I have solar and two 9.5 kWh batteries on a GIV-HY5.0 Inverter; I am on Octopus Go and just about to buy my first Electric Car.
Would appreciate people's thoughts on what home charger I should be looking at and how to link it into my current system
I don’t have any experience of other chargers but the GivEnergy one that I have works just fine. Handy to have it controlled by same app as inverter and battery. It’s not officially supported by Octopus yet but if your EV is supported then it shouldn’t be a problem. If you switch to Intelligent Octopus Go then you will get an extra hour at 7p for your EV and house/battery.
Also supported by Home Assistant and GivTCP if you have that.
Some people including myself have found them to be sensitive to high grid voltage levels which your DNO should address.
I have 2x9.5 on an AC3.0 inverter and 7kW panels. I have a myenergi Zappi charger.
I like having the Zappi charger (and EDDI) on a separate App as it gives me a slightly different and more up to date view of Import/Export kWh usages.
The Zappi is supported by Octopus, So I am on Intelligent Octopus Go at the moment.
I usually switch to Intelligent Octopus Flux for April to September and Intelligent Octopus Go for October to March - as per the Octoprice recommendations for my usage)
I have found that it is better to connect the Zappi via a Powerlink & Ethernet cable as I couldn’t get a reliable Wi-Fi connection to the Zappi on the outside wall of the garage. (Powerlink may need to be on the same Ring Main circuit as the router, then a Lan cable through the Garage wall using the supply cable holes into the back of the Zappi)l
On Intelligent Octopus Go, I have tried both Car connection and Charger connection to Octopus IOG. The Charger connection has proved much simpler to set up and more reliable. (I have a very poor mobile signal here).
Overall, I would happily recommend the Zappi to be used alongside Givenergy solar products, but of course I have had no experience with any other charger.
I’ve got a Hypervolt 3 pro. It’s a replacement for a failed H2 that was a pain in many ways. The H3 seems much better (touches wood) so far. It is compatible with Octopus which the old one wasn’t so I used to connect to the Tesla but now use the charger. I have noticed that we get a lot more extra 7p juice outside of the normal IOG times with this rather than the car, no idea why.
Ours has the ct clamp situated so it never charges from the battery. The other thing I would recommend is that you hardwire the charger rather than use WiFi.
Thanks chaps; one question - is it easy to stop the car draining the GivEnergy Batteries? I am assuming the charger will be connected into the consumer unit on its own ring main, but doesn't that consumer unit draw from the battery ? I don't want my battery going to the car; spare solar yes, but not the battery 🙂
Phil89a
If you have not already done so check out the myenergi forum,
https://myenergi.info/
Plenty of advice on the Zappi. I have a Zappi working with a GV AIO. Lots of different modes and with the correct CTs fitted battery drain can be limited. Octopus is catered for but there are known issues depending on battery config. You will have to disable battery in GV ap if charging over night on off-peak as this will definitely drain battery.
Also certain car makes can be problematic and failed charging is well documented.
For what it's worth, I have a Zappi and an AIO.
The Zappi works perfectly through the night (Eon Drive) whilst the AIO is also charging. As soon as the AIO reaches 100%, the Zappi is all over the place. Quite often this leaves me without a full car battery in the morning. I should be able to get around 49kWh in the 7 hour slot. Regularly only get 30 odd if the AIO doesn't need much as with current very sunny days.
Have had to resort to slow AIO charge to extend the time it takes.
Myenergi are investigating but not getting anywhere yet!
I should add, not sure how other chargers work, but I'm unable to charge during the day without draining the AIO (unless I alter the AIO settings temporarily). All in all not overly satisfactory!
Coys68 I should add, not sure how other chargers work, but I'm unable to charge during the day without draining the AIO (unless I alter the AIO settings temporarily). All in all not overly satisfactory!
If your AIO drains into the EV then this is down to how the EV charger has been wired in and the CT clamps for the AIO placed
If you have a setup like this:
DNO master fuse ——Smart meter ——- EV charger ——- Inverter CT clamp —— Inverter and rest of house circuits
Then the AIO won’t “see” the EV charging load
An electrician or your installer can rearrange things like this
Hi, what car are you planning to get?
