New i3s owner in Leeds, UK with National grid issues

[electriclightweight]

Snap(ish)!
I've recently bought my first i3, a 2019 in Imperial Blue, as a second car to replace a petrol Corsa as a shopping trolly.
I rang Wisely yesterday to book its next biennial service in July and now waiting for Emma to email me back with details.
May I ask whereabouts you're based? I'm near Warrington and might consider asking Wisely to do a post-purchase inspection on the same date as you in Feb if you're close by.

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Love the Imperial blue

Unfortunately I'm up in Leeds, Yorkshire so a fair way from yourself

 

[TedStriker]

Yes - that will be what is slowing things down in terms of remedial work. IIRC the general rule with a "looped" supply is that the main fuse rating will be relatively low (because in effect the supply to 2 houses is shared on one incoming cable).

There are quite a few charge points available now which include current monitoring, which are capable of scaling back the car's charge rate when the total power consumption for the property exceeds a given threshold, but I'm not sure if the DNO will accept that as an adequate precaution on a looped supply.

I guess the charger could be fitted on a 20A circuit, I have an Easee One and that is fully configurable in terms of circuit capacity. I actually run mine on a 20A circuit at 16A max and that gives me around 23kWh of charging capacity during my 6 hours of 7p electricity on IOG. That's best part of a hundred miles for one overnight charge.

But don't write off the granny charger - even at 10A you can put 13.8kWh into the car during the cheap overnight time, which is around 55 miles of range. Plus with IOG you will almost always get cheap charging outside the guaranteed hours. I think you'll be fine. Worst case scenario you come home with an empty batery and need it full by the next day you can bump charge at daytime rates.

 

[mojo]

Indeed - as I recall, Easee chargers are very intelligent in terms of load management, allowing you to have several of their EVSEs on one circuit. In that situation they can each be configured to load-share so that the total load across all of the EVSEs doesn't exceed the defined capacity. I would probably have bought an Easee product myself if a damaged EO unit had not turned up at £40, and I wasn't able to resist the challenge to repair it.

IMO you're right - I suspect that most i3 users would probably find a 10A (@240V) charger adequate under almost all circumstances. The only exception is likely to be for unexpected long journeys at short notice (and, for an aging population, forgetting to plug your car in when you need to!).

 

[TedStriker]

Indeed - as I recall, Easee chargers are very intelligent in terms of load management, allowing you to have several of their EVSEs on one circuit. In that situation they can each be configured to load-share so that the total load across all of the EVSEs doesn't exceed the defined capacity. I would probably have bought an Easee product myself if a damaged EO unit had not turned up at £40, and I wasn't able to resist the challenge to repair it.

IMO you're right - I suspect that most i3 users would probably find a 10A (@240V) charger adequate under almost all circumstances. The only exception is likely to be for unexpected long journeys at short notice (and, for an aging population, forgetting to plug your car in when you need to!).

The 'unexpected long journeys at short notice' is why I love having the REx, although I'd realy like a 120AH too.