I wrote a previous article about my EV charging point installation.
A few months back my Pod Point charger stopped working, it would make clicking sounds for hours on end, keeping people awake at night and ultimately flattened the car battery.
I attempted to contact Pod Point by email, however I simply received an automated response telling me to contact them via the contact form on their website.
I duly tried contacting them via the website, but received no response.
After some searching online, it seems I am not alone in having a Pod Point charger that has stopped working – faulty contactor, nor am I alone in being ignored by Pod Point support.
Time for a new charger.
I was looking to switch my energy supplier from E-ON to Octopus Energy as part of my Solar installation project, and now seemed as good a time as any, even on their worst tariff with no Solar I should still save about £350.00 a year.
The tariff I want to move to is Intelligent Octopus Go, from Octopus Energy, which has a 6 hour ‘off-peak’ rate of 7p per kWh, however it has a few pre-requisites:
- an electric car
- a smart meter
- a smart EV charger
My Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV qualifies as an electric vehicle, I had a smart meter installed recently, although this may still need to be replaced.
My Pod Point charger would not have qualified as a suitably smart EV charger, however the MyEnergi Zappi that I have chosen as the replacement does qualify.
I submitted my desire to switch, however for at least the next 14 days, I will be put on their Flexible Octopus tariff until they can decide if I qualify for Intelligent Octopus Go.
I purchased a new Zappi from Direct Trade for £524.00 (Ex VAT) – this will be another item installed as part of my solar installation and therefore will be VAT free on the invoice from my company.
Step one was to remove the old Pod Point charger
Step two involved locating new fixing points for the Zappi and connecting up the wires
Step three was to close it all up
Step four involved setting up the MyEnergi Harvi
This involved connecting the CT that came with the Zappi to the ‘live’ conductor on the incoming supply
I then paired the Harvi with the Zappi and setup the CT configuration, removing the ‘Grid’ CT from the Zappi and adding on the Harvi.
I downloaded the MyEnergi app on my phone and added my Zappi and Harvi, I will add my Eddi later when I get around to installing that as part of the solar setup.
I have recently started playing with Home Assistant and there is a HACS integration for MyEnergi products that allows you to make use of the data gathered by the MyEnergi products.
Below is a screenshot of my energy usage so far today and also showing the 8kWh pulled by the car battery during its ‘off-peak’ charge that it performed between midnight and 03:00.
My ‘background’ usage is around 1.7kWh per hour, hence why I am so keen to change tariff and also get my solar panel and battery install done sooner rather than later so I can start saving on my electric bills.
At the end of the day, both the old and new ‘EV Charger’ are nothing more than glorified contactors, all the actual ‘smarts’ are in the car not the ‘charger’, 32A 3 pole contactor costs around £13.00, and yes some of the ‘chargers’ have natty displays, but at the end of the day you are paying £500.00+ for a plastic enclosure and socket for your £13.00 contactor – rip off or what?