I’m looking for advice / recommendations for an EV charger that works nicely with Solar PV and local battery storage setups. A big plus would be integration with HA and made in the EU / UK.
The Zappi charger looks like it would fit the bill, but wonder if there are other options to consider?
Does anyone have a setup like this and willing to share some living experience? Does MyEnergi / Zappi work with HA?
I recognise that the battery in the car is unlikely to get significant charges from the excess solar energy we produce in the UK, but I’d rather use it than export it back to the grid for pennies. I’m also keen not to drain my house battery to give me an extra 50 miles range - a wasted charge cycle.
I have Tesla Powerwall, a JuiceBox 40, and a Ford Mustang Mach-E, but have not yet found the magic formula within HA to automate charging. I’m on a Time-of-use rate where from 11AM-7PM M-F, my charge per kWh is higher than the off-peak times and weekends. So I never want it to charge from the grid during on-peak teams, BUT I want it to charge during times of high solar production and my battery is full (or projected to be full by sunset).
My current solution involves a series of automated alerts that push notifications to my phone with one tap access to the corresponding app (JuiceNet or FordPass), so I can manually start the charging process. The FordPass integration does not allow you to turn on/off charging, but JuiceNet somewhat does (it’s binary, but unclear how it matches the 3 options in the JuiceNet app).
^^ not trying to hi-jack your thread, but sharing my context in case that relates to whatever solution you landed on.
Hello. Not a problem on the hijack. I’ll be glad to share what I end up with when it’s done. My EV lands in June, so I’m starting to work things through.
I have a growatt hybrid inverter with solar inputs and DC batteries and a Zappi 2 charger.
The basic plan (although it’s anything but basic):
HA monitors the Zappi and the Growatt via various plugins.
The Zappi has eco modes that watch for export (indicative that the batteries are full) via a CT clamp on the meter tails and initiate charge when export is >1.4kW.
HA will monitor the Zappi modes and work out what to do depending on time of day / cost.
A python script (open source) will be triggered to change the settings in the growatt inverter to limit battery discharge rate and/or charge rate.
Those settings are in an advanced menu otherwise, but thankfully someone has worked out how to change these via an API call!
