EV charger load not detected

4 comments started 2023-05-14 last 2023-05-14
Commisioning
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#1 dagewa

Hi folks! I'm new to the forum and new to solar, having had an installation completed just last Thursday. We're still figuring everything out but are happy to see that we're generating enough to cover our usage even on a rather cloudy May day, yesterday.

However, last night I plugged my car in to our PodPoint charger (which was present before the solar install) and this morning I checked the GivEnergy dashboard, expecting to see something like a 6.6 kW load and the battery draining, but nothing... The car had certainly charged, so I had a look at the wiring to try to figure it out (note, I am not an electrician, just a customer). I took the following couple of pictures:

I see that the PodPoint is connected to the mains supply early on, just after the smart meter within the external meter box. There's also a CT clamp there, which I think is related to the PodPoint as the cable traces back to it.

Inside the house, the solar install is connected to the cables later, just before the cables enter the main house consumer unit. The CT clamp for this system is on the live cable just ahead of where the new fuse box for the solar and home battery is connected.

Given this, I'm not surprised that the car charger did not register on the dashboard, because all of that is connected upstream! What I'm wondering though is how this can be resolved. Would it be as simple as moving the CT clamp for the solar install down to the same position as the CT clamp for the PodPoint, so that the load is registered ahead of where the PodPoint takes power (I say simple, but the wires might not actually stretch that far)? Or is it a problem that because the PodPoint is actually wired in upstream of the solar stuff, it would always just take energy from the grid?

I feel like this should all be a fairly basic parallel circuit diagram, so the order of wiring shouldn't matter, just where the load is registered should matter! However, like I say, not an electrician.

Thanks for any help!

#2 positor1

The GE solar ct clamp needs to be on the incoming tails like the pod point is. Was your installer inexperienced? seems a silly mistake to make.

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#3 dagewa

Thanks positor1 I would have thought the installers were experienced, but like you say, it does seem silly. At least it should be simple enough to rectify then? I'll ask the installers back to do it though, because its not just a case of unclamping and reclamping, as the wires from the clamp have to be disconnected and then threaded back through from the meter box outside the house.

#4 judgepd

Mine is installed like this due to the order of things getting fitted and lazy battery installers and although I've debated getting it corrected it works well for me. The way I have it means that I can't accidentally discharge the battery to the car. If I want to deliberately do it then I set the battery to export and my zappi sees the grid export and grabs holds of it for the car. The only downside is that the car charger isn't seen by any of the GE reporting but I don't mind that.