I should take delivery quite soon of a new Superb iV and need to prepare for charging it up.

 

As the car will be parked on the drive overnight most of the time I cannot see that it makes sense to pay for a type 3 wallbox/chargepoint just to cut the charge time down from 5 to 3.5 hrs.

 

I intend to run a direct feed from the consumer unit to a wall socket mounted inside the garage near the roller door. I will leave the type 2 charge cable connected here and then open the garage door, retrieve the cable and plug it into the car then shut the door again. The cable will simply form round the rubber seal on the bottom of the door. 

 

I would like to closely monitor how much electricity I use to determine an equivalent mpg from both electric and petrol costs. To do this I am going to try using an alexa type smart plug with energy monitoring built in. Running the App on my phone will give me the information I need to do this. These sockets are rated at 13 Amps so should be able to cope with 13kWh / 5hrs = 2.6 kW = 2600W/240V = 10.8 Amps.  Hopefully it won't get too hot.

 

Has anyone tried to monitor the electricity useage by this or any other method. Also if I do decide to go the chargepoint route what is the best price out there for this. Is a grant available to keep the cost down. Wouldn't want to spend a lot on this as wouldn't need to charge it quickly very often.

Hi,

 

I have a full setup that I did myself using kit from https://shop.openenergymonitor.com as I have solar panels this allows me to only charge using "spare" solar or set the system to use cheap rate power overnight as I am Octopus Agile tariff which changes every half hour there are even times when they will pay you to use power. They also have a tariff specifically for car charging over night called Octopus Go. With my system I can see exactly how much power I have put in the car and how much it has cost me. If you do decide to go with Octopus please use this link to sign up as we both then get £50  

John 

Edited 15 August, 20205 yr by john999boy
Link removed.

Unfortunately those (direct) links are against the Rules.

However if people were to PM you.........

Edited 16 August, 20205 yr by john999boy
Updated advice.

20 hours ago, john999boy said:

Unfortunately those (direct) links are against the Rules.

However if people were to PM you.........

 Sorry 😭 did not know, as you say if anyone wants to share £100, £50 each to move to a good electric tariff for EV/PHEV charging  send me a PM

 

John

I use a Type 2 from PodPoint at home. Charging typically 4-5 hours from empty. Good web app to tell you when charged, usage, etc. With 13 amp normal household socket) I've found about 14  hours. If you get a charge point installed there's a £350 government subsidy so total cost to me was about £400.

You mention 'Type 3', but iV can't use that (nor can any hybrid so far as I know..only pure electric cars). Incidentally I suspect the battery has to 'condition'...I was getting 23-25 miles from a full battery at start...five months later its 30 miles.

And watch out for the manual which is rubbish, and a lot relates to wrong kit such as infotainment system. A recall has been done to issue a new manual, but my dealer says Skoda are wriggling and now say just 'on line'.

 

 

46 minutes ago, Brockysuperb said:

I use a Type 2 from PodPoint at home. Charging typically 4-5 hours from empty. Good web app to tell you when charged, usage, etc. With 13 amp normal household socket) I've found about 14  hours. If you get a charge point installed there's a £350 government subsidy so total cost to me was about £400.

You mention 'Type 3', but iV can't use that (nor can any hybrid so far as I know..only pure electric cars). Incidentally I suspect the battery has to 'condition'...I was getting 23-25 miles from a full battery at start...five months later its 30 miles.

And watch out for the manual which is rubbish, and a lot relates to wrong kit such as infotainment system. A recall has been done to issue a new manual, but my dealer says Skoda are wriggling and now say just 'on line'.

 

You have confused me now...these are the 2 cables that come with the iV. You use the mode 3 cable with your podpoint.

 

Maybe I am getting confused here because the the Skoda cables are 2 and 3

 

 

 

My initial plan is to use the mode 2 cable straight into a 13A socket. According to the Skoda website...

 

 

 

I would be happy with this but you say it takes 14 hrs using the mode 2. Big difference!

 

Think I will sit tight till I get the car and see how long it takes myself.

 

And thanks for the tipoff about the manual.

 

On 15/08/2020 at 18:23, jjc said:

Hi,

 

I have a full setup that I did myself using kit from https://shop.openenergymonitor.com as I have solar panels this allows me to only charge using "spare" solar or set the system to use cheap rate power overnight as I am Octopus Agile tariff which changes every half hour there are even times when they will pay you to use power. They also have a tariff specifically for car charging over night called Octopus Go. With my system I can see exactly how much power I have put in the car and how much it has cost me. If you do decide to go with Octopus please use this link to sign up as we both then get £50  

John 

 

I like the look of the Octopus Go tariff but if it does take 13 hrs to fully charge the car, the 4 hrs at cheap rate isn't going to save me a huge amount.

 

Thanks for your help here

 

Steve

You can slice and dice it any way you want and concentrate on the fractions of a penny but the cost of electricity vs fossil fuel is almost the same for the same amount of energy but you go about twice as far on electricity as the motor is more efficient than the ICE

 

1L of petrol or diesel is about 120p; and contains about 10kw, Electricity is about 13p per kw/h so 130p for 10kw

6 hours ago, stephenlumley said:

 

 

 

You have confused me now...these are the 2 cables that come with the iV. You use the mode 3 cable with your podpoint.

 

Maybe I am getting confused here because the the Skoda cables are 2 and 3

 

 

 

My initial plan is to use the mode 2 cable straight into a 13A socket. According to the Skoda website...

 

 

 

I would be happy with this but you say it takes 14 hrs using the mode 2. Big difference!

 

Think I will sit tight till I get the car and see how long it takes myself.

 

And thanks for the tipoff about the manual.

 

 

I like the look of the Octopus Go tariff but if it does take 13 hrs to fully charge the car, the 4 hrs at cheap rate isn't going to save me a huge amount.

 

Thanks for your help here

 

Steve

 

Hi,

 

the info from Skoda is about correct from a completely used battery (red marker showing) it takes me about 4.5 hours on a 13 amp plug, quite a bit quicker on the proper charger (though these cars can only charge at 3.6Kw even though most of these chargers can provide 7.5Kw) Mine often takes longer as I can modulate the charge from Solar so is not a constant charge. You can get the charge point fitted and get £350 back from the government but I wanted a charger that had full integration and the government have changed the rules now so you have to have a "smart" system which costs more so even with the money off I got a far superior system doing my own thing. Even if you have a very discharged battery and are only using the 13A cable you should get it charged during the cheap rate period 🙂

 

John

From my experience, the iv does charge the battery a bit when plugged into the HV mains.

Using a voltmeter the built in charger is not at a high enough voltage and looks like a poor 12V battery charger is installed unfortunately.  My Ctek finishes the job in AGM mode and should preserve the 12V battery life from previous experience.

Edited 22 December, 20214 yr by Web Ferret