EV Owners Thread

[CXRAndy]

Thanks i only use it a couple of times a week though?

Being at 80% is no detriment. Leave it plugged in. The vehicle will decide if it needs to charge or heat the battery whilst parked up

 

[albion]

https://electrek.co/2023/12/02/dont...a-tesla-cybertruck-try-this-one-for-225-then/

More on the pricing, plus an extra product that soft of reminds me of hats and tee shirts.

 

[dicko]

If you were relying on a fast charge at the Co-Op in Market Deeping, don’t… looks like someone’s been and cut/had all 4 cables. I hope this isn’t the start of a new trend for scrap metal bandits 😡

 

[cougie uk]

Hmmm.
Anyone else get this issue? I set the house battery to recharge at night and the car to charge at the same time on cheap rate but occasionally the charging depletes the house battery. Not much of a problem in summer as the solar refills the battery most days, but now in winter there's definitely dull days when it won't?

 

[Buck]

What system do you have?

As I understand it, if you set the battery to charge whilst also charging the car they need to both have the same charging time periods.

Have they both got the same time periods? If not, the car will start to use the battery to charge itself rather than the grid.

 

[CXRAndy]

Hmmm.
Anyone else get this issue? I set the house battery to recharge at night and the car to charge at the same time on cheap rate but occasionally the charging depletes the house battery. Not much of a problem in summer as the solar refills the battery most days, but now in winter there's definitely dull days when it won't?

If you're using a Zappi, you need to set the export limit within the Zappi. Also have a CT clamp on the inverter so the Zappi knows where the energy is coming from

There is advice on altering the settings . Google search will probably take you to the page quickly

 

[cougie uk]

I have a part solution anyway. It is a podpoint and for some reason it lost the internet last night so it defaults to charging. Which is better than not charging I guess.
There's currently no way to get it to take from the Mains over the battery according to PodPoint but they are looking at this now as more and more of us have batteries and solar.
I'll put the WIfi booster in the garage nearer the charger as apparently it has happened 5 times in the last few months and I thought it was probably just me making mistakes and overcharging.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Hmmm.
Anyone else get this issue? I set the house battery to recharge at night and the car to charge at the same time on cheap rate but occasionally the charging depletes the house battery. Not much of a problem in summer as the solar refills the battery most days, but now in winter there's definitely dull days when it won't?

It’s happened to me , and affects all chargers to a degree . What I do now as I’m on IO Go , I authorise a charge only when I’m ready and there is next to no battery left. Otherwise it will just take from what’s sitting there .
Been caught out this week with the pre entry as it’s set past my cheap rate , so been ripping my freshly charged battery !
Not worked out how to limit discharge at certain points in the day, Puredrive battery .

 

[mikeIow]

Hmmm.
Anyone else get this issue? I set the house battery to recharge at night and the car to charge at the same time on cheap rate but occasionally the charging depletes the house battery. Not much of a problem in summer as the solar refills the battery most days, but now in winter there's definitely dull days when it won't?

We have a Zappi, a LuxPower inverter & 14.4kWh of PylonTek batteries.
The Zappi is set to charge from 00:30-04:30, and our LuxPower inverter is set with those hours for AC charge start time and end time.
Works fine: batteries charge up, car boosts (if we have plugged it in, obviously!), & car never charges from the batteries.

 

[cougie uk]

We have a Zappi, a LuxPower inverter & 14.4kWh of PylonTek batteries.
The Zappi is set to charge from 00:30-04:30, and our LuxPower inverter is set with those hours for AC charge start time and end time.
Works fine: batteries charge up, car boosts (if we have plugged it in, obviously!), & car never charges from the batteries.

If we got an extra battery it'd definitely not be an issue. We have 10kwh and just scraped through the day off it thanks to a bit of sun.

Can't really justify adding another battery for stuff like this.

 

[MrGrumpy]

We have a Zappi, a LuxPower inverter & 14.4kWh of PylonTek batteries.
The Zappi is set to charge from 00:30-04:30, and our LuxPower inverter is set with those hours for AC charge start time and end time.
Works fine: batteries charge up, car boosts (if we have plugged it in, obviously!), & car never charges from the batteries.

