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

Gumbo

electrofelix wrote: »

Has anyone used myenergi.ie to purchase a Zappi? I see a few mentions about issues around delays in supply, is that when the device is coming via the UK site only, or as one post mentioned is the general semiconductor shortages impacting all over.

Another post also mentions that they got one delivered within the week at the same time of the other post saying there was delays.

Best to give them a shout direct. They have set up an Irish branch now.

Krusty_Clown

Hi there, just wondering if the SMART meter now supports day/night rate bands? I understood that it did not in the past and was wondering if this had changed? There's an engineer outside who wants to replace our existing day/night rate meter to a SMART meter, so hopefully it's all sorted now?

boccy23

I have a 30A socket which I use for a welder.

Can this be converted to a Type 2 cable? Would this work?

KCross

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hi there, just wondering if the SMART meter now supports day/night rate bands? I understood that it did not in the past and was wondering if this had changed? There's an engineer outside who wants to replace our existing day/night rate meter to a SMART meter, so hopefully it's all sorted now?

Its not so much the smart meter is the problem but the providers (Energia, BorGais etc). Some of the providers dont yet support the back end systems that allow them to provide day/night rate with a smart meter.

The smart meter itself doesnt need to know anything about day/night rate as it sends its data every 15-30mins. Its up to the biller (Airtricity etc) to then put all that data together and generate a day/night bill for you.

TL;DR.... check with your provider if they will continue to give you your existing day/night rate with a smart meter.

Krusty_Clown

KCross wrote: »

TL;DR.... check with your provider if they will continue to give you your existing day/night rate with a smart meter.

Thanks. Have reached out to the Electric Ireland. Hopefully can stall the engineer until I hear back from them. Still under contract with them for three months, so would be pretty annoying if we got forced to a 24 hour more expensive day rate, until we can switch to a smart meter rate.

Patmwgs

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Thanks. Have reached out to the Electric Ireland. Hopefully can stall the engineer until I hear back from them. Still under contract with them for three months, so would be pretty annoying if we got forced to a 24 hour more expensive day rate, until we can switch to a smart meter rate.

Electric ireland should be able to put you on day night rate with the 2 hour free boost for ev charging.
But once the meter is setup for this they say it cannot be change back, how smart is that?

graememk

Patmwgs wrote: »

Electric ireland should be able to put you on day night rate with the 2 hour free boost for ev charging.
But once the meter is setup for this they say it cannot be change back, how smart is that?

Don't be fooled with the 2 hr boost as the normal day and night rates may be higher.

Krusty_Clown

Patmwgs wrote: »

Electric ireland should be able to put you on day night rate with the 2 hour free boost for ev charging.
But once the meter is setup for this they say it cannot be change back, how smart is that?

Cheers. Those Smart meter rates are 5-10% more expensive than their existing day/night tariffs, plus changing plans would likely mean being tied into another 12 months of contract. I'm not sure that the 2am-4am cheaper boost rate (14kw?) would compensate for the rate hike.
Their Home Electric Weekend+ offer with free electricity on Saturday or Sunday is interesting, however, it seems to be 8:00 - 23:00 only, and they have some deliberately vague steering on excessive use:

Electric Ireland wrote:

We may contact you if we think you’re using an unreasonably large amount of electricity on your free day(s). If we think you are using an excessive amount, we may take you off the tariff and move you to another tariff.

the_amazing_raisin

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Their Home Electric Weekend+ offer with free electricity on Saturday or Sunday is interesting, however, it seems to be 8:00 - 23:00 only, and they have some deliberately vague steering on excessive use:

Yeah they could at least put a number to it, you'd be able to gauge it then

Plenty of folks with EVs and solar batteries will be grid charging for the week ahead if the electricity is free

Patmwgs

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Cheers. Those Smart meter rates are 5-10% more expensive than their existing day/night tariffs, plus changing plans would likely mean being tied into another 12 months of contract. I'm not sure that the 2am-4am cheaper boost rate (14kw?) would compensate for the rate hike.
Their Home Electric Weekend+ offer with free electricity on Saturday or Sunday is interesting, however, it seems to be 8:00 - 23:00 only, and they have some deliberately vague steering on excessive use:

Do you have any solar?

slave1

Careful on Smart Controllers Meters, you lose the current decent day/night rates and will pay through the nose for 5pm to 7pm.
Just decline their installation and keep what you have, only ESB and resellers will benefit from this

Patmwgs

SMA are now doing a car charger. About 1200 to 1300 yoyos.