I’ve got a Tesla wall connector, works great with the Tesla. It’s effectively a “dumb charger”. My IOG integration is with the Tesla itself which has been flawless.
Any charger you do go for, I’d definitely recommend getting a tethered one instead of an untethered one. It makes life so much easier ! Less faff.
If you’re planning to switch to the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff (recommended) you’ll need either a compatible car, or a compatible charger, so if your car isn’t compatible with IOG, make sure you get a charger that is. Even if you aren’t planning on that tariff right now, it makes sense to give yourself that option just in case things change in the future.
Regarding batteries draining into the car. You can either have the charger wired up, so that your solar system doesn’t “see” the charger as a load and therefore the batteries won’t discharge into the car ever.
Or another fairly simple strategy for stopping the batteries discharging into the car on IOG is to set the batteries to charge from 23:30–>05:30 every day, same time as the car charges and set the “ready by time” in the Octopus app to 05:30. If you’ve got excess solar, you can also set the car on a slow charge during the day, to utilise extra solar into the car as you said you’d like to be able to do…. However, it is far far better for your wallet to charge your batteries to full every night and charge your car every night and let all solar export to the grid on the Octopus 15p fixed export during the day, than put that solar into the car. Reason being that’s 15p/kWh electricity you’re putting in the car compared to filling it with 7p overnight electricity. Any excess you have left in the batteries you export to the grid in the evening at 15p, aiming for the batteries to be as close to 4% at 23:29. Then repeat the process the next day.
So; car fills at 7p, batteries fill at 7p, all solar and any excess 7p imported electricity in the batteries then gets exported for 15p. Hopefully your 19kWh of batteries will last you all (of the 18hr) day with some spare left to export.
Any extra IOG cheap slots allocated you may need to manage somehow. But there typically won’t be many if set up as above and they’ll be just after you plug the car in anyway, so worst case just hit the quick play buttons in the GE app and charge the batteries at the same time.
Charger: Tethered, IOG compatible (if car isn’t).
SimonClarke Now you mention it, that has been my experience too. Since we switched from the Tesla vehicle IOG integration to the Zappi charger IOG integration, we are also seeing a lot more 7p slots outside of the normal window. I hadn't given it any thought until I read your post.
@Phil89a > I gave up waiting for the GE charger to be supported by IOG and went for the Zappi instead. I'm glad I did, as there was no real benefit to putting all my eggs in one GE basket, so to speak. Our charger is wired grid-side, so the AIO doesn't see it. We could charge from solar, but we tend to export at 15p/kWh and charge the car overnight at 7p instead.
I'm also seeing quite a lot of bonus IOG slots (zappi integration)
Worth noting that octopus is not the only game in town: on paper, eon next drive is better than IOG - cheaper overnight for longer, and no car/chargepoint constraints.
Pete UK Thanks Pete - Skoda Elroq for the car, yes decided on tethered and I think I will go for the Zappi - as car and GE aren't supported by IOG - and have it wired up Grid side for simplicity (not sure how it is wired grid-side; but installer should know 🙂 )
zag164 I have come to that conclusion as well. I want to switch to IOG as soon as I get the car, so pointless in waiting for GE or car approval.
Anyone had experience with Octopus install of the Charger ?
Phil89a Anyone had experience with Octopus install of the Charger ?
Yes, Octopus installed my zappi, and I was mostly happy. It was actually subcontractors that did it initially, and they refused to install an additional Henley block to hide the charger from GE - claimed their contract didn't allow more than minimum required. But Octopus themselves came back a little later and made the necessary changes without any fuss.
One issue with the zappi later (repeated Comms error) and they came back very promptly and addressed that.
Small niggle that I wanted white, since it's south-facing, but got black. But I wanted untethered, and they had fewer of those available. Really not something I was going to make a fuss about.
(I cover it on sunny days anyway. There's actually a note in zappi installation manual to not install on south-facing wall )