Car didn't charge properly (full) over night

[JodyS21]

One of my worries occurred this morning, went to get in the car for a long journey, wanted it fully charged, for some inexplicable reason it only charged at about 3.5kW instead of 7kW, so it didn't have enough time to charge fully.

I have no idea why this has happened.
Nothing has changed on the car or on the Ohme wall charger settings.

The Ohme started the charge at 00:30 and ran until it was unplugged at 06:30, which is as per the schedule that's been setup on it for several weeks now.

My cctv shows the car (MG pulsing) was charging for the whole time.

Unfortunately the Ohme doesn't show great data on the charge, all I can tell is that it put through a total of 21.8kWh.
That works out at an average of 3.6kW, which I think it did consistently over the whole charging period from my cost calculations.
The Ohme says it cost £1.70, which at my rates setup of 5p 00:30-04:30 and 13.44p 04:30-06:30, means that to match that cost it must have done 15kWh @5p & 7kWh @13.44p, although it maybe that the Ohme calculates the cost on the average and not the true cost.


This has been one thing that I've often thought about could be a problem with an EV, if you rely on the charge working without any issues.
Luckily we have an ICE car too as a back up, but this won't be the case forever.
Charging needs to be 100% reliable.
I think the manufacturers should add a "separate" charge monitoring system that will properly alert you (day or night) if the charging isn't going as planned, as the consequences can be very big.

Any one got any technical ideas as to what could have happened???
(I don't hold much hope of getting any answers from Ohme support, not even worth bothering to try MG)

 

[jamesie]

Just a thought....

I have a Zappi in my detached garage. The cable from the house to the garage is rated at 32 amps. So the installing electrician set up the Zappi to reduce the charge to the car if there is anything else in the garage drawing a current.

Could this be the same for you?

 

[Cocijo]

One of my worries occurred this morning, went to get in the car for a long journey, wanted it fully charged, for some inexplicable reason it only charged at about 3.5kW instead of 7kW, so it didn't have enough time to charge fully.

I have no idea why this has happened.
Nothing has changed on the car or on the Ohme wall charger settings.

The Ohme started the charge at 00:30 and ran until it was unplugged at 06:30, which is as per the schedule that's been setup on it for several weeks now.

My cctv shows the car (MG pulsing) was charging for the whole time.

Unfortunately the Ohme doesn't show great data on the charge, all I can tell is that it put through a total of 21.8kWh.
That works out at an average of 3.6kW, which I think it did consistently over the whole charging period from my cost calculations.
The Ohme says it cost £1.70, which at my rates setup of 5p 00:30-04:30 and 13.44p 04:30-06:30, means that to match that cost it must have done 15kWh @5p & 7kWh @13.44p, although it maybe that the Ohme calculates the cost on the average and not the true cost.


This has been one thing that I've often thought about could be a problem with an EV, if you rely on the charge working without any issues.
Luckily we have an ICE car too as a back up, but this won't be the case forever.
Charging needs to be 100% reliable.
I think the manufacturers should add a "separate" charge monitoring system that will properly alert you (day or night) if the charging isn't going as planned, as the consequences can be very big.

Any one got any technical ideas as to what could have happened???
(I don't hold much hope of getting any answers from Ohme support, not even worth bothering to try MG)

I had a complete overnight failure to charge this week. I agree completely that this is a big worry if you rely on your car for business etc. I’m still having dialogue with podpoint and i think the issue lies with their app and wifi/server.

 

[JodyS21]

Just a thought....

I have a Zappi in my detached garage. The cable from the house to the garage is rated at 32 amps. So the installing electrician set up the Zappi to reduce the charge to the car if there is anything else in the garage drawing a current.

Could this be the same for you?

That's interesting, how have they managed to do that - it doesn't sound like a particularly simple thing set up?

Nothing else on in the house would change the power my Ohme allows.
I installed it myself. It's on a dedicated circuit.
My main MCB would just trip if the system was overloaded.

