[Rod S]

It comes with a 2.3kW charger that is the maximum that will plug into a standard 13A domestic socket.

That is fine if you only intend short journeys and want to use the cheap overnight charging slots (ie, Octopus) but the best solution is a 7.5kW wall charger.... There are many available but they need a dedicated power supply, ie, a qualified electrician to install it and possibly your DNO to upgrade your main incoming fuse.

Mine is finally going to be installed next week, over a year since it was supposed to be (included in the purchase price of the car).

For the choice of which it's down to how many "extras" you get, "Apps" and things like that. Mine, next week, will be a BP Pulse, not by choice, it's just what the purchase deal came with.

 

[Rod S]

As per Red Mini mentioned, in my case they will be installing a small seperate CU in my meter box (it has plenty of spare room) as the existing CU indoors is only good for 80A total, doesn't have an RCD (age of the house, wasn''t mandatory back then), and everything has to uprated to 100A in my case because we are all electric, no gas in my rural area..
My main fuse was only 60A and when the DNO came to uprate it (which took months to organise) he said "no" because Octopus (or rather their metering company) had used 16mm^2 cable for the meter tails when they installed my smart meter and they should have used 25mm^2 and it took me ages more to get that fixed.

Some installs appear to be easy and quick - and then there is me.....

Good luck with yours, I'm off outside now to finish digging the required trench between my house and garage.....

 

[Rod S]

Wow.....

All the DNO has to do to mine is put the 100A fuse in, they physically verified the main incoming cable is 35mm^2 so just wanted the meter wiring upgraded (which is now done) and they will fit the new fuse next month.

My install (next Wednesday) will also be downrated until the new fuse is fitted..

The only big hole I'm digging is on my own property between the house and garage as I (obviously) want the charger on the front of the garage, not the house....

 

[Rod S]

Mine was installed yesterday (pictures to follow).
It took just over 6 hours but most of that was running the 40m of cable from my meter box at the back of the house all the way along the side to reach the front then across the front then dropped into the trench across to the garage.
He used proper cable cleats, drilled holes, rawplugs and stainless screws, every 500mm and extras on the corners (house is "L" shaped) and looks really neat. I was expecting a cowboy contractor hammering in masonary nails but I got lucky, real professional job on the cable. But very time consuming.
Most of the rest of the time was taken up by adding a new small CU in the meter box plus the henley blocks to split the new CU from the main house one. Screwing the charger to the garage wall and wiring it up was minimal compared to all the other work.
All I've got left to do is backfill the 8m trench between house and garage that took me two days to dig earlier in the week, two days - even though I have my own mini-digger - because the ground is rock solid at the moment because of this heatwave that is affecting NW Europe and SE England at the moment.

 

[Rod S]

Prices in the UK are crazy and about to get even worse next month when the mandatory price cap gets revised.
I'm currently on 5p for the overnight charge time and 16p the remaining 20 hours.
Next month the best I could negotiate is 7.5p and 40p.... and that's only for a year contract.
50% increase night and 150% increase day.
Our regulator (Ofgem) hasn't yet said what they will raise the price cap to, but it's rumoured to be way above the current cap.
I have a stack of solar panels waiting to be my late summer project...

 

[Rod S]

Well, as I suspected - do NOT go for the BP Pulse.

After a 13 month wait I finally got it installed a month ago, downrated to 3kW pending the main incoming fuse being uprated to 100A.

Yesterday the fuse was changed and BP asked for a photo, which they accepted and said they would uprate it remotely. This afternoon they emailed me to say it was now at 7kW....

Well it's actually zero kW because it's simply stopped working.
The only way to access the settings is via a mobile phone "App" - there is no local panel - and it just says "error" whatever I try to do.

So it's now turned off at its RCD in case it tries to burn my garage down.

I did NOT choose BP, it came "free" with the car, it would never have been my choice and I even got given the latest version because of the 13 month delay hoping the newer version would be better, but no....

 

[Rod S]

All of that is true in theory but doesn't work in my case.It may be the wireless strength is weak out at my garage - the installer did suggest I hardwired the ethernet port (it does actually have one inside the case and I have Cat5E out to my garage) but I suspect it is because I have configured my broadband router to only allow internet access to devices I have specified by IP address and it appears this charger wants free access to the internet before it will talk to my phone or PC.

I have no problem with it being on my local network but I will not allow it free access to the internet though my home network.
Which is probably why it stopped working when they tried updating it remotely.

 

[Rod S]

I would have no problem with that principal of internet access, but not through my home network where they can gather all my personal data.
My smart meter transmits data to a local network, it doesn't demand access to my home network.
It seems the BP charger won't work unless I provide BP with access to all the data on my home network.

 

[Rod S]

.how do you initially setup the wifi if you can't talk to it without an internet connection?

I had to give the installer my home network WiFi password.
It was at that point I realised it's a seriously flawed design, I mean. would you give a stranger the password to your on-line bank account ?
So as soon as the installer had gone I set the charge times using the "App" on my phone then changed my home network access password.
So now it has stopped working. BP obviously don't like me blocking access to all my personal data.

 

[Rod S]

How is giving out your WiFi password the same as handing over all your personal data?

Because anyone with my password can access everything on my home network including personal and financial details.
Although my on-line banking etc. is further protected by its own PIN / password, all the statements etc. I have downloaded routinely are not.
A quick scan of my location shows all my neighbors have their WiFi password protected so I'm not unique in not handing out password to people/organisations I don't know/trust.
There is absolutely no reason to allow access to my personal data, my smart meter connects wireless to a dedicated network without need to access mine.

 

[Rod S]

@ventmore, I'll have a look into the "Guest network" idea, not heard of that before.
When friends visit I give them my main password but change it regularly so have to tell them the new one next time they visit...

 

[Rod S]

Your choise but I went for tethered. I ended up with a BP charger eventually - most definitely not my choice - it came "free" with the car (14 months later) but its body is shaped with a lip at the top so the cable wraps around and then the plug plugs into a dummy charge socket. Very neat once the cable is wrapped and secured.

 

[Rod S]

My BP tethered version.
The plug that normally goes in the car gets stored in a dummy socket as you see in the photo with all the spare cable just wrapped around the box.
I don't know how other manufacturers do it but this is very neat - and I had no choice anyway.
I presume with a non-tethered version you have to use the cable supplied with the car ?

 

[Rod S]

You have your info on an open server on your network? You should be more worried about that than a charger.

No, I said exactly the opposite, my home server/network is password protected to only me.
What I will not allow is BP to have password access to my network and personal data.
I allowed the installer access for a few minutes to get the thing working then changed the password so the BP thing can no longer access the internet through my server.
And then it sulked and stopped working.

 

[Rod S]

Of course I could mess around with my network and password settings but why should I ?
I don't know how it works in the USA, haven't been/worked there for 20 years, but in the UK we have "smart" meters that allow us to have variable tariffs. These smart meters transmit wireless to a dedicated network and upload their useage data to the electricity supplier in real time. If I want to access that data I log into my electricity suppliers website, the data has not gone through my own home network in any stage of the process.
BP could do exactly the same but they choose to try to access my home network instead.
And I simply won't allow that.
I've jut enabled it for a couple of minutes to disable all the timers and other functions so it's now just a dumb 7kW wall socket and all my charging times are controlled by the MINI

 

[Rod S]

Our smart meters send data real time to their own dedicated wireless network. I actually get a discount on my electricity because no-one has to read the meter or drive up and down the road to read it.
BP could easily use that network rather than mine.
Call me paranoid but I choose not to let BP have access to my personal data.