Bandersnatch

They finished installing my wall box today. The previous one had a screw that been over tightened at the factory. 
 

The installer did a neat job, but wanted to leave before testing. The box comes with one RFID card. Which the installers said was necessary for charging. Plugged the car in and tapped the wall box with the card ….nothing. On the phone to base they said to install the ABB app 

Sign up for an account, confirm Email. Scan the barcode on the charger - not that barcode the other barcode. Enter the PIN Code on the card in the manual. 
 

Connect to WiFi (only 2.5MHz) but the name and password (hidden) had already been entered! App says connecting to charger. Turns out it was using Bluetooth to connect. 
 

Retried charging and it worked

The many lights on the charger:

The charging cable is only just long enough for a nose in first park - note the foam on the wall to avoid hard contact.

20 hours ago, matchar said:

You always try to cherry pick your figures like solar charging

Being able to power my EVs from my home solar is not a cherry, it’s the main reason I own an EV. It’s free to charge unless I’m driving more that 600km.

Now that I can also power my house from my EV I’ve got 6 free Tesla PowerWalls of backup power included with my car which would cost ฿1.2m here in Thailand. Now that is one big ******* cherry.

22 hours ago, matchar said:

I'm all for EVs but those figures are too pitiful for a primary car.

You have to compare apples with apples. A few years ago I bought my wife a new Suzuki Swift (her choice not mine) to learn to drive. Cost about the same as a Neta V but oh my God what a dreadful car. After 30 minutes in it we both had backache. It was clear to us both, that the Swift would not be acceptable as a second car, maybe a replacement for a motorbike.   As soon as she had passed her test we got shot of it and bought an EV.

https://thethaiger.com/news/business/thai-auto-market-anticipates-price-war-as-chinese-evs-flood-in
 

“The cost-effective production of Chinese EVs has led to price tags that undercut domestic ICE vehicles, forcing traditional car manufacturers to recalibrate their strategies, said Ratthakarn during the Bangkok International Motor Show, which is open to the public until December 11.

In Thailand, the pickup market has been languishing, with sales plunging over 30% this year”

3 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Got to go , lots to learn !

Your Version:

And Mine:

Tried to do an OTA update but no joy

Think this might have been previously called the Ora Grand Cat, also possibly known as the Ora Lightning Cat

I was asked which insurance company I wanted, someone had suggested Bangkok, so I went with them.

An app store would be really great, have been researching sideloading and apk files - bit of a pain for an Apple guy.

4 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

I’m not sure how my setup is but I think it might be different.

SOLA on my consumer unit is solar.

 

The little box to the right is where my manual selector switch is.

I understand now. 

It looks like your solar only powers a backup circuit in your house. It is acting like a UPS for that circuit for when the grid is down.

This is quite common for smaller solar systems.

Can ask the specs of your solar system? 

PV kW

Inverter kW

29 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I guess you could drive the car with the main screen showing the rear view ?, but that would surely distract as well as hogging the screen.

 

Note: I think you need to turn traction control off for the 0-100, although it might promote wheel spin most do turn it off for the test.

The manual says that the battery needs to be 95% to get max performance. I will try it again without a heavily pregnant passenger.

I want to protect my tyres more than I want to shave a couple of tenths off my time 

8 hours ago, Melpomene said:

if it stops working somehow, you'd be a bit knackered

Did you watch my video on Launch Control?

Just now, Gweiloman said:

Yes, but I can’t figure out how to hook it up to my consumer unit. My electrician mentioned also that the manual selector switch can’t support the required wire gauge to bypass the mains electricity (meaning I might need a bigger switch?)

How does solar currently power your house?

In my setup all power goes via my inverters: PV, Battery, PEA (now disconnected) and V2L. The inverters  - acting in parallel - then send AC to my consumer unit.  

20 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

@Bandersnatch

I wanted to do the same with my Dolphin. I have a solar installation but without batteries. It uses a Huawei inverter (system installed “professionally”). 
 

I had a manual switch selector installed that was meant to switch between the grid and my car battery. However each time my electrician tried to hook up the car battery to one of my lighting circuits, the battery would shut down. The circuit is on a 32 A fuse but my electrician bypasses the circuit breaker for testing purposes so it should have been an isolated circuit on its own.

 

What I noticed also is that is too much power is drawn at the start, say for eg trying to start up an appliance of over 2 kWh, the car battery would also shut down. I presume this is a battery protection feature which is fine but surely a lighting circuit would not be drawing this much power.

 

Any ideas or suggestions? 

Did you watch my original video on V2L in my open post?

19 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

If you are regularly using your EV battery for non-motoring purposes surely this will degrade the longevity of the battery and be a hidden but real cost. Do you have any handle on what that could be?

Did you watch the video in my opening post?

If you did, you would have seen that I have solar and 4 home batteries, I am using the car in an occasional supporting role.

My EV's 82.5kWh battery is equivalent to 6 Tesla PowerWalls. It is designed to propel a 2 tonne vehicle plus occupants 600km per charge. By comparison my house load at night is 500W or 0.5kWh per hour. So the car could power my house at night for 165 hours of night-time usage.

In my post yesterday I used the car to run the house during the evening, when the house load is higher but it only used 3% of the battery or 21km of driving range (the battery is warranted for 160,000km)

17 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

Question : is it correct that you only pay the kWh into the car battery and not time spent . So that means the last 20 % charge of 30 minutes does not cost the same price as first 50% charge even time spent is similar ? 
 

DC yes, but some AC it’s time based.

17 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

I do not have home charger and was recommended to charge to 100 % once a week . 

question: if I had already have a 80  % soc .should I use ac charging to top up to 100 % since it will not be advantageous of fast charging as the last 20% charge is throttle down and furthermore ac charging is less “hot” than dc in the car battery ?