 

[JodyS21]

I had a complete overnight failure to charge this week. I agree completely that this is a big worry if you rely on your car for business etc. I’m still having dialogue with podpoint and i think the issue lies with their app and wifi/server.

Are PodPoint quite helpful/do they care and want to get to the bottom of the problem?

From my previous attempts at corresponding with Ohme "support", I do not hold much chance of getting any kind of investigation from them....

The Ohme as far as I am aware doesn't need as such a working internet connection for it to do its stuff. The setup that you configure on the App is sent to the Ohme box and then it knows what to do and when.
So as long as it has a connection at some point so that the box can get it's configuration, it doesn't actually need one to be working when the charge is to happen etc.
This system design very much makes sense, especially more so I would say if the charger uses WIFI - as there's much more chance of that being unavailable, the Ohme uses a mobile (sim) connection not WIFI (personally I'd rather a WIFI connection was used to future proof it).

 

[LeoRBK]

That's interesting, how have they managed to do that - it doesn't sound like a particularly simple thing set up?

Nothing else on in the house would change the power my Ohme allows.
I installed it myself. It's on a dedicated circuit.
My main MCB would just trip if the system was overloaded.

Is this done using the wireless CT clamp sensor, Harvi?

 

[Lovemyev]

Some of the "Latest & Greatest" wall boxes have a "Load Balancing Facility" either built in, or they use a separate unit like a "Harvi.
Amp clamps ( supplied with the wall box ) are attached to the heavy load carrying cables, and are constantly monitoring the demand being drawn.
So, lets say the wall box is in use and is pulling the max 7.2 kw's, then the demand in the property suddenly increases massively, if this happens, then the demand to the wall box will be instantly reduced.
Until a time when the extra high demand falls away again and the wall box can then resume charging back at the high rate.
Of course, wall boxes of a certain age will not have this facility and will continue to pull max demand regards of other demands on the supply.
So it would be possible to get caught out with less charge in your battery than you expected, if this situation had arisen and the charge rate of the wall box is reduced.
@JodyS21 you are well aware of my situations regarding only being able to pull 3.5 kw's on a 7.kw wall box, after the car returned after a massive melt down at the dealership.
I have no explanation why it did this then, but after about a week, it slowly returned to wanting to charge normally at 7.2 kw's ???.

 

[Cocijo]

Are PodPoint quite helpful/do they care and want to get to the bottom of the problem?

From my previous attempts at corresponding with Ohme "support", I do not hold much chance of getting any kind of investigation from them....

The Ohme as far as I am aware doesn't need as such a working internet connection for it to do its stuff. The setup that you configure on the App is sent to the Ohme box and then it knows what to do and when.
So as long as it has a connection at some point so that the box can get it's configuration, it doesn't actually need one to be working when the charge is to happen etc.
This system design very much makes sense, especially more so I would say if the charger uses WIFI - as there's much more chance of that being unavailable, the Ohme uses a mobile (sim) connection not WIFI (personally I'd rather a WIFI connection was used to future proof it).

Podpoint are slow to respond. They have continually blamed my home wifi signal.
The Ohme setup looks far less open to issues.
The podpoint charger relies on a connection to home wifi as well as sync their app with server. most boxes are outside or at least quite a way from the router. Although I dispute that the wifi connection is the issue I have reluctantly installed a wifi extender. I have several other devices that have never had issues that are a much greater distance and through several walls than the wallbox. Podpoint also has erratic data production that is at best unreliable.
they never set these early boxes up for this sort of functionality and have developed their app to try to catch up. In fairness most EV’s use their own management of the charge - my Tesla has never had an issue with the same wallbox but of course not relied on podpoint timed charge app but managed through the in-car functionality available.
Ohme on the other hand have from day one developed to make the most of tech and best rates/times to charge etc - which is the future.

 

[jamesie]

That's interesting, how have they managed to do that - it doesn't sound like a particularly simple thing set up?

Nothing else on in the house would change the power my Ohme allows.
I installed it myself. It's on a dedicated circuit.
My main MCB would just trip if the system was overloaded.

