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Electric Cars.


Cuban8
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6 minutes ago, Gary Manuel said:

 

Never say Never.

I've just signed up for a 4KWh Solar Panel / 9.5KWh Storage Battery installation.

With the next rise in the energy cap prices, I have calculated my pay-back time as 7.5 years.

With future addition of a second 9.5KWh battery assuming I can get onto Octupus GO tarif (7.5p per unit for 4 hours at night), the payback time reduces to 4.9 years. The question mark about Octopus GO is that it requires Electric Car ownership, which I'm not quite ready for.

Gary, we bought a 4kW panel/5kWh battery installation back in January (GivEnergy battery and inverter).  At the time, the installer calculated a payback around 12 years but I think that will have reduced somewhat.  Our electricity bill for July was £12.76 and there will be about £10  in export payment to offset against that.  Bear in mind also that we run two EVs as well!

Regarding Octopus Go, we applied back in October last year and went on to it within a few days.  In our case they didn't request any proof that we had any EV but that may have been an oversight.

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1 hour ago, Tim Kearsley said:

Gary, we bought a 4kW panel/5kWh battery installation back in January (GivEnergy battery and inverter).  At the time, the installer calculated a payback around 12 years but I think that will have reduced somewhat.  Our electricity bill for July was £12.76 and there will be about £10  in export payment to offset against that.  Bear in mind also that we run two EVs as well!

Regarding Octopus Go, we applied back in October last year and went on to it within a few days.  In our case they didn't request any proof that we had any EV but that may have been an oversight.

Hi Tim,

I see that you are still paying for electricity (£12.76) even though you are exporting electricity (£10). Is this because your battery is full during the day, so the unused solar electricity has nowhere to go other than back to the grid? I'm hoping to use or store ALL of the solar energy I generate.

 

I might try applying for Octopus GO in the hope that they won't ask for proof of EV ownership. If they do, I'll just stay on the capped tariff I'm on now.

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30 minutes ago, Gary Manuel said:

Hi Tim,

I see that you are still paying for electricity (£12.76) even though you are exporting electricity (£10). Is this because your battery is full during the day, so the unused solar electricity has nowhere to go other than back to the grid? I'm hoping to use or store ALL of the solar energy I generate.

 

I might try applying for Octopus GO in the hope that they won't ask for proof of EV ownership. If they do, I'll just stay on the capped tariff I'm on now.

 

You will always be paying somethng, remember the standing charge does not go away with solar...

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1 hour ago, MattyB said:

 

You will always be paying somethng, remember the standing charge does not go away with solar...

That's true (and what a rip-off that is).

I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that Tim's £12.76 was for the actual electricity, as the Octopus Go standing charge alone would actually be more than that (48.26p X 31 = £14.62).

Anyway, I'm hoping to keep all of the Solar energy myself rather than selling it for the measly 4.1p per unit or whatever the going rate is. That's where the larger capacity battery comes in.

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The standing charge for my Octopus Go tariff is 18.01p per day, but that was set last October for a year.  It will rocket up in October, as will the tariff for consumption, which is currently 5p/kWh from 0030 to 0430 and 23.77p/kWh for everything else. So my bill of £12.76 was for about 84kWh of electricity plus 31 days of standing charge.

You're absolutely right about keeping all the energy you generate if you can.  I get paid 4.5p/kWh for export.  With hindsight, I should have bought a bigger battery.  I may add a further battery in due course.  Also, when the Go rates increase in October, I may on sunny afternoons connect up the "granny charger" to trickle charge one of the cars to use excess power.  At the moment, with charging costing 5p/kWh and export paying me 4.5p/kWh it just hasn't been worth the bother of dragging out the charger for 0.5p/kWh.  That will change!

Edited by Tim Kearsley
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6 minutes ago, Tim Kearsley said:

The standing charge for my Octopus Go tariff is 18.01p per day, but that was set last October for a year.  It will rocket up in October, as will the tariff for consumption, which is currently 5p/kWh from 0030 to 0430 and 23.77p/kWh for everything else. So my bill of £12.76 was for about 84kWh of electricity plus 31 days of standing charge.

