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

RainInSummer

Can any of the new home charge points work on a power limiting schedule?

I only want the charger to pull 3-4kW from 6am to midnight. But after midnight to 6am it can pull the full 7kW.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877701#Comment_121877701

I don't think you can schedule the zappi to do this anyways, or at least I don't see how. I'm actually kind of surprised how limited the app is for one of the more popular chargers.

Are you trying to only half charge not at night to save money or to protect the load on the rest of the house? 6 hours of charging is good chunk, it's over 150km of motorway miles on our car.

If it's the first, I guess in theory you could schedule the zappi to charger for half of every hour, from a cost point of view it would be the same price per hour as half the power. maybe that's bad for the car battery though

If it's to manage the load, the zappi will do this automatically and back off if needed.

https://myenergi.info/ability-to-set-charge-rate-t122.html

This thread talks about the feature and has some potential work around and solutions, but people are still waiting for the feature to just be added.

Worth noting that according to this thread, the efficiency goes down when limiting the charging, so charging for 30 mins at full power would waste less power than charging for 1 hour at half power

RainInSummer

Cheers.

It's basically so I won't have to install a priority switch during the day. I don't want the charger pulling 7kW when I'll have the oven and induction hob and all the other bits in the house on.

Does the zappi need the harvi to be able to load sense and back off? Or does it just have a clamp on the mains incoming?

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877934#Comment_121877934

Zappi has a load sense clamp for mains and will back off itself. Needs to be installed on mains tail live.

witnessmenow

Yup just got the zappi installed, have electric showers and the install didn't require a priority box. As listermint mentioned, it has a clamp that measures the current coming into the house and will automatically adjust the output to the car to suit.

Also handy as you can use it to see what's the power hungry devices in the house!

RainInSummer

Thanks all. Looks like it's the Zappi.

I already have a Emporia on all the circuits to tell me what's doing what.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877701#Comment_121877701

Why?

the Ohme works that way it’s tarts off slowly conditioning the battery and then ramps up as it approaches the desired set time. So if you want set the car to be ready at 8am. It’ll charge at 4kwh for a while and ramp up at say 6am to give you whatever charge you want by 8am. ( it has an API that reads the cars SOC from

the cars app

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878140#Comment_121878140

Was actually going to pick one of those up.

RainInSummer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878167#Comment_121878167

So I don't have to install a priority switch.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121877934#Comment_121877934

Ok. Any charger that does load management will do it. I believe it’s criteria for any charger that is eligible for the grant. So that’s nearly all chargers

RainInSummer

Cool. Cheers.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878379#Comment_121878379

eo mini pro 2 also has load management.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878168#Comment_121878168

just make sure you have the space, i couldnt have got an emporia set up into my consumer unit went with two shelly ems instead.

RainInSummer

Yeah it's tight alright. There was a fair amount of swearing involved.

vectra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121822363#Comment_121822363

I'm slightly confused.

Are you saying that all in it cost €395 ?

I can't see that deal anywhere.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878689#Comment_121878689

995 - grant of 600

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878654#Comment_121878654

Ya space is a commodity in irish the Irish CUs alright. I think I've enough room there the live feeds are fairly clean.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878689#Comment_121878689

As per the post you quoted, I paid Forkearn €995, got €600 back, so yes, all in cost for me was €395.

useless

What I had hoped would be a straightforward process has turned into an absolute palaver. I've a 70's house that was rewired in 2013 with a new distribution board. Smart meter installed a couple of years ago. Got my grant app in just before Christmas, and am trying to get my act together to get the install done before it runs out in June.

So, three quotes requested to different installers online, all asked for a photo of the meter cabinet, distribution board and the proposed location of the charger.

First company came back with 'we're not touching it until you've upgraded the meter tails, ring your electrician'.

Second firm told me that they were "confident that your property will need a periodic inspection prior to an EV charger being installed" and wanted to send out someone (not specifying if it was an electrician, elec eng, or salesperson) and charge me 350 euro for the privilege, to tell me what 'upgrade works' needed to be done, and that the 350 would be refunded if I did the works with them.

Third firm sent out someone (again I don't know whether an electrician or sales guy), who looked in the meter cabinet, proclaimed my red & black meter tails were fine (16), and claimed that the other crowds who did the photo-based check use a simple rule of red/black=no, yellow/green=yes without actually knowing the cable CSA.

I asked him about getting the charger connected via the meter cabinet as allowed for here: https://safeelectric.ie/contractors/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/MarchNewsletterSafeElecFinal-1.pdf since I'd rather not have the house hacked apart to get back to the distribution board inside.

