Hive - free charging for a year?
Discussion
So I was forwarded this deal or advert:
https://www.hivehome.com/shop/electric-vehicles
I don't know if its related to their spring sale. However, if you buy a wall charger from them and switch to a British Gas tariff then you can have 12 months of them refunding you any EV charging you do. Now we do need a wall box as ours is only 3kW and its starting to become a bit of a hinderance. I'd like a faster one so I can do more charging at night.
So if I am going to get a new wall box.... this seems like a good idea right? What is the catch? (there must be one!).
1. Have to switch to BG tariff, but they don't seem too bad. 12-5am at 9p/kWh isn't shabby.
2. Have to schedule charging and allow them to decide when its best to charge.... this might not always tally with when you need? so presumably they can get out of paying you back if you override?
3. Have to buy one of their 2-offerings EO Mini Pro3 and Alfen S. They don't seem to be that terrible though.
what else am I missing?
https://www.hivehome.com/shop/electric-vehicles
I don't know if its related to their spring sale. However, if you buy a wall charger from them and switch to a British Gas tariff then you can have 12 months of them refunding you any EV charging you do. Now we do need a wall box as ours is only 3kW and its starting to become a bit of a hinderance. I'd like a faster one so I can do more charging at night.
So if I am going to get a new wall box.... this seems like a good idea right? What is the catch? (there must be one!).
1. Have to switch to BG tariff, but they don't seem too bad. 12-5am at 9p/kWh isn't shabby.
2. Have to schedule charging and allow them to decide when its best to charge.... this might not always tally with when you need? so presumably they can get out of paying you back if you override?
3. Have to buy one of their 2-offerings EO Mini Pro3 and Alfen S. They don't seem to be that terrible though.
what else am I missing?
It's not free for a year as it has maximum cap of free kWh which is 2290.
Octopus and OVO tariff pay 7.5p per unit meaning the 'free' electric is only worth £170.
And the cheapest charger BG have is £999 which is the same price as Ohme. Not seem many reviews of it but I doubt if it's as good or well supported as Ohme.
Personally I would get a better charger such as Ohme or Zappi and join Octopus or OVO.
Octopus and OVO tariff pay 7.5p per unit meaning the 'free' electric is only worth £170.
And the cheapest charger BG have is £999 which is the same price as Ohme. Not seem many reviews of it but I doubt if it's as good or well supported as Ohme.
Personally I would get a better charger such as Ohme or Zappi and join Octopus or OVO.
Edited by 325iMSport on Thursday 4th April 13:02
325iMSport said:
It's not free for a year as it has maximum cap of free kWh which is 2290.
Octopus and OVO tariff pay 7.5p per unit meaning the 'free' electric is only worth £170.
And the cheapest charger BG have is £999 which is the same price as Ohme. Not seem many reviews of it but I doubt if it's as good or well supported as Ohme.
Personally I would get a better charger such as Ohme or Zappi and join Octopus or OVO.
Well the most expensive one they have on the Hive website is about £749. but that is "from" and I presume is in the 20% sale they've got going on. Thanks for the heads up on that limit. With our usage that probably covers about 4 months tops. So perhaps not worth the sacrifices.Octopus and OVO tariff pay 7.5p per unit meaning the 'free' electric is only worth £170.
And the cheapest charger BG have is £999 which is the same price as Ohme. Not seem many reviews of it but I doubt if it's as good or well supported as Ohme.
Personally I would get a better charger such as Ohme or Zappi and join Octopus or OVO.
Edited by 325iMSport on Thursday 4th April 13:02
I have looked at the Ohme before, but I think its 4G only? and I didn't want to have to start paying for a data connection after 3 years when I have perfectly good wifi.
Otispunkmeyer said:
Well the most expensive one they have on the Hive website is about £749. but that is "from" and I presume is in the 20% sale they've got going on. Thanks for the heads up on that limit. With our usage that probably covers about 4 months tops. So perhaps not worth the sacrifices.
I have looked at the Ohme before, but I think its 4G only? and I didn't want to have to start paying for a data connection after 3 years when I have perfectly good wifi.
Is that £749 inc installation? I have looked at the Ohme before, but I think its 4G only? and I didn't want to have to start paying for a data connection after 3 years when I have perfectly good wifi.
Go for a Zappi then which has WiFi!
325iMSport said:
Otispunkmeyer said:
Well the most expensive one they have on the Hive website is about £749. but that is "from" and I presume is in the 20% sale they've got going on. Thanks for the heads up on that limit. With our usage that probably covers about 4 months tops. So perhaps not worth the sacrifices.
I have looked at the Ohme before, but I think its 4G only? and I didn't want to have to start paying for a data connection after 3 years when I have perfectly good wifi.
Is that £749 inc installation? I have looked at the Ohme before, but I think its 4G only? and I didn't want to have to start paying for a data connection after 3 years when I have perfectly good wifi.
Go for a Zappi then which has WiFi!
We were existing BG customers and needed a wall charger so went for this deal, with an untethered EO Mini Pro 3 charger install but have had no-end of issues with the FreeCharge part of the deal.
It worked fine for a few weeks, till they rolled out a 'system upgrade' then it broke the freecharge system and it would only charge for free if you plugged it in during off peak times (midnight to 08:00). Plug it in at any other time, and it would just sit idle overnight and not charge. Took them 5 weeks to re-write the EO firmware and now it kind of works OK, with just the odd charging glitch.
One continuing annoying glitch is that for 'Freecharge' to acknowledge the end of a charge and register it, both ends of the charging cable need to be unplugged, otherwise the status just stays at 'Finishing' and never registers the charge. They must have written the 'Freecharge' part of the firmware to look for a signal from the socket to say that the cable has been removed. It's a pain to have to disconnect both ends, rather than just unplugging the car.
I'm on first name terms with a nice guy at Hive complaints dept.....
Once our FreeCharge deal expires, then it should (fingers crossed) work as normal and all the glitches will disappear. But the whole Freecharge part of the system appears poorly implemented and running off hastily written and poorly tested charger firmware.
One positive thing, is that the EO unit does actually have Wifi, along with a cellular connection. After all our issues, they talked me through enabling it via a phone call and it's now running off our house wifi. Apparently it's something they are going to roll out to all the EO units via a Hive app upgrade at some point.
You might have more luck with a tethered EO min charger or the larger, cheaper Alfen model.
It worked fine for a few weeks, till they rolled out a 'system upgrade' then it broke the freecharge system and it would only charge for free if you plugged it in during off peak times (midnight to 08:00). Plug it in at any other time, and it would just sit idle overnight and not charge. Took them 5 weeks to re-write the EO firmware and now it kind of works OK, with just the odd charging glitch.
One continuing annoying glitch is that for 'Freecharge' to acknowledge the end of a charge and register it, both ends of the charging cable need to be unplugged, otherwise the status just stays at 'Finishing' and never registers the charge. They must have written the 'Freecharge' part of the firmware to look for a signal from the socket to say that the cable has been removed. It's a pain to have to disconnect both ends, rather than just unplugging the car.
I'm on first name terms with a nice guy at Hive complaints dept.....
Once our FreeCharge deal expires, then it should (fingers crossed) work as normal and all the glitches will disappear. But the whole Freecharge part of the system appears poorly implemented and running off hastily written and poorly tested charger firmware.
One positive thing, is that the EO unit does actually have Wifi, along with a cellular connection. After all our issues, they talked me through enabling it via a phone call and it's now running off our house wifi. Apparently it's something they are going to roll out to all the EO units via a Hive app upgrade at some point.
You might have more luck with a tethered EO min charger or the larger, cheaper Alfen model.
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