EV On Granny Charging Alone?
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- Can you live with just a Granny Charger? I only used my granny charger for a month with my electric car to see if it was possible!
We recently got our MG5 LR EV but we're about to move, so it doesn't really make sense to install level 2 charger. Next up after this will be charging away from home for a month!
Any stories of living with a granny charger long-term?
I'm doing the same, mainly because I don't do enough miles (about 5000 pa) to justify the cost of installing a home fast charger. I've only been doing it 3 weeks, but no issues so far. We haven't done any long trips yet, but I have charged overnight to 100% a couple of times, so we theoretically could have taken a long day trip - it just requires planning.
That's a great summary, it just requires planning. I think for low mileage it makes sense.
Like some others who have solar pv we have been trickling excess solar into our Enyaq via a granny charger. We did have a non- smart 7kw charger but didn’t want to export solar for peanuts and buy it back in at a higher rate ( albeit we are on Octopus Go Faster) However, the possibility of long term use causing problems ie the unit getting warm etc did give us an uneasy feeling. We replaced our old dumb 7 kw charger with a Myenergi Zappi that does exactly the same with the excess solar but we can just leave it to do it’s stuff and not worry about it. So yes, it’s possible to charge using a granny charger if that’s all you have, but we are happier we now only use it in emergencies if we are away from home.
I've been using the 110V outlet in my garage (US, so just 110V) for two and a half years with no problems. I'm retired, but my daily driving is actually higher than when I was working. My commute was 16 miles per day, but now my daily trips to our various parks are 19-25 miles per day. I did, for safety, install a GFCI receptacle which has been a lifesaver (or maybe a car saver). No problems, no stress, no expense other than the $10 for the outlet. Lovin' it!
I have a 2019 40kw Nissan Leaf. In the two years I’ve owned it, I have only used the granny charger at home. I never let it get lower than about 40% when I’m at home. I charge it usually about once every couple of weeks and an overnight charge is enough. If I do a longer trip of 100+ miles I use the fast charging network. It has worked perfectly for me.
We have only ever used a granny cable in North America on a 120V outlet with only 1.3kW of power. We have done this for over 5 years. I am retired now but I used the car for 3 years before I retired. I had plenty of business trips as well. When I was working, we would just charge at night and it was enough. If I knew I was going on a longer trip, I would just make sure I charged to 100% a day or two ahead of time instead of charging to the usual 80%. It is also our only car and now has close to 70 000km on it.
2 years of granny charging my Peugeot e-208 GT now, no problems at all. Had a new, high quality outside socket fitted and have used it ever since. I charge overnight a couple of times a week and that works perfectly (15k miles in 2 years). Couldn't get a grant for a 7kw charger as I don't have off road parking despite being able to park outside the house almost 100% of the time.
5.5 years with a Leaf and 3.5 with my Model 3, all granny lead charging, about 80,000 miles now.
Edit* and those years overlap as I still have both EVs.
That's great to hear!
My 30kwhr Teckna 6.6 charger leaf in Arctic white, is now 8 years old from new,one owner ( me), only done 40k miles and has lost 33% battery capacity and range. Not good.
Thanks! Exactly the question I needed answering. Probably more doable if you can use the electrical outlet in a garage.
I am a low mileage Fiat 500e driver and started off with a Masterplug granny charger for the first few months of ownership which I had dialled back to 8 Amps via the car's internal charge rate setter. This worked fine for me and the plug and garage socket barely got lukewarm, but I still checked both every hour. I felt much happier once I got a wall mounted 7KW charger that has all the safety protocols and can be left on for hours with no concerns.
Yeah I think the 7kW charger would probably be worth it just to remove the little worry in the back of my mind about burning down the house!
I bought an EV 6 months ago. I rent at a house with a driveway, my landlord doesn't want to install a charger, so I charge my car on a 3 pin plug. I charge on nights at 6 Amps (1,2Kw/h) but it is enough to top up my car. I never saw my cable, the plug or the socket warm. So, as long as it looks safe, I continue. I never go to sleep while I charge the car.
I am always there if something happens.
Nothing's going to happen at 6 amps, that's just a trickle. Safe way of doing it.
Bought an MG4 and as an OAP with time , I used the Granny charger to see if I could cope . Using a fast charger when golf days came up , it was a real pain . Overnight on a 13amp 3pin would put maybe 50/60 miles range and cost £8 .
The occasional 45 minute fast charge £25.
Now I have an Ohme charger . Program 4hrs overnight @ £2.59 gives me 90/100 miles ....perfect.
With golf and shopping I do 200 miles a week . 2x charges =£5.16p.