 

I would agree AC is better if you can.

Can’t remember which car you have. This is the advice for BYD LFP blade batteries

11 hours ago, BKKBike09 said:

 

Did you name it 'Water Cat' or did the app do that itself? 'Water Cat' being the transposed literal translation of the Thai for 'seal' ('maew nam แมวนำ้) - it should really be 'Cat Water' but that's not something you want sprayed on anything electric.

 

I'll get my coat ...

You can name it what you like - I defer to my wife for car names.

I bought her a red Suzuki swift to learn to drive in and it was called Red Mouse (Noo Dang), we swapped it for a red MG HS PHEV called Red Pig (Moo Dang) our red electric motorbike is called Red Ant (Mot Dang)

and yes The White BYD Seal is Water Cat (Maew Nam)

@BKKBike09   Not sure you saw my earlier video?

In an vain attempt to get this discussion back on topic:

Little update on using my BYD Seal to power my house.

Normally I prioritise my house batteries, so only when they are fully charged do I start to charge my EVs, but V2L has given me more energy security. So at 09:54 yesterday I plugged in my Seal with the aim of getting the LFPs to 100%

2 hours and 21 minutes later I checked and the water cat was fully charged. Car unplugged I waited for the house batteries to start charging, but almost straight away it clouded over and threatened to rain. There was enough power through the clouds to run the house, but not to recharge the house batteries at the same time.

At 6pm it started to get dark so I plugged in V2L and powered the house until 9:36pm at which point the house was shut down for the night on minimum load and there was sufficient power in the house batteries to see me through to morning. 
 

In the morning I charged the house batteries to 80% then plugged in the seal

7 minutes ago, macahoom said:

 

Very good! I do not have solar at home, but this is something that interests me very much, particularly the role that the Seal plays.

 

By the way, would your post not sit more comfortably in either the “My EV can power my home” thread or even the “BYD Seal tips, tricks and help” thread?

That thread has been hijacked by petrol-heads who have no interest and even less understanding of V2L…

But you are right I should give it a try.

Many cars have V2L now so it doesn’t need to be a seal, but I am conflicted where to post sometimes.

Little update on using my BYD Seal to power my house.

Normally I prioritise my house batteries, so only when they are fully charged do I start to charge my EVs, but V2L has given me more energy security. So at 09:54 yesterday I plugged in my Seal with the aim of getting the LFPs to 100%

2 hours and 21 minutes later I checked and the water cat was fully charged. Car unplugged I waited for the house batteries to start charging, but almost straight away it clouded over and threatened to rain. There was enough power through the clouds to run the house, but not to recharge the house batteries at the same time.

At 6pm it started to get dark so I plugged in V2L and powered the house until 9:36pm at which point the house was shut down for the night on minimum load and there was sufficient power in the house batteries to see me through to morning. 

In the morning I charged the house batteries to 80% then plugged in the seal

39 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

currently have no film on the glass of my car

To me it made sense to live with car for a few weeks before deciding what and even if to fit film

@Andrew Dwyer

I installed the sun shade for a video, then immediately removed it and put the 2 pieces in the boot. Faced with the prospect of putting shopping on top of it I struggled to put it back in the bag, where it will now stay.

I currently have no film on the glass of my car, but I am seriously considering PPF for the paintwork.

I am loving the cooled seats and I don’t find the car too hot.

I have a theory that dark privacy film actually makes a car hotter.

On 11/25/2023 at 6:16 AM, TorquayFan said:

I always FILL my ICE to the brim each time

I hope you don’t plan to run your ICE car down to empty as the tank has all sorts or nasty gunk at the bottom that can ruin your engine. 

ICE car owners are kidding themselves when they look at their range indicator because the figure assumes running the tank down to empty which is a stupid idea.

As I’ve mentioned before, EVs range is based on “usable range” Battery capacity is quoted net and not gross, even at 0% battery the battery isn’t empty, ICE cars are not that sophisticated.

Electrons don’t go bad, but fuel does. Modern fuel contains Ethanol that can cause storage problems, water problems, and engine problems over time due to the corrosive nature of the fuel. It can degrade rubber and plastic parts in engines and fuel lines, leading to costly repairs.

Ethanol based fuel has a short shelf life lasting only up to three months, less in hot and humid conditions. Unlike pure gasoline, ethanol-based fuel easily absorbs moisture, which can lead to contamination.

Ethanol increases gasoline vapor pressure leading to fuel starvation, this issue is particularly bad in hot weather.

If you live in a hot humid country like Thailand you are better off driving an EV, particularly as ICEs are so inefficient, only 30% of the input energy moves the vehicle the remaining 70% is heat and noise.

Let’s face it “Suck Squeeze Bang Blow” just sucks

25 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Lazada advertises touch up paint for the seal

Do you have a link? Done a search and just got generic car touch up paints

I want to talk about paint. I’d like to compare the paint on my MG HS PHEV and my BYD Seal.

The MG has a hard clear top coat which got badly scratched by our puppies. I used Turtle One & Done which is a ceramic polish/paint restoration produce, which I applied and buffed with polish pad on a battery powered polisher. 
 

Before:

After:

Within 500km of driving my BYD Seal I got a stone chip. There doesn’t seem to be any clear coat, but what looks like a colored vinyl wrap instead of paint. Normally I would expect to see a white color undercoat, but it’s black.

I don’t see anyway to repair scratches and stone chips on my seal. I am seriously considering paint protection film.

These videos are unlisted on my channel 

Thoughts?

BYD Seal Glass Sunroof Sun Shade 

The first video of me fitting it is here: https://youtu.be/ayE0prjuWXw