For those of us that are on the Intelligent Octopus tariffs , you get slots out of the cheap window , which is where we can have problems with battery drain! In the cheap window , 2330 -0530 . It’s never an issue !

 

[mikeIow]

For those of us that are on the Intelligent Octopus tariffs , you get slots out of the cheap window , which is where we can have problems with battery drain! In the cheap window , 2330 -0530 . It’s never an issue !

Ah yes. Intelligent Octopus.
My problem here is that integration with Slightly Dumb Batteries & Car 🤪

Aside from having a Kona EV & the Zappi, both of which are not really working with Intelligent Octopus, you hit the nail on the head of why I suspect we may never move to them for those extra cheap slots (& 2 more hours overnight).

Without figuring out some funky integration, to tell the battery to not be used during those random slots, there isn’t an easy way to do it. No default API calls between Octopus and LuxPower to make a seamless solution.

A group on FB did suggest if you had some things on different circuits it might be possible, but I feel it needs arcane wizardry of the highest order, and Sod’s Law dictates that whatever you could fashion would invariably fail somewhere down the line, potentially negating all the savings 🤣

Ours works well for us.
I sized the batteries to deal with almost the worst case winter scenario ChezMikeIOW.
This week has seen a couple of dreadfully dull days, & the batteries wheezed to their 5% cut-off perhaps an hour before the cheap slots, but we generally hit 97-98% on cheap rate, which pleases me.
Right now I can see we are at 22%, which should mean the 00:30-04:30 boost should get them back to 100%. Having this stuff does turn one into an obsessive about these things 🤪

 

[Tenkaykev]

Ah yes. Intelligent Octopus.
My problem here is that integration with Slightly Dumb Batteries & Car 🤪

Aside from having a Kona EV & the Zappi, both of which are not really working with Intelligent Octopus, you hit the nail on the head of why I suspect we may never move to them for those extra cheap slots (& 2 more hours overnight).

Without figuring out some funky integration, to tell the battery to not be used during those random slots, there isn’t an easy way to do it. No default API calls between Octopus and LuxPower to make a seamless solution.

A group on FB did suggest if you had some things on different circuits it might be possible, but I feel it needs arcane wizardry of the highest order, and Sod’s Law dictates that whatever you could fashion would invariably fail somewhere down the line, potentially negating all the savings 🤣

Ours works well for us.
I sized the batteries to deal with almost the worst case winter scenario ChezMikeIOW.
This week has seen a couple of dreadfully dull days, & the batteries wheezed to their 5% cut-off perhaps an hour before the cheap slots, but we generally hit 97-98% on cheap rate, which pleases me.
Right now I can see we are at 22%, which should mean the 00:30-04:30 boost should get them back to 100%. Having this stuff does turn one into an obsessive about these things 🤪

Mine is set to charge off peak which is 02:00 to 05:00. I have 30% left which will be enough. I agree about the obsessive remark😁

 

[icowden]

Aside from having a Kona EV & the Zappi, both of which are not really working with Intelligent Octopus, you hit the nail on the head of why I suspect we may never move to them for those extra cheap slots (& 2 more hours overnight).

That surprises me. I have no issues with the Zappi and intelligent Octopus - could be the ID4 is a bit more friendly though.

 

[mikeIow]

That surprises me. I have no issues with the Zappi and intelligent Octopus - could be the ID4 is a bit more friendly though.

There was a beta programme, but my understanding was you had to use the zappi in "dumb mode" - not taking solar to the car (which is perhaps fine for much of the year, when any excess solar would trickle into the batteries...less desirable on very sunny days, when you might end up throwing that energy away instead of boosting the car!). Maybe you do that?

ID4 became 'compliant' earlier this year, I believe.....so Octopus can trigger a 'cheap charge' whenever they like.

I like the *theory* of Intelligent....but I like the certainty of what we have, & it's enough for us.