Charging your Electric Vehicle at home

Believe it or not, you can actually charge your EV at home by plugging it into a regular home socket. However, it is much easier (and arguably safer) to use a dedicated Electric Vehicle Chargepoint  (EVC)  with a higher power output.

Fast chargers like these are safer and can significantly cut the time it takes to charge your electric vehicle.

Even better, grants of up to 75% of the cost of a chargepoint and its installation (subject to a maximum of £350 source) are currently available under the government’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.

As an OLEV installer, we can help you access this funding and install one of our Zappi, ROLEC and Solar Edge recommended products.

All our recommended chargepoints are suitable for indoor and outdoor installations meaning they can be placed on the side of the house, on a post on the driveway or, in the garage out of sight.  The ideal point for an EV Chargepoint means access to a private driveway or a private garage.

Our recommended Home Electrical Vehicle Chargers can be found here

Mixing Electric Vehicle Chargers with Solar Energy and Electricity Storage Solutions

If you are considering an EVC we would also encourage you to look at other electricity generation and storage options. Three of our recommended EVC brands all provide the option to use surplus power created from solar panels and solar power can provide energy to fully charge an electric vehicle.

As you are probably aware renewable power is generated at times of the day when you might not be needing it, and any surplus is simply fed back into the grid.  Of course there may be times when you need the power but not much might be being generated,  therefore our recommendation would be to have a storage solution that will capture and store the solar photovoltaic energy you generate so it is available when you need it. 

We are accredited installers for the Tesla Powerwall 2 Battery which can be used to store the solar photovoltaic energy generated.

About out EV Chargers

• Solar Edge provide an App which allows you to control your consumption of Solar Photovoltaic and grid energy, as well as track the amount used to charge your electric vehicle.  You can even schedule the device’s use of grid energy to restrict it to off-peak hours. 
• The ROLEC WallPod: EV SolarCharge and Zappi Eco+ are both designed for integration with solar panels and provide a choice of charging by solar only or, solar and grid combined.

Example of charging costs on a Volkswagen e-Golf Electric Vehicle (Source)

• Battery Capacity 35.8 kWh
• Official range 144miles
• Cost to charge at home on a standard rate (14p per kWh) £5.01
• Cost to charge with a Zappi eco+, ROLEC WallPod: EV SolarCharge and Solar Edge (0p per kWh) £0.00
• Cost to charge on a public Fast Charger (30p per kWh) £10.47

Public charging when out and about

There are currently more than 33,000 public charging points in the UK, with 2,571 being in the South West and this number is continually growing (source).

As of 2019 it was a legal requirement for all large petrol stations and motorway service stations to provide charging points.  These tend to be Rapid Chargers which cost around £6 for a 45-minute recharge.

• TOP TIP – You will need to sign up with Charge Point providers before using them. Most allow you to join for free, but some might charge an initial fee. It is recommended to choose a provider that shows its tariffs in kWh rather than cost per minute, as you can easily work out the cost if you have the kWh.

Gregor only works with leading manufacturers Zappi, ROLEC, Solar Edge and Tesla.

If you have any questions our Renewable Electrical Team can help guide you through all aspects of supply and installation. Please get in touch.

Photo credit: Zappi charging a Tesla model 3

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Indeed, it is estimated that households are using, on average, an extra 25% more electricity and 17% more gas each day during lockdown, with around 17 million people now working from home and the kids at home too.

Across a year this could lead to increased bills for people on poor energy tariffs by almost £200 – or around £16 a month. 

If this is a concern, we’ve put together some top tips on managing your energy use.

Not using it? Then switch it off and unplug it

An incredible 1 in 3 devices such as TVs, kettles and the like are left on standby and, believe it or not, a lot of electricity is wasted through leaving appliances on standby and not being unplugged.

All this background electricity is known as ‘phantom load’ and can lead to an extra £140 added to your bills over a year.

Remember even the lights use energy so when you leave a room turn them off!

Charging laptops and other electrical devices are a big culprit in this, most of us leave things charging for hours. One top tip is to charge it once a day and then use it until it is running low on power. Most devices will run for six hours.

Your tumble dryer is the culprit for consuming the most energy per use so use this lovely weather to get your clothes drying outside.

Wash clothes at 30 degrees. 90% of your washing machine’s energy use, goes in heating up hot water for hot washes, try and keep these to a minimum.

