Overnight charging query

[Flatcoat]

Got back late last night so decided to leave the car on charge overnight for the first time, rather than unplug when putting the dogs out last thing. So far, so what, but when I unplugged this morning and checked Chargevision the recorded usage was 38.02kW. Prior to this the largest charge was about 11kW. Is this a glitch with the charging unit, the recording software or what? I think the battery capacity is 12kW. Most pertinently, can I assume that I have not actually used 38kW? Can't see how but as I am claiming back the recharge costs I need the Chargevision numbers to be accurate. (GX3h so no monitoring on the car itself).

Kicking myself a bit because I have been taking opening/closing meter readings as an approximate usage check and did not bother last night. Hence the query.

If the Chargevision reporting is flaky, is there another way to record consumption while charging?

Flatcoat

 

[maby]

There certainly have been other reports of Chargevision producing some very questionable numbers. Personally, I cannot directly comment since I have not yet got round to getting the login details for it.

I'm not sure what alternative you have - if you were using the 13A charging cable, you would be able to plug it into an energy monitor, but you can't do that on a charging point without major surgery to the wiring.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

I've plugged in at home overnight, all night, for the past couple of nights, since getting my PHEV. I've been plugging in around 8pm, but I've set the charging timer to start at midnight. The good news is that the charge timer has worked; when I plug in the unit and car show that it is not charging at 8pm, each morning when unplugging at 8am I have a full battery. Checking the ChargeVision online charge record shows I've used 11-12 kWh for each charge, which is about what I have been led to expect from other forum users. The time recorded by the ChargeVision software shows the time from when I plugged in to when I unplugged, rather than the time that the unit was actually charging, which surprised me a little, but no great concern. What was a slight concern this morning was that ChargeVision thinks I plugged in at 11am yesterday (when the car wasn't even at home) instead of the 8pm reality. So although the kWh useage figures seem accurate so far, the timings are certainly not. Like you I also need accurate/reliable data to be able to submit expense claims to my employer.

 

[maby]

See http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=529&hilit=chargevision for one example of reports of unreliable data from Chargevision - there have been others.

 

[Flatcoat]

So, and without trawling through the posts, it seems fair to assume that Chargevision reporting is not entirely robust. Apart from envying everyone with a GX4, the expedient solution therefore seems to be as follows:
(a) Never switch off the Chargemaster unit using the key. Doing so appears to play merry hell with the date/time reporting, even if the usages appear to be reliable.
(b) Keep an eye on the charging process and unplug once complete. This is not as much of a hardship as it seems since charging does seem to be fairly linear. Call it 4 hours for a full charge @ 16kW so I need to pop outside once I think the car ought to be charged, check the dash display, hopefully see that it is fully charged and unplug. If charging not complete, back inside, wait for a while and repeat process. In theory, the recorded usage won't then be that far off.

On a warm dry night this won't be so bad. In the middle of winter, with horizontal rain/sleet/snow, I can see this being a source of some irritation. Nor do I wish to even consider why I should have to apply a bodged solution to this particular problem. That way madness lies...

I'm not sure what the quick fix is for anyone using Economy 7. Is it too much to hope that Chargemaster will respond to feedback and upgrade their software?

Flatcoat

 

[maby]

If you can get your electric meter switched to a smart meter, you can probably get the information from there reasonably accurately - work out the background power consumption of your house, and subtract that from the figure shown while the car is charging?

 

[jdsx]

(b) Keep an eye on the charging process and unplug once complete. This is not as much of a hardship as it seems since charging does seem to be fairly linear. Call it 4 hours for a full charge @ 16kW so I need to pop outside once I think the car ought to be charged, check the dash display, hopefully see that it is fully charged and unplug. If charging not complete, back inside, wait for a while and repeat process. In theory, the recorded usage won't then be that far off.
Flatcoat

You can just buy a cheap-ish energy monitor (£25-40 or so) to monitor overall consumption and check when your charging is finished - it will ramp down towards the end. I use mine to check when the battery is nearly full and then switch it off - I live up a hill so can use regen on the way out in the morning :mrgreen:

I have heard that Chargevision data is very 'flaky'. I read on another forum that you can try resetting the unit by switching it off (at the fuseboard or wherever) for 15 minutes then switching it back on. No idea if this works or not!

 

[user 422]

you could buy an Energy Monitor for example "The Owl" and put the current sensor on the Live feed cable to the Charge Point...
that way you would get a reasonably good record of the Consumption used to charge the car...
I have a 3 channel "Owl" which does the House and the Charger separately

 

[Paddlepower]

you could buy an Energy Monitor for example "The Owl" and put the current sensor on the Live feed cable to the Charge Point...
that way you would get a reasonably good record of the Consumption used to charge the car...
I have a 3 channel "Owl" which does the House and the Charger separately

I've been using an Energy Monitor to let me know if there's still charging going on. Like the idea of 3 channel "Owl". Would be cool if it had an alarm when charge drops to a set level. As far as I can see the Owl only has a "User selectable power alert (max. KW) User selectable daily usage target".

The Owl + USB also looks cool,

Thanks for the info.

