Zappi charge points

THE ALM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118547943#Comment_118547943

Only have it running a couple of months so the better times are still ahead.

But to give you and idea we put 87.95kW into the zappi this month so far with 18.29kW being the best single day which is just over 23% in a 77kWh battery.

This is from a 8.16kW system and the battery was already charged from night rate.

banchang

Getting quotes for installation.

The first sparks says he'll need to earth the gas boiler & hot press before he can certify, which will be a huge effort & cost to do it neatly without visible trunking everywhere.

Fusebox is in perfect place in front porch. House earth is in place.

Has anyone else experienced this ?

championc

Yep. Regs change over the years. Our earth had to be upgraded to a 10mm², and in our 70's built house, nothing was bonded.

Nice to get a full clean bill of health though

banchang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550387#Comment_118550387

How much did it cost ?

necstandards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549077#Comment_118549077

Thanks for the info. If i get a system, it wont be much bigger (think 4.2 kWp). Beginning to to think the Zappi isnt worth the cost. Based on the JRC tool, 15kw/day in the height of summer wont provide much "excess".

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118556922#Comment_118556922

Your car needs to be home daytime to fill on solar and typically it may fill slowly at say 2kW for 4 hours. It may not fill at all in winter. This may be too slow for your needs so you may end up charging on non solar. It depends on your commute and if you have night rate meter. Long commute with low range EV means nightly charging from grid. That said solar PV panels in general make good economic sense if someone home daytime, and house is already well insulated. PV panels should help keep electricity bills down and may heat hot water all summer. Typical break even period is about 7 years, but it's a bit off topic for this thread.

slave1

With a 6kWp PV setup I get maybe 4.5kW+ on a perfectly sunny day as the panels will heat up which drops the voltage.

On this basis I was getting around 20kWh into the EV a day when it was plugged in all day

ECO_Mental

Got quoted €1350 for a tethered Zappi install, is this about right? I have a lot of the work done already though, power & isolator CAT6 brought to where I want it...

Thanks

shanec1928

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118884379#Comment_118884379

https://myenergi.ie/product/zappi/ now costs 999

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118885088#Comment_118885088

€350 then for installing it and commissioning that isn't all that bad I suppose. I know they are probably buying it cheaper but this sounds ok to me.

Thanks

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118558857#Comment_118558857

Have you got house batteries as well? As in was that house battery capacity + 20kWh on a sunny day?

That seems pretty good all things considered

davidod1

On a different tack, does anybody know if the Zappi eSense that is designed for UK use, will work with any of the Electric Ireland Smart Meter 'Time-of-Use' tariffs? I haven't been offered a smart meter yet, but might consider applying if there was going to be an overall benefit in having it.

Currently, I have six PV panels, and with room to add another two, but I can't find anyone to take it on. I had two quotes, but they will only do a total fresh install with an appropriately monstrous installation charge.

Just trying to look at all available options to control my energy bills.

championc

Try getting a roofer instead. Connectors just clip Male to Female

davidod1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118947263#Comment_118947263

OK, thanks for that suggestion. How do I go about getting suitable panels?

On the other part of my post, any idea or have you heard anything about whether Electric Ireland send out signals that the Zappi can pick up to start a charge when a 'Time of Use' tariff is in operation?

slave1

You can input night rates hours into either the Zappi or your EV and tell either/both to only charge during these times, no “signal” exists or required from electricity supplier end

davidod1

Thanks Slave1. What I'm really referring to is when there is surplus power, they can offer it at a lower tariff. That can be day or night. Zappi can use the UK version called eSense.

championc

The Zappi can be MANUALLY configured via the web portal too.

But there are no variable tariffs in Ireland (yet) with price plunges and even paying you to use grid power, so the fixed schedules should work perfectly for the foreseeable future

davidod1

OK Thanks Champion. Any suggestion on how to go about sourcing 2 roof panels? 🤔

championc

Midsummer.ie or Solartricity.ie

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950291#Comment_118950291

Ah, I know what you are referring to now, I would not anticipate this functionality within ESB. I'm wholly moving away from ESB as much as possible via PV/home battery so won't be touching Smart Meter etc until I'm forced to through legislation.

davidod1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118951246#Comment_118951246

Tanks for that info 👍️

Jonathan

New Zappi v2 firmware released yesterday - 3.171

https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/5871288733713

the_amazing_raisin

Woohoo, Ethernet connection between devices. Needs an (unreleased) add-on card though

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119016725#Comment_119016725

The RF link works well. Never have any Zappi/Eddi/Hub issues. Occasionally the Solar PV Harvi drops off, but that only impacts reporting.

Major advantage of Ethernet would be hopefully realtime access to data for pulling into likes of Home Assistant. Polling the cloud API is a PITA. Unlikely realtime access will be offered as supported option, but easier to intercept UDP packets than their proprietary RF protocol.

daarmcd

How much charge can you put into the car in winter?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027536#Comment_119027536

I'm guessing you mean from solar? Depends on the size of the system, but you can look at the PV production thread

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058103000/daily-pv-production

I seem to remember most people's systems were producing about 25% of peak capacity on average in winter, so subtract what the house will use and that's how much you'd expect to capture with the Zappi

championc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027803#Comment_119027803

Not quite. Remember a Zappi needs a minimum of 1.4,kW from solar to charge, so if you had a small or no battery, a lot could be exported if the excess was sub 1.4kW

davidod1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119028000#Comment_119028000

That's why I have been trying to get someone to add two more panels to my existing six panel system, but I can't find anyone who is prepared to do it for me. I think it would enable me to get across that 1.4KW threshold more frequently. I find that I am exporting a surplus for so much of the time.

_dof_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119028980#Comment_119028980

There is an option in the menu that allows you to choose to charge even if the surplus is less than the 1.4kW although it would result in an import to make up the difference. From the manual:

The Min Green Level is the minimum level for the contribution of green energy at the end

of the charge. The actual green contribution for the charge, is displayed when the charge is

complete or the EV is disconnected. For example: With Min Green Level set to 50%,

charging will be paused if 700W of power is being imported from the grid and will resume

charging when there is 700W of power being exported.

Note: The EV charging standard does not support charging below 1.4kW.

championc

I have my Min Green level set to 100%. I certainly do not want to be pulling from the grid before midnight