Cooking on the hob? Use a lid and the right size pan. This can decrease the amount of energy wasted significantly.

Or alternatively, use a microwave or slow cooker instead of a cooker which is generally a more efficient way to heat food.

And finally, while the weather at least has been kind to us, most of the time, meaning we don’t need heating right now,  most of us running thermostats would still benefit from turning it down by just one degree, which can save up to £80 a year. This coupled with only heating the rooms you need can all help. Of course, during the spring and summer months you can use Nature’s best energy generator the sun to take some of the load off.

Make sure you have the most competitive tariff

You can certainly take control of the costs by ensuring you have the best tariffs.

Lots of energy companies offer great deals around the best tariffs so use some time to shop around. We suggest visiting MoneySavingExpert.com  for the most up-to-date, independent recommendations.

If you are interested in greener tariffs check out companies such as Agile Octopus which is a 100% green electricity with plunge prices. You need a smart meter and pay for every 30 minutes of the day a different tariff depending on supply and demand for your region to the grid- great for EV’s, batteries and also sunamps and heat pumps.

Sources:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-8303347/Ten-ways-cut-energy-bills-usage-soars-lockdown.html

https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/renovate/finance/a31986756/save-energy-money-working-from-home/

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For a while it has been a legal requirement to provide a Gas Safety Certificate (CP12 form) that shows that all gas appliances in the property have been tested and are safe to use, and this needs to be performed every year.

New regulations coming into force from 1 June this year (subject to final approval by both Houses of Parliament) mean that landlords and agents will need to ensure electrical installation inspections and testing must be carried out by a Part-P qualified electrician for all new tenancies in England from 1 July 2020 or 1 April 2021 for existing tenancies.

What does this mean?

The Regulations now require landlords to ensure that every fixed electrical installation is inspected and tested every five years. This has been advised for a while now so should not be news, it just means if you haven’t recently had an electrical inspection, then you are now legally required to.

Further details about this can be found on the Gov.uk website 

Be warned, proven breaches of the regulations can result in the local housing authority imposing a financial penalty of up to £30,000.

Is this the same as an EICR?

In short, yes. An EICR (Electrical Inspection Certificate Report) is provided when a qualified electrician performs a complete electrical check of your property’s wiring and electrical equipment. Lots of landlords and homeowners have already had EICR checks carried out, if you haven’t its worth getting in touch with a qualified electrician to do so.

Do I need gas and electrical certification when I sell my property?

If you rent your property out, you have a duty of care to your tenants to provide gas and electrical certification, however, there is no legal duty to provide either gas or electrical certification to the buyer of your property, if they want to get checks done, that is up to them. We can help with these just give us a call.

Aside from gas and electrical certification, what other certifications do I need to provide as a landlord?

 As we are aware there are four other critical certifications you will need particularly if you have a large communal property or and HMO (house of multiple occupation)

These include, an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), Fire safety checks, Legionella risk assessment and Deposit Protection Paperwork.

As well as providing gas and electrical certification, we can also help with an EPC, if you need advice on the others it’s always worth checking with industry bodies.

Finally, please make sure that any inspections are carried out by fully qualified tradesmen, for both gas (Gas Safe approved) and electrics (NICEIC approved).

Here at Gregor Heating we have teams of qualified gas and electrical engineers and can help you with these services if you’d like to book in a consultation please give us a call.

We will also be at Landlord Expo on 26 November 2020 in Bristol so if you want to chat to our team, please pop by.

Stay safe!

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When the Feed-In Tariff (FiT) was introduced in 2010, it did a good job of creating a solar industry and reducing the installed cost of systems. It did this by offering an incentive of receiving payments for generating their own electricity.

It is estimated that almost 1 million homes in the UK now have solar panels fitted (source: Solar Trade Association)

When the FIT scheme came to an end on 31 March 2019 it sparked rumours that solar may no longer be such a hot option.

The current government is looking into replacing the feed-in tariff under its Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) and from 1st January 2020, the large energy companies are obliged to offer tariffs for solar.

This is good news for the industry and means you should definitely consider solar panels as an option, if you still need convincing, here are three great reasons why.

1.    Save money

The cost of solar panel installation has come down considerably in the years since the introduction of FiT.

