MG4 + Zappi Charger + Solar = a problem

I've just switched to IOG a few hours ago. The car is currently fully charged to go off on a trip tomorrow, so I'm not going to need to know how this works for another week. (When I'll probably arrive home on 4% with the car gasping for a charge.) Having an SR, any time I charge I just want to go to 100% and let it balance. Any tips for how best to achieve that?
 
You don't touch the Zappi, the Octopus app controls it. Basically once you give the Octopus app your Zappi log in details it will configure the Zappi for you and it is all managed through the Octopus app. You just plug in and forget about it and the car charges. It is ultra simple.

When I first got it I worried about setting the right +% value but they are not bothered whether you do or not, so now I leave it at +80% which is always right for me.
 
You don't touch the Zappi, the Octopus app controls it. Basically once you give the Octopus app your Zappi log in details it will configure the Zappi for you and it is all managed through the Octopus app. You just plug in and forget about it and the car charges. It is ultra simple.
Just one caveat here, it must NOT be in STOP mode, set it to ECO+ and it should all work.
 
What if you come home very low and say you want it at 100% the next day? Will it use peak-time electricity? I'm likely to come home low and want to charge, but not care how fast it gets there. Basically if you just want it to do as much as it can on the cheap rate, then stop, what do you tell it?
 
What if you come home very low and say you want it at 100% the next day? Will it use peak-time electricity?
It is likely to give you a schedule that includes some electricity in the peak period but you will be charged off peak rate.

I'm likely to come home low and want to charge, but not care how fast it gets there. Basically if you just want it to do as much as it can on the cheap rate, then stop, what do you tell it?
Switch off smart charging in the app, just use the 23:30 to 05:30 time schedule.

Or, just leave it with 100% desired by say 11:00am and Octopus will probably extend the charging schedule beyond 05:30.

Great company, brilliant tariff
 
It's well recommended, that's why I went for it. (I have now had no less than THREE sorrowful phone calls from Scottish Power. To the last one I just said, so long and thanks for all the fish.)

Given that I have the LFP battery I want it to go to 100% and balance if possible when charging, but I have no objection to driving off at a lower SoC so long as it's enough, if going to 100% would take me into a peak-time price.

I'm not likely to come home so low that it will take over 6 hours to get to 100% very often. Maybe occasionally.
 
As far as I know there is no communication of the car SoC to the charger on AC (it's an issue I've been trying to resolve for my own charger). I suspect that the eco+ system is telling the OCCP system that the car is full to stop the charge.
 
Back on topic - after switching over to the cable supplied with the MG, everything has worked perfectly so far, which now makes me think maybe I don't need to have the delay so high at 240s, although on the positive I've noticed quite a lot that when solar excess dips below the 1.4kW minimum the difference is being supplied by my storage battery which is totally ideal to me, so I may just keep this 240 delay.

Cloudy moody days ahead so not sure I'll be getting too much more testing till the summer comes back :)

I must admit though what does intrigue mean is if octopus sets a schedule outside 11:30-5:30 does that mean the whole house consumption in that time period is charged at 7.5p as I can see some perks to that and may remove my current charge by 5:30am to something later.
 
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I must admit though what does intrigue mean is if octopus sets a schedule outside 11:30-5:30 does that mean the whole house consumption in that time period is charged at 7.5p as I can see some perks to that and may remove my current charge by 5:30am to something later.
YES!

We start our charge on Sunday mornings to be completed by 11:00, Octopus has given us a schedule from 05:30 through to 11:00. Perfect for our washday, tumble drier, immersion, heatpump and Sunday Roast!
 
Just having a little argument with Octopus. I do hate trying to sort stuff out via email as it's very easy for them to ignore problems or answer with a stock answer that has no bearing on the problem.

I have not been credited any electricity export energy since 19th March. It all was fine for the first 3 months. Now emailing their support I am just getting a stock reply
"You meter is only scheduled to upload a meter on the 19th of each month where it actually needs to upload every half hour"

I reply back that this is nonsense as on the Octopus App it shows my updated daily electricity export so the meter MUST be uploading its readings, also the meter worked fine for Jan, Feb and March bills as we got credited for our exports.