You're absolutely right about keeping all the energy you generate if you can.  I get paid 4.5p/kWh for export.  With hindsight, I should have bought a bigger battery.  I may add a further battery in due course.  Also, when the Go rates increase in October, I may on sunny afternoons connect up the "granny charger" to trickle charge one of the cars to use excess power.  At the moment, with charging costing 5p/kWh and export paying me 4.5p/kWh it just hasn't been worth the bother of dragging out the charger for 0.5p/kWh.  That will change!

Bargain!

Hopefully Agile Octopus will be back soon too - when energy prices start dropping.

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  • 1 month later...

Well I managed to get myself onto Octopus Go tariff.

Only snag is that I convinced myself that it was worth while leasing a Nissan Leaf to facilitate it - picked it up on Wednesday.

Any one know how to stop it making that stupid embarrassing beep beep beep beep beep beep .... reversing sound?  🤬

Other than that, it seems like a great car, and at 2p per mile (night time charging at 7.5p/KWh), it's about 10% of the cost of fuelling a similar sized petrol car.

 

 

 

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 My September 2019 Leaf does not generate a noise when reversing, and I have a button next to the charge port flap release were I can turn off the forward warning noise when travelling below 20 km/hr. So I'm guessing it was built just before the legislation came in. 

 

Welcome to the Leaf owners club, hope it all works out for you as well as my Leaf(s) have for me. 👍👍👍

 

idd

 

PS. Don't forget you can use your overnight leccy rate for other things than charging the car. They don't know (yet!) what you are using the electric for! 😉  

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37 minutes ago, IDD15 said:

 My September 2019 Leaf does not generate a noise when reversing, and I have a button next to the charge port flap release were I can turn off the forward warning noise when travelling below 20 km/hr. So I'm guessing it was built just before the legislation came in. 

 

Welcome to the Leaf owners club, hope it all works out for you as well as my Leaf(s) have for me. 👍👍👍

 

idd

 

PS. Don't forget you can use your overnight leccy rate for other things than charging the car. They don't know (yet!) what you are using the electric for! 😉  

Dishwasher has a timer on it. I've just made an Arduino driven board to simulate pushing the start button on my washing machine at a set time. Both being used most nights. I'll soon have 2 X 9.5kWh batteries which will be topped up overnight to supplement the solar charging. Hoping not to have to use much full price electric eventually.

Regarding noise, I don't mind the simulated engine noise to alert (sight impaired / jay-walking) pedestrians. It's the reverse beeping that I find unbearable. Other manufacturers don't have it and it used to be switchable on older Leafs. Nissan have even stopped it being controllable via the OBD2 service plug for the latest couple of years. 

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1 hour ago, John Lee said:

I can’t with my Soul EV & doubt that you can as it is required by law:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-noise-systems-to-stop-silent-electric-cars-and-improve-safety

I've just read the link. It would appear that Nissan are non compliant as they do not allow the sound to be temporarily disabled - at least not on the latest models. I might take this up with Nissan.

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1 hour ago, Don Fry said:

Having had to jump out of the way on a regular basis in car parks when blind homicidal maniacs reverse out of spaces without looking, over the years, a bleep to warn, “en garde”, is good.

I agree, but the Nissan Leaf sound is comical and embarrassing. I haven't used it at night yet, but I assume it still beeps. Surely illegal between 11:30 pm and 7:00 am in built up areas! Even railway crossings need to be quietened / silenced at those times in order to pass the DforT inspection, so a beeping car should not be allowed either.

Edited by Gary Manuel
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1 hour ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

Not half as dangerous as women in their cars roaming around in car parks on their phones.😡

Arrr, but ladies generally apologize. Blokes, knowing that the word peasant owes it roots in Latin, one who walks, just shout at you. Know your place.

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22 minutes ago, Lima Hotel Foxtrot said:

I'm curious; Are you making a joke, are you typing in haste or are you actually a misogynist?

No It happened 'again" last week, grey Audi A4 ( another german car without turn signals ) she was reversing out and manoeuvring in the car park missed me and a couple with a bright blue caddy !