Beats £30 of Diesel
doesn't beat diesel on a log journey with electricity at 79 p per kwhr My diesel car is 10 p per mile cheaper than my EV on a run, which I don't do any more in the EV because of battery degradation and range loss as all EV's do with time and battery use cycles. Now factor in the replacement EV battery in your costs as well over time.
In Slovenia we have a new tariff system where we choose our maximum power draw. If you choose too low, you pay penalties for crossing the limit, but you pay les fees and vice versa. I mostly charge my car over the day when solar is working and my wife when she comes from work. So the power is spread across the day. I also have a heat pump and that mostly works, when the cars aren't charging. It has 2000 liter buffer tank, so it works in a kind of on/off regime when needed. The irony is, that I make electronic modules for charging stations for one company and still use granny chargers. This going on for one year now without any problems.
If you intend to use granny charger for longer periods of time, make sure that your outlet has at least 2.5mm2 cables and 16A breaker (230V system) and if you make an extension cord, make it as short as possible and use 4mm2 wire for it. It is not just for safety but also efficiency.
Planning an EV and have a ready outdoor 3 pin socket. Just hope the wiring is up to code (13 amps here at 240V). A bit wary of drawing the full 3kW for many hours. Seen some sockets in other homes having overheating marks (blackened). That was some years ago, maybe standards have improved since.
If you're charging overnight, why does it matter if you charge it up 8-10 hours a day? I rent my house and haven't been able to get a charge installed and have no issues at all using the 3 pin plug, wouldn't have had any benefit by using a 7kwh charger since the car's always fully charged by the morning anyway.
Exactly 10 hours overnight granny gives 90 miles. Average mileage in the UK is 18miles per day 6,600 per year. For most people one or two nights a week overnight is all that's needed.
@usefulrandom1855 so when I regularly go to the Highlands 350 miles each way, I shouldn't do it because it doesn't fit in with EV think ? 😂 I do not stop to charge at all either ( diesel Merc ). If you do have an EV, which I also have, as a local runabout now that it's battery is so badly degraded, after 8 years and only 40k miles from new, a 7 kw charger would pay for itself over a short time, by getting the EV charged within the octopus go, cheap overnight, 4 hour window. You couldn't do it from a 3 pin plug and granny charger. I could have saved even more money though by not buying my EV in the first place. Ah well, you live and learn.
@@stevezodiac491 If you regularly do 700 mile round trips then a diesel is the right choice. I was just going of average mileage of about 20 per day the granny is sufficient. I get a minimum of 6 hours now as the car (Tesla) can interact with Intelligent octopus. I often get around 8 hours as they give bonus hours when they can. so that one night a week charge is enough for me for a week. I do not need to do a 20-80% as I don't do that many miles so yes the 3pin at 6-8 hours will give me about 54 miles at 6 hours or 72 miles for 8 hours. I do about 70 miles per week.
@@stevezodiac491 Why would you not do it? There are EVs with 400 miles range now so if you really wanted to you could do it in a oner. I do 300 mile each way trips every month in my tesla and its no difference to when I drove in my merc since I stop off for 15 minutes to use the toilet and have some food like most sensible people. You can do intelligent octopus go with many cars using the 3 pin. I could do it with my tesla but the tracker tariff works out cheaper for me or I would. How would you have saved more money not buying an EV? I did a cost analysis of my tesla model 3 vs a ford focus of the same age and mileage and the tesla came out ahead after roughly year 6/ If you get a cheaper EV which costs the same or less you make money every day that goes by after buying it. EVs are much cheaper in the long run with low to no maintenance and significantly cheaper fuel costs.
BS
Just fit an outside socket and plug in every time you park. I’ve been doing that for 7 years. It works fine.
Good to know. I do a tiny annual mileage - less than 2,000 miles and I reckon, on this basis, an outside socket and a granny cable would do me if/when I get an EV.
Its doable. Its just more convenient with a 7kw ( or higher if you can). I also assessed the extra 'life utility' I got from spending around about £1200 quid on the chargepoint ( which included installation ) was greater than paying eg that much extra on one new kitchen / bathroom / garden landscaping / annual family holiday etc ( take your pick ) over another choice of one or those.
I've been using a granny charger for a year now with no problems.
I have put, under cover, on the outside of my garage, two 13A sockets, one normal and one supplied through a relay that closes when the solar panels are generating more than 8 Amps. I normally leave the granny lead plugged into the solar switched socket which means that all my charging is from free electricity.
I could spend £700 on a Zappi, which would work better as it would start when the solar was generating 1.5kW not the 2kW of my system, but my system was a lot cheaper.
