What name would you like to appear in your review?
Chris
What is the make & model of your charging unit?
Andersen A2
What year did you have your charging unit installed?
2020
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Which company installed it and would you recommend them?
Spirit Energy (based in Reading). Yes I would recommend them, they did a great job at a fair price.
How much did you pay for your unit and installation?
£1,400.
Why did you purchase this particular unit?
The unit is installed on the front of our house about 5m from the pavement so we wanted something that looked nice and was neat and tidy. Also, I wanted a unit that would last and had all the necessary smart features (scheduled charging, load regulation, solar support). The Andersen A2 looks great, the build quality is tremendous and it ‘just works’. Also, their support is very good as well.
List 3 or more points that you like about the charging unit.
- Looks and styling
- Features and functionality
- Built to last.
List 3 or more points that you don’t like about the charging unit.
Um, nothing really.
Outline any faults you have experienced with the unit.
None.
Provide your overall rating for the charging unit.
Tell us about your home charging routine.
We are low mileage users (I work from home and my wife is retired). We cover maybe 5000 – 6,000 miles per year but we do make occasional longer trips to take our daughter to and from University, days out, etc. Typically I only charge once a week (sometimes less) unless we have made a long journey. If at the end of the day the car has less than 50% SOC then I will typically charge it.
I charge during the night using cheap rate electricity (Octopus Go Faster) or, in summer, top-up during the day using solar power. I rarely use peak rate electricity other than for pre-conditioning the car before a journey in very cold or very hot weather. I use the scheduling and solar features of my unit to control the charging. So far, this is working well for us and helping to minimise cost.
If you were buying a new charging unit now, what would you buy and why?
I see no reason that I would not go with the same unit again. So far, it has performed admirably and although not the cheapest, the look, quality and reliability are key points for us. So another Andersen A2 for us I think.
Tell us about your electricity provider and tariff. Would you recommend them?
We use Octopus as we wanted a supplier where the electricity was all from renewable sources. We are on the Go Faster tariff which has a variety of options but for us, we have 5 hours of cheap rate electricity (5.5p per kWh versus 13.8 kWh peak) between 20:30 and 01:30 every night). This allows us to charge our EV, run the dishwasher and charge up our Powerwall to ‘load shift’ some of our daytime usage.
These prices are about to go up substantially due to the current crazy energy market conditions as our 12 months fixed period will be up for renewal soon. But with Octopus there is no exit fee and you can change tariff whenever you like (within some constraints) so if prices drop we can easily switch to a cheaper plan again. Overall, I would recommend Octopus as our experience with them has been pretty good.
Are you part of a charger-sharing scheme for those who don’t have their own charger?
No, I am not.
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