Home charge points (purchase/problems/questions) (See mod note post#1)

It's because they didn't need to in order to get the BER rating. We've an air to water heatpump but a large number of houses in the same estate but built after by a different builder have gas and solar, which seems an odd combination.

You're all missing the point lads. Anyone that relies on electric as their only energy source and doesn't have solar is complete retarded

People going on about regs. Wtf. Use your own brain for a change.

We've out coming on at 7am for the last hour of night rate. You don't need to run the heat pump through the night and there is usually a control panel where you can alter the schedule. Specifically out heat pump is a DWH as well, so that's what we have coming on. The radiators remain on thermostat. You don't have to run the heat pump through the night, your house will loose heat slowly and the pump uses a lot of power getting started in the morning, so the single best thing you can do is just shift that start point a bit early. Apart from that I wouldn't go messing with settings, could end up costing you a bomb.

Solar may not be viable nor affordable for a significant number of people. Solar as a service is basically booked out. Additionally there is a massive range in terms of what installers are charging which can result in extremely long payback periods.

You're missing the point. If you can hit the required BER with a heat pump, then there is no need for solar.

Also, for much of the the time you need your house heated, your solar may not be producing very much.

Hold on, do you think people buying a house off a builder can just opt to get solar installed at the time? The question was why builders are building new houses with Heat pumps and no solar, the answer is they can hit the Regs cheaper without it. Pure business. Solar for the longest time was just seen as a thing to help hit the required BER rating. The person building the house doesn't live there like.

Tell him to run any necessary cables now, so he can do it later on with minimum disruption.

I advised a mate on what he needed to do it a few years back, when he was in the same position with budget. Then he was able to install panels and inverter this year really easily.

Righty, so used 5163 kWh so far this year. Split 1720 nighttime. 2932 days and 510 peak. Having done a quick bit of sums, there's not much difference between 24hr rate and day/night for me right now. But I think if I set up my charging, heat pump and other appliances to nighttime activity I can probably shave a few quid off the bill.

Yup, taking that into consideration, it definitely looks worth my while to switch to day/night. Be a few hundred quid in the difference on that alone. Thanks for the help!

Yeah, have a smart meter alright and on a standard 24hr tariff. Didn't realise you had to change meters...

Slightly off topic but there's a discussion on an EV group on Facebook about a neighbor using someone's charger and not paying for it. I'm getting grief for saying if I was charging at a friend's house I'd count the kWh usage pay them for it and someone is suggesting I should pay something towards the cost of the charger for using it! Jesus. Should I pay someone's mortgage when I'm in their house too? Bloody hell.

I wouldn't be counting it down to the nearest cent, a 20-80% charge on a night rate in my car is around €3.50 so I'd probably throw them a fiver but they wouldn't want it because it's only €3.50. If they didn't want it I'd get them a pint or something of course we always get each other back for stuff. I just can't believe the idea of having to contribute to the cost of the charger unit itself just for using it.

Has anyone seen any nice designs for a dedicated wall/pillar to mount a zappi unit to? My unit will be situated away from the house/shed and am looking for an alternative to mounting it on a pole or pedestal. I am thinking something that incorporates a degree of shading to keep the sun & rain off the unit as well as cable management.

It's IP65 rated, there was a person on here before who lived near the coast and said it wasn't uncommon to get salt deposits and very heavy rain, which that rating may not really cover. In most urban settings you shouldn't need to do anything, but if your very remote, with weather extremes, I can see why you might.

Replaced the Type 1 Rolec with a Type 2 Hypervolt 2.0 today. Took me less than 2 hours and all working well. Tested the charger and getting 32A now. Left the clamp off for now, because we have a priority switch in place. Just need to test the Type 2 - Type 1 adapter for the Leaf when I find it later and then I’ll be happy out.

The SIL just moved into a new house and has a 24kWh Leaf, so I’ll give her the Rolec.