Quin_Dub

Just got my charge point installed today.

Really quick process.

I applied for the SEAI Grant last Friday , got the approval on Monday.

I decided to go for the EO Mini Pro from Electric Ireland , Rang them on Tuesday , installed this morning.

Very neat install - I was expecting an internal box to be installed next to the Consumer unit based on earlier posts here , but the KN installer said that they were no longer needed with the newer unit , so I just have the Charge point and the Isolator outside.

I'll post some pics when it stops absolutely bucketing down!!!

Patmwgs

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Just got my charge point installed today.

Really quick process.

I applied for the SEAI Grant last Friday , got the approval on Monday.

I decided to go for the EO Mini Pro from Electric Ireland , Rang them on Tuesday , installed this morning.

Very neat install - I was expecting an internal box to be installed next to the Consumer unit based on earlier posts here , but the KN installer said that they were no longer needed with the newer unit , so I just have the Charge point and the Isolator outside.

I'll post some pics when it stops absolutely bucketing down!!!

That was very quick. Did they install a ct clamp on the meter tails to use the smart side of it?

Quin_Dub

Patmwgs wrote: »

That was very quick. Did they install a ct clamp on the meter tails to use the smart side of it?

I don't know.

Is that something I can check myself?

Cyrus

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Just got my charge point installed today.

Really quick process.

I applied for the SEAI Grant last Friday , got the approval on Monday.

I decided to go for the EO Mini Pro from Electric Ireland , Rang them on Tuesday , installed this morning.

Very neat install - I was expecting an internal box to be installed next to the Consumer unit based on earlier posts here , but the KN installer said that they were no longer needed with the newer unit , so I just have the Charge point and the Isolator outside.

I'll post some pics when it stops absolutely bucketing down!!!

even better

if we could get to the point where no isolator is required then we would be laughing

slave1

Cyrus wrote: »

even better

if we could get to the point where no isolator is required then we would be laughing

They only just brought that in so I wouldn't be holding my breath

Patmwgs

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I don't know.

Is that something I can check myself?

It usually clamps around the electrical cable tails in the meter box, and returns to the charger.
Or it could be installed around your incoming consumer unit power cable. Its for load balancing and solar integration. Thats what makes it the pro version.

Quin_Dub

Patmwgs wrote: »

It usually clamps around the electrical cable tails in the meter box, and returns to the charger.
Or it could be installed around your incoming consumer unit power cable. Its for load balancing and solar integration. Thats what makes it the pro version.

I can't see anything without starting to pull things apart , but on the paper-work they have ticked yes on the box asking "Was a Priority-switch or other load management device used as part of this installation".

So I guess that means they have?

Patmwgs

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I can't see anything without starting to pull things apart , but on the paper-work they have ticked yes on the box asking "Was a Priority-switch or other load management device used as part of this installation".

So I guess that means they have?

The priority switch is usually for an electric shower or another heavy electric user appliance, but they would have charged extra for that. Load management would be the charger.

randomstuff

Wanted to share my experience.

I'd consider myself a fairly techy person but getting into the the EV space is quite a steep learning curve, especially if you are on a budget.

It's quite obvious the home charge point market is designed for people buying a brand new 30/35k+ car, where they don't mind spending 1.5k (after 600 grant) on a charger. In my situation, I was looking at a budget of 7-8k for a 24kwh Leaf and spending that sort of money (20% of total budget) on just a charge point was out of the question.

After a couple days researching all the possible charger options I settled on a basic EVonestop QUBEV from Amazon for 280 Euro. It gets good reviews and seems fairly reliable. I wont be installing any solar panels and don't need any smart scheduling since car itself handles it.

Then came looking for a electrician for the install - price I was being quoted ranged from about 500 to 1k.

