EV Charger

Hi

I have a GE system with a total of 7.8kWh battery - soon to be increased to 26.8kWh. I am on Octopus Agile (Flexible Tariff, with 48 (1/2 hourly) price points per day notified at 16.00 hrs each day.

I've recently bought an MG4 EV with (51kWh) battery and need to install a Home EV charger. I want as much flexibility as possible in setting daily charging period(s). It might be useful to have control with the GE control panel but I have other options, including through my HIVE hub and instal a HIVE EV charger / another charger and use the MG app to set charging periods / other options.

Can anyone comment - especially on the suitability of the GE EV charger?

@GeorgeRawding any updates on the EV charger, please? I just heard the EV I was expecting in March is turning up early, and I’m wondering what to do.
Thanks
Simon

KeithMersh1955RuthMary1971 I know it needs anothe app, but my zappi is working really well. Worth a look.

Simkna unless you do mega miles and you want to wait for the GE charger, would the 3 pin granny charger do? I purchased the 3 pin for "emergency use" handy thing to have. But that will only add 10 miles per hour ish to your car. But as I said, as a stop gap maybe.....

THALL the 3 pin stop gap is what I’m doing while I wait for the GE charger. I’ve been keeping an eye on the ITS and midsummer websites for any indication of changes. ITS have been showing no stock for ages but midsummer have completely removed it from their listing. Really hoping GE can get it released soon though. The 3 pin works for me at the minute but as generation improves in spring, I want an integrated charger to soak up the excess without me having to manually turn the 3 pin on.

c_squared You can ask for a rough ETA using their webchat. Thats how I know the EMS devices is due Q2.

But unless you really want a single eco system the zappi does work. Though i think the ge charger is/will be cheaper than a zappi

THALL Are you on a Hybrid invertor or AC coupled?

JMalcolm AC

THALL my brother has a zappi and loves it. I have a hybrid inverter so the GE charger in a single ecosystem is the appeal for me.

I noticed it seems to have disappeared from Midsummer too and says 'coming soon' still on GivEnergy site. Based on my experience waiting for a Gen 2 Hybrid inverter I am going to go with Zappi, its a proven product with good support and I really don't want to be a beta tester for this product when it finally does arrive. I am also not impressed with the level of support for defective products from GE. I know my battery fault, a non-functioning Status LED, is not high priority but it was reported back in November from an August delivery (had to wait for Gen 1 inverter and cables for 2 months) and they still can't give me a date for fix. Battery Reserve doesn't work at all so can't reserve capacity for EPS as it discharges down to 4% regardless of what I tell it and SOC is at times all over the place as we know. Just wouldn't want to be without a car charger for that long if it developed a fault.

It's such a shame, GE have great potential but I suspect have grown too fast in a very difficult supply chain situation which is very hard I get it and do understand the challenges. However, I have spent over £11k on a solar installation and don't want to spend a further £1k (with installation) on something that is vapourware at the moment.

My main concern will be if I move to Intelligent Octopus. I don't want my battery draining to the car in extra charging slots. How does the Zappi stop this (it's not possible to spur my mains feed so the battery doesn't see it).

Simkna you set the battery to charge at the same time as the car. (or too a certain level - , I.e retain 70% charge - means battery will dump 30% into the car, but hold at 70%. Useful if you know the batteries will recharge fully the next day)

Simkna
If you have a Hybrid Inverter you can't but then I am not sure if the GE EV Charger will support it anyway? If your car supports it then you would have to put the charger (regardless of GE or Zappi) effectively ON (Fast charge on Zappi) and let Octopus control the car. If I understand it right this would still drain the battery unless you paused it. However, if you have Home Assistant then automation may be possible IF the GE EV charger supports this via GivTCP, the Zappi has integration so it would be possible to tell the battery to pause discharge from HA when the Zappi starts to charge (ie an IO 30 min window) and resume once it stops.

I am currently on Go Faster until July but IO is an option moving forward but I only charge my car two-three of times a month in reality I am not sure I could commit to the IO once a month charge terms particularly in the summer months when ideally I never want to charge from the grid.

My gut feel is to go for Agile in summer months to maximise export income and switch to Eco 7 in winter to allow me to charge the 9.5+5.2 batteries fully at night which I can't do at the moment as the Gen 1 hybrid can only fill them to 80% in 5 hours.

J

Simkna Put your Zappi in ECO+ mode with a 20 second time delay and Minimum Green Level of 100%. This will stop the Zappi from charging the car unless it sees export in excess of 1.4kW (the minimum any EV charge can charge at) for at least 20 seconds. You can also set a timed charge on the Zappi for whatever period(s) you want. However, during the timed charge, the Givenergy system will see this as house demand and will meet this from battery unless:

• it also has the same timed charge period set, or
• you manually disable the Givenergy ECO mode for the timed charge period or
• you manually reduce inverter output to zero for the timed charge period

These latter settings can be set using the API or Givtcp calls if you have a home automation system in place.

I'm still figuring out how to add my Zappi to the GE app...?

Watching this thread with optemism however...

BigAl
You cant.

BigAl you can't

Oh..... So the GE charger is the only option... but that option still isn't available...? I understand the one "ecosystem" argument but this isn't good for the consumer.

