Charging two cars - replacing existing charge point

[Adopado]

How much driving do you expect to do in each car daily? I'm sharing a single charger between the Model 3 and Wife's Leaf, which is doable while I'm not doing much mileage. The Leaf needs charging every 2 days, Tesla once a week so it's fine. If my journeys went up then we would need a second charger.

I imagine that for people who are happy to charge at any time of day/night it could be quite easy to share but if needing to take advantage of cheap rate limited time slots that would be different.

 

[GRiLLA]

I imagine that for people who are happy to charge at any time of day/night it could be quite easy to share but if needing to take advantage of cheap rate limited time slots that would be different.

We are using Octopus Go, it all depends on how much charge per day you need and battery sizes.

 

[Somex]

I imagine that for people who are happy to charge at any time of day/night it could be quite easy to share but if needing to take advantage of cheap rate limited time slots that would be different.

And if happy to charge anytime of day/night, and perhaps for location of charger/car/charge port/cable length reasons, and particularly if you are offered a "free" charger, I would suggest a changeover switch so either charger could be selected, the switch would of course electrically isolate and deselect the other charger

 

[corbett666]

How much driving do you expect to do in each car daily? I'm sharing a single charger between the Model 3 and Wife's Leaf, which is doable while I'm not doing much mileage. The Leaf needs charging every 2 days, Tesla once a week so it's fine. If my journeys went up then we would need a second charger.

Thanks for all the advice.

Right now my driving will not be all that much, but when (if) things start going back to normal, I'll be using most of the Tesla charge 3 days a week. And the Audi, well I foolishly went for the Vorsprung edition with the 22 inch wheels because I liked the toys and looks... the range is stated at 222 miles I think, or there abouts, but with the big wheels and the fact its likely over estimated, I'm guessing 180 tops. It will be doing about 60 miles a day, so too will probably want a good charge most of the time...

The reason I'm thinking of doing this now, rather than waiting to see if things return to normal is just as @VanillaAir_UK mentioned. Not sure how much approval I'd get for a second charger. Audi will pay for full installation and provision of a POD charger... included in the price, so my thinking is, getting one installed on grant, then when Audi install their one after, they can deal with whatever cost to cover the second install.

My house is a newbuild with 100amps and plenty of blanks available, but as far as I know, 2 chargers running full pelt would just eat those AMPs instantly. POD has this line as a feature: "Auto Power Balancing." but no technical details as to how this might be achieved. POD doesn't seem like a bad choice, but given I know what's going on, if I were to buy my own charger prior to the install, it would be nice to have the options of others. Based on the above, I'd love to hear the advice of you guys if it sounds like a good plan, of if you think I'm making more trouble for myself and frankly 1 would be ok...

Just strikes me that if I'm getting 1 'free' from Audi anyway, should I make the most of it and get my own on grant before that?

 

[Dilly]

Thanks for all the advice.

Right now my driving will not be all that much, but when (if) things start going back to normal, I'll be using most of the Tesla charge 3 days a week. And the Audi, well I foolishly went for the Vorsprung edition with the 22 inch wheels because I liked the toys and looks... the range is stated at 222 miles I think, or there abouts, but with the big wheels and the fact its likely over estimated, I'm guessing 180 tops. It will be doing about 60 miles a day, so too will probably want a good charge most of the time...

The reason I'm thinking of doing this now, rather than waiting to see if things return to normal is just as @VanillaAir_UK mentioned. Not sure how much approval I'd get for a second charger. Audi will pay for full installation and provision of a POD charger... included in the price, so my thinking is, getting one installed on grant, then when Audi install their one after, they can deal with whatever cost to cover the second install.

My house is a newbuild with 100amps and plenty of blanks available, but as far as I know, 2 chargers running full pelt would just eat those AMPs instantly. POD has this line as a feature: "Auto Power Balancing." but no technical details as to how this might be achieved. POD doesn't seem like a bad choice, but given I know what's going on, if I were to buy my own charger prior to the install, it would be nice to have the options of others. Based on the above, I'd love to hear the advice of you guys if it sounds like a good plan, of if you think I'm making more trouble for myself and frankly 1 would be ok...

Just strikes me that if I'm getting 1 'free' from Audi anyway, should I make the most of it and get my own on grant before that?

I have 100 amp fuse and large enough mains/internals. I have two Zappi’s. The Outlander only charges at 3.5Kw, the Tesla at 7Kw. Even if both ran full bore of 7Kw each that’s only just over 60amps so you should have capacity to cope with two.

 

[ACarneiro]

I have 100 amp fuse and large enough mains/internals. I have two Zappi’s. The Outlander only charges at 3.5Kw, the Tesla at 7Kw. Even if both ran full bore of 7Kw each that’s only just over 60amps so you should have capacity to cope with two.

I've had a BMW i3 as well as my TM3 on two separate charge points at home (100A supply). Both draw 32A. As you can see from my profile photo, it certainly loads the meter but leaves plenty enough to run the house. It's not an issue

 

[GRiLLA]

Thanks for all the advice.