Answer was that he'd seen it done by subcontractors before & should be possible but more expensive due to requiring more electrical equipment in the meter box (I assume a big RCBO & an isolation switch as per p6 of the safelectric document). Then I get the final quote by email from the company and they would only offer to do the install via the distribution board, so the house hacking would be required.

Pain in the ass all round with three different answers from three companies. At this stage I might just replace the car with another diesel.

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880072#Comment_121880072

if your house was rewired in 2013 then the main cables should have been replaced with brown/blue

if your mains cables have to be replaced then the installation has to be tested and certified

the link you posted was clarified in 2022 and it’s no longer permitted in the meter cabinet.it’s permitted adjacent to meter cabinet if no other option is available (p17)

cost or disruption should not be a factor

https://safeelectric.ie/contractors/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/April2022NewsletterSafeElec-Final.pdf

useless

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880100#Comment_121880100

Lovely. Sounds like a half arsed job done 10 years ago so. Probably safe to assume that replacing the mains cables in my house is an awkward or difficult job if it wasn't done as part of the rewire then...

Thanks for the updated safelectric document- that's good info and explains why the installer wont do it in my house. I wasn't clear enough in my post- I'm happy with the new kit being attached to the wall outside the meter cabinet, rather than inside it, but it seems like the installers are taking the safelectric guidelines to heart and only recommending it as an 'installation of last resort' which, tbf in my case, it isnt. Its just tidier not to have to drill holes in my front wall and try to hide cable at the front of the house, plus the mess inside with conduit/trunking/whatever its called hiding new cable around the distribution board. If it's all installed outside it's hidden around the side of the house and theres no mess.

Right, time to decide whether its worth investigating spending a fortune getting these mains cables upgraded or just buying a diesel car.

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880221#Comment_121880221

If you can get one then it might be worth calling local electricians instead of these chargepoint installers.

If I was to come across this situation, I would be pragmatic and just test the mains cable, If it passed then I'd have no problem doing the job. I'd make a note of it in my test records and I'd place a warning label on the distribution board.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880221#Comment_121880221

Similar requirements may come in to play should you choose to go solar route in future. So don't think of these things as solely related to buying an EV over a diesel. It's par of the course to keep the house safe where new electrical requirements are born out of upgrades to your home.

useless

Fair point re solar but our house with its hipped roof and north facing rear garden is probably never going to be a great candidate.

Id be totally on board with what you’re saying re keeping the house safe, but I guess im a bit peeved that when I shelled out a heap of money to a builder 10 years ago to include a rewire, the cables from the meter box to the (new!) distribution board weren’t done. It’s less than 3 metres as the crow flies from the meter to the board, but I don’t know if the cables are run through the downstairs ceiling or up through the attic or down underneath the floor.

Will mull over it a bit more & probably get an electrician to quote for the upgrade- if I can get one! 😀

Thanks to everyone for your input- sometimes Boards is great!

vectra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878988#Comment_121878988

That is a nice price.

What differences would there be with this charger and a Zappi?

I am looking at getting one installed this year as I was approved for the 600 grant.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880535#Comment_121880535

Many in the same boat with regards rewires. You probably always have to have a 2nd person that knows their stuff to check it over and make sure your not being had.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121880676#Comment_121880676

Some of the other guys here will know an awful lot more about chargers than me, so hopefully one of them will come along with the answer to that.

The reason I went for the EO, apart from price, is that it is small and neat. This was actually going on my parents house for us to use when we visit so I wanted a unit that was small, and untethered.

I have a Wallbox pulsar plus in my own home, which is pretty good but like other owners, I’m frustrated by the WiFi connection continuously dropping. If I was buying for my home again, I probably would pay more and put the Zappi in.

PGE1970

Hi all,

I'm about to purchase my first EV, a Tesla M3.

Can anyone recommend a suitable charger and installer (for the County Louth area)? I'm approved for the grant last December but know very little about the chargers other than I see Zappi mentioned a lot.

I'm a rural property so no access issues.

Thanks for any replies!

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882295#Comment_121882295

A couple of thing you can do yourself would be to check if your earth rod can be accessed outside. If you have gas then you need an earth cable on the gas pipe. If your sink has copper pipes then they need an earth cable too. The last thing is that your mains cable is sufficient to take the extra load. Some installers will do the above for you, if required (at a cost), others will insist you get your own electrician.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882610#Comment_121882610

Some of the chargers don't require an earth rod if I'm not mistaken, the zappi being one of them.

https://www.myenergi.com/ie/pen-protection/