What name would you like to appear in your review?
Ian Crowder
What is the make & model of your charging unit?
It’s a Chargemaster unit – what the model is I have no idea!
What year did you have your charging unit installed?
2016
Which company installed it and would you recommend them?
Chargemaster (now bp pulse) installed it. I suspect the technology has changed and Chargemaster has disappeared into the corporate envelope of bp so hard to make a recommendation.
How much did you pay for your unit and installation?
£0.
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Why did you purchase this particular unit?
We were fortunate in that it was partly paid for by the then Government grant of £500 and a contribution from Nissan so it was free of charge (at the time I was doing some work in conjunction with Chargemaster).
List 3 or more points that you like about the charging unit.
- It works
- it’s dead simple – plug-in and off it goes.
List 3 or more points that you don’t like about the charging unit.
- It has no ‘smart’ features.
Outline any faults you have experienced with the unit.
None at all!
Provide your overall rating for the charging unit.
Tell us about your home charging routine.
We do about 192 miles per week on average, sometimes considerably less and sometimes considerably more. We tend to charge when we need to rather than top up every day; we also use public chargers. We have solar panels which means it is better to charge in the middle of a lovely sunny, summer day than overnight. We do like to keep sufficient charge for any sudden need so if it falls below about 30% (60-70 miles range) we tend to top it up to 80%-90%. We will charge to 100% if we are planning a long journey i.e. recent trips have been to Lancashire, Lincoln and Poole from Cheltenham.
If you were buying a new charging unit now, what would you buy and why?
I would look for a system that offers car-to-grid and/or smart charging that makes best and most economical use of energy supply, also that can be controlled i.e. switched on and off remotely by smartphone.
Tell us about your electricity provider and tariff. Would you recommend them?
We use Octopus – it provides ‘green’ energy; they have superb customer service; we supply energy from our solar panels to them and they have one of the best tariffs for that at 5.5p/kWh (which I appreciate isn’t as good as it used to be!). Their website and the information provided about both gas and electricity supply is very good indeed. Once we had solar panels installed, our energy bill (in the summer) more than halved. Supply cost is 20.71p/kWh (day) & 15.34p/kWh (night). We like Octopus.
Are you part of a charger-sharing scheme for those who don’t have their own charger?
No – however, we are happy to offer our charger to anyone wishing to use it e.g. for a visit to friends or relations in our village, for example.
See other home charging reports here