I got a new model 3 LR the other month, I’ve been doing 1500 miles a month. 6000 miles in and I initially thought I’m going to get a 7kw charger, but after a couple of weeks it became apparent I really didn’t need to spend any money.
10A works fine for me and just charge to 60% every night.
Only ever used a supercharger once for 12 minutes on a 420 mile round trip.
Thanks you 🙏🙏 conclusion absolutely fine! Im on holiday in UK and driving there (which isnt the issue) but it is very rural so want to be able to top up overnight at the accomadation
I have been on a granny charger though the kitchen window for 2.5 years. Occasional on road chargers. Absolutely not been a problem.
Although I don't know the technicalities,I would imagine that slow granny charging is probably the best for battery longevity.
@@ghunt9146 I believe it is, but on the other hand, other charging methods are not going to kill the battery.
Been using a granny for 6 months with our prius because we had to upgrade our previous wall charger to use with our, yet to be delivered, Enyaq. To be honest, it's exactly the same, as the granny output matches the previous wallbox output at 2.2Kw
We have charged our 40kw leaf for 6 months this way . Had no problems at all , getting the charge you need in the octopus 4 hr off peak windows adds that little extra planning , 40 ,
Miles per night does us well
We too have an MG5 and just the granny charger, but we are within 1/2 mile of 20 supermarkets - Aldi and Tesco, Aldi being the preferred choice, it's 25p / kwhr on an 11WH charger with crucially no time limit on the car park.
I took the car then on the monday morning, worked from home and collected it fully charged just after 4 for a total cost of £11.84 for 45.93kWh.
We use the granny for anything less than 20% top ups.
5 hours every night at cheap rate is 12kw/h for around £1. Just do it every night.
Too hard for simple minded gas fumes huffers.
We've been granny charging our 24 kWh Leaf for 3 years, and it's easy and much more convenient than visiting the petrol station. We have a drive and external 3-pin plug on the front wall so no need to connect to plugs inside the house.
We have solar panels and in the Summer the car runs off the sun.
Been watching these videos on the MG5 with great interest. The glitch that you had when charging, when you needed to call out was a worry. Hope that was a one-off as we are seriously considering an MG5.
Hopefully it was a one off! I'll make another video I'd it happens again. Apart from that it's been great!
I think European granny charging is faster than North American granny charging. We can add about 4 miles per hour of charging on a 110 outlet. It was going to be a stretch to be able to do that for me, but my job can have me traveling 120 miles or more a day or it could be a light 20 miles a day.
I have used (and still) use my Granny charger for 3 years! I fitted an outside house fitting (with cover) when I had my motorhome, so it was no brainer to use a Granny cable to charge my EV when I purchased it! I keep getting offers to fit an electric station on my outside wall from companies, which they claim would charge my EV quicker and I would receive a cheaper charging rate/electric bills! Anyone can fit these waterproof electric fittings to their outside wall! We are pensioners and we do not do high millage - we may have the odd journey up north and plug into the charging station/s there to create enough charge too get us back home! Charge my EV at night, as the tariff is cheaper! Hope this helps others?
I use my car 60 miles a day , plug in the granny charger in the evening then good to go next morning for the last two years no problem at all
2.3 on a granny charger 🎉 I live in North America and there's no way we could get that here.
Yeah we have 230v you have 110v. Granny charging in the UK gives 9 miles per hour. So over night could easily be 100miles , average miles is 6600 miles per year or 18 miles per day. Granny charging is sufficient for the majority. Only really high milers need a 7kw charger to justify the cost. For me it would take 4 years to break even on installing one.
I have a PHEV which I charge from an outside 3 pin plug. Unlike having to put it through the window then plugging it in every day isn't an issue. My car is always plugged in when on the drive.
I've been thinking about a full EV and it may be enough. It would be very rare indeed that I couldn't get enough charge in overnight in order to have enough for the next day.
Sure it's not ideal but neither is best part of £1k for a charger install and who knows what to unloop my electrical supply.
The problem with Granny charging through the window is that it's problematic in driving rain or cold weather. If you're installing a 3 pin plug on the outside of the house, it's probably worth getting a proper charger in any case. Sadly the government has stripped the incentives to do this, so you end up with situations like yourselves, where there's no benefit to installing a charger if you anticipate a short time remaining in the property.
Loving your videos though, keep it up :)
Thing is I got a 3 pin plug suitable for EV charging with RCBO professioanlly installed for £200 all in. 7kW would be £1000 plus
I’ve managed for 5 years just using a granny . Can I suggest an outside socket , my socket it at head height just under the eves so out of the weather and also a dedicated RC on consumer unit .
