Home charge points (purchase/problems/questions) (See mod note post#1)

Much easier to make tax based off the annual odometer reading. They already take your odometer reading as part of your NCT and I can see the NCT becoming aligned with the CVRT, i.e. due annually from date of registration. This would also catch anyone who is using agri-diesel on the road or who has access to solar, workplace or off grid charging.

What is more likely happening is if we look to the UK - whom we seem to follow almost blindly - where they have made it mandatory for all EV chargers sold since 1st July of this year to have a randomly generated start and stop delay, which must be adjustable and which must also incorporate future demand side response (or load shedding - stopping charge when grid load is too high):

The idea is if everyone has set their car charger to start and stop at the exact same time, most likely at typical rate change times, in Ireland 2300 for nightrate or 0200 for EV rate, it will cause a sudden massive surge on the grid that will likely overload and trip out generators causing widespread powercuts. Whereas if the initial charge inrush is spread out randomly over a 10 minute (currently) window the generators can better react (a typical gas turbine plant can handle around a 10% load ramp per minute).

You then also have the likes of Octopus Energy in the UK who have an Agile tariff, whereby you tell them when you need your car charged by (e.g. 6am) and to what percentage (80%), but they ultimately control when to start/stop/throttle the charge process at half-hourly intervals throughout the day and night based on wholesale pricing - stopping when grid load (and pricing) is high and ramping up when grid load (and price) is low. Prior to massive gas price increases they also had an interesting feature whereby you could actually got credited to draw excess power from the grid.

It doesn't have to be done with a network connection. All they need to do is mandate that for any chargers installed, that the charger automatically reduce the charge current if the grid frequency is below 50 and dropping and shut off at a specified lower frequency. This could be done similar to how inverter connection for PV has to have specific protection settings for Ireland. This would be more reliable than requiring an internet connection at the time of commissioning.

All of the above is precisely why the odometer would work as a solution. You move to distance based taxation as opposed to flat rate based on perceived tailpipe emissions, or trying to difference someone doing an hour's charge vs running the dishwasher, washing machine and immersion at the same time.

You could do all of your charging for free via solar/wind/work and not spend a cent on electricity, but from a tax point that wouldn't matter (workplace charging and BIK implications aside) since if your odometer has increased by 25,000KM since it was read last year then you use your 25,000KM driven as the basis to calculate your motor tax. Where you charge and costs of producing the electricity to do so won't impact your motor tax.

Quick question in relation to charge points.

I have an EO Mini installed and it used to output a charge rate of around 6.5KW. I had to get the electric shower changed but now my charger only seems to max out at 5KW.

Could the new shower cause this or is it just coincidence?

Nope and that's what's throwing me. No shower and no oven on but the rate has dropped to 5KW when it used to be nearly 7KW.

How soon in advance did people buy their chargers? I should probably look into getting one fairly soon.

He installed the new shower and put in a new RCBO (I think that's what it's called).

No app for the charge point as it's just the basic EO Mini and not the pro. There was no one at the charge point itself. I know there's a small dial inside the charger bit that's been set since day one.

I've an ID3 and Ioniq 5, both charge at 5.2KW. We've also tried an ID4 on it with the same result. All cars are charging at full speed on my neighbor and my father's chargers.

Edit: forgot to add a photo. Slot 12 is the shower and the EV Charger one is in a separate housing with a black EO box beside it.

Ill flip the Isolator tomorrow and take off the front cover on the charger tomorrow and see if anything looks different.

It's not a massive issue anyway just annoying me that the rate seems to have dropped.

Tried turning it on and left it off for over an hour already but no change.

I don't think there's a way to upgrade the software on this charger as I don't remember seeing a USB port or a card reader slot or anything like that inside it.

I think the black EO box is a CT clamp. Don't think it was touched when changing the RCBO though.

Looks like the grant for home charge points will be open to all, even those without an EV;

New grant for people without driveways to access electric vehicle charging (thejournal.ie)

Could someone please recommend a good installer in South Dublin for a ziggi please (which I assumenis the best based on comments posted here, but maybe not!)

Also new grant for those in apartments or multi unit developments with parking spaces outside their house, will cover up to 80% of works including the charger. Could be €4-5k for someone to have cable run under the footpath.

Should cover 100% because new developments have parking spaces outside houses...

The CT clamp wouldn't be next to the charge point. It would have to route back into the house towards the consumer unit or the meter box so that it can sense the whole house load.

Maybe the clamp is in the consumer unit where the electrician was working and he disturbed it. All still guessing here but its possible.