Car didn't charge properly (full) over night

[JodyS21]

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.

I get what you’re saying, but without a monitoring device on the actual supply to the garage, it isn’t physically possible for the Zappi to know what the garage load is and adjust accordingly.

Is there an additional wireless or wired monitor going from the zappi to the garage supply?

It’s quite possible, I know nothing about the zappi, but I’d be surprised if they’ve built in the functionality to allow more than one current monitoring device.

Thinking about it, if your installing electrician was more worried about the load on the garage supply, they could’ve put this Harvi device in the fusebox on the garage supply cables rather than the main incoming supply cables.
Further thinking about it(!) I thought a properly compliant installed 7kWh had to be on a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit?

 

[Alb]

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.

Real time would certainly be better but this is still useful for retrospective diagnostics.

 

[mystreet]

Just reading this, on the app for EO Mini Pro I get currently using. And after a graph once finished.

 

[jamesie]

I get what you’re saying, but without a monitoring device on the actual supply to the garage, it isn’t physically possible for the Zappi to know what the garage load is and adjust accordingly.

Is there an additional wireless or wired monitor going from the zappi to the garage supply?

It’s quite possible, I know nothing about the zappi, but I’d be surprised if they’ve built in the functionality to allow more than one current monitoring device.

Thinking about it, if your installing electrician was more worried about the load on the garage supply, they could’ve put this Harvi device in the fusebox on the garage supply cables rather than the main incoming supply cables.
Further thinking about it(!) I thought a properly compliant installed 7kWh had to be on a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit?

The Harvi and CT on the main supply were installed for two reasons....

1. To allow me to monitor the power consumption for the whole property. I have had no end of problems trying to get a smart meter installed and working (it still won't WAN connect after 3 engineer visits and umpteen phone calls/emails to Octopus!). So this is a crude alternative monitoring method.

2. Potentially install solar panels and/or a home battery system. Something I may do in the future.

Just looked in the garage consumer unit and there is a CT clamp on the incoming supply. This is hard wired to the Zappi by a wire in the armoured cable that takes the supply to the Zappi (neat!!). It is a dedicated circuit from the garage consumer unit.

Apologies if my lack of knowledge caused confusion!

 

[JodyS21]

Just reading this, on the app for EO Mini Pro I get currently using. And after a graph once finished.

As an Ohme user I am jealous!!!

 

[JodyS21]

V

The Harvi and CT on the main supply were installed for two reasons....

1. To allow me to monitor the power consumption for the whole property. I have had no end of problems trying to get a smart meter installed and working (it still won't WAN connect after 3 engineer visits and umpteen phone calls/emails to Octopus!). So this is a crude alternative monitoring method.

2. Potentially install solar panels and/or a home battery system. Something I may do in the future.

Just looked in the garage consumer unit and there is a CT clamp on the incoming supply. This is hard wired to the Zappi by a wire in the armoured cable that takes the supply to the Zappi (neat!!). It is a dedicated circuit from the garage consumer unit.

Apologies if my lack of knowledge caused confusion!

Very interesting and good info to know, so the Zappi must be able to handle 2 current monitoring devices. Sounds like the Zappi is a very good system.

I had no end of problems for months with my smart meters installed by eon before I switched to octopus. No WAN connection either, hours on phone, eventually they had to replac the new smart meter for another one & didn’t leave until it was all connected & working.

 

[jamesie]

V

Very interesting and good info to know, so the Zappi must be able to handle 2 current monitoring devices. Sounds like the Zappi is a very good system.

I had no end of problems for months with my smart meters installed by eon before I switched to octopus. No WAN connection either, hours on phone, eventually they had to replac the new smart meter for another one & didn’t leave until it was all connected & working.

The last visit by the engineer, about 10 days ago, resulted in the meter being diagnosed with a fault and swapped for another. He then went through the set up process and assured me that the connection had been made. He swapped the IHD for the latest (version 6) and left saying it would take 30 minutes before anything would be displayed. He couldn't wait as he had to get to his next job.

30 minutes later.....nothing. Left overnight......nothing.