Fitting solar panels is now, on average 25% of the cost of when the tariff was first introduced in 2010 when it was around £20,000 to buy and install panels, but now it’s about £5,000.

And long term it’s a great investment. Using the sun to generate your energy will payback over time in some instances reduce your energy bills by 50% and more.

The even better news is that the installation of solar panels is classed an ‘energy efficiency measure’ and will raise the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating of your property, which can increase the value of your property.

2.    Future proof your home

The technology is getting better and better. Lots of the main suppliers including LG and Panasonic have improved the technology meaning that with regular care – we recommend that solar panels are cleaned twice a year –  they can last for up to 25 years (with a slight degradation of performance of around 20% over 25 years)

It also provides the bedrock of a great system that you can build on and be able to use additional energy created for your own need.

With FiT, homeowners were generally restricted to installing 4GW but with these restrictions now lifted, you can go bigger and installing 5.2GW on a roof can generate up to 5000kWh per year on an unshaded south facing roof.

The benefit of this is that you can build onto it in the future with extras including storage batteries, charge hot water cylinders, electric car chargers and heat pump technology.

Household solar batteries allow people to consume their own electricity rather than export it, and could provide power in the event of a power cut (back up battery systems)

Electric Vehicles are growing in popularity, the number of new cars registered increases month on month energy generated through solar panels could power an electric car charger – no more expensive fuel bills.

An air source heat pump runs on electricity and is a good alternative to LPG or oil or electric heating. You could use some of your solar power to run the heat pump, on sunny cold days.

3.    Making a clean choice

If you have concerns regarding the future of planet Earth, you will be conscious that every day we continue to use fossil fuels to provide energy the more we are adding to our carbon footprint and the climate change crisis.

Renewable technologies like solar power, give you a choice. It is estimated that once 10 million people have solar power in the UK one third of households could be utilising solar energy meaning 40% of the total volume of electricity would be generated from the sun in the summer.  How fantastic would that be?

Generating your own energy means you will reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and protecting you from rising energy costs.

Solar panels need to be installed on your home by an MCS certified (or equivalent) installer and the average installation can be done in one day.

And with companies like Nationwide Building Society earmarking £1billion to give customers cut-rate ‘green’ mortgages and loans for eco-home improvements it could be a more affordable option for more people.

If you are interested in installing solar panels call our renewables team for a free survey and quotation.

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With over 30,000 visitors to the show across two days, the event provides Gregor Heating with a great opportunity to be part of a fantastic, local community event just down the road in  Westerleigh Park, Warmley, BS30. In providing home heating solutions to residents and businesses of Bristol and Bath for over 30 years,  community is very much at the heart of the brand.

“People choose Gregor Heating to install their boiler because of the customer service we provide”, explains managing director, Steve Gregor. “By  installing over 3,000 boilers a year, people trust us to let us into their homes and advise them on the most energy efficient solutions to help keep their homes, warm and cosy. We have always considered that quite a privilege so anyway we can support events in the local community, like this show, is our way of giving something back.

Our team will have ringside seats with our trailer located next to the main arena and (our now famous) giant deckchair on show.  All visitors are invited to come and talk to our experts about the latest Home Smart Technology heating solutions and also have the opportunity to take part in the selfie competition to win £75 meal voucher.

Come rain or shine (and, let’s face it, we never know what we will get until the day) the Gregor Heating trailer offers brilliant shelter and place to watch the shows in the arena.

One of the Gregor team’s favourites is the amazing Stampede Stunt Company and of course the Ringside Little Nippers always draw in the crowds.

So, whatever the line-up is for 2019, it’ s set to be another great year. See you there?

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Here at Gregor Heating, we have been helping to keep families in and around Bristol and Bath warm and safe for over 30 years. Whether that is by heating their home with a new boiler, or installing electrical home solutions, we always have one eye on the emerging technology trends.

Recent advances have made homes smarter and safer than ever and developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to fuel smart home technology. We have already seen how machine learning can learn and predict the desires of home owners.

Here, our electrical manager, Alex Rook, shares his top five electrical trends for 2018. 

1. Voice integration

The Christmas present of 2017 was the smart speaker, with many brands releasing their own take on it. Voice recognition isn’t new, but it will grow to become integrated into so many homes this year. Connecting your smart home assistant to your heating means that your Amazon Echo can turn on your lights or coffee machine, and your Google Home can adjust the thermostat or turn on a plug. Adjust the comfort of your home by simply speaking aloud! The popularity of these is set to grow throughout 2018.

