Rising electricity costs, reflected in big increase in supercharger rates

[PITA]

I look forward to it: when I charge during Octopus Go, where I live, grid power has gone from 50-100 gCO2/kWh to more like 200+ gCO2/kWh. Nasty.

Wishing solar was more viable for my home. The gas stuff being in the news means I have been reading about air-source heat pumps (I’m on an estate: how noisy for the neighbours? A fridge or exterior office aircon unit?) and heat storage ‘washing machines’.

Maybe this mess will push a few more of us the right way.

Fingers crossed for IFA1, those reactors and a bit more wind! Nice reactor status link (Power station daily status).

Anyone know what is happening with IFA1 being restarted - the unaffected 1GW side?

We have a Toshiba Haori Air-to-Air Heat Pump (reversible Hot/Cold). The compressor outdoor units are extremely quiet. Really quiet.

The indoor units are almost silent as well, just the sound of slow air flow. Easily sleep comfortably and no sudden noises to wake you up.

Our neighbours didn't even know we had a Heat Pump installed. They can't hear it.

 

[Yev000]

air-source heat pumps

It's basically split system air conditioning - while good at heating, not the magic bullet. With the systems being installed in UK it wont pay for itself, or indeed remove the need for a boiler.

I personally predict that we will have abundant renewable power from wind and solar in excess of what is required over the next 10 years. Once enough battery storage gets installed on the grid wind and solar becomes much more profitable to build.

Although I expect I'll get laughed out of the room for such a cheery outlook on a UK forum.

 

[PITA]

It's basically split system air conditioning - while good at heating, not the magic bullet. With the systems being installed in UK it wont pay for itself, or indeed remove the need for a boiler.

I personally predict that we will have abundant renewable power from wind and solar in excess of what is required over the next 10 years. Once enough battery storage gets installed on the grid wind and solar becomes much more profitable to build.

Although I expect I'll get laughed out of the room for such a cheery outlook on a UK forum.

When I looked into it, there were three types.

Air Sourced Heat Pump (Air to Air)... which nobody seems to talk about. We installed this setup because it can cool the house as well as heat it. Also we kept our Gas Boiler and Central Heating system untouched in reserve. Perfect.

Air Sourced Heat Pump (Air to Water). This is designed to replace your Gas Boiler, and provide a Hot Water Central Heating system with larger radiators. They basically don't do cooling without condensation issues.

Ground Sourced Heat Pump (Ground Thermal to Water). This is also designed to replace your Gas Boiler, and provide a Hot Water Central Heating system with larger radiators. This doesn't do cooling either.

All of the above Heat Pumps are extremely efficient because they don't create heat from energy used, but scavenge heat and move it about. So 1kW of energy to run the system could find 5kW of heat / or cooling.

That's my understanding.

 

[RedMod3]

Air Sourced Heat Pump (Air to Air)... which nobody seems to talk about. We installed this setup because it can cool the house as well as heat it. Also we kept our Gas Boiler and Central Heating system untouched in reserve. Perfect.

You won't find these talked about because, although they are the best, they do not attract the government grant and the installers cannot charge a premium to install them.

This is what we use to heat our property in winter and cool it in summer with no additional heating. They work well and are extremely responsive.

When we are on the Octopus GO tariff, we will be paying less to heat our water with an immersion heater (and solar) than any gas user; we use E7 now.

Greedy Installers will not recommend this approach as there is less money in it for them.

 

[ACarneiro]

I don’t think my Air to Air heat pump is extremely efficient in the depths of winter. Air to ground is probably better but MUCH higher installation costs.
I find that air to air works best in spring and autumn and I still revert back to gas heating in properly cold days.

 

[Teddy69]

I've a 2 year old house with a combined air source/gas boiler. You tell it in the controller your energy costs, then it switches over to gas when that becomes more efficient as temperature drops. Brand is Daiken I think, it's got a low hum outside when fan is on but doesn't annoy anyone.

Air source in old homes sounds fraught with challenges I've read.

 

[googlepeakoil]

When I looked into it, there were three types.

Air Sourced Heat Pump (Air to Air)... which nobody seems to talk about. We installed this setup because it can cool the house as well as heat it. Also we kept our Gas Boiler and Central Heating system untouched in reserve. Perfect.

Air Sourced Heat Pump (Air to Water). This is designed to replace your Gas Boiler, and provide a Hot Water Central Heating system with larger radiators. They basically don't do cooling without condensation issues.

Ground Sourced Heat Pump (Ground Thermal to Water). This is also designed to replace your Gas Boiler, and provide a Hot Water Central Heating system with larger radiators. This doesn't do cooling either.

