What EV Charger

5 comments started 2022-12-20 last 2023-01-04
APIsHome AutomationHome AssistantNodeRed
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#1 anglefire

Title probably should be, should I get an EV - but that is perhaps not for public debate as everyones use case is different!

As intermated, I am thinking of getting an EV - needs to have a big boot for work and holidays - so I'm looking at something like a Skoda Enyaq.
But what charger - and what tariff - It will be via Octopus if I get one as its on a salary sacrifice scheme - and the obvious choice is intelligent octopus, but only one of the chargers supports that tariff with the Skoda.
I also want (ideally) to be able to monitor/control the charger with Homeassistant or have it work with Solar - not that many days of the year will be sunny enough to put any charge in the car I suspect. The Zappi is the only one that does that I believe (The Octopus charger is not on the list)

#2 hoggy

I have an Ohme (old one, not the Pro) and an Indra Home Pro (or something along those lines)
The Indra does solar matching, the Ohme does not (it just has a solar profile you can flick on do send 10A or 6A to the car if it’s sunny)
I’m rarely in due to work and when I am it’s either dark or raining so very little gets diverted to the car anyway - the only reason I have the Indra is because it came free with the car.

I have IO running from the car (Tesla) as this takes into account the cars SOC so is far less faffing around than using the Ohme with the other car (a completely thick MG ZS with no connectivity at all, so I would be forever having to input what it’s SOC was each night).

Bonus is If you run Intelligent from the car, then the Octopus API spits out all the charge slots into Home Assistant, the Ohme does not do this (actually it’s a bit worse it gives out spoof slots or none at all)

Long story short, I’d choose a supported car with IO + any charger rather than Ohme + any car.

Not sure if VW group has support on HA yet, I’d be surprised if someone hasn’t done it yet but I believe it’s supported on IO now (or will shortly be?)

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#3 anglefire

Thanks @hoggy There is a Skoda integration into HA already - I did have it installed on my Superb - but it hammered the SIM card and it ran out of data and never recovered - and probably the 100kb free a month tariff disappeared.
I have now seen that the Zappi has an integration - but it uses the cloud and not local (At least that seems to be the case currently) But the zappi isn't compatible with Intelligent Octopus 🙁

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#4 dcsh

We got a EO Mini Pro (not the one that does solar) for free as part of a car lease, while a nice neat box that can do timed charging, it is dependent on the JuiceNet network being online or it reverts to dumb.
If I had been choosing I would have gone for the Zappi, but that was in early 2020 when there were less solar options at that point we didn’t have a Givenergy set up. If I was looking to change now to make use of excess solar I’d look at the Givenergy charger due to the apparent integration and the unit cost seems reasonable, but I may just go for a HA integration with the Car.
I’m keeping an eye on V2H chargers, some of which do solar too, but are mainly only in trials at present. If they become more available it could be an option to get an older Leaf as a second car that would mainly act as a extra battery for powering the heating over winter with off peak electricity.

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#6 alan_johnston

I got the Ohme Pro via Octopus just before the grant ended in 2022. Although it says it's a smart charger, it doesn't seem to be that smart, but it does allow you access to the Intelligent Octopus tarif and you can turn it on and off remotely using the Ohme mobile phone app.