lead, then drove the car out on to the driveway. I then left it sitting in park while I brought various things out from the house.

This took me much less than ten minutes, and the tailgate was open for most of the time. Nevertheless by the time I got in to begin my drive the car was toasty. It so happened that the heater had been left at max after a journey in frost on Sunday, and this did the job fine. Bonus, I used much less charge than the pre-heating does.

This isn't a perfect solution of course, and certainly not if it's very cold, but it's a help.
 
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Blimey this is all very confusing, get my Trophy tomorrow and I've already told the wife we can preheat the car and de-ice windows before we get in which she's most impressed about but it sounds like it's going to be a right faff in practice. So I suspect we will end up charging overnight on a Sunday night to 80%, that charge should last the week , then top up overnight to 80% again on Friday night ready for the weekend. So let me get this clear please, if I set the car to charge and be ready by 7am but don't leave until 8am, if I want to preheat the cabin I'd need to go out and remove the charging cable first and then switch the preheating on about 10 mins before leaving? On days when the car isn't plugged in I should be able to use the preheat function from the app without any issues, correct?
 
Blimey this is all very confusing, get my Trophy tomorrow and I've already told the wife we can preheat the car and de-ice windows before we get in which she's most impressed about but it sounds like it's going to be a right faff in practice. So I suspect we will end up charging overnight on a Sunday night to 80%, that charge should last the week , then top up overnight to 80% again on Friday night ready for the weekend. So let me get this clear please, if I set the car to charge and be ready by 7am but don't leave until 8am, if I want to preheat the cabin I'd need to go out and remove the charging cable first and then switch the preheating on about 10 mins before leaving? On days when the car isn't plugged in I should be able to use the preheat function from the app without any issues, correct?
Don't worry about it. For trophy owners not charging to 100% it is just a few extra button presses on the app.

You just have to load up the app, start it charging again and then start the pre heat. After the 10 mins the car will be warm/cool and the battery will have gained 1 or 2% extra.

When its unplugged you can start the heating without starting the charge first.
 
Don't worry about it. For trophy owners not charging to 100% it is just a few extra button presses on the app.

You just have to load up the app, start it charging again and then start the pre heat. After the 10 mins the car will be warm/cool and the battery will have gained 1 or 2% extra.

When its unplugged you can start the heating without starting the charge first.
So you can start it charging using the car app even when using an ohme pro on Intelligent octopus? Sorry I have so much to learn..?‍♂️
 
So you can start it charging using the car app even when using an ohme pro on Intelligent octopus? Sorry I have so much to learn..?‍♂️
I don't know about that. I just use a dumb charger at work and the granny cable at home. In both cases the charger will supply power to the car when requested, I guess the Ohme won't.

You might have to also override the Ohme to tell it to charge first, then the car.
 
Blimey this is all very confusing, get my Trophy tomorrow and I've already told the wife we can preheat the car and de-ice windows before we get in which she's most impressed about but it sounds like it's going to be a right faff in practice. So I suspect we will end up charging overnight on a Sunday night to 80%, that charge should last the week , then top up overnight to 80% again on Friday night ready for the weekend. So let me get this clear please, if I set the car to charge and be ready by 7am but don't leave until 8am, if I want to preheat the cabin I'd need to go out and remove the charging cable first and then switch the preheating on about 10 mins before leaving? On days when the car isn't plugged in I should be able to use the preheat function from the app without any issues, correct?
I have a trophy, picked it up 2 weeks ago. I can preheat etc while the car is plugged in and not charging, plugged in and charging and not plugged in.

Try not to worry, just ask your dealer for written proof they have updated all the sensors/firmware and infotainment.
 
So you can start it charging using the car app even when using an ohme pro on Intelligent octopus? Sorry I have so much to learn..?‍♂️
Yes you 100%. can.
When you plug it in you can select the option to precondition in the ohme app (I set to 20mins) then 20 mins before my departure time it will auto send power to car, then if I want to preheat I do this as normal in the MG app within the 20mins before lift off.
 
Yes you 100%. can.
When you plug it in you can select the option to precondition in the ohme app (I set to 20mins) then 20 mins before my departure time it will auto send power to car, then if I want to preheat I do this as normal in the MG app within the 20mins before lift off.
The point here being that when the Ohme isn't scheduled to supply power -- it won't.

So you need to use the Ohme scheduler's "preconditioning" section, to tell it to supply power at that time.

So if you set a schedule that says "Departure time 8am, add 80% by then", because it knows about Intelligent Octopus, it will endeavour to add 80% using off-peak slots only. But if you also enable preconditioning, say 20 minutes, it'll supply power from 7:40 to 8:00 regardless of pricing.

Alternatively, if you don't absolutely need the range - just preheat from battery.
 
Correct although I haven't checked regarding cost when preconditioning as intelligent octopus will charge at low rate whenever it has schedule running a charge no matter what time it decides is best, so I've had it schedule a charge and had low rate at around 9pm before now so if preconditioning is part of that I don't know but be worth testing
 
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Correct although I haven't checked regarding cost when preconditioning as intelligent octopus will charge at low rate whenever it has scheduled running a charge no matter what time it decides is best, so I've had it schedule a charge and had low rate at around 9pm before now so if preconditioning is part of that I don't know but be worth testing
Yes, if you happen to want to precondition during a low-price slot, it'll be charged at the low rate.

So will, by the way, any household electricity you use at that time. So if you plug in at 7pm on a Sunday and your Ohme app tells you it's scheduling some charging at 8pm -- stick a load of washing on!
 
The idea of a home battery is getting more attractive by the minute.
I know what you mean. They way prices for home batteries are falling and the advancement in technology for solar panels is advancing I think I'm going to wait another couple of years until I get my pension pot. Plus I've just had a complete new central heating system and all the doors and windows replaced the rainy day fund is a little depleted.
 

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