 

[alan]

When my power point was fitted they put a meter in showing how much power you use. Fitter told me I had to have this in as it was part of the subsidy agreement.


Alan

 

[maby]

When my power point was fitted they put a meter in showing how much power you use. Fitter told me I had to have this in as it was part of the subsidy agreement.


Alan

I don't think anyone else round here has had such a requirement imposed - there is theoretically a meter built into the Chargemaster points. Are you out of range for the wireless data link? Were they insisting on the meter as a manual alternative to the Chargevision service (?) that could not be used because of poor GPRS coverage?

 

[DrSlackBladder]

When my power point was fitted they put a meter in showing how much power you use. Fitter told me I had to have this in as it was part of the subsidy agreement.

Wow, when I asked for the same I was told by BG that it couldn't be done! Who installed your charging point?

Alan

 

[Bilbo59]

When my power point was fitted they put a meter in showing how much power you use. Fitter told me I had to have this in as it was part of the subsidy agreement.


Alan

I have the same. Really useful for recording the KWh used.

 

[Flatcoat]

The in-line meter sounds perfect. Unfortunately, I don't have one. Not fitted when British Gas installed the Polar point. Does anyone know which regs apply and where exactly it states that a meter must be fitted? In theory, it should be possible to get BG to retrofit the meter to ensure compliance. Note use of theory and insert other conditional clauses and disclaimers as you see it.

Perhaps more realistically, does the Owl unit offer some form of usage reporting that I can import into Excel, or equivalent? Sorry to hark back to an older concern but I need a robust reporting system for submitting my kW usages.

Flatcoat

 

[user 422]

....
Perhaps more realistically, does the Owl unit offer some form of usage reporting that I can import into Excel, or equivalent? Sorry to hark back to an older concern but I need a robust reporting system for submitting my kW usages.

Flatcoat

There was no mention of a separate watt meter in the BG contract - ( I have had 2 fitted at different addresses so far )
The Only common addition was a separate RCD breaker and 20 AMP MCB.

The Owl ( USB ) can pass data to a Windows Application which will graph usage and Export the actual data to CSV - this can be imported to any spreadsheet....

 

[Fendoch]

....
Perhaps more realistically, does the Owl unit offer some form of usage reporting that I can import into Excel, or equivalent? Sorry to hark back to an older concern but I need a robust reporting system for submitting my kW usages.

Flatcoat

There was no mention of a separate watt meter in the BG contract - ( I have had 2 fitted at different addresses so far )
The Only common addition was a separate RCD breaker and 20 AMP MCB.

The Owl ( USB ) can pass data to a Windows Application which will graph usage and Export the actual data to CSV - this can be imported to any spreadsheet....

This is all great if you are only charging at home but what about if you want to top up your charge at a service station Asdas or IKEA or where ever, these extra kW will not be shown
Graham

 

[Flatcoat]

I'm hoping that any charging done at a public point will be caught by whatever billing system is applied by the access card provider. Mind you, as I haven't used a public charging point yet I may once again be guilty of unmanaged, or even unmanageable, optimism.

 

[maby]

....
Perhaps more realistically, does the Owl unit offer some form of usage reporting that I can import into Excel, or equivalent? Sorry to hark back to an older concern but I need a robust reporting system for submitting my kW usages.

Flatcoat

There was no mention of a separate watt meter in the BG contract - ( I have had 2 fitted at different addresses so far )
The Only common addition was a separate RCD breaker and 20 AMP MCB.

The Owl ( USB ) can pass data to a Windows Application which will graph usage and Export the actual data to CSV - this can be imported to any spreadsheet....

This is all great if you are only charging at home but what about if you want to top up your charge at a service station Asdas or IKEA or where ever, these extra kW will not be shown
Graham

Currently they will almost all be free. As far as I know, the Polar Network is the only one that is currently charging for the charge (if you see what I mean) - and their prices are so high that a PHEV owner is better off burning petrol.

 

[alan]

When my power point was fitted they put a meter in showing how much power you use. Fitter told me I had to have this in as it was part of the subsidy agreement.


Alan

I don't think anyone else round here has had such a requirement imposed - there is theoretically a meter built into the Chargemaster points. Are you out of range for the wireless data link? Were they insisting on the meter as a manual alternative to the Chargevision service (?) that could not be used because of poor GPRS coverage?

Mine was fit by www.solwayrenewables.com unbelievably they are the only independent company that covers Cumbria.
The meter is incorporated in the unit that sends the signal.


Alan

 

[alan]

The in-line meter sounds perfect. Unfortunately, I don't have one. Not fitted when British Gas installed the Polar point. Does anyone know which regs apply and where exactly it states that a meter must be fitted? In theory, it should be possible to get BG to retrofit the meter to ensure compliance. Note use of theory and insert other conditional clauses and disclaimers as you see it.

Perhaps more realistically, does the Owl unit offer some form of usage reporting that I can import into Excel, or equivalent? Sorry to hark back to an older concern but I need a robust reporting system for submitting my kW usages.

Flatcoat

As the meter is part of the unit that sends the data signal maybe it was just the sending of the data that was the requirement. I can only remember the fitter saying I had to have that unit in place for a certain period to comply with the subsidy.


Alan