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Free Plug In Point


barrycoll
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I have just been emailed, re a free 3.6KW plug in point at your home...assuming you have a forecourt/garage/off street etc

I dont have a plug in Prius, but as its free, it would future proof the property, and could be worth going for

Has anybody else been approached by this company???

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Toyota's partner in the same scheme is British Gas

Free 16 amp data enabled charging point

Fitted by a BG Qualified Electrician

Installation of a dedicated home circuit, that wont affect home electrics

Access to POLAR pubic network until end of march 2014

You need to visit the link and fill out your details

http://bgbusiness.force.com/WallBox

Kingo :thumbsup:

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Yes, I and a neighbour both have installed PodPoints.

There are a number of companies doing this, Google around, there are different deals.

The installations were free, quick and pain free. It might be worth future proofing your installation by opting for the higher power version but then there is a £75 fee for upgrading.

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This will be a bit like getting a grant to insulate your loft! Once the money is gone it's gone no matter who you choose to use, but as you don't have to own a plug in car, it has to be worth considering

Kingo :thumbsup:

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What if the UK govt decided to introduce a flat rate tax collected through the electricity bill on those households with a socket installed specifically to charge an electric vehicle? :dontgetit:

https://www.eta.co.uk/2011/02/10/new-taxes-for-electric-car-drivers/

http://www.plugincars.com/washington-senate-passes-bill-charge-electric-vehicle-owners-100-annual-fee-112580.html

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What if they did not do so?

I have a few dozen sockets in the house that may specificly charge my car.

I think you are in La-La land there.

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The grants for early hybrids are no longer available.

There is road fund tax on older generations of hybrid.

Older hybrids no longer qualify of London Congestion Charge.

The electric grant will disappear in time.

The govt has often changed the rules on a variety of taxes. In the short term you might be getting a free socket on a separate wire to the consumer unit (or whatever it is), in the future it might become a way to tax you. Like you say, you could use any other low power household socket but it is likely that govt would first collect the tax from those early adopters with a separately installed socket, and then beyond that start taxing everyone on the number of electric sockets that they have in the house (it has been done before with a window tax).

It has once proposed that people be taxed for having a nice view! I don't believe anything is beyond those self-serving dishonest parasites.

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Access to POLAR pubic network until end of march 2014

For brass monkeys?
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You would imagine the charging grant would realistically have been targetted at those who buy a plugin, though with a limited budget and time the government dept can claim a large uptake regardless of whether they actually get used.

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I have just applied on line to British Gas for a free plug in connection. I have no idea if I will ever buy a Prius Plug in but the only option the form gave was to say I wanted it for a plug in car. I selected Toyota Plug In. I also did not know what the question on the form meant when it asked about an 02 GPS connection at the house. I put I had the connection as I have an 02 mobile!!! If they do a survey and give me any grief I will cancel as from previous experience I do not have a lot of faith in British Gas. I only went for British Gas as they have linked with Toyota. From what I have read you do not have to own a plug in car to get the free plug in installation.

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Hi All,

I have a charging point installed through the energy trust scotland and was installed by SSE. The charger is a 32amp and it is also being monitored through a gps in the meter, so the goverment can see how much charging that I do.

So be careful if you apply for a free charger when you don't have a plug-in car, as it will be checked through you monitoring meter.

Regards Jim.

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I have just applied on line to British Gas for a free plug in connection. I have no idea if I will ever buy a Prius Plug in but the only option the form gave was to say I wanted it for a plug in car. I selected Toyota Plug In. I also did not know what the question on the form meant when it asked about an 02 GPS connection at the house. I put I had the connection as I have an 02 mobile!!! If they do a survey and give me any grief I will cancel as from previous experience I do not have a lot of faith in British Gas. I only went for British Gas as they have linked with Toyota. From what I have read you do not have to own a plug in car to get the free plug in installation.

I know you don't have to have a Prius Plug in, but the requirement of an o2 data point is such as part of the Government subsidy requirements they have to monitor useage, so I would imagine in the small print there will be a possible financial cost or the reclaiming of the cost of the installation.

If you don't have an o2 facility then I read it as there is a charge for the power point as it will be a non - monitored unit and NOT covered by the Government subsidy scheme.

I'd be careful as in this life nothing is for free!!!

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The OLEV have a lot of funds for installation of infrastructure for charging electric cars.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-low-emission-vehicles

The government is desperate to show how green they are and have pledged to install thousands of charging points, only hundreds have been installed so far and the government is facing embarrassment if (when) the target is widely missed. Germany is the the same position, high aspiration, low implementation.

The network has external monitoring as there is very little data on usage and the OLEV want the statistics so in future charging points may be installed in the right places and also so the country's energy policies may be informed as to time of day and what size the loading will be. In common with the smart meters that are also being installed, the charging points may also be controlled as to output and remotely switched on and off. The plan is that load shedding could be introduced to 'peak lop' the grid power demands by switching the car chargers off across the country on a rolling basis, perhaps five minutes in every hour. You would not notice the increased time of charge but it would save eight percent of the grid power overall.

