Slow charging overnight at home

[dqtvsound]

Hi all,

I have a 2022 ZS Trophy LR, and a SyncEV chargepoint at home. I use Octopus Go, with the SyncEV taking care of the scheduling. That part works fine, with the car taking a charge between 0030-0430 as expected. What is concerning me is that the rate of charge has been lower than expected the last couple of nights. Usually it delivers a solid 7kW throughout the four hours. However the last couple of sessions have stuck around an average of 3 to 4 kW with occasional spikes up to the 7kW for a few minutes. Could this be the cold weather?

Thanks for any help in advance

 

[Alb]

Very unlikely to weather related.
What diagnostic information can you get from the SyncEV?

 

[Jomarkh]

Can you post a screen shot of the Octopus page?

 

[drmcw]

It would be great if t was weather related as even AC fast charging should heat the battery when it gets cold. I'd really hope it was implemented but will we ever know with MG?

 

[linkandnavi]

Similar to this thread from a couple of days ago: Thread - Charging speed variation

I was referring to their specific charger below but my quote below applies to the SyncEV too which also applies load balancing.

I don't know them specifically but from a quick look online they do provide load balancing (I.e. they'll throttle output if they detect a high load on the house so as not to blow the cutout fuse). Do you know what capacity fuse your house has? It'll be 60, 80 or 100amp. When the installer set up the charger they will then have had to enter the house's main fuse rating, probably via the app, so that it can balance appropriately. Screenshot of mine below.

View attachment 22400

If the fuse is too low for the load, or if the app has been incorrectly set lower than the house is rated for, then it could be throttling. If the former, it's doing its job and you'd need to ask your DNO to upgrade your cutout fuse to a higher rating. If the latter, then the setting needs to be adjusted to the correct rating.

It does look like it's being throttled. The power delivery is too consistent for it to be a fluctuation.

Do you have a smart meter where you can see hourly/half hourly usage? I.e like the picture below from my Octopus account?

View attachment 22401

It would be useful to compare the charger usage vs the house's power usage. It might be that you think there is nothing running at the same time but actually there is that you haven't thought of (heat pump, immersion heater, electric heater) etc. If the smart meter shows high usage at the same time as you were receiving 2 kW from the EV charger, you can probably assume it's a balancing issue.

I had a problem where my solar batteries were completely draining overnight and we're showing a 1 kW constant usage despite me being convinced that everything was off. It took me days to work out they my two year old had flicked a wall switch in my garden office and turned my electric heater on. I was using all my power heating my office through the night in July... Point being that it's easy to think there's nothing else drawing power but there could be and worth triple checking.