Just had a look at the Zappi configuration settings and there is a setting called "Grid Limit" which says....

"When the Grid Limit is set, Zappi will automatically reduce the power to the EV if it detects that too much power is being drawn from the grid."

I think this is what he set.

 

[Kithmo]

I had a complete overnight failure to charge this week. I agree completely that this is a big worry if you rely on your car for business etc. I’m still having dialogue with podpoint and i think the issue lies with their app and wifi/server.

The Podpoint charger drops the output to the charger if there's more load in the home, to protect the your mains fuse.

 

[Alb]

Assuming you are on Octopus Go, you can get data from the website about what you consumed and when.
Here's an example of my granny charger in use:

 

[Deleted member 2439]

Just had a look at the Zappi configuration settings and there is a setting called "Grid Limit" which says....

"When the Grid Limit is set, Zappi will automatically reduce the power to the EV if it detects that too much power is being drawn from the grid."

I think this is what he set.

My installer set this on my Zappi also - but I know that the limit he set was 60amps total for the house.

 

[JodyS21]

My installer set this on my Zappi also - but I know that the limit he set was 60amps total for the house.

They must have some power sensors that are attached to the mains supply (as @Lovemyev said) to enable this type of functionality.

 

[JodyS21]

Assuming you are on Octopus Go, you can get data from the website about what you consumed and when.
Here's an example of my granny charger in use:

Yes I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow as you can't see the current days data on there.

It's a shame the "smart" electricity meter display I've got isn't like my neighbours one, his shows him right up to date 1/2hour breakdowns on the display.

 

[Lovemyev]

Yes I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow as you can't see the current days data on there.

It's a shame the "smart" electricity meter display I've got isn't like my neighbours one, his shows him right up to date 1/2hour breakdowns on the display.

My home energy meter is almost instant.
If I check the energy meter, then walk about 25 feet to put my car on charge, when I return to the kitchen, it is already displaying the 7.2 kw drain on the juice !.

 

[jamesie]

They must have some power sensors that are attached to the mains supply (as @Lovemyev said) to enable this type of functionality.

I have a Harvi with CT clamp on the main supply in the house. This reports as the total energy on the Zappi (the Zappi is paired with the Harvi for this).

However, the garage, where the Zappi is, is on a supply from the house (32amp). I think the Zappi itself is detecting the power load in the garage and adjusting the EV charge accordingly.

 

[Lovemyev]

However, the garage, where the Zappi is, is on a supply from the house (32amp). I think the Zappi itself is detecting the power load in the garage and adjusting the EV charge accordingly

My understanding is the same.
The CT clamps are monitoring the load pulled via the wall box, if the the box is being used and then a large load is demanded by other devices in the property ( electric shower, induction hob, washing machine etc etc. ) it will reduce the high demand being consumed by the walk box and protect the supply to prevent any chance of it overloading the main incoming DNO fuse protection device.
When the extra items that where demanding juice have stopped being used, the full demand will be returned to the wall box.
This will increase the length of the charging cycle of course, but it will have protected the possibility of over loading the main carrying fuse that is only replaceable by your DNO.

 

[LeoRBK]

I like the fact that Zappi provides a wireless CT clamp. I looked at Hypervolt and Podpoint specs, both need a CT clamp to be wired into the wall box unit which needs wiring if you have a detached garage.

 

[jamesie]

I like the fact that Zappi provides a wireless CT clamp. I looked at Hypervolt and Podpoint specs, both need a CT clamp to be wired into the wall box unit which needs wiring if you have a detached garage.

Yes. My electrician pointed this out to me when I asked him about an Ohme charger.

Very happy with the Zappi

 

[JodyS21]

My home energy meter is almost instant.
If I check the energy meter, then walk about 25 feet to put my car on charge, when I return to the kitchen, it is already displaying the 7.2 kw drain on the juice !.

Sorry what I meant was his displays a graph showing 1/2hour usage. On Octopus website you can see this but its not in near/real-time, you can’t see the current day, have to wait until the next day to see what happened.