My PodPoint also has a SIMM card for remote monitoring and is the property of PodPoint for three years. After that it becomes my property and I may do as I like with it. Dead simple to pull the SIMM card, just like a mobile phone. The PodPoint contract is online and has no clawback clauses in it in any shape or form.

There is nothing in the agreement that says it can not be switched off when not in use, and for those who install the charging point and have no car, it is probably the wise thing to do as it consumes nine Watts all the time on standby or about £0.75 a month, so it would save your electricity to do so. No power = no mobile connection.

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Although the charger is free I had to pay over £900 and then claim it back from energy trust scotland. I also was informed that the charger will make no differrance to charging time.

This is the email I recieved form energy trust just after I had made arrangements with SSE the installing company:

As a Prius Plug-in owner and applicant for the
home charging point funding, I wanted to make you aware of a recent
finding. Whereas all other electric vehicles will see a reduction in
charging time when using our funded units compared to
a 3-pin domestic socket, the Prius will remain with a 90-minute
charging time.



Our units charge the vast majority of current
vehicles at 16amp, compared to the 10amp commonly available when
charging from a domestic socket. The Prius however is engineered to take
the minimum draw necessary, so will not experience a
quicker charging time with our units.

Toyota’s advice however is to charge from a dedicated circuit that’s been checked by a qualified electrician (see


here), so you will still hopefully see a benefit of installing the
funded units, which should provide a more convenient form of charging.

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Can you buy an adapter and use it as a general power point for garden tools?

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Can you buy an adapter and use it as a general power point for garden tools?

No.

The charging points are know as a EVSE which you need to Google, they are complex, the plug and cable are dead until some seconds after plugging in. The car and the EVSE 'talk' to each other and control the charge rate.

As SSE say the PiP already takes its maximum of some 7.5A from a domestic socket via the supplied cable EVSE. Giving it an opportunity to take 32A from faster charger will not work as it will still only command the 7.5A that it needs. Other cars with much large batteries will take that opportunity though and charge at the faster rates. Future cars ( including the PiP) will probably have the larger batteries, thus my comment about 'future proofing' the installation so you will be ready for them.

A big advantage of the charging point is that you don't have to get out the car's EVSE then put it away after. Just use the charging point and hang the cable back on the wall afterwards.

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I have read that the charging point could be out-date on next prius phv and inductive charging used instead of cable, hear is a commend from the www.greenoptimistic.com


Prius PHV. The next-generation Prius PHV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) is being developed in parallel with the standard Prius model.

We have been listening very carefully to Prius PHV owners and are
considering their requests for additional all-electric range. We have
also heard from owners that they would like a more convenient charging
operation. In response, we are developing a new wireless/inductive
charging system that produces resonance between an on-floor coil and an
onboard coil to transmit power to the Battery, providing charging
without the fuss of a cable.

—Satoshi Ogiso


Ogiso said verification work on the system will be conducted in Japan, the US and Europe in 2014

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I've had a polar/chargemaster/BG u nit for a few months and recently received an email which included this offer...

Further to the installation of your Homecharge unit, we would like to invite you to recommend a friend, neighbour or relative who may be interested in having a free Homecharge unit installed at their home. They may have recently bought an EV, are considering buying one or indeed are someone you visit and would like the convenience of being able to charge your EV on their driveway. To be eligible, your friend or relative does not need to own an EV, however they do need to be a house occupier with off street parking and be prepared to sign up to our terms and conditions, including agreeing to allow us to collect anonymous usage data from the unit, on behalf of OLEV (Office for Low Emission Vehicles).



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I trust the inductive charging happens it would be nice.

But, if Toyota do not install a charging port as well in parallel they will be committing commercial suicide. If they don't they would be excluding owners from the majority of charging stations that are currently being installed.

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British Gas (B G) rang me yesterday. You do not need a plug in car to get the installation. If you never get a plug in car there still is no charge for the installation.
If you can get an 02 signal like you do on your phone that is all that is needed. The unit has a key so you can turn it OFF. If you never use it the charge of installation will never be recovered by B G orgovernment. It is all free according to B G. In fact I am informed there is no catch.
Surveyor from B G is coming on 26 Sept to check all is OK. He will do installation on that day if there are no problems.
I can see no reason not to have it installed FREE subject to the survey..
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Thanks to this thread I've got B.G coming on October 11th to survey and install.

The guy who phoned caught me on the hop at work and the only question I forgot to ask was whether they'd install the charger in my meter cupboard, it's about 3ft square and has a spare wall, the other two have the gas and electric meters on them.

Can anyone who has had one fitted advise on how big they are?

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I do not think your meter cupboard would be a suitable location - charger has fixed cable to connect to car and cable is 5m long. Unit is about 35cm x 20cm.

post-84503-0-05258300-1378982689_thumb.j

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Thats why they do a site survey......................just saying

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With a 5m lead I'll be ok with it in the cupboard, the car's are parked right near the cupboard so the lead would reach.

I suppose it will come down to whether the guy who turns up to do the job is willing to work in a slightly tight space. It would be interesting if they say no, seeing as the gas meter is in the same cupboard and they work on that!

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