Bargain Basement Electric

[NewcastleFalcon]

The weather this week so far has been cold and wet, small sunshine breaks. Today decent enough daytime forecast to around 5.00 pm ish but still pretty cold.

Spotted this very yellow field and a brooding sky but the light was tremendous. Just right for some brochure shots of the BB Leaf.

You can in a Nissan

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Bright blue sky to the right, brooding clouds to the left

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Had a rather busy afternoon, no pictures but we have had brilliant sunshine, dark clouds, snow and thunder and lightning in several rotations.

[mickthemaverick]

Having found our 3 in 1 tree I thought a brochure shot or two was in order:

Own work

Own work

[Mandrake]

So today saw the first charging up session using the "granny charger" with the 3 pin plug chugging along for 4 to 5 hours to take me back up to my customary 80% state of charge.

Its done its job, and for now that is going to be the normal charging up routine, consuming household electricity at 16p/kWh.

Smart Meters/ Smart Home Charging points may get you 5p/kWh from Octopus but for now the home fuelling is going to come through a 3 Pin plug

If you don't do a high mileage, technically you don't need a smart charger or any charger other than the 3 pin charger to take advantage of night rates like Octopus's. All you need is a smart power meter.

The car itself has a charge timer that you can configure start and end times for your charging. I already use the timer on my car without a night tariff - I set the charge end timer to 7am Mon-Fri and leave the start time empty. This causes the car to automatically start charging as late as possible to reach 100% at 7am, so typically it starts about 3am. If you have a specific time window you would use a start timer instead so that most of the charging happens during the cheap time.

The charge timer only affects AC charging not Chademo, however if you do want to override the timer and charge immediately on AC you just press the charge timer override button on the dashboard before or after you plug in.

The only problem with night rates using the 3 pin charger is that you'll only fit about 8kWh worth of charging into a 4 hour time window using the 3 pin charger, or about 30 miles of range. If you want to fit all your charging into the cheap time window you'll need a proper charge point that can charge at the full 6kW.

I'm strongly tempted to get a Smart meter and switch to Octopus myself as at 6kW I could easily do all my daily charging during the cheap night rate period and cut my charging costs to a third of what they are now. Only the morning defrost would come out of the normal daily rate - but even in the middle of winter that doesn't amount to more than about 1.5kWh, and their day rate is slightly cheaper than my current provider anyway!

[NewcastleFalcon]

I'm strongly tempted to get a Smart meter and switch to Octopus myself as at 6kW I could easily do all my daily charging during the cheap night rate period and cut my charging costs to a third of what they are now.

Yes, I think its only inertia which stops me organising a smart meter. Gateway to cheaper tariffs. We were all set to have one (Scottish Power) but lets say a bunch of inexperienced installers, turned tail and claimed they couldn't install it as the DNO's main fuse was "fragile" and likely to break if they tried to remove it.

REgards Neil

[myglaren]

SP keep nagging me to install smart meters. I continue to resist. They have just refunded me a not inconsiderable amount this month.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Had we hung around for a few more hours we would have had a chance to meet the cast of Top Gear who were apparently going to do a bit of filming for a future episode, driving around in EV's. That's a 7kW charger so if they rocked up in Tesla's Audis and Porsches they would have had to have a very very long lunch to pump some extra miles into their large batteries

One of the more scenic charging points on the A68

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Sunshine and Showers
Northumberland does brooding skies pretty well

[mickthemaverick]

So does Hertfordshire, a perfect backdrop for my friend's Acer:

Own work

[NewcastleFalcon]

There's me thinking the Acer was a car model....its the bush of course

There was definitely a bit of dramatic lighting over the countryside today. Wind turbines looked particularly white when lit up by the sunlight against the dark Skies, and the fields and trees coming into leaf were vibrant.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

There's me thinking the Acer was a car model....its the bush of course

Regards Neil

Indeed his is a DC Acer (Directly Cultivated) not an AC Acer !!

[NewcastleFalcon]

The Car in front is a Nissan
The Car Behind is one of Citroens More Colourful and interesting offerings of recent times.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

you can with a Nissan

View from the East Coast's finest carpark

Homeward Bound in the Evening Sun

[dave]

Regards Neil

the only catus with the pricks in the inside ?