EV Prevent Battery Discharging

GivEnergy Products GivEnergy EV Charger
1

Hey All,
I Can see similar threads in the past but no real definitive answer. So thought I would have a go.
My setup:
16x430w Solar Panels. NE(5), SE(5), S(2), SW(2), NE(2)
Solar Edge Optimizers On all Panels
Solar Edge 6kwh Inverter
GivGateway
AIO 13.5
Givenergy EV Charger 7kw.

I had my setup installed in November however I haven’t actually used the EV Charger yet. I will be picking up my new EV car Tuesday and I’m a little concerned its going to drain the AIO in certain scenarios.

I’m currently on the Octopus Go tariff (Prob shouldn’t be but they let me), I currently
charge my AIO 13.5 overnight to 100% so I export from sunrise to sunset on Outgoing Fixed, then once a week I drain the AIO to 4% between 8pm-00:00 at about 3kwh and let it refill in the next cheap window.

If I manually set my car to charge during the 00.30-05.30 window I don’t foresee any issues as my AIO will be charging at same time and EV charging will pull from grid.

However I would quite like to go Octopus Intelligent Go to get that 1.5p cheaper energy and Octopus are doing some odd things where if you charge this day and not the next they will give even cheaper energy and if it tries to charge outside of the cheap rate window when my AIO is set to charge, I fear it will drain the AIO as load.

Whilst the EV charger is wired directly into the Gateway it only has power hooked up. I do have an ethernet going to it however that is currently for internet.

I currently have 2 CT Clamps (1 for Solar Inverter, 1 for Mains).
Current configuration for the EV Charger is Standalone.

I do see a CT Clamp configuration configuration option in the EV Charger settings.

Should I have a CT clamp for the EV Charger in the gateway? When it was being installed even the installer couldn’t really make it out what should be done as the installer guide was pretty terrible. 1 page PDF with a terrible picture / explanation of how it should be setup when using a gateway and wasn’t covered in their training. (Just being honest).

For even a chance for this to work I anticipate I will need a CT Clamp in the gateway somehow to monitor what is actually going to the EV Charger to prevent AIO Drainage and maybe to set the configuration to CT Clamp and most likely some configuration in the Installer portal around my setup as to what the meter is reading etc. However explaining this to an Installer is impossible when im not sure / certain its even correct.

Thanks for reading.

Bob

2

Hi.
I do most of what you have done with our system.
Couple of things, there should be a CT clamp already installed, earlier firmware did not see it but later firmware does and as in my case it needed inverting to read correctly (TS did it remotely), no way of knowing if it is installed the right way round until the latest firmware looked for it. Easy fix if your app readings are very wrong.
The Giv EV charger connects to the gateway for control via the cable and WiFi on the EV as I don’t think ours has an Ethernet port (all the rest is on the LAN, gateway and AIO).
Anyway, we set our system to charge the AIO between 0030-0530 and also charge the EV over the same time period, no issues there.
We are on Octopus go as the GIV EV charger nor the Merc isn’t on their ‘intelligent octopus go tariff’ yet….. the thing about ‘intelligent octopus’ is they have control of your EV charger and it really depends on if the car is plugged in at the time you get the cheapest rate…. When I looked into it, it would be rare for us to have it plugged in at those times as we are out in it a lot! Having octopus control your system doesn’t sit comfortably with me but each to their own. The only real issue I have discovered is that if you want to use the free solar energy to charge the car then the AIO does not pick up the rest of the house load if it is above the solar output… so currently a tad pointless to use solar to charge the car (at the moment it would charge the car at over 4Kw) as the additional house load is pulled from the grid which is stupid but let’s see what TS say on Tuesday as it is clearly either a bug or lazy programming as all the info to work out the additional house load over and above the EV is staring me in the face but any attempt at manual override just gets reset by the system almost instantly…. The system works well but jeez this is a bit of a drop off…

3

Hey,
Thanks for the reply. I know there currently isn’t a CT clamp for the EV charger in the gateway.

To be fair when they came back to terminate the connectors for EV charger they did add a Lan connector however it never connected via Lan so I had to do It on WiFi. Maybe this is why. It should have been used to communicate with the gateway instead.

Once I know how or have an idea how it should be configured I’ll give the installers a call.

The EV charger does show as online. I guess the question will be how it behaves when I connect my car Tuesday. Aslong as it charges overnight on cheap rate I’m not too concerned right now.

I think with intelligent octopus go you do only relinquish control of the charger to octopus.

Considering most of the time I will just leave the Tesla connected it won’t need charging as it will be capped by the Tesla.. It would be nice to get the 7p cheaper rate for all household energy for the overnight cheap rate as I’ll charge the aio overnight aswell which is oversized for my daily consumption.

When I did the octopus check of compatibility today when I selected my Tesla and givenergy EV charger it did say great news and it would all work and could start the switch process.
So maybe the charger is added now and it’s just based on the car.

Thanks
Bob

4

Hi.
If you go to the settings for the EV it has a tab to NOT use battery to charge EV. As I said I set mine to charge the battery and the EV between 0030-0530, no issues. My
Only issue is that Solar charging the EV means that any additional house load comes from the grid and that means in my case that it is dearer to use solar to charge the EV as the house load can be a fair bit during the day (several Kw) and ignores the fact that the AIO is fully charged…. That just has to be a bug and very annoying for the summer! As for Octopus and compatibility for their ‘intelligent’ tariff, it is either the charger or the car that has to be compatible (your Tesla is). Personally as I only charge the car overnight due to the solar charge bug, it is a tad pointless for me to have the intelligent tariff as the car is being used during the day…

5

Regarding the EV charger and WiFi, our EV charger has always been on WiFi, gateway and AIO on LAN. No issues. Of course you do need good WiFi at the EV chargers location, AP in the garage is wise.

6

Thanks for all your input. Managed to do a test today and it’s not draining the battery so happy days.

Thanks
Bob