{"id":416,"date":"2023-12-31T15:40:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T15:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/?p=416"},"modified":"2024-01-16T11:48:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T11:48:32","slug":"electric-car-charging-point-install-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/2023\/12\/electric-car-charging-point-install-round-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Electric Car Charging Point Install (Round 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote a previous article about my <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/2020\/05\/electric-car-charging-point-install.html\">EV charging point installation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>I duly tried contacting them via the website, but received no response.<\/p>\n<p>After some searching online, it seems I am not alone in having a Pod Point charger that has stopped working &#8211; faulty contactor, nor am I alone in being ignored by Pod Point support.<\/p>\n<p>Time for a new charger.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u00a3350.00 a year.<\/p>\n<p>The tariff I want to move to is Intelligent Octopus Go, from <a href=\"https:\/\/octopus.energy\/\">Octopus Energy<\/a>, which has a 6 hour &#8216;off-peak&#8217; rate of 7p per kWh, however it has a few pre-requisites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an electric car<\/li>\n<li>a smart meter<\/li>\n<li>a smart EV charger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV qualifies as an electric vehicle, I had a smart meter installed recently, although this may still need to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Zappi_black.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-417 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Zappi_black-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Zappi_black-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Zappi_black-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Zappi_black.png 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>I purchased a new Zappi from Direct Trade for \u00a3524.00 (Ex VAT) &#8211; this will be another item installed as part of my solar installation and therefore will be VAT free on the invoice from my company.<\/p>\n<p>Step one was to remove the old Pod Point charger<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3379.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-418 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3379-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3379-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3379.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Step two involved locating new fixing points for the Zappi and connecting up the wires<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3380.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-419 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3380-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3380-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3380.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Step three was to close it all up<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3381.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-420 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3381-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3381-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/IMG_3381.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Step four involved setting up the MyEnergi Harvi<\/p>\n<p>This involved connecting the CT that came with the Zappi to the &#8216;live&#8217; conductor on the incoming supply<\/p>\n<p>I then paired the Harvi with the Zappi and setup the CT configuration, removing the &#8216;Grid&#8217; CT from the Zappi and adding on the Harvi.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a screenshot of my energy usage so far today and also showing the 8kWh pulled by the car battery during its &#8216;off-peak&#8217; charge that it performed between midnight and 03:00.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-31-at-15.34.53.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-421 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-31-at-15.34.53-300x132.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-31-at-15.34.53-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-31-at-15.34.53-768x339.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-31-at-15.34.53.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My &#8216;background&#8217; 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.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, both the old and new &#8216;EV Charger&#8217; are nothing more than glorified contactors, all the actual\u00a0 &#8216;smarts&#8217; are in the car not the &#8216;charger&#8217;,\u00a0 32A 3 pole contactor costs around \u00a313.00, and yes some of the &#8216;chargers&#8217; have natty displays, but at the end of the day you are paying \u00a3500.00+ for a plastic enclosure and socket for your \u00a313.00 contactor &#8211; rip off or what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-car"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hslracing.com\/myhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}