I was thinking an outside socket would be a good option!
An external socket costs about £15.
I think you mean 2.3kW not 2.3kWh and DC rapid as opposed to AC fast. Otherwise, good short video 👍🏻
I used one on my Zoe for 3 months until my zappi was installed with no problem.
I am fortunate in living only 7 miles from work and have managed easily charging only in the granny way once a week, although it took 15 hours (240V) the first time. Got down to 8% the first week 'cos I had to fit an external socket and make a dedicated waterproof extension 'cos I can only get 12m away from the house. It draws no more power than a kettle, and if you can't use a kettle then your electrics should be reviewed. Okay, don't use a standard extension, especially one which is coiled up. An electrician can easily fit an external socket and/or extension which will be a fraction of the cost of a "proper" charger.
If I had done the research then I wouldn't have ordered a charger installation, but when I do get it I'll be able to use the low-rate overnight tariff window of 5 hours and still only charge once a week, but all at the low rate. With the granny charger I'd have to split it to 2 or 3 times a week to take advantage of the low rates.
It all depends on your circumstances, but if you can charge at home, even at a stretch, and don't do a lot of miles, then I recommend trying granny-charger first, see how you go.
I got the same car, and we rarely drive on long journeys.. , but what Ive done was to install a normal 13amp Ip6 socket outside.. (coz I was also feeding from the kitchen window..)
and yes, its very slow... for 50% charge is about 16h or so...
We have a garage and plugged in our i3S in a 13amp socket having bought it in April. After a long weekend, I plugged it in to the 13amp socket so my wife could commute to work in it (four days a week). It was fully charged by the morning and we topped it up again on the Friday evening so we could use it over the weekend. Used a public charger over 150 miles away when we were on holiday and arrived home with 30%. After 8 weeks it’s clear two overnight charges are all it needs, so the only question now is whether to buy a home charger to manage the top ups better (between 10% and 80%) to avoid fully charging during commute routines? G
Can you make the spreadsheet smaller. I might be able to read the number 🙄
Found same with ev van for 2 months although socket got hot on some cheap outlets
How hot did they get? To the point where it was concerning?
@@OurEvUK Not too hot .But I am aware that cheap Chinese outlets like BG not all that good when you are running at high loads. The receptors become soft.Used MK outside socket and never had any problem they still manufacture in Europe to a good quality standard.
Good to know, thanks!
Had the same issue when visiting my parents and charging overnight in their garage, the pins on the plug were so hot in the morning when I unplugged that I couldn't touch them. The socket itself was pretty warm as well. The usual load on that socket is very low and has been there a while so if I have to do it again I might up grade the socket for them.
No idea if its true but on the MG5 facebook group I'm a member of, there is some talk that using the granny charger harms the battery over the long term.
Very interesting, do you know why?
Have you a link to the mg5 Facebook group Chris..just got an mg5 myself..thanks in advance
I've been charging my Leaf now for 3 years on the granny charger,no problems,if it buggered the battery up,it would not have a granny charger with it.........think about it,more ev misinformation.
We feel that an EV charge point on the house is an asset that increases the value / attraction of a property. We lived with a granny charger for 3 weeks until ours arrived and was installed.
Yes it is perfectly possible, especially with top ups at Aldi, LIDL and Tesco while weekly shopping.
ASDA, Waitrose and Sainsbury? Never seen a charge point there!
Morrisons are worse than that - rapid charger, yes 👍 but not working for the last 3 months.👎👎👎
I have a range extender not a mg but its 10 years old 50 mile battery still after 10 years gives 50 miles plus... winter around 40 miles ... only used granny charger 6-10amp charge .. average summer about 5miles per Kwh and winter around 3.8-4 miles per kwh ... fits my needs and on over 100k miles no issues:)...
I have never owner a house that did not have an outdoor outlet.
Is the granny charger that comes with the MG ok to just put straight into a house socket?
You cloud buy 13A model and charge at 13A 3kW
How much does it cost to charge on granny charger on mg anyone please?
You just multiply the amount of kWh by your electricity price.
Unless you are in North America then it is not so straight forward 🤷♂️
My granny doesn’t charge me at all …she says I’m one of her favourite grandchildren
But I make sure I do lots of errands for her😉
So how long does it take to charge an mg5 to full charge?
Divide the kwh capacity of the EV by the output of the charger (or the max AC charge ratee if less) and add 10%. e.g 50kwh vehicle using a 3kw charger = 53 / 3 = 16.7 Hours + 10% = 18.3 hours. Same vehicle using a 2.2 kw granny = 50/22 = 22.7 + 10% = 25 hours.