I get back to see a reply "The tariff you have for import and export is billed half hourly if we are missing data we will have to request it in order to be able to bill the account up to date."

So I reply back with "are you going to request it then, and also why have you ignored the bit that the export daily data is in the usage App so it must be working as it was in January, February and beginning of March?"

I get a reply "I apologise for any confusion regarding your exported electricity credit. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know and I'll be happy to assist you."

What does this mean!!

Been back and forth like this for 2 months now and still not got anywhere. Why do they have to stick to stock replies that don't answer anything?

<Ranty mode off>
 
I originally had this problem when I first plugged in mine with it set on ECO++, ie it starts then when drops down below 1.4kW (10 mins later when a cloud came by for a visit) it said it had finished etc.

I looked and upgraded the firmware and since then not had the problem. I am current on v5.416 on a Zappi V2

Upon plugging in now, the Zappi says waiting for surplus and when there is surplus it starts it RCD check then counts down and starts charging, when a cloud visits now it pauses and waits for surplus and then continues until the MG say's "I'm full" (whatever is set on the MG to finish charging at).

Depending on setup, for me I can't charge the MG on ECO++ until at least 11am as the house batteries take preference on solar production, once they reach 99% then the MG get's the energy. I could set the Zappi to 50% etc on the ECO++ slider so the MG will charge whilst the house batteris also get charged but this could also take energy from the grid which costs money,

You can see my Zappi charging stats here

On a different side issue I had to query with the Solar engineer the other day as I noticed a little problem with exporting to the grid on these really good sunny days we just had. I did not notice this since install as the sun was not really great.
I noticed...
1) Lets say the panels are producing their max output which is 6.7kW
2) House batteries are getting approx 6kW to charge, house consumption is approx 600 W
3) Once house batteries are at 99% the inverter switches to export
4) Only 3.6kW would be exported and the inverter drops the panel producing to approx 4kW .

I would have expected the 6kW to be exported and thought something was wrong with the inverter or panels.
The reason is that even though my inverter can export 7kW it is restricted to 3.6kW export as this is a requirement of the National Grid in your local area and your limit is written on the G99 Connection document. You may not have a G99 as this is only required if your solar panel output is above 5kW (AFAIK as I can't remember what the installer said at the time).

So, this means that during the hopefully hot sunny summer I technically can lose 2.5kW export production per hour which is not much cost wise (export at 14p per kWh = 2.5kW x 7 hours = 17.5kW = £2.45 a day)
However it also means I have a possible 17.5kW to use
1) I could purchase another 20kW Battery to store the excess and then export during the evening
2) I could buy a couple of portable air con units and cool the house during the hot evenings

I think the air con will win, as the outlay is approx £400 for each unit whereas a 20 kWh battery will be about £5000 even though they could generate an extra £3 a day for say 180 days which would bring in £540+ a year but that will take about 6+ years to pay back and in the mean time I would still have a hot bedroom and other rooms during the summer and listen to the wife saying she can't sleep at night.
View attachment 26593
I don't want to worry you, but that install does not appear to be MCS compliant. The regs state minimum 300mm from edge of roof. The reason is to do with wind lift.

A Luxpower 7kW Hybrid Invertor

It's a G99 install as it was a 6.7kW panel system with dual 9.4kW batteries. A bit over spec but what I wanted and thus became a G99 install.

Thats great to hear, I tried 2 local companies for a quote but they were not intrested as it's domestic install.
I have see several proper DIY systems, and I am very good at plumbing and electrics but it was the gassing of the units I was unsure how to do but you give me an idea of getting a thrid party person to gas them. Make it better as the portable units can be a bit noisy 60dB+ which can be a problem at night but was looking to get a small commercial portable unit approx 25btu which had external vents so I could place it in the attic and vent the cool air and room extraction to ceiling vents in the bedrooms and then vent the hot air from the unit directly outside.

But a external proper unit to a split system (3 bedrooms) would be better. Thanks
Last October I got a Fujitsu 5kW AC split system installed. Just over £2000 complete and VAT free. Works a treat.
 

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