Reading up I don't think the IHD will work anyway as I am on the Octopus Flexible "Smart" tariff. The price per kw changes daily with the wholesale market price. Doesn't need a smart meter, they use some sort of pseudo scientific method to determine each days usage.

So, I had a look on my Octopus account and it was still showing the meter number as my old one.

I have been allocated an Octopus Resolution Specialist (this chap struggles to put a sentence together!). Contacted him via email and he has confirmed that they are not seeing meter readings from my meter. Hard to believe. Further investigations are, apparently, ongoing.

I'm not hopeful.

 

[Tim Green]

Relating to Jamesie, I wonder whether there is a phase relationship between current and voltage at the Zappi that could indicate the total load being drawn on the local supply? Or o f course it could just measure peak volts that could be used to approximate the current being drawn.

 

[Lovemyev]

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.

My energy meter is almost instant !.
It sits on my kitchen worktop.
If I turn on the electric oven and then turn around to face the energy meter, with a couple of seconds of delay, bang !.
The power gauge on the meter shoots straight up and the status light turns RED suggesting high consumption.

 

[Deleted member 2439]

V

Very interesting and good info to know, so the Zappi must be able to handle 2 current monitoring devices. Sounds like the Zappi is a very good system.

I had no end of problems for months with my smart meters installed by eon before I switched to octopus. No WAN connection either, hours on phone, eventually they had to replac the new smart meter for another one & didn’t leave until it was all connected & working.

Zappi can handle CTs from solar, battery & main supply. Taken today - charging car with combination of solar and battery power, with nothing from grid ?

 

[JodyS21]

The last visit by the engineer, about 10 days ago, resulted in the meter being diagnosed with a fault and swapped for another. He then went through the set up process and assured me that the connection had been made. He swapped the IHD for the latest (version 6) and left saying it would take 30 minutes before anything would be displayed. He couldn't wait as he had to get to his next job.

30 minutes later.....nothing. Left overnight......nothing.

Reading up I don't think the IHD will work anyway as I am on the Octopus Flexible "Smart" tariff. The price per kw changes daily with the wholesale market price. Doesn't need a smart meter, they use some sort of pseudo scientific method to determine each days usage.

So, I had a look on my Octopus account and it was still showing the meter number as my old one.

I have been allocated an Octopus Resolution Specialist (this chap struggles to put a sentence together!). Contacted him via email and he has confirmed that they are not seeing meter readings from my meter. Hard to believe. Further investigations are, apparently, ongoing.

I'm not hopeful.

That's what happened to me at one of the installs, it was taking ages to connect, they had to leave it was 5:30 odd by that time, so said just give it a couple of hours.....2-3 months later it was resolved with the replacement new meter - I made a point of telling them the hassle I'd been having and said it must be working before they leave.
- I even had debt collectors instructed by EON threatening me, as they had wrong meter details and said I owed them money despite me constantly telling them and ensuring I had paid exactly the correct amount immediately each time!
Unbelievable. They're all as bad as each other!!!!

 

[JodyS21]

I got a response from Ohme support

I can now see on Octopus website 1/2hour usage data.
It shows that it did charge at less than 4kW.

From Ohme:
"I can see in the energy measurements you are correct the data shows the charge was at 15A which would mean the charge speed is 3.5-3.6kW.
The session logs reporting there was an error and that it would charge at 3.6kW instead of expected.
This could have been an instruction from the car to receive 3.6kW."

I've asked Ohme to send me the log files, so that I have proof that it was the car that wanted the lower power.
@Lovemyev this seems to match with what you experienced, not the charger, but it is the car that caused the issue.....
Hopefully I'll get the log files and will be able to see the communications from the car.

 

[Lovemyev]

I got a response from Ohme support

I can now see on Octopus website 1/2hour usage data.
It shows that it did charge at less than 4kW.
View attachment 3964

From Ohme:
"I can see in the energy measurements you are correct the data shows the charge was at 15A which would mean the charge speed is 3.5-3.6kW.
The session logs reporting there was an error and that it would charge at 3.6kW instead of expected.
This could have been an instruction from the car to receive 3.6kW."

I've asked Ohme to send me the log files, so that I have proof that it was the car that wanted the lower power.
@Lovemyev this seems to match with what you experienced, not the charger, but it is the car that caused the issue.....
Hopefully I'll get the log files and will be able to see the communications from the car.