2. Electric cars

As relative early adopters of hybrid cars ourselves, (we even have an electric car charging point at Gregor HQ) we are excited to see where the car industry goes this year.

Self-driving cars are definitely the future, but with a few years still to go, the focus is on electric cars and this year we’ll see new electric cars promising ranges of 200 miles or more!

BP predicts that the number of electric cars will rise from 1.2 million in 2015 to around 100 million by 2035! An excellent change for the future, ensuring everyone can do their bit to work towards a more sustainable future.

3. Security cameras

Research shows that consumers are investing more and more in home security cameras which have advanced to include facial recognition, to ensure the safety of their family, belongings and property.

We specialise in the installation of smart home security systems and stand-alone cameras, and particularly recommend Netatmo Presence outdoor security camera system and the complementary Netatmo Welcome indoor security camera with face recognition.

This uses advanced facial recognition technology to detect human intruders while ignoring the familiar faces of you and your family, pets, and other innocent causes of motion.

4. Personal safety and wellbeing

New electrical products are being released every week, each with the owner’s personal comfort at the forefront. From fall-detectors, which will alert family members if a child or older person falls, to a smart safe that will alert you if it has been tampered with. All for your peace of mind and the wellbeing of your family.

5. Colour changing smart lights

A fun one now! In an ideal world, your lighting system would include mood lights when watching TV, party lights when needed and provide effects while playing video games.

That ideal has arrived – with products like the Phillips Hue Entertainment, which sync your lights to films, video games and music for dramatic colour effects that will enhance whatever is on your screen.

Not a necessity, but an exciting development nonetheless.

So what next?

The electrical future is predicted to become as smart as ever, and we will soon see the day when you arrive home to a warm house (thanks to smart heating controls) that turns the news on for you at 6pm, dims the lights as you sit down for dinner and switches your coffee machine on for you in the morning.

Watch this space.

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However, a report released earlier this month shows that home safety should be top of mind, because the number of home burglaries and break-ins in and around Bristol and Bath has risen year on year since 2013.

What would be more frustrating than to look back and realise how making even some small and not that costly changes could have kept your home safer.

The average break-in costs a household around £3000. But some simple steps can be taken to increase home security, meaning you can be safe in the knowledge that your family and belongings are protected.

A well-lit home

Research shows that when the clocks go back (Sunday 28^th October this year), burglaries spike by 38%! So the appearance of your property can make all the difference.

Outdoor home security lighting such as external floodlights and door lights that activate when they detect the presence of a large moving object such as a person, are a must. We especially recommend the JCC Niteflood high-output LED floodlight and Eterna external lighting.

With products such as the Phillips Hue, you can control your lighting using your smart device, voice, or even a wireless switch. This means you can turn on and off lights from wherever you are. Be sure that you always return to a well-lit home.

Keep an eye on what’s going on.

The Netatmo Presence outdoor security camera is one of our favourite pieces of smart tech. The clever camera detects movement around your property, and reports it live onto your devices, wherever you are.

It can detect the difference between animals, cars and humans. So whether it is a car entering the driveway, or a person entering your property, you can choose whether to be notified.

Keep things secure.

With added smart home security measures, there a few more good old fashioned techniques to try. Consider upgrading your locks on your windows and doors. This higher level of security has other perks too – it can result in a reduction for your home insurance premiums.

Need a hand keeping your home well-lit and secure? Contact the Gregor Electrical team to find out more.

(Sources of statistics: Home Office, Co-op insurance)

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The only requirement is an immersion heater with a dedicated circuit to the same consumer unit as your Solar PV system. Excess electricity can also be diverted to other devices of your choosing.

Read more about it here. 

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• Installation of a new circuit
• Installation of a new Consumer Unit
• Changes to an existing circuit in a ‘wet area’

As an NICEIC Approved Contractor we’re registered electricians able to carry out and certify Part P work as a Registered Competent Person. Homeowners using us for Part P work will receive an Electrical Installation / Minor Electrical Work certificate to confirm the work complies with British Standard 7671 (Requirements for Electrical Installations) and a certificate evidencing compliance with the Building Regulations.

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