Home charge points (purchase/problems/questions) (See mod note post#1)

DaveyDave

If you're only charging twice a month then I think you could get away with using a granny cable. A lad in work uses one and he's had an EV for years.

It won't make the upgrade work go away, but you won't have to deal with an upfront cost right now.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462853#Comment_119462853

I think the grant will be here a while longer yet as they have only announced that they are giving grants to people who don't even have an EV so I think they are here for the next few years at least to get buy in for EVs.

As you say its an investment for your house as we will all be driving EVs in less than 10 years time.

@dunnerc how many fills of petrol do you do a month? you might find out that while its a big initial outlay you will save that maybe in the first year alone in petrol savings

dunnerc

@ECO_Mental 1 fill a month get over 900km out of a tank of diesel

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464042#Comment_119464042

Your not going to make money changing to an EV but buying new cars aint a profitable businesses anyway

dunnerc

That's for sure 😊

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464231#Comment_119464231

i do wonder would i have been better not bothering with a home charger and save the 1400 and spend it on public charging.. but there is a certain comfort to having a home charger... a granny charger will get you there as well in a normal socket just take twice as long.. which based on your one fill a month comment might be enough..

dunnerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464278#Comment_119464278

I think myself , its stick with the Civic or go with the granny charger , will decide over the weekend.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464042#Comment_119464042

But you have to go out of your way to get it. Not to mention the environmental damage

Icsics

I’ve been waiting since April for the grant….how long in peoples experience does it take?

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464364#Comment_119464364

Life is too short without trying new experiences.

That's what I tell myself anyway..😊

ElitesTeam

For an ABL charger. I have the ABL 1W7221.

I am told I need a load management.

Does anyone have a link to buy one. My electrician cant seem to find a ABL compatible one

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462897#Comment_119462897

Im in a pretty poorly built 1974 home and electrics all fine, it's a bit mad a 1985 build needs attention.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464857#Comment_119464857

Yep, I’m in a 1984 semi D and had no issues.

dunnerc

Yea I wasn't expecting it , to be honest, but different companies more or less said the same , upgrade tails , earth wire , earth rod etc , lucky you that u didn't need it on your house , who done your install lol ? I will give them a shout

dunnerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464857#Comment_119464857

Can you let me know your install crowd too 🤔🤔

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464278#Comment_119464278

No comparison mick not having a home charger makes for a much worse ev owning experience, you’ll probably have an ev for the rest of your life now, the cost of the charger will be forgotten about.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119461420#Comment_119461420

Standard supply and install of the wallbox plus with load management is €1150 from Ecoplex and €1199 from carcharger.ie

Then grant comes back from that

Tails upgrades adds a bit of spice to the mix alright.

NinjaTruncs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464383#Comment_119464383

That seems excessive, I started all the paper work for payment in late may, they returned the application a few times for issues( the first time I forgot to sign the form, the second time my photos disappeared) and I was paid the grant today, so it took about 3 months for, but I'd say the back and forth for the issues delayed things by about a month, it took about 6 weeks from sorting the issues to getting paid

Icsics

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119467124#Comment_119467124

Got it in my account today!

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119467369#Comment_119467369

SEAI monitoring boards :)

slave1

Always watching

D_D

Hi folks, does anyone know where best to purchase a Wallbox Pulsar Plus? Was looking on Amazon (.de and .es) and they're about €800 on there.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119473640#Comment_119473640

Supplied and fitted by Ecoplex for €1150. Grant comes back then.

The_B_Man

Is this Wallbox Pulsar Plus recommended? I see a few people mention it over the last couple of pages. I was looking at a wifi enabled one with load sensing and was looking at the EVBox Elvi but it got terrible reviews so I'm looking elsewhere. I want to be able to control it with an app, maybe some software updates if needed, and for it to turn off if I use the cooker or shower. I also had the house rewired a few years ago and the electrician put in 16 square cables, as far as i remember.

So the house is ready to go. I got the grant and I even had the electrician wire up the side of the house while he was doing another job. All I have to do is hand him the charger and he'll attach it. He offered to supply a box but I'd rather have more control over what goes in, and it'll probably work out cheaper as I'm sure he'll add on a few quid on top of the price of the charger for himself.

Am I causing myself extra work by trying to find the perfect smart charger, or is it worth putting time in to research the options? Electricity is electricity but I want a few bells and whistles, for example, to be able to turn charging on or off from the app.

I have no solar at the moment but would love to get it in over the next few years. I see the Zappi ones advertise they allow that, but I would presume all chargers have support for solar. Is that not the case?

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119474944#Comment_119474944

I have no solar at the moment but would love to get it in over the next few years. I see the Zappi ones advertise they allow that, but I would presume all chargers have support for solar. Is that not the case?

That narrows the field alot. Most charge points, even smart ones, have no Solar PV integration. The Zappi is the best known one for that but there are some others.

cromelex

I have the Wallbox Pulsar Plus and it's working fine without any issues. It has the load balancing feature and in the future if I want to enable the Solar integration (as the plan is to get PV install at some point) it is just an option in the app to enable it.

The_B_Man

Oh really? I must be missing something basic.

Do the Zappi's have two power feeds then, eg 1 from mains and 1 from PV? Otherwise if they're fed from the same source, I don't see how it could distinguish if the power is from the PVs or not.

But that's interesting. I was wondering why the Zappi's were so popular, but that explains it.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119475080#Comment_119475080

What the Zappi does (and others do as well) is it has a CT clamp on your main ESB incomer to see if you are importing or exporting electricity. If you are exporting electricity then your PV panels are producing more electricity than you are using in your house. The Zappi will then start charging your car once a set export rate is achieved. The graph below from 2 days ago and demonstrates how it works.

The red line is my solar PV and the green line is my main ESB incomer. As you can see because of the fantastic weather I was exporting nearly 2kW by half nine. I then plugged the Zappi (blue line) into the EV and it started tracking my PV production and only letting me export about 100-200 watts. One of the kids had a shower at 11am and the heat pump came on and the Zappi dropped the charging down to 1.4kW (I have it on Eco mode if it was Eco+ it would have stopped and recommenced once the heat pump switched off.) I then went out and did a few jobs around lunch time and you can see my export went through the roof.

micks_address

does anyone have experience with home energy management systems? im researching solar at the moment and have the vw eli charger which supports hems - kcross posted a link to a hager unit a while back.. im just curious if any solar installers around dublin area would be up to speed to installing solar with hems or is that just a given? for example does the hems need to go on the fuser/consumer board? im guessing a wire then goes from that to the charger? i know the easy option seems to be use a zappi if interested in solar and to be honest when i got the charger id no intention of solar and i probably don't for at least a year but just trying to figure out options if i ever go down that road

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119475277#Comment_119475277

I don’t think any installers will have a clue about that yet. It’s a new standard that was devised and not that many products yet support it. The Hager one I gave you is one of the very few and it’s ridiculously priced for what it gives you.

I am hoping there will be some open source projects start supporting it in future and you could use a raspberry pi or such to drive it.

If you find something please do post it as I’ll be happy to trial it as long as it’s not stupid money.