All of the above Heat Pumps are extremely efficient because they don't create heat from energy used, but scavenge heat and move it about. So 1kW of energy to run the system could find 5kW of heat / or cooling.

That's my understanding.

I got the first on your list. 3 units fitted around the house. Loft (as is 6C hotter than the outside temp in summer!) my study (wfh) and the kithen (gets the sun in the summer through 4 bifold doors). Even with sail like awnings the house was getting too hot in my study and kitchen. So the AC units 3 x £1500 are great... with the added benefit they can do winter heating! We've got a 9kWh Alpha ESS battery array (about to be upgraded to 12kWh) and nearly 8kW of solar so can do some of our winter heating on electric. The wood burner too and super-insulating the house means our 2021 gas bill is about £40/month and our electricity bill under £20. Also got the SR+ model 3. But only doing 5k miles/year.

 

[MarkThisDay]

48p a kw now

 

[ACarneiro]

Funnily enough, I charged at Park Royal a couple of weeks ago and it was 25p/kWh. Bargain!
I wonder if it’s some specific contract for that area or they “forgot” to update prices?

 

[PITA]

I don’t think my Air to Air heat pump is extremely efficient in the depths of winter. Air to ground is probably better but MUCH higher installation costs.
I find that air to air works best in spring and autumn and I still revert back to gas heating in properly cold days.

Exactly same here. 100% agreed.

Only use Gas Central heating on very cold days... otherwise use Air to Air Heat Pump for room specific heating.

Which works great, as the Gas use is minimal, heat pump is effective and we're never cold.

 

[Rustybkts]

Funnily enough, I charged at Park Royal a couple of weeks ago and it was 25p/kWh. Bargain!
I wonder if it’s some specific contract for that area or they “forgot” to update prices?

Hilton Heathrow is still 26p/kWh this week.

 

[MarkThisDay]

Hilton Heathrow is still 26p/kWh this week.

28p and not for much longer

 

[m3gt2]

28p and not for much longer

When did it go up to 28p?

 

[googlepeakoil]

Funnily enough, I charged at Park Royal a couple of weeks ago and it was 25p/kWh. Bargain!
I wonder if it’s some specific contract for that area or they “forgot” to update prices?

A long range might be useful so as to pick and choose the cheapest superchargers. Most of them it's just a few pennies. But some have very different pricing it seems. Heathrow has always been very cheap.

 

[Forty_Two]

Is there a web site that gives the current kwh chargers for different Tesla charger sites?

 

[nbdm]

Is there a web site that gives the current kwh chargers for different Tesla charger sites?

Sadly not, I wish someone would reverse engineer the nav and find the api used to grab the supercharger data and make a website.
Although that would probably get a C&D request from Tesla before you can blink

It seems strange Tesla do not have their own way to see SC status/pricing on their website, or even the app if they wanted to limit to owners - basically every other charging network does...

 

[btc1k]

Sadly not, I wish someone would reverse engineer the nav and find the api used to grab the supercharger data and make a website.
Although that would probably get a C&D request from Tesla before you can blink

It seems strange Tesla do not have their own way to see SC status/pricing on their website, or even the app if they wanted to limit to owners - basically every other charging network does...

Isn't this solving a problem that doesn't exist?

When I need to go to a supercharger, I ask the car where they are and it displays them. I select the ones en-route and it tells me the info.

Every other charging network has an app or website to show the info because they don't have the preferred facility of displaying it easily in-car.....

 

[Nick77]

Drove down to London and back yesterday and stopped at Oxford Supercharger. 48p per kW!! Bloody hell. £12 for a 20 min charge and 25kw.

Stupidly expensive. I can't see any justification for prices that high. There are plenty of other Superchargers which are cheaper, and plenty of Rapids which are cheaper too.

 

[qwickshot]

Drove down to London and back yesterday and stopped at Oxford Supercharger. 48p per kW!! Bloody hell. £12 for a 20 min charge and 25kw.

Stupidly expensive. I can't see any justification for prices that high. There are plenty of other Superchargers which are cheaper, and plenty of Rapids which are cheaper too.

I’m really not sure there are, all super chargers bar of those few in London are all pretty much the same price.

Most rapids are north of 50p/kWh these days. Gridserve and Tesla are the exception being below.

 

[MarkThisDay]

I’m really not sure there are, all super chargers bar of those few in London are all pretty much the same price.

Most rapids are north of 50p/kWh these days. Gridserve and Tesla are the exception being below.

Used the bp near my house it's 35p per kW