I have a P2 LE and a PodPoint Solo 7, and use Octopus Go. I use the timers on both to restrict it to the 5 hours of off peak charging.

I could switch to a compatible EVSE and be eligible for Intelligent Go that is 1.5p per kWh cheaper and has one extra hour per day (plus potentially additional slots when you use intelligent charging) but I doubt it'd see a ROI.

According to Octopus Compare, with my usage, the Intelligent Go would have been about £85 cheaper total over the last 12 months. Lets call it £100 assuming some random half hour slots throught the day that would benefit other home usage.

In my view and for my usage it's not worth the investment to replace the charger or the hassle of dealing with anything more complicated than a fixed overnight schedule to go from Go to Intelligent Go, or other equivalent tariffs from other providers.

 

Thanks kkonstan, my usage is such that its 75% energy on car (annual 6-7000kw0 and 25% on home. Hence I will need to calc if the intelligent charger payback will be worthwhile. The P2 has a charging timer so n issues with setting the times easily, I haven't figured out if the honda-e has a way to do it as that seems to simply charge or not charge so the intelligent charger could be more useful for that to save manually plugging it in at midnight..

 

We have very similar usage then.

It's never going to be as accurate as using an app like Octopus Compare with actual half hour measurements for the past year, but taking the midpoint of your estimate, 75% of 6500kWh is 4875kWh, lets round it up to 80% 5200kWh (finger in the air guess as you'd be using some home electricity at the cheap hours, and it's one hour longer) then at 1.5p less is £78.

You'd have to be a really heavy user, with multiple EVs to see ROI of spending a grand on a new EVSE, and I think Intelligent Go and similar plans aren't supposed to be used with multiple EVs.

I wonder since most of the installation cost was running all the cabling etc when I first did it, it shouldn't cost much more than the retail cost of a new unit to swap it though right?

When I checked recently it seems nobody was quoting replacement prices, just prices of EVSEs with standard installation. Surely just replacing one when a suitable supply was already installed wouldn't be more than a 30 min job. When I installed mine ~5 years ago it was £550 for the actual device and the installation (£350) was covered by the grant.

At £500-600 vs £1000+ I might consider it even if it didn't make much sense financially TBH.

 

I just did some simple calls as well and my figures are showing about £150 between go and intelligent go.. which is about 15%. I believe the peak rates are 3.5p cheaper on intelligent as well (though it's hard to find each figures for peak, off-peak and standing charge as the rates keep changing. The chargers see to cost approx 200-300 less if purchased separately and use an electrician to swap over so not sure much of a saving once you have paid him.

As aside, my calcs are showing eon very similar to octopus when all costs are factored in.

 

I was on Octopus Go until recently. Had a PHEV, solar PV and home battery with an old Rolec EVSE that I’d added a WiFi switch to. (The switch controlled the power to the EVSE comms module, not the power to the vehicle).

By chance, I bought the P2 when Polestar had their free EVSE on CPO cars offer earlier this year, so got a free Zaptec, meaning I could take up Intelligent Go.

If the charger hadn’t been free, I’d have been fine sticking with basic Go and the Rolec, particularly given my use. That said, when the PV can’t keep up, I charge the home battery on cheap rate, so having an extra hour of cheap, and it being cheaper as well is a nice bonus.


Given the rules on electrical installations seem to change every few months, I think installers will typically treat an EVSE swap as if it’s a new install….just in case. As it happened, mine was just that, a simple swap but the online interrogation I got before they came to do the job was…extensive.