At this stage I almost abandoned the idea of an ev because according to older electric regs the charger needs to be running from the internal house fuse box, which in my case would of meant drilling through the hallway wall and running the cable through the living room and drilling the living room wall. But the regs changed and the electrician was able to run a fuse box from the external electrical mains, and run the charger from there.

Found a local RECI certified electrician, and he did it for 550 including a couple of three pin external plugs also for the pressure washer and what not.

Regarding the grant - make sure to submit copies of everything and not the originals, as my electrician pointed out. They don't return the paperwork to you.

I submitted application 30th of March (including the black and white printed out pics of car and charger ) and the refund hit my bank account on 5th of May.

Net cost of my install was 230 which I thought was fair enough.

Just a note on the install cost of the charge point - at first i thought it was a 3-4 hour job, but it ended up taking the electrician and his assistant a whole day for the install. 550 for full days work for 2 people doesn't seem like much - after you take into account account taxes/fuel/insurance/tools etc - but maybe my guy just likes to take his time The install did end up looking quite tidy - see pic attached.

zg3409

randomstuff wrote: »

Wanted to share my experience.

Great to see you are happy. Prices vary widely. I got a zappi and install for 850 all in minus 600 grant so 250 out of pocket. But that was 3 years ago and zappi prices went up, and installers are charging far more. Nowadays an isolator seems to be fitted which I don't have. My install was straight forward on wall outside fuse board.

Second hand chargers are often better value, but they do suffer wear and tear and with difficulty if it breaks a cheap new unit might be better value than cheap worn unit.

Using second hand chargers some have got installs within the 600 grant, but typically using very local non EV experienced installers.

meercat

randomstuff wrote: »

Wanted to share my experience.

I'd consider myself a fairly techy person but getting into the the EV space is quite a steep learning curve, especially if you are on a budget.

It's quite obvious the home charge point market is designed for people buying a brand new 30/35k+ car, where they don't mind spending 1.5k (after 600 grant) on a charger. In my situation, I was looking at a budget of 7-8k for a 24kwh Leaf and spending that sort of money (20% of total budget) on just a charge point was out of the question.

After a couple days researching all the possible charger options I settled on a basic EVonestop QUBEV from Amazon for 280 Euro. It gets good reviews and seems fairly reliable. I wont be installing any solar panels and don't need any smart scheduling since car itself handles it.

Then came looking for a electrician for the install - price I was being quoted ranged from about 500 to 1k.

At this stage I almost abandoned the idea of an ev because according to older electric regs the charger needs to be running from the internal house fuse box, which in my case would of meant drilling through the hallway wall and running the cable through the living room and drilling the living room wall. But the regs changed and the electrician was able to run a fuse box from the external electrical mains, and run the charger from there.

Found a local RECI certified electrician, and he did it for 550 including a couple of three pin external plugs also for the pressure washer and what not.

Regarding the grant - make sure to submit copies of everything and not the originals, as my electrician pointed out. They don't return the paperwork to you.

I submitted application 30th of March (including the black and white printed out pics of car and charger ) and the refund hit my bank account on 5th of May.

Net cost of my install was 230 which I thought was fair enough.

Just a note on the install cost of the charge point - at first i thought it was a 3-4 hour job, but it ended up taking the electrician and his assistant a whole day for the install. 550 for full days work for 2 people doesn't seem like much - after you take into account account taxes/fuel/insurance/tools etc - but maybe my guy just likes to take his time The install did end up looking quite tidy - see pic attached.

Any chance of a photo of the inside of the meter cabinet. The twin socket shouldn’t be fed from a board inside the meter cabinet (if that’s what he done)(although looking at the photo he may have ran cable down side of meter box in trunking and through it. Still not permitted though)
Did he attach a warning label to your distribution board inside. Cheers

dloob

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

nkay1985

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Just got my charge point installed today.

Really quick process.

I applied for the SEAI Grant last Friday , got the approval on Monday.

I decided to go for the EO Mini Pro from Electric Ireland , Rang them on Tuesday , installed this morning.

Very neat install - I was expecting an internal box to be installed next to the Consumer unit based on earlier posts here , but the KN installer said that they were no longer needed with the newer unit , so I just have the Charge point and the Isolator outside.