Becoming less impressed with GE as time goes by.

Other than tesla is there another company offering a charger, battery and everything in 1 app? Myenergi are nearly ready with their libbi but I dont think that is available yet?

THALL I don’t think so. I sent my parents to myenergi as they wanted an all in one set up. And GE aren’t there yet as everything is “coming soon” . Plus I’m sure I remember seeing somewhere that the water diverter would be a “built in” option to the inverter rather than a separate unit… obviously that has now changed…

BigAl I don't have my ASHP, oven or TV visible on the GE app, so I'm not fused that I can't see how much my EV is pulling, aside from it's obvious on the power charts... I wouldn't bother about it if I were you.

THALL

Based on the prices that I've seen, there's a massive price premium for that integration.

Smk82
surprisingly MyEnergi have no Alexa integration at all. at least Alexa can tell me some GE information.

Hi All
I'm the same boat as most of you, waiting for the GE EV charger as i want an all in one intergrated solution, to auto divert excess solar, and reduce the chance of mistimed charges and discharges you can get when trying to mix systems..

When i spoke to the GE team over Xmas (unrelated query about my battery) i was told the EV charger release is targetted for Q1.

For now, i'm using a granny charger as a stop gap which is fine for the winter months, when there is little solar..

Both the smart plug (which i've attached to the granny charger to monitor elec use) and the car charging can be controlled through my Home Assistant setup, so i could rig up a system to automatically divert XS solar to the car, but i doubt it would work as well as a single integrated setup...

dp100 It could very well appear Q1. Apparently Gen 2 inverters are about to hit in bulk. BUT I am waiting on their EMS device, I was told November/December but when I asked at the start of this year I was told it is targetted for Q2. Should be "soon" though, at least it is listed on the sites compared the EMS which isn't listed anywhere.

Wouldn't trust any delivery date to be honest from my experience. My installer has told me that the EV Charger has disappeared from his portal, he uses Segen, so either they don't think the product is on the way or are not selling it.

I do fear I have backed the wrong horse with GivEnergy...but at least my system is 'mostly' working and locally controllable. Just hoping it never goes wrong as don't hold out much hope for a prompt repair.

Just a small off topic question... does everyone have access to all of their products or has the installer retained some level of access and is this normal?

I have access to my products as far as the app is concerned, but is there more functionality that I don't have?

Is this something I need to get the best out of my system...

I'm due to switch out of my fixed energy deal end of this month so seriously need to get my "flex on point" with regards my off peak charging when I switch over to Octopus...!

BigAl have you logged into the portal? You should have full range of settings in the inverter tab. I very rarely change any setting on the app, the portal is far more reliable for me. Then again, the newer app releases may well have changed that. What sort of settings is it that you want to change?

c_squared
Nothing specific, just having the ability to time my battery charges in line with new tariff and enabling EV charger once Batteries are full...

I literally know nothing about how the Octopus tariff work so presume I will need to set the parameters manually and can't see how I would do that on the app.

What would be nice is if there was some kind of video tutorial from Octopus on how to do this.

Same here - holding off on a Zappi for teh GE charger to integrate with rest of my system (and ever-hopeful that their version of teh Eddi will re-appear at some point) ... thinking of using a 32A commando socket in the mean time rather than a 13A granny lead as can push 7kw through that and setting the MG software to timed charge ... any thoughts/observations on doing that ?

jont-uk
I'm in the same boat.
I got an EV just before Xmas and i'm currently charging using a 3kw granny charger, plugged into a tempoary double external socket on a dedicated 32A EV line i've had installed.

I'm (still) holding out for the GE EV box as i'd prefer to have everything from the same company for seamless solar excess diversion to the car.

Saying that, i'm also really interested in the new Intellligent Octopus tariff that gives 6 hours per day of cheap EV charging per day, vs 4hrs on their other products. The issue is that currently you can only get this if you to have a compatible car (not many nor mine) OR an Ohme charger, which doesn't support any sort of solar intergration or diversion..

The talk on other forums is that Octopus are actively working on adding 'Intelligent' compatability to the Zappi (with it being one of the most popular EV chargers in the UK). I really can't see the GE box getting this feature anytime soon, especially as the current 'IO' model requires you to give over control over your EV charger to Octopus, so they charge your car in evening and overnight slots when it's cheaper for them...

Overall, it would likely be more financially benefical for me to have a Zappi and get 6hrs cheap elec on Intelligent (with less seamless solar intergration), then continue to wait for a GE EV charger that (you'd expect) will have perfect solar intergration but will be limited to only 4 hrs of 'cheap' offpeak charinging on Octopus Go or equivalent.

I've got some time to wait as i'm on an decent tariff until Oct, and in the meantime hope to automate solar exess diversion to the car using a combination of my granny charger, a smart plug (to which my granny charger is connected) and my 'Home Assistant' setup, similar to this guide:

https://www.speaktothegeek.co.uk/2022/04/homemade-fake-zappi-solar-ev-charger/

I've previously setup HA to automate diversion of excess electicity to a remote controllable immersion tank heater, as a an alternative to dropping £450 on an Eddi box, which i dont think i've be able to break even on teh cost of buying in the lifespan of the device..

Roll on June for a GE Ev Charger update...