Electric Macan

[Nuclear Nick]

^^^ Agree with that Col. We manage to achieve a split of about 50/50 in day/night consumption, which is at least what is needed to make E7 worthwhile. Also, being out in the sticks we don't have access to mains gas so some of our off-peak consumption is reducing oil use.

[goron59]

Economy 7 type tariffs have a possible major drawback so do bear this in mind if you are considering making the switch.

Yes the overnight rate is cheap but and it is a big BUT, in non Economy 7 times the rate per kWh can be substantially higher.

So to be effective you need to have washing machines, dishwashers, immersion heaters etc operate during E7 times, you may even find installing an electric storage heater(s) beneficial in that this/these can offset gas usage.

Yes, this is what put me off in the past. I have all electric heating/water at home ( no fossil fuels burned at point of use for 18 years now; very modern ).
I got a smart meter last year to see exactly where my usage hotspots are throughout a 12-month period, and it turns out E7-like tariffs wouldn't work well at all, but if I had a reasonable proportion of my usage going on charging a massive car battery, then it might make sense.

By far the biggest saving in my electricity bill was going full LED lighting at home. Paid for itself in a year.

[Col Lamb]

Just to reitterate, before I retired I was Head of Engineering/Facilities on a very large multi building site where amongst my duties I was responsible for managing all energy used and negotiating with supply companies the most advantageous tariffs for the organisation.

At the time in the external domestic rental properties the organisation owned we looked at tariffs of all type. Night usage of at least 40% of the total electricity energy used was the cut off aimed for.

Personally the Tesla model of Solar Cells incorporated into a home battery storage is highly likely to offer the best most economical method of using electricity at home and charging an EV. This type of installation would likely only be beneficial for long term consideration and operation due to its high installation cost.

[Wing Commander]

By far the biggest saving in my electricity bill was going full LED lighting at home. Paid for itself in a year.

Ooh, tell us more.

Was this simply changing bulbs, or what it a bit more involved?

Cheers.

[Pivot]

Just to reitterate, before I retired I was Head of Engineering/Facilities on a very large multi building site where amongst my duties I was responsible for managing all energy used and negotiating with supply companies the most advantageous tariffs for the organisation.

At the time in the external domestic rental properties the organisation owned we looked at tariffs of all type. Night usage of at least 40% of the total electricity energy used was the cut off aimed for.

Personally the Tesla model of Solar Cells incorporated into a home battery storage is highly likely to offer the best most economical method of using electricity at home and charging an EV. This type of installation would likely only be beneficial for long term consideration and operation due to its high installation cost.

Col, thanks for your insight, and/or inside-information?

[pmg]

One thing there has not been any comment on re Electric Macan / E tron is the size of the car. Press reports suggest between Q5 and Q7 which would be more like 1st model Cayenne than current Macan. For me, the size of the current car is one of the attractions over the likes of the X3 which as the generations have progressed has become quite bloated.

[Dandock]

For me, the size of the current car is one of the attractions over the likes of the X3 which as the generations have progressed has become quite bloated.

+1

[Deleted User 1874]

Economy 7 type tariffs have a possible major drawback so do bear this in mind if you are considering making the switch.

Yes the overnight rate is cheap but and it is a big BUT, in non Economy 7 times the rate per kWh can be substantially higher.

So to be effective you need to have washing machines, dishwashers, immersion heaters etc operate during E7 times, you may even find installing an electric storage heater(s) beneficial in that this/these can offset gas usage.

Yes of course the day rate is higher, so requires some usage analysis. But if you are running a big battery EV then it usually swings the balance in favour of E7 and when you start running 2 EVs then E7 quickly becomes a no-brainer. At that point I'll be running an 8 kW charger throughout the night on a daily basis. At the moment I'm typically charging around 3-4 hours per night while running a single Tesla. We also have an air-source heat pump for all our heating, no gas or oil. Right now I'm just on the cheapest single rate tariff, but will probably change to E7 in the next year and look into solar and Powerwall etc.

[Deleted User 1874]

One thing there has not been any comment on re Electric Macan / E tron is the size of the car. Press reports suggest between Q5 and Q7 which would be more like 1st model Cayenne than current Macan. For me, the size of the current car is one of the attractions over the likes of the X3 which as the generations have progressed has become quite bloated.

The new e-tron is between Q5 and Q7 size, but it's based on the same platform as the Q7, not a dedicated EV platform. I would expect the electric Macan to be based on the new EV only platform and should be the same size as the current car, although hopefully with more interior space. Ultimately there should be both Macan and Cayenne sized EVs in their future line-up. But I must admit, the number of different EV platforms in the VAG future roadmap is still a bit confusing.

[Deleted User 1874]

By far the biggest saving in my electricity bill was going full LED lighting at home. Paid for itself in a year.

Ooh, tell us more.

Was this simply changing bulbs, or what it a bit more involved?

Cheers.

Short answer - yes you can simply change bulbs, but there are some things to look out for.

Yeah, we did that a good few years ago. First off at our old house we simply swapped all the 55W GU10 Halogens (about 20 or so) for good quality 5W LED equivalents. No other changes required and a very quick payback. Then we fitted some dedicated LED ceiling spots in the lounge and replaced all our lamp bulbs with LED equivalents. You basically divide your lighting bill by 10 in the process. Our current house was a new-build with full dedicated LED ceiling units everywhere and we use Philips Hue LED bulbs for all the other lamps.

It's a no-brainer to go LED on home lighting, but don't skimp on quality. Some cheap LEDs can cause a horrible strobing effect, which can be very irritating. Plus they can fail prematurely if the ballast is of poor quality. You also have to be careful when using dimmer switches to make sure they are fully compatible. But choose wisely and LED bulbs last for many years. The oldest LED bulbs we have are about 9 years old now and still working fine. I did have some cheaper ones fail after a year or two, but even those gave a good payback. When we had halogen GU10s those things used to blow up nearly every week and I was forever replacing them.