Is it me or does the EV charge just not do what it's supposed to?

I've had the EV charger since December, it's been hard to test the various modes while there's been no significant solar.

Right now I'm charging the car at 7.4kW, solar is generating 1.54kW.

If I stick the charger in grid-only mode, the app shows the system issuing 6kW from the grid and 1.54kW from solar - nothing's going to the batteries. Surely in grid mode it should take all 7.4kW (plus any overhead) from the grid, and use the solar for the house/batteries? If I stick it in hybrid it's exactly the same.

The slider in "Advanced (beta)" doesn't seem to do anything regardless of whether I set 90% of generation to battery or if I do 10%. I would have thought 90% would mean 90% of the solar goes to the battery, 10% to the car. Of course maybe it is, but it's coming straight back out the battery in to the car?

The toggle to "prevent battery discharging to EV" doesn't stay on once you navigate away from the beta page. Maybe it's not live yet?

Running latest firmware and latest app...

I'm basically no better off than when I had a basic commando socket and would plug in when the sun was out. It just drains the batteries and doesn't charge them from solar regardless of what mode I'm on. The whole reason I wanted the GE charger was so I could charge from the grid and leave the solar going to the house as before (and then in the summer, I can use excess solar to top up the car to save exporting)

Is anyone else finding similar?

Dabz The whole reason I wanted the GE charger was so I could charge from the grid and leave the solar going to the house as before

Sorry, can't help with your specific question, but what tariff are you on? Wouldn't you be better off charging car overnight on some sort of cheap-rate tariff at this time of year ?

DD I use OVO's Charge Anytime so it's 7p/kWh whenever 🙂

Sounds like us with the AIO, GE are using you early EV adopters as Guinea pigs.

Old fashioned saying does it do what it says on the tin, errrr NO.
Will they fix it soon YES
(Soon = months/years it seems). As they have now moved onto the commercial AIO, will they have time?

Yup feels exactly like that. I wish I'd saved my money and stuck with my commando socket using the car's bungled charger.

Dabz Just looking at https://www.ovoenergy.com/electric-cars/charge-anytime to see how it worls.

"Unlike others, we let you smart charge your EV at a lower rate of 7p per kWh, any time you like, day or night. The clue’s in the name." which implies that any time you charge, it's at the cheap rate.

But it then says "If you need your car in a hurry, you can override your smart charging schedule with the Charge Now function. You'll be charged at your standard home electricity rate when you're not smart charging." Which implies that if you choose when to charge, you have to pay full rate. Which in turn implies that it's only their scheduled charging that's cheap rate, despite the "any time" name ?

I'm confused!

DD I'm confused!

sounds exactly like IOG then ...

pacemaker Yeah, except IOG gives cheap rate for the whole house, not just the car. (And therefore great for home batteries.) Guess is depends on relative consumption in home and car.

DD that’s actually quite a drawback !! In your case it will charge the car at the grid’s supply convenience and not as per your need which is not ideal! I would prefer to know for sure when the car is getting charged rather than let it plug in the whole day and hope that at some point it will be fully charged !

deepanshus that’s actually quite a drawback !! In your case it will charge the car at the grid’s supply convenience and not as per your need which is not ideal!

Not quite sure what you're comparing with what. (I've only just switched to IOG, from the certainty of Go.) The upside is getting a really good price for at least 6 hours overnight, and maybe some extra slots if that's convenient for the grid.

If OVO anytime really did let you charge at any time, day or night, then yes, I can see the attraction. But it doesn't really sound like that's actually what's on offer, and that they also have to schedule a "smart" charge, and are only offering to charge your car by the time limit you specify.

I'm fortunate that I don't have to commute, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if a charge was missed. I think some people forgo the smart charging and just charge during the fixed 6 hours overnight, for certainty. (Even though that's not really in the spirit of the terms - if you're going to treat it like the Go tariff, you really ought to be paying Go rates...)

DD except IOG gives cheap rate for the whole house, not just the car. (And therefore great for home batteries.)

Oh, and OVO seem a bit stingy when paying for export - 4p. IOG positively distorts things by paying more for export than the overnight import price, making it beneficial to import from grid overnight and export all your solar during the day. (Helping the grid by effectively load-shifting your neighbours' daytime usage to your nighttime usage.)

OVO's charge anytime rewards you for charging when the grid greener - so today for example I plugged the car in at 7.30am and told it I needed it to be at 80% by 11.30. It connects to the car to figure out the current battery charge and how long it'll need. It decided to pause charging until about 9am when the grid was under less load and started then. If I needed charge immediately I could click "start urgent charge" but the payoff is that it's at normal kWh rate. It only really tends to pause charging at breakfast time or early evening. You can also trick the app by setting the "required by" time sooner and most times this will start a charge regardless of grid load without charging full rate.

It doesn't really ever become an issue because I haven't ever needed charge urgently - if you need charge urgently at 7kW then you're in trouble anyway.

Dabz Yes, I'm finding this, too. It looks like the software is not ready.