Home charging point

All Honda E related discussions
Ilovemye
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:15 pm

Post by Ilovemye »

I'm in UK and bought my e Advance last September.
I have tried to arrange a home charging point through Honda Progress which turns out to be partnered to British Gas!
We've been through all the hoops (changing electricity provider etc) and we are told it is all systems ready for action.
However It's been weeks since we were told this and that we should expect a call to arrange a fitting date. I complained to the only contact I have and was told we'd be put in the priority list. This was a month ago.
Has anyone else had problems with this?

User avatar
londiniumperson
Posts: 1764
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:37 pm

Post by londiniumperson »

As far as I was aware Honda haven't actually supplied any home chargers to anyone in the UK yet & anyway they have now changed energy provider now that they have finally arranged a UK installer, see:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=790

Who have you been in contact with to arrange this and what was their response to the complaint?

BTW - I have been in touch with Honda UK over a different matter with regards non existent customer service & I have been told that they are aware of this forum and the issues we are experiencing.
However don't get too excited because they don't actually listen or take any action on anything we say.
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
User avatar
EEEE
Posts: 519
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:33 am

Post by EEEE »

I was wondering why the dealer didn't try to sell me a charger, most likely they know the situation and steer clear as the dealer will cop the bad reviews / negative feedback for any short comings.
'21 e Advance - Charge Yellow - E1702RR alloys
'17 Civic Sport CVT
'00 Prelude 2.2VTi
User avatar
86swhi
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 7:29 am

Post by 86swhi »

EEEE wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:03 pm I was wondering why the dealer didn't try to sell me a charger, most likely they know the situation and steer clear as the dealer will cop the bad reviews / negative feedback for any short comings.
I asked Honda to get me a price for a Honda charger when I order mine last week and was quoted £1,800 for the charger.... Gave that a hard pass! :lol:
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, UK
Sept 2021 Advance in White
Rolec Home Charger
deckchair
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:30 am

Post by deckchair »

I went thought evchargingsolutions.co.uk The website whilst a little clunky gives you lots of options (I went for an Easee charger) and manages installation date well (I had a few weeks delay to the device not being available). The installer did a great job, very happy.
turntoport
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:54 am

Post by turntoport »

Re Honda charger; I believe the current (sorry) position is:

The Honda S+ domestic chargepoint is due to be physically available sometime around, er, now. -ish. Maybe Jan '22 for first-fits?? There have been delays getting it to market, as many here are aware.

The e:progress account offers connection to Octopussies Agile and Go tarifffs, whether 'Intelligent' is included eventually is tbd, but one would imagine so. (However, Intelligent is presently only operable via the Apple os; an Android version is 'in development' by Octopus, i was told about 6 weeks ago: Beta to market - expect soon???)

e:progress is subscription; free for the first year then you can opt-out. It's unclear what advantages e:progress offers over direct use of Agile, Go or Intelligent tariffs from Octopus, and whether there are any benefits for users of other fixed-price (non-agile) tariff providers. I think/hope v2g might be something in the pipeline.

BG do the install for the S+. Their process is very correct and per the regs, but this can lead to a (not their fault) noticeable pause between installation assessment and getting the thing fitted, as they are dependent - probably usually rather than often - on the DNO doing their bit ('Load Survey') if there is any question over adequacy of supply, e.g. things like the incoming fuse size, looping of supply, etc. Given that a good proportion of the UK's fairies are re-stringing poles in the north-east of the UK just now, delays are inevitable. [And given that privatisation and breakup of the power companies has meant skilled, knowledgeable staff have quit or found easier work (retirement) whilst failing to be adequately replaced with trained incomers, so as to maximise shareholder dividends, then we are in double jeopardy]

However: the bloke running the Honda S+/E:progress rollout is very communicative, helpful and seems pretty knowledgeable, so if you want to explore that route, look for
Joseph Mitchell <joseph.mitchell@honda-eprogress.co.uk>, he'll do his best for you.

H can also put a longer lead (7.5 m) at little extra cost, rather than the standard 5m job, if you could benefit from a bit of extra length, like me.
They were offering a £475 discount for the first 60 uptakers - this may have been fully-taken-up (?)

atb - ttp
turntoport
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:54 am

Post by turntoport »

p.s. lovemye:
BG may default to a Afren instal given the chance, as they don't (or didn't three weeks ago) actually have any Honda S+ chargers to fit. SO your delay could be there, or a wait for your DNO to complete and feedback a Load Survey report to BG. Either way, it's a wait game.
What's unclear with the S+ unit is whether (i) it has a 'current clamp' in it to limit peak draw on your supply, and (ii) whether it has PEN protection ('O-PEN') internally - if not you may need a separate box with the PEN earthing management gubbins inside - it's a decent-sized box (think wallcharger-box sized) ; beware if you don't have sh**loads of wallspace for a big black box.
Beware the earthing thing: it's a complicated area; you need a good grounding to sort it out. And the answer to 'the requirement' seems to depend which qualified electrician/DNO engineer you ask...caveat emptor to avoid potentially shocking results.

atb -ttp
User avatar
londiniumperson
Posts: 1764
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:37 pm

Post by londiniumperson »

It looks like V2G with the Honda e is now a dead duck, even the trial failed to materialise.

Octopus Agile on it's own is a right pain because you have to work out the best 30 minutes (making a guesstimate as to how long it will take to add the required charge) over the course of each 24 period to allocate to charging and then manually set the charger schedule to match this. the additional issue is that 4-8pm every day (usually nearer 4pm), your unit rates are updated for the next 24 hours. I did this myself for about a month whilst I used the granny charger waiting for the 7kW charger installation. Then even with the Ohme being able to do this calculation I still needed to set the amount of charge to add every day because the car doesn't communicate to the Ohme before I got fed up afetr another 3 months and switched to the Go Faster tariff .

The e:progress solution is able to communicate to the car (via a cloud service, not direct to the charge unit) & the charger to determine the SoC therefore it can automatically calculate the cheapest 30 minute segments for each 24 hour period. However switching to Agile now is probably not advisable considering that this is the typical cost:

Agile tariff 7-12-2021.PNG

2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
turntoport
Posts: 127
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:54 am

Post by turntoport »

Yes, 'Agile' has been mugged by the energy crunch. Octopus' 'Intelligent' might be a better bet (it may completely supersede Agile (?)); unfortunately it's only for ios just now. But next April all the UK's electricity prices are going to take a big hike - maybe 40%, no lol coming there, then. The whole European (energy) market is in turmoil, even Sweden and Norway can't interchange without squabbling. With increased demand for off-peak energy (expect the Hydrogen brigade to also start sucking the guts out of it in a few years time), the cheap night-time rates may rise substantially. Enjoy it while it lasts!
[I might even be able to join-in; our e may be registered in January...]

atb -ttp
MattHero
Posts: 295
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2020 2:17 pm

Post by MattHero »

Sort of related to this, I had to replace my expiring British Gas tariff last month and their electric drivers package has unsurprisingly gone up in cost, it's now 6.2p per kW offpeak (25p peak) but that's fixed until July *2023* which seemed worth the punt.
Advance Charge Yellow on 16s.
Post Reply

  • You may also be interested in...
    Replies
    Views
    Last post