I'll post some pics when it stops absolutely bucketing down!!!

We're very close on timings. I also submitted my application on Friday and was approved on Monday. Didn't get around to making the call to Electric Ireland to order the EO Mini Pro until 17:00 this evening but managed to get an installation slot on Tuesday afternoon. Found the experience very straightforward thus far, here's hoping the install goes off without a hitch.

Liam2021

nkay1985 wrote: »

We're very close on timings. I also submitted my application on Friday and was approved on Monday. Didn't get around to making the call to Electric Ireland to order the EO Mini Pro until 17:00 this evening but managed to get an installation slot on Tuesday afternoon. Found the experience very straightforward thus far, here's hoping the install goes off without a hitch.

Do you need an electric ireland account to get their offer

Gumbo

dloob wrote: »

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

Deffo. Why was it a 25a in the first place?
One word of caution though is that my 6Sq cable and 32a charger has a 40a RCBO and 40a isolator switch.

zg3409

dloob wrote: »

Pondering getting the 25A RCBO connecting my zappi V1 replaced with a 32A.
Would the extra power be worth it?

It's fine with the i3 at the moment but thinking of possible future cars with larger batteries that would be harder to charge within the night rate period.
I will be getting some other work done soon so could be a good time to look at it while the consumer board is being worked on.
It looks like the existing cable is only 4mm though which isn't great for 32A.
Never mind the 4mm comment, mixing up conductor diameter with cross sectional area, it's almost certainly 6mm2 :pac:

Why did installer put in 25 amp one? I suspect there was a good reason. Even if cable to charger is heavy enough, tails between ESB Meter and fuse board may not be heavy enough, the fuse board itself may have other loads sharing the same connection, wiring or isolators such as electric cookers and so the installer knew that 25amp was the limit or you risk overloading or overheating some part of the system.

Typically a 40amp breaker would be best, but not in a case where all parts were checked by competent electrician. Swapping out 25a for 32a without full knowledge may mean something overheats and burns house down.

So yes get the electrician to check it out, and try get a 40amp breaker if you are drawing 32 amp regularly. Often the original installer will have kept photos and nay be able to tell you why he limited the power.

dloob

zg3409 wrote: »

Why did installer put in 25 amp one? I suspect there was a good reason. Even if cable to charger is heavy enough, tails between ESB Meter and fuse board may not be heavy enough, the fuse board itself may have other loads sharing the same connection, wiring or isolators such as electric cookers and so the installer knew that 25amp was the limit or you risk overloading or overheating some part of the system.

Typically a 40amp breaker would be best, but not in a case where all parts were checked by competent electrician. Swapping out 25a for 32a without full knowledge may mean something overheats and burns house down.

So yes get the electrician to check it out, and try get a 40amp breaker if you are drawing 32 amp regularly. Often the original installer will have kept photos and nay be able to tell you why he limited the power.

The main reason I believe was that there was an electric shower, there isn't a priority switch and the zappi CT wasn't installed as it was too far for the cable it came with.
So the zappi has no monitoring of the grid limit.
I'm not sure I knew back then that the CT runs could be extended with the cat 5 that I had plenty of, I guess the installer didn't have any or didn't fancy running it.

Anyway the solar installer guys have said they will run a cat 5 for the CT which will be needed for the zappi to work with solar surplus anyway.
They'll be doing plenty of work on the consumer unit so I'll go with what they think about it. If there is no technical limitation I think it's probably worth getting them to swap it while the other work is being done in there.

Probably slightly off topic but I had read that 40A would usually be used with a 32A load, but why?
Even the 32A with type B characteristics probably isn't going to trip until its passing over 96A so it will be even more with 40A.
What's the advantage of the oversize?
Larger conductors and bus bars in the RCBO so it runs cooler in normal operation?

xebec

But if a random question, is the SEAI grant approval sent via email or post? Reason for asking is that I have received what appears to be a valid email confirming grant eligibility but the PDF link they sent shows as a .exe file on my iPad instead of .pdf…. Looking more closely is appears to have an extra extension by mistake but I’m wary, it has filename.pdf.exe