That sounds good! I can see how that would save a lot of money on the bills. I especially like that you’ve got a “janky” template sensor haha. HA is so good for it’s openness and letting you bodge things together which have no right to work but do so all the same!
I’ll be taking advantage of the negative cost energy to charge my car. How have you got HA set up to take advantage? Is it automating certain appliances running when the rate is lowest?
It’s what Americans would call a band-aid
I can only speak for myself but the upcoming ICE ban was a factor in my recent EV purchase. I intend to keep my car for a long time so as we move closer to the ban more and more cars will be EVs so I didn’t want to be left behind.
The other aspects you mentioned were also factors. Particularly after a test drive and feeling the acceleration and quietness of the car.
For me the car is the main thing that I can move to cheaper times. I’m also lucky in that I don’t need to do that many miles so I can often wait for cheaper times to charge. If I did more miles and needed to charge more frequently/consistently then it would probably be better to have a tariff with a set night rate, sometimes there are decently long stretches where the variable tariff doesn’t get as cheap as a night rate would be. On the other side there are days like this where I can get as much into the car as possible and get money back for it.
It definitely depends on your individual usage which would be better. If you’re with Octopus, I believe they have a tool which will show you what you would have paid on the variable tariff over the past months, obviously that wouldn’t take into account any behavioral changes you would make (or automate) if you had a variable tariff but could still be helpful.