What electric company to use?

[Anon70]

Hello
Next week I will receive a an MG Trophy Long Range.
I am very excited but I am so new at all this the charging is baffling me.
I have a hive charger EO mini pro 3 and I am with octopus flexible. I have a smart meter.
The octopus web site says my charger/car are not compatible with their EV tariff.
So I am looking at British Gas to get the cheap tariff but can’t find a comparability table. Don’t want to swap to find out it’s the same thing. Any suggestions for a total confused newbie. I really thought I’d just be plugging it in!
Thanks

As you already have the Hive infrastructure might be worth considering the Hive FreeCharge deal

 

[NickHeynes]

Have you thought about just a house battery or what about an investment in a wind or solar farm?

No I haven't . When you say just a house battery what do you mean . ( sorry I'm a bit thick ) Do you mean a house battery without solar?
I like the idea of investing, do you have any tips ?

 

[Jomarkh]

No I haven't . When you say just a house battery what do you mean . ( sorry I'm a bit thick ) Do you mean a house battery without solar?
I like the idea of investing, do you have any tips ?

Yeah battery without solar just charge it up over night on a cheap tariff.
In my signature below is a link to Ripple. Kirk Hill is the wind farm that I invested in and started generating a month ago.

 

[Gomev]

I talked to the Ripple guys at Everything Electric North and I couldn't work out how it benefitted me at all other than the feelgood factor. I had to invest upfront, I then got a tiny tiny tiny fraction off my electricity price.
Strictly as an investment as a low user it didn't seem to make sense. Perhaps they didn't explain well or I didn't understand. I welcome a better explanation.

 

[Tig170]

One frustrating thing with Octopus (and EoN), is that if you have a 2 tier tarrif (i.e. peak & off peak), is that it only uses a single meter rate, so its no real time metering (or showing correctly on your home display), where as EDF use a dual meter rate between day and night, which shows the correct meter reading on the actual meter as well as the realtime cost on the IHD.

 

[gazza487]

One frustrating thing with Octopus (and EoN), is that if you have a 2 tier tarrif (i.e. peak & off peak), is that it only uses a single meter rate, so its no real time metering (or showing correctly on your home display), where as EDF use a dual meter rate between day and night, which shows the correct meter reading on the actual meter as well as the realtime cost on the IHD.

Weirdly with British Gas their own IHDs on their tariff work, at midnight the rates switch and it counts up correctly. The rest of their service is somewhat lacking (being on the old account system) the app doesn’t do too much. It also corrects for the clocks changing too. Bit more effort as you have to login to their website or read the meter itself for the two registers readings.

 

[Gomev]

How useful is a IHD after the first few weeks ? Does anyone actually use it for anything ? I abandoned mine after a couple of weeks once I knew what used what.

 

[gazza487]

How useful is a IHD after the first few weeks ? Does anyone actually use it for anything ? I abandoned mine after a couple of weeks once I knew what used what.

Still there and using. More so now solar is in as it shows how much is being exported or imported form the grid so triggers the old brain as to when there is some spare to use.

 

[mystreet]

One frustrating thing with Octopus (and EoN), is that if you have a 2 tier tarrif (i.e. peak & off peak), is that it only uses a single meter rate, so its no real time metering (or showing correctly on your home display), where as EDF use a dual meter rate between day and night, which shows the correct meter reading on the actual meter as well as the realtime cost on the IHD.

But with Octopus you can request a 'mini' gives you current usage in a nice graph for either power using or cost. Also shows the current tariff.

Meet the Octopus Home Mini

The Octopus Home Mini is a brand new, cutting-edge bit of tech that makes understanding your energy usage easier than ever before.

octopus.energy

 

[Alb]

I have a Mini and it's much better than the standard IHD.

 

[mikgle]

It's not an option for Octopus Intelligent Go. All cars/chargers are an option for Octopus Go.

*all provided as you say you have a smart meter.

I'm on Intelligent octopus Go, with a zappi charger and MG4

 

[jpk]

I've just switched to eon next drive V3 tariff as I had 32kWh of home storage fitted last week and a 10.5kW inverter

 

[Tig170]

But with Octopus you can request a 'mini' gives you current usage in a nice graph for either power using or cost. Also shows the current tariff.

Meet the Octopus Home Mini

The Octopus Home Mini is a brand new, cutting-edge bit of tech that makes understanding your energy usage easier than ever before.

octopus.energy

Thankyou just ordered one

 

[mystreet]

Just a couple of outputs. Can you tell when the car starts charging

Took out images as had my number on

 

[Bam Bam]

Very welcome email from Octopus today - they are giving away free electricity for an hour tomorrow!

Don't mind if I do, Octopus!

Reckon I will get about 25 miles out of that. Wondering if they will also fill up the home battery (I'm on Intelligent Flux so they control it) and if I should do the washing machine and dishwasher at the same time.

 

[Rolfe]

Considering that I managed to go to bed last night leaving the fan heater on in the conservatory and didn't notice till the morning, I'm not sure what good this "Mini" thing would do me! The upside was that overall import during the time involved cost about 65p, and that included running the house base load, running a load on the washing machine, and heating the water to scalding just before 5.30am. (I guess I lost out on a couple of kw export as well, with the battery having to charge for a bit when the sun came up.)

So really, if that's the worst that's going to happen if I'm not careful, and let's face it it's not the first time I've done that even when I was on a fixed tariff, it's not the end of the world. I'm currently relaxing and trying to act normally and let the system run itself. I just have to remember not to switch on kettle, hob and oven simultaneously, as that overwhelms the battery's discharge capacity and causes a bit of peak-time grid import. Even that isn't all that bad, as it's fairly transient.

 

[Bam Bam]

I find the Givenergy app tells me all the information I need about the house.

It records home demand, solar in, grid import, grid export, battery in/out, and displays it very well.

You can see the live situation, the levels during the day (or a previous day) and totals for each half hour (or day, or week or month or whatever).

I would probably now feel lost without it, so I would then need this mini thing!