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I've just sent the following question to Nissan UK Customer Services. Let's see what they have to say about it. I resisted the temptation to send it as a complaint, but that option is always open as a next step.

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************

I recently picked up my 2022 Nissan Leaf from Evans Halshaw in Doncaster. I am generally pleased with it but I have one major concern. The car has a very loud annoying sounder which comes on when reversing. There does not appear to be any way of silencing this sounder.

 

This is contrary to the requirements of UK legislation, which requires cars with such devices to be fitted with a switch to allow the driver to silence the sounder when judged necessary. Such times would include when reversing in sensitive areas such as in hospital / hospice grounds or during the hours from 11:30 pm to 07:00 am in built up areas when it would in fact be illegal!

 

The following link is an extract from the UK government website which shows the requirements for Electric Vehicles. The requirement for the switch is shown in Section II clause 2(b).

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2017/1576/annex/paragraph/1

 

The following link is from the UK government Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. Section 99(1)(b) clearly shows that a sounder must not sound within the hours 23:30 and 07:00 on a restricted road.

 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/99/made

 

I note that older UK models of the Nissan Leaf had a switch on the dashboard to silence the alarm, but it is missing from my vehicle. Would it be possible for my car to be retrospectively fitted with a switch to make it legal for me to drive at night, or for you to explain to me why mine is not fitted with a switch?

*****************************************************************************************************************************

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4 minutes ago, Gary Manuel said:

I've just sent the following question to Nissan UK Customer Services. Let's see what they have to say about it. I resisted the temptation to send it as a complaint, but that option is always open as a next step.

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************

I recently picked up my 2022 Nissan Leaf from Evans Halshaw in Doncaster. I am generally pleased with it but I have one major concern. The car has a very loud annoying sounder which comes on when reversing. There does not appear to be any way of silencing this sounder.

 

 

This is contrary to the requirements of UK legislation, which requires cars with such devices to be fitted with a switch to allow the driver to silence the sounder when judged necessary. Such times would include when reversing in sensitive areas such as in hospital / hospice grounds or during the hours from 11:30 pm to 07:00 am in built up areas when it would in fact be illegal!

 

 

 

The following link is an extract from the UK government website which shows the requirements for Electric Vehicles. The requirement for the switch is shown in Section II clause 2(b).

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2017/1576/annex/paragraph/1

 

 

 

The following link is from the UK government Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. Section 99(1)(b) clearly shows that a sounder must not sound within the hours 23:30 and 07:00 on a restricted road.

 

 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/99/made

 

 

 

I note that older UK models of the Nissan Leaf had a switch on the dashboard to silence the alarm, but it is missing from my vehicle. Would it be possible for my car to be retrospectively fitted with a switch to make it legal for me to drive at night, or for you to explain to me why mine is not fitted with a switch?

 

*****************************************************************************************************************************

There's probably an option to turn it off in page fourteen of the LCD menu under "obscure settings"

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Yes, I've seen it.

Options are:

1. Disconnect the speaker but that also disconnects the simulated engine noise when moving slowly forwards. Also gives a dashboard warning.

2. Use an OBD2 plug / LeafSpy Pro Android software to change it, but Nissan have disabled this for latest models (grrr).

3. Put a sock in the speaker or tape it up to reduce the output level.

4. Wire a switch between pin 5 on the sound module and ground (this is where the missing dashboard switch should be wired).

 

I shouldn't need to and won't be doing any of these.

Edited by Gary Manuel
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Am I getting a bit OTT here. Car reverses, gives warning. Necessity. Built up area, warning siren still quieter than pedestrian crushed under car, (and yes, I have heard that sound). I find the low speed rumble that electric cars make still very quite, I’ll get used to it in time, but a silent machine, moves back, no noise, one light, no thanks.

Edited by Don Fry
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Perhaps we wouldn't need artificial car sounds quite so much if more pedestrians took notice of what's going on around them instead of having eyes glued to a mobile phone and ears full of noise from earphones.  If you're in a car park there will be cars moving around so take some responsibility for your own safety. 

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