Right now my driving will not be all that much, but when (if) things start going back to normal, I'll be using most of the Tesla charge 3 days a week. And the Audi, well I foolishly went for the Vorsprung edition with the 22 inch wheels because I liked the toys and looks... the range is stated at 222 miles I think, or there abouts, but with the big wheels and the fact its likely over estimated, I'm guessing 180 tops. It will be doing about 60 miles a day, so too will probably want a good charge most of the time...

The reason I'm thinking of doing this now, rather than waiting to see if things return to normal is just as @VanillaAir_UK mentioned. Not sure how much approval I'd get for a second charger. Audi will pay for full installation and provision of a POD charger... included in the price, so my thinking is, getting one installed on grant, then when Audi install their one after, they can deal with whatever cost to cover the second install.

My house is a newbuild with 100amps and plenty of blanks available, but as far as I know, 2 chargers running full pelt would just eat those AMPs instantly. POD has this line as a feature: "Auto Power Balancing." but no technical details as to how this might be achieved. POD doesn't seem like a bad choice, but given I know what's going on, if I were to buy my own charger prior to the install, it would be nice to have the options of others. Based on the above, I'd love to hear the advice of you guys if it sounds like a good plan, of if you think I'm making more trouble for myself and frankly 1 would be ok...

Just strikes me that if I'm getting 1 'free' from Audi anyway, should I make the most of it and get my own on grant before that?

60 miles is next to nothing, even with the thirsty Audi it'll be less than 3 hours to recharge. The Tesla will be less. Unless both cars end up needing charging on the same day it's going to be fine with one charger. It will be a tiny amount less hassle to be able to just plug them both in all the time, and never have to think about the charge level, and frankly if you've got fancy eTron funds this is small fry. Charging a model 3 on 3pin would give you 60 miles in about 8 hours.

PodPoint chargers are fine, perhaps a little ugly to some. Most chargers have some kind of load sharing with others of their type, but there isn't a standard for them to interoperate, they would just both go slower if charging at the same time. Zappi is probably smarter than most in that it can monitor the total house load and adjust rate to keep within a threshold. Audi want to claim the OLEV grant on your 'free' charger, so you may not then have a grant available, depends on which model you are getting.

If you are going EV won't you be going for PV solar panels at some point and want a charger that can divert to the car when the sun shines?

 

[corbett666]

60 miles is next to nothing, even with the thirsty Audi it'll be less than 3 hours to recharge. The Tesla will be less. Unless both cars end up needing charging on the same day it's going to be fine with one charger. It will be a tiny amount less hassle to be able to just plug them both in all the time, and never have to think about the charge level, and frankly if you've got fancy eTron funds this is small fry. Charging a model 3 on 3pin would give you 60 miles in about 8 hours.

PodPoint chargers are fine, perhaps a little ugly to some. Most chargers have some kind of load sharing with others of their type, but there isn't a standard for them to interoperate, they would just both go slower if charging at the same time. Zappi is probably smarter than most in that it can monitor the total house load and adjust rate to keep within a threshold. Audi want to claim the OLEV grant on your 'free' charger, so you may not then have a grant available, depends on which model you are getting.

If you are going EV won't you be going for PV solar panels at some point and want a charger that can divert to the car when the sun shines?

You're spot on, I've been looking at PV solar too, so yes, I didn't consider that point, and not sure POD have the same cool features to manage the solar power that I've seen on Zappi. Sounds like Zappi gets a lot of votes, and it was the one I would jump on if it weren't for the free pod with the etron.

On a side note, I've just looked at the OLEV grant, and apparently, they will give you money for 2 installs, but no more, and it seems to be a simple double the grant situation. So maybe I don't need to hurry and I could just see how I go.

 

[DigbyChicken]

You're spot on, I've been looking at PV solar too, so yes, I didn't consider that point, and not sure POD have the same cool features to manage the solar power that I've seen on Zappi. Sounds like Zappi gets a lot of votes, and it was the one I would jump on if it weren't for the free pod with the etron.

On a side note, I've just looked at the OLEV grant, and apparently, they will give you money for 2 installs, but no more, and it seems to be a simple double the grant situation. So maybe I don't need to hurry and I could just see how I go.

FWIW, I was looking at getting a second install - old one is a tethered type 1 that works for the Leaf but obviously won't work for the incoming Tesla M3 - and was horrified to discover that, in order to qualify for an OLEV grant, it seems you need to have had two concurrent EVs for six months.

(So I'm now looking at ripping out the 'free' Chargemaster/Polar unit for a new untethered unit in the cheapest way possible...!)

 

[corbett666]

FWIW, I was looking at getting a second install - old one is a tethered type 1 that works for the Leaf but obviously won't work for the incoming Tesla M3 - and was horrified to discover that, in order to qualify for an OLEV grant, it seems you need to have had two concurrent EVs for six months.

(So I'm now looking at ripping out the 'free' Chargemaster/Polar unit for a new untethered unit in the cheapest way possible...!)

Oh really?! Interesting!! Thanks for the heads up!