See I am not loosing my mind @JodyS21 !.
The bad news is, I cannot offer you an reasonable explanation for why this should suddenly started.
Mine case is a little different to yours though, because all of this only started to manifest itself AFTER the car had been into the dealer and had a totally melt down while there.
You already know this story.
Even stranger that after about 7 - 10 days, it started to revert back to normal.
It has left a lasting scare on my person now.
almost every time I place the car on charge, I feel compelled to go straight back to my energy meter, to see what the car is pulling.
A good sign, is when the traffic light system LED on the energy meter is showing a RED in colour.
This indicates there is a high demand placed on the system, tap the touch screen and there is a read out of the present consumption.
A reading of around 7.3 - 7.5 kw's is a rough figure when the car is on charge and other things in the house are also in operation.
When it was misbehaving, the energy meter would never rise about 3.6 ish kw's.
I could leave it on for hours and nothing would change.
Then after a couple of days, it started to display very erratic behaviour.
I would plug in the car and it would commence at 3.6 kw's.
Stop the charge and unplug, then reinsert the plug and recommence straight away - BOOM ! 7.2 kw's !.
I was impossible to predict and therefore impossible to know just what the SOC would be after a timed controlled charging session.
Sometimes you would receive a 100 miles of range, the next time you would only receive 50 miles of range due to the decrease in output from the wall box !.
This continued for about a week, then after this it very slowly started to receive the full 7.2 kw's from the wall box on a more regular basis.
The problem had to be in the car then !.
As a result of the situation at the dealership, it really knocked the charging cycle WAY out of wack I think.
This issue happened in early Jan of 2021 and now we are just entering the month of July 2021.
Pretty much six months as of next week.
I am really glad to say, that the problem has not happened again.
But I am sorry to say, that the habit of checking the energy meter still persists to this day !.
As a result, I have truly become a "Energy Meter Addict" and needing some R&R ! .

 

[JodyS21]

See I am not loosing my mind @JodyS21 !.
The bad news is, I cannot offer you an reasonable explanation for why this should suddenly started.
Mine case is a little different to yours though, because all of this only started to manifest itself AFTER the car had been into the dealer and had a totally melt down while there.
You already know this story.
Even stranger that after about 7 - 10 days, it started to revert back to normal.
It has left a lasting scare on my person now.
almost every time I place the car on charge, I feel compelled to go straight back to my energy meter, to see what the car is pulling.
A good sign, is when the traffic light system LED on the energy meter is showing a RED in colour.
This indicates there is a high demand placed on the system, tap the touch screen and there is a read out of the present consumption.
A reading of around 7.3 - 7.5 kw's is a rough figure when the car is on charge and other things in the house are also in operation.
When it was misbehaving, the energy meter would never rise about 3.6 ish kw's.
I could leave it on for hours and nothing would change.
Then after a couple of days, it started to display very erratic behaviour.
I would plug in the car and it would commence at 3.6 kw's.
Stop the charge and unplug, then reinsert the plug and recommence straight away - BOOM ! 7.2 kw's !.
I was impossible to predict and therefore impossible to know just what the SOC would be after a timed controlled charging session.
Sometimes you would receive a 100 miles of range, the next time you would only receive 50 miles of range due to the decrease in output from the wall box !.
This continued for about a week, then after this it very slowly started to receive the full 7.2 kw's from the wall box on a more regular basis.
The problem had to be in the car then !.
As a result of the situation at the dealership, it really knocked the charging cycle WAY out of wack I think.
This issue happened in early Jan of 2021 and now we are just entering the month of July 2021.
Pretty much six months as of next week.
I am really glad to say, that the problem has not happened again.
But I am sorry to say, that the habit of checking the energy meter still persists to this day !.
As a result, I have truly become a "Energy Meter Addict" and needing some R&R ! .

My problem is my charge sessions all start at 00:30, so I'm asleep and can't check the energy meter.
To be honest I may move the energy meter display into the bedroom so if we wake up at all we can always have a look at it and check.
It is ridiculous